by Syms, Carly
"Who's that?" Russ asks, but his voice sounds distant, like he's thousands of miles away, not right behind me.
"You don't recognize Blaine?"
"No, I mean the girl he's flirting with."
I swing my head away from the scene unfolding in front of me and glare at him. "He's not flirting."
Russ doesn't look phased. "You say potatoes, I say potatoes." He shrugs. "Besides, if he's not flirting, she definitely is."
I tilt my head and study them, feeling my blood pressure rise each time she reaches out and brushes her hand against his bare arm.
"Maybe," I mutter under my breath.
"No maybe about that," he says, letting out a low whistle.
I watch as she leans in for another hug, and it's suddenly like they're superglued together and are having a really hard -- and really ridiculous -- time getting untangled.
She smiles at Blaine one last time before she waves and bounces off down the field back toward the tunnel that'll take her to The Barn.
"Interesting," Russ says.
I glare at him. "It's nothing."
He raises an eyebrow. "If you say so. But if it were me, I wouldn't be so quick to bury my head in the sand over this."
I slowly run my tongue over my teeth as I consider his words and try to balance them with that I just witnessed with my own two eyes. No denying that. "No," I say at last. "Blaine and I have been together forever. It's natural that he'd be friends with other people."
"Yeah, I'm sure that's it," he says, getting to his feet. "Whadda ya say, Miss Halpern? Can we head to practice?"
"Sure, we can," I say, and he gets to his feet and takes a few steps away.
"Uh, Em?" he says, turning back when he realizes I'm not next to him. "You coming?"
"Oh, you want to go now? I didn't realize."
He gives me a weird look. "What'd you think I meant?"
"You said 'can,'" I tell him. "And yeah, I can. My legs work just fine. But you didn't ask if I will go to practice with you."
He squints at me, like he's not sure if he thinks I'm incredibly annoying or incredibly clever.
I laugh. "Sorry," I say at last. "It's my grammar pet peeve."
"You're something else. Okay, I'll try again. Will you go with me to practice?"
I smile and nod before standing. I've never been more ready to slip into another world in my life, even if it's only for a little while.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
We don't have a good rehearsal.
And it kind of seems like not many of them are these days. It's not just me, either; I sit in the third row every afternoon after I'm finished with my scenes for the day and watch the rest of the cast run through their lines, and the whole thing is a world class trainwreck.
"This is a nightmare," I mutter to Russ.
For the first few days, he'd bolt right after practice, claiming there's no point for him to stick around and watch other people go over scenes that have nothing to do with him, but eventually he starts hanging out with me.
The grimace on his face suggests he probably regrets that decision now.
"The worst," he agrees.
Mary lets out a loud, dramatic sigh and signals to Jonah to cut the music that signals a pivotal moment I have nothing to do with halfway through the play.
"We are precisely three-hundred-and-thirty-two hours away from the very first performance of this play," she says, shaking her head and pacing the length of the stage. "That leaves us with, oh, about three-hundred-and-thirty hours to get this performance into presentable shape. Of course, only about twenty-five of those hours are actually available to us to use for the play. Does that scare you? It should. I know it keeps me up at night. If you're sleeping like a baby this week, then perhaps you should reconsider your commitment to the play. Because if we get up on there on stage on Opening Night like this, we'll get laughed straight out of the auditorium. And that is not what I'm here for."
She pauses and sucks in a deep breath, but no one dares to say a word.
"We've only even made it through three-quarters of the entire script!" Mary hasn't run out of steam yet. "It's pathetic! The worst bunch of rehearsals I have ever seen in my decades as a director at this level. No, in my decades as a director at all levels. The kindergarten play of '94 was more successful than this, and that cost me my job."
Russ makes some kind of noise that makes it sound like he's been strangled and I glance over at him, eyes wide, and see that he's trying not to laugh.
"Shhhhh," I hiss. "You're gonna attract the wrath of Mary."
He looks over at me and wiggles his eyebrows like he wouldn't mind getting into some trouble. And I have no doubt Russ is pretty good at finding it when he wants to.
"I'm about ready to throw in the towel!" Mary shouts, and I realize there's no chance she'd hear either me or Russ in her current state, anyway. "I can't watch this scene again. I'll throw up all over you! You, you, you, and you!" She points at each person standing up on the stage looking like they'd rather be getting a root canal from a middle schooler than standing here subject to Mary's crazy ranting. "Take a seat! We're moving forward! Figure out this mess on your own time. We have got to press on." She frantically flips through the script in her hands. "Miss Halpern! Prince Alex! Up on stage."
I stiffen as I sit up straight in my chair and shoot a panicked look at Russ. I'm not prepared for the shocked look that crosses his face. I quickly reach down for my tattered copy of the script sitting on the floor. It's taken three days for us to get through this single scene, and I don't think either of us expected Mary to move on without the others getting through their lines at least once.
In other words, Russ and I are screwed.
We slowly walk toward the stage like we're being forced to jump off the end of a plank into a shark-infested sea.
"Come on, come on, you're burning precious daylight," Mary snaps, and Russ and I exchange a look as we trudge up the steps on the side of the stage.
The spotlight feels particularly hot and uninviting today.
"Good," Mary says once we're up here, and she glances down at the script. "Good. This is one of the most important scenes in the entire play outside of the climax. It's when Miss Halpern finally admits to herself she has some sparkling chemistry with our prince and they seal it with their very first kiss."
The cough comes out of me before I can stop it, and before I know it, I'm having a full blown wheezing fit in the middle of the stage.
Mary rushes over to me with a water bottle, and as I take a gulp and try to get the sputtering under control, all I'm thinking about are the words that just came tumbling out of her mouth like they're no big deal at all.
"Are you alright?" she asks, looking at me with a raised eyebrow and a hand on her hip.
Russ, however, is kneeling down next to me, one hand resting on my back, as I drink in some more water. I try to nonchalantly shimmy away from his touch, which feels hard and heavy on my skin, and slide a foot over.
"Ye-yeah," I choke out with a sputter. "I'm good."
Mary grins widely, even if it's a smile that looks more like a wicked grimace. "Great! For a second there, I thought the idea of smacking lips with ol' Russell over here had you flustered."
We're all lucky I'm not in the middle of taking another sip of water because I have no doubt I'd spit it all out and start choking again if I had been when she says this. My eyes bug ever so slightly and I take a deep breath.
"Nope," I manage to say cheerfully without meeting Russ' eye. I'm really glad he isn't touching me right now. "It's just acting!"
"Fabulous," Mary chirps. "Love that can-do attitude, Emma." She claps her hands together three times. "Let's get down to business! Scripts to page forty-six!"
I stagger to my feet and feel lucky I don't stumble or fall over. Russ is hanging out about ten feet away from me, just off to stage left. I glance down at the directions on the script and see I'm supposed to be backstage for the first few minutes of the scene, so I hap
pily scamper behind the curtains.
Once I'm out of sight, I let out a huge breath I don't even knowing I'm holding, blowing my hair out of my face. I wipe at the tiny beads of sweat that have prickled along my forehead and try to shake off the weird feeling that's taken root in my stomach ever since I first heard I'm about to kiss Russ.
Kiss. Russ.
Russ.
I can't wrap my head around the idea.
I mean, to start, there's the fact that I have a boyfriend! I can't go around kissing other guys, but it's all in the name of the play. And I guess I'm glad I'm finding out about it now, so I don't feel guilty for not telling Blaine it's going to happen.
I'll have to prep him before Opening Night, though. No need to give him that kind of a nasty surprise. I can just see him jumping to his feet in the middle of the play and shouting out for the whole thing to stop when Russ and I kiss.
Yeah, probably better not to take that chance.
"I wonder if I'm going to see Miss Halpern today!" I hear Russ say. I glance down at the script and start reading through the lines for my cue. Silence on stage, then Russ repeats, "I wonder if I'm going to see Miss Halpern today!"
I quickly scan the page then realize -- duh -- this is when I'm supposed to skip out onto the stage and pretend I don't see Prince Alex.
Oops.
I tuck the script under my arm since I obviously still need it to get through the scene and half-walk, half-run out from behind the heavy curtain. Russ gives me a what-the-heck-gives kind of look as soon as he sees me, but he doesn't break character to ask what's wrong with me, even though I'm pretty sure he wants to.
I offer an apologetic half-smile then wander aimlessly around the area behind him as Miss Halpern is supposed to do.
Russ continues with his role as Prince Alex, talking to several other people, before he finally "stumbles" upon Miss Halpern examining fruits and vegetables at the outdoor market.
"G'day," Prince Alex says, and Miss Halpern looks up in surprise, waving around her non-casted hand as if she's holding a fresh, ripe tomato as the script calls for.
"Oh," Miss Halpern says politely, giving a small curtsy. "Hello, sir."
Prince Alex shakes his head. "When are you going to give that a rest already? My father is sir. I'm Alex."
"I think I'll stick to sir, thanks."
"Stop pretending like there's nothing between us, Jane!"
Miss Halpern whips her head around to stare at the prince. "You may want to be known as Alex," she says fiercely. "But I'm Miss Halpern to you. We're not ever going to be on that kind of a casual basis."
A silence settles over the stage as Miss Halpern and Prince Alex stare at each other, each refusing to blink or appear weak to the other.
The prince speaks first.
"Prove it."
Miss Halpern blinks up at him. "I'm afraid I don't understand."
"Prove that there's nothing between us," he says.
"And just how do you suppose I do that?"
"Kiss me."
Miss Halpern's mouth drops open but she quickly recovers. "You'd like that, wouldn't you?" she scoffs. "Very clever, of course."
But Prince Alex isn't ruffled by Miss Halpern's haughty response.
"You're confident there's no spark," he says evenly. "I think you're lying to yourself. But I assure you of this. Kiss me once and tell me you feel nothing, and you'll never have to speak to me again. One time, Jane."
Miss Halpern struggles as her heart starts to thump rapidly against her chest, her breathing coming out a little funny, and she prays the prince doesn't notice the changes.
"Is that a promise?"
Prince Alex stares into her eyes. "It is."
Miss Halpern considers this for only a moment before she takes one strong step forward, the palms of her hands growing damp with beads of sweat. She places a hand gently against the prince's shoulder as only inches separate their bodies.
I blink twice before I kiss him; it no longer feels like it's a moment between Jane and Alex.
It's me and Russ.
My heart is going a million miles a minute as I try to stuff myself back into character so this doesn't feel any weirder than it already does.
This is Miss Halpern, this is Miss Halpern, this is Miss Halpern, I repeat to myself as I lean in closer and closer to Russ.
To Prince Alex.
And then their lips meet ever so briefly, nothing more than a flutter, before she pulls back. The prince, however, leans in and kisses her again, a real kiss this time, with sparks and fireworks and tingles shooting up and down her spine, from the tip of her neck all the way to her toes.
Miss Halpern ends the kiss and smooths down the front of her wrinkled dress.
"Just as I suspected," she says. "I trust you'll uphold your end of our bargain, Prince."
He looks stricken as he watches Miss Halpern turn to walk away.
"Wait!" he calls out.
She stops just before exiting the stage, still holding the tomato.
"You never told me if you felt anything," he says weakly.
Miss Halpern can't keep the small smile from forming on her face. "Your promise," she says. "Keep it."
***
"Even you don't believe that," Lana says as I pull my backpack out of the locker I keep it in backstage.
"What?" I ask, tucking my script back into my bag and getting to my feet. It's been almost half an hour since the whole kiss thing with Russ, and I haven't seen him since Miss Halpern danced off the stage, leaving a poor, confused Prince Alex behind.
Lana closes her locker. "That it's just acting."
"I don't understand."
"What you said to Mary before you guys did the scene." Lana rolls her eyes like she can't believe she has to remind me. "That you don't care about kissing Russ because it's just part of the play. You don't really believe that's true."
"Sure I do," I say, swallowing hard.
Lana studies me and I feel like I'm shrinking under her sharp stare. "I've been doing plays for a long time, Emma, and I've had my fair share of onstage romances. Sometimes, it really is just about acting. It's like the kiss is nice but it's not gonna curl your toes. But every now and then, you've gotta kiss a guy that makes you sweat a little. It's obvious which one it is with you and Russ."
I shrug, hoping Tomato Thompson doesn't strike again. "You're right. It was polite. But I have a boyfriend and I didn't feel anything with Russ."
"Okay, Emma. I guess you're just one heck of an actress, then. Because we all saw sparks."
I take a deep breath, trying to keep steady until I can get away from Lana. "Sure you don't need new glasses?"
She smirks. "See you tomorrow, Emma."
And then I'm alone, but I'm pretty sure my mind is racing fast enough for two people.
There's only one thing I know for sure right now:
I'm in way over my head, and I have no idea how to get out.
***
It doesn't take long to see that Russ' car isn't in the parking lot when I finally make my way out here, which is weird because he's been giving me rides home almost every night after practice.
Great.
I whip out my phone and call Blaine to see if he's still around with the team, but he doesn't answer. I shoot a quick text to him and get an almost immediate response:
'Sorry, babe. Busy. Hit you back soon.'
Fan-freakin'-tastic.
With a sigh, I call my dad, and he agrees to meet me down at the school, but it's going to take him a solid fifteen minutes to get here. I drop down onto a bench outside the building to wait, and pull out the script to hopefully get some more lines memorized.
I'm well past the now-infamous kissing scene with Prince Alex and finally feel like I'm starting to decompress a little from all the craziness of this afternoon when I hear it.
An all-too-familiar laugh followed by an obnoxious, high-pitched giggle.
I swing my head around and there they are.
&
nbsp; A tall guy with a mop of blonde hair has one arm draped across the shoulders of a small girl with long, straight blonde hair. She has one arm wrapped around his waist and I watch, eyes glued to them, as he drops his head and lightly kisses her.
She stops walking and laughs, and he wraps his other arm around her, enveloping her in a giant hug, and hits her with a real kiss this time, deep and passionate and familiar.
My brain buzzes as it tries to process what's happening here.
Blaine.
With his lips locked on another girl.
"Real busy, huh?" I snap before thinking.
They break apart, Blaine's face immediately clouding with guilt, which is quickly replaced by horror. I glare at the girl and it takes a second before I realize it's the same chick from the pep rally earlier today.
I'm still not sure where I've seen her before that, though.
"Emma!" Blaine's voice is a heck of a lot more shrill than it normally is, and the resemblance to Minnie Mouse probably would have made me laugh under any other circumstance.
"I was so worried about telling you that I have to fake kiss Russ and look at you! Look at you!" I scream.
Blaine looks at me like I'm insane. "Fake kiss? Who's Russ?"
I throw up my hands. "We need to talk." My eyes cut over to the girl, who has an infuriating self-satisfied smirk on her stupid face. "Now."
Blaine's quiet for a few seconds, then he leans down to whisper something to her. I tap my foot impatiently against the sidewalk.
"I only have ten minutes," I snap.
He holds up his hand as if to silence me and my first instinct is to inform him that he has a heck of a lot of groveling to do for being so rude.