by Aidan Wayne
“I see. I mean, I don’t totally understand, but I get what you mean. I’m just the opposite. I love to dance and act so, so much, I can’t imagine doing anything else right now, you know?”
“Yeah, I know. And I think that’s admirable. That you like something so much you just go after it.”
Ashlee blushed and fiddled with her fork. “Thanks. But I do worry. A little bit.”
“About what?”
“About what I’ll do after I can’t anymore. Perform, I mean. I know I won’t be able to do it forever. If I get a permanent position at Disney as a face character, I’d still probably only be able to do that for maybe ten years tops. Maybe a little longer if I also get a job as a show performer, but still, that’s not a job I could do in my forties. Or fifties. So I… I don’t know. I try to live in the moment and just focus on what’s going on right now, but the future is going to happen. I’m going to get older. My body isn’t going to be so happy with me, the way I push it. It already isn’t. And I don’t know what else I could do.”
“Oh,” Dana said. “I’m sorry. About the… I know how hard it is to realize something you want to be might be… out of reach. But maybe things will surprise you. Like, if you got a job performing at Disney, maybe you could stay on as a choreographer or something after. Or you might find out that you also like being a character attendant and do that.”
“Maybe,” Ashlee said. “I’d never thought of that before. I think I’d still rather be a character—” She looked around and then amended, “I mean, I’d rather be friends with the princesses over being an attendant, but those also get to talk and interact with Guests.”
“And I bet you’d be good at it, since you’d already know all the stuff about the characters and the parks from being, uh, from being a friend yourself.”
“Hm. Yeah, maybe. I’ll think about that. Thank you.”
“Sure.”
They made quick work of their entrees, talking back and forth about possibilities and jobs and dreams. When they were both done with the food, Ashlee solemnly held up a hand.
“Okay,” she said. “It’s time. Dessert. The best part. Are you ready?”
Dana chuckled. “I don’t know, this seems serious. Am I?”
“I hope so—I’ve been wanting to eat these things since we got them.”
“Well,” Dana said, moving their plates aside and placing the desserts in the middle before handing Ashlee a fork. “Shall we?”
They didn’t dig in right away; first they both struggled to peel the paper wrapper off the cupcakes. Once they did, though, it was a free-for-all. They shared the desserts, taking forkfuls of each until there were just crumbs left. And then Ashlee took the chocolate topper from the chocolate cupcake and Dana took the one from the Master’s Cupcake and they “clinked” them together before smiling at each other eating those too.
It… it was obviously just two friends hanging out and having fun but… but it could have been a date. Ashlee just had to remind herself that it wasn’t one.
DANA CHECKED her phone yet again to see if Isabella had texted her back. Still nothing. She’d just gotten off shift, had changed at Costuming, and was waiting for Isabella to confirm their meetup time. They’d said three thirty, but Dana was the sort who liked to double-check. And it might have been a good thing she was, because she wasn’t hearing anything from Isabella.
Then her phone rang, flashing Isabella’s name.
“Hey, what’s up? Are we still good for lunch?”
“Actually, and I am so sorry, but I just got off the phone with Eddie, and he ended up getting off early from the Tower today? And it’s been awhile since our schedules lined up for an afternoon. Do you mind if he comes with?”
“No, of course not, but….” Dana took a breath. She was a good friend. “But if you wanted to spend the afternoon just the two of you, we can reschedule?”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, it’s fine. We can get together another time.” Isabella and Eddie, much like Bolin and his girlfriend, Maya, pretty much did everything they could to spend as much time together as possible. It made sense; the college program only lasted so long, after all. And friends could keep in touch and stay together a lot easier than romantic relationships tended to. “Maybe next week?”
“Yeah, of course! How about we see each other this evening? Go over our schedules and really nail down a day we can hang out.”
“That sounds good. Text me when you’re free. Maybe you can come over to my place.”
“Okay. You’re the best! I’ll talk to you tonight?”
“Yeah. Sure.”
“Bye!”
“Bye.” They hung up. Dana looked at her phone and sighed. She’d been looking forward to hanging out with Isabella. Now she might as well just go home.
She felt sort of mopey on the bus ride back and trudged back to the apartment. She didn’t have much to do; she’d gotten all her chores and homework done yesterday, since Friday was her day off. Maybe she could watch something? But she wasn’t really in the mood.
When Dana got to her floor, she went inside the apartment and stepped out of her dress shoes, only to find Ashlee sprawled on the floor of the living room, phone resting on her chest as she stared up at the ceiling.
“Uh. You okay?”
Ashlee shifted to look at her. “Yeah,” she sighed. “Fine.”
“What’s wrong?” Ashlee looked about as down as Dana felt.
“Nothing. Just….” Another sigh. “I’d made plans with my friend Maya, but her practice ended up getting extended. She’ll probably be busy all day, so our plans are sort of shot.”
“Oh. Huh.”
“Huh?”
“Nothing, I, uh, the same thing happened to me.”
“What?” Ashlee sat up.
“Yeah.” Dana went to sit on the couch, looking down at Ashlee. “Isabella and I were going to have lunch together, but her boyfriend Eddie ended up getting out of work early, so they’re going to hang out instead.”
“Wow. It kind of sucks that she blew you off like that.”
Dana shook her head. “No, I was the one who suggested it. She just wanted him to come along, and that would’ve been fine, but I sort of feel a little like a third wheel around them right now, even though they don’t mean me to be. I think it’ll just take another couple of weeks, until they, you know, settle into dating.”
Ashlee nodded. “It’s a little the same with me. Ever since Maya got the new job and started dating Bolin, I don’t see her nearly as much anymore.”
“Yeah, I barely see Bolin now. And it’s not anyone’s fault. Life happens, I get that….”
“But it sucks,” Ashlee finished.
“Yeah, it does.”
Ashlee sat up. “You want to do something with me? We could get lunch together. Where were you and Isabella going to go?”
“Epcot. I like wandering around there and seeing all the performances. Japan has a nice, casual restaurant that’s pretty good.”
“Okay. Do you want to go with me?”
“Sure,” Dana said. She didn’t have anything better to do. And she liked hanging out with Ashlee. Spending time with her sort of cheered her up now. Ashlee had an infectious energy, and it was easy to ride along with it. “I’d like that.”
Ashlee beamed, and Dana was struck with the force of it. “Awesome! Let me go get my purse.”
Dana shook her head, trying to clear it, as Ashlee disappeared into the bedroom. Ashlee smiled all the time. And it was a nice smile; of course Dana could admit that. And yeah, maybe she sort of had started liking it when that smile was aimed at her, or because of something she’d done. But that didn’t mean anything.
Or… maybe—
Ashlee came back into the living room, still smiling, her little white handbag slung over one shoulder. Her hair was coming out of her ponytail in wisps around her face. “Ready to go?” Ashlee asked, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.
—maybe it did.
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“Um, yeah,” Dana said, standing up again. She was suddenly struck by the differences in their heights. Dana had a good six inches on Ashlee, at least. Dana used to be self-conscious of her height, but for the most part she’d gotten over that; she liked being tall, being able to move easily in a crowd. Also, if she ever wanted to be a Disney character (yeah, right), according to Ashlee she’d be a shoe-in just based on height. She did tend to avoid heels, but that was as much not wanting to trip and fall and die as not wanting to be taller.
Ashlee was pretty average for a girl, but she was short in comparison to Dana. Dana got a sudden, unbidden thought of what it would be like to kiss her. She’d have to stoop down a little—maybe Ashlee would go up on her toes.
And that was a thought that absolutely did not belong in her head. Ashlee was her friend. She was funny and sweet and just a friend.
Besides, it was one thing for Ashlee to be into girls. While Dana was one, sometimes that didn’t translate well in terms of attraction. Which was fine. She never expected anything like that anyway. And it was pretty rare for her to be interested in someone else.
Not that she was interested in Ashlee. Because she wasn’t.
“Dana? You coming?”
Right.
“Yeah,” Dana said. “Let’s go.”
Chapter Fifteen
THE PROBLEM was, now that Dana had gotten the first flash of a thought into her head, she started noticing Ashlee all the time. And they were spending a lot of time together, which made it a lot easier to notice things.
It was just little stuff too—things Dana already knew about but hadn’t… focused on before. The strand of hair that was forever falling into Ashlee’s face. The way she tended to walk on her toes when she was barefoot. How her nose wrinkled when she laughed.
Then there was the way Ashlee carried herself, how she moved, the cadence in which she spoke. She practiced her all-American accent a lot, to make sure she could keep up as a princess and not slip, but when it was just the two of them together (and especially when Ashlee was sleepy), her soft Georgian lilt came back full-force. And she was always graceful, which was probably the dancer in her.
All in all, Dana was in trouble.
But she wasn’t about to say or do anything that might change their dynamic. Aside from the fact that making her that sort of uncomfortable would make their living arrangements a total nightmare, she didn’t want to lose Ashlee as a friend.
And it wasn’t like they didn’t get to spend a lot of time together. With their respective best friends so busy, Dana got to hang out with Ashlee a lot. Dana gave Ashlee a tour of Hollywood Studios, which Ashlee didn’t see very often because her characters mostly stuck to other parks. Ashlee showed Dana around the Magic Kingdom, so Dana got to really experience the Halloween decor. They went to the mall together, had started grocery shopping together, and tried to eat dinner together when Dana got home at an hour that was reasonable for Ashlee.
All in all, things were good. Dana didn’t want to ruin it with feelings.
“I’M SO excited,” Ashlee said, feeling like she was about to burst. Chatham was hosting several Halloween parties so that the DCP-ers could experience the holiday even if they had to work it, and she and Dana were both able to attend the Friday night one, since Ashlee got off at six and Dana had the day off.
They’d gone to town at the mall and at the pool-your-possessions events at Chatham to make their costumes together. That, some face paint, and some extra supplies from the local superstore, and Ashlee was pretty proud of the costumes she and Dana had come up with.
Ashlee had decided that since she was currently a princess for a living, it’d be fun to be the exact opposite for Halloween, so she’d decided to be the Queen of Hearts. Her costume was a red dress over black tights, and white socks pulled up over them, plus black heels, a black-and-white belt she’d found, a key necklace, and red and black studs, one in each ear. She’d also pulled her hair up into a bun and had stuck a homemade red crown into it. The final touch had been her makeup and the judicious use of red glitter.
Dana had had some trouble thinking of what to go as. She’d told Ashlee that she hadn’t really celebrated Halloween much after she turned twelve. Ashlee had been rightfully outraged and then determined to help Dana dress up as something fun.
She’d ended up convincing Dana to go as Hermione Granger because, as Ashlee had pointed out, her hair was perfect for it. Dana already had a white button-up blouse and a black sweater, and the superstore had the iconic red-and-gold Gryffindor tie for her to wear. Ashlee had pointed out that props were what made a costume, so she and Dana had gone to find a branch, that they then painted (and glittered; Ashlee was fond of glitter) to look like a wand.
Now they were at the party itself, with fun, upbeat music that Ashlee liked and a variety of Disney Halloween-themed treats. She got to mingle and talk to people, and while Maya was doing the evening parade, and so couldn’t come to the party, they’d sent each other texts back and forth all day during their respective breaks. Dana had gone over to talk to a group of Asian girls, and Ashlee was glad she was having fun too.
After partaking in a poisoned-apple cupcake, she went over to the dance floor to have a good time, when some guy dressed up as a pirate came up behind her, putting his hands on her hips.
Ashlee knew she was pretty. Having guys come up to her, put their hands on her (or try to) was not something she was unfamiliar with, especially when she was just trying to dance and have fun. But it also meant she was good at avoiding those situations, so she stepped away from him and weaved in between a few other people.
Of course, she sighed to herself as he followed her, there were always the persistent ones.
Feeling sour, Ashlee decided to just take a break from dancing and go find Adriann again to have someone to talk to. She swung by the refreshment table for some punch and when she turned around… there was pirate guy.
Ashlee ignored him and searched the room for Adriann.
“Hi,” he said, coming closer. “I’m Travis. What’s your name?”
She pretended she couldn’t hear him over the music and spotted Dana in the crowd, moving over to the refreshment table. Ashlee tried to catch her eye.
“Hey,” Travis said, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t be like that. What’s your name? Where’re you from?”
The land of not interested. Thing was, she probably would have been happy to talk to Travis if he hadn’t tried to feel her up first. Now she wasn’t exactly in the mood.
“Sorry,” she said. “There’s my friend. Gotta go.” She shrugged out of his grip. “Dana!” she called, waving her over.
Dana turned her head and they made eye contact, and then Dana smiled and started walking toward her.
“That thing is your friend?” Travis asked, right in her ear, putting his arm around her.
Ashlee saw red. “How dare you,” she said fiercely, shoving him away. “And that’s rich, coming from a fuckboy like you. We’re both way too good for you. Fuck off.”
“Bitch,” he hissed before turning away.
Ashlee was still fuming when Dana got to her side. Dana took one look at her and suggested, “Why don’t we go get some air?” Dana always knew what to do with her now.
Ashlee liked her so much.
“Okay,” Ashlee mumbled, following Dana out of the room.
They ended up on one of the benches behind the building, looking up at the moon together.
“Whatever happened,” Dana said after a minute, “I’m sorry.”
Ashlee shook her head. “I don’t even care. He was just some fuckboy. But then he insulted you and—” She blew out a breath. “Fucker’s lucky I didn’t slap him.”
To Ashlee’s surprise, Dana chuckled. “What?” Ashlee asked, kind of hurt.
“Sorry,” Dana said quickly. “I’m not laughing at that, or you. It’s just—you’re always so Georgian-sweet, you know? It’s a bit of a shock whenever you curse.”
“Okay, okay!” Dana laughed and shook her head. “Point taken.”
They sat there in silence, just listening to the insects. “Thanks,” Ashlee eventually said quietly.
“For what?”
“For giving me a second chance. After… after I was so weird.”
“You’re welcome. And thanks for letting me in after I was so mean to you in the beginning.”
Ashlee giggled. “You were kind of mean. Even before I was weird.”
Dana shrugged. “Defense mechanism? Judge them before they judge you?”
“No, yeah, I get that.”
More silence.
“You know,” Ashlee said, “when I moved down here, I was hoping that I’d get a roommate I could be besties with. Build lasting memories and keep in touch with her after the program was over. A forever friend, you know?”
“Kind of.”
“And… and I think I got that. With you.”
Dana turned to look at her. She was smiling softly, and her curly hair was haloed by the moonlight. “So did I.”
Ashlee leaned in before she could think better of it.
And Dana….
Dana met her halfway.
THEY KISSED for a long moment before Dana pulled back to look down at Ashlee. Ashlee was looking up at her with wide, wide eyes. Her lipstick was still perfect, Dana thought, a little hysterically. Faintly she remembered Ashlee talking about her favorite lipstain and offering that Dana try it. Clearly she hadn’t been kidding about it lasting well.