Drama Girls: A Lesbian Romance

by Mia Archer

  Who was the real piece of shit in this scenario?

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “All this time I thought you were upset about not getting the part and you were really upset about me…”

  “Well hold on there a second,” Courtney said. “I am upset about not getting the part, but mostly I’m upset that you don’t want to have anything to do with me.”

  “Well maybe we can all start hanging out some more. If you promise to stop walking around looking like someone pissed in your Wheaties.”

  Courtney looked up to the same lighting Mike was so busy inspecting. A frown crossed her face, but it slowly turned to a small smile.

  “I think I could maybe do that,” she finally said.

  I smiled right back at her. Then we went in for a hug, and I felt like something that had been missing this entire time was finally falling back into place.

  Sure Courtney was a friend and she wasn’t going to replace what I had with Chloe, but I also wasn’t going to be the kind of person to completely drop my friends just because someone more interesting came along.

  At least I needed to do my best to try and not be that person.

  I sighed. “I guess we’ve both sort of been jerks to each other lately.”

  She arched an eyebrow and cocked her head. A sure sign that she was about to say something that was going to annoy me. Then again she wouldn’t be my best friend if she didn’t say the occasional something that really annoyed me.

  “Speak for yourself darling,” she said with a wink.

  I rolled my eyes. Typical Courtney.

  “I’ll see you tonight at your place,” I said. “Are you opening up the pool and the hot tub and all that good stuff?”

  “And the jacuzzi!” she said with a grin. “What’s the point of having parents with an awesome party pad if you don’t take advantage of all of it from time to time?”

  I grinned, then turned to Mike.

  “Thanks for forcing her to come over here Mike. I know that had to be hard.”

  “You have no idea,” he said with a roll of his eyes. That earned him an elbow in the side from Courtney, but then they walked off together into the darkness behind the stage.

  I also noticed that as they walked off into the darkness she reached out and took her hand. That was worth a raised eyebrow from yours truly.

  Could it be that Courtney, the girl who’d once declared she would never date a high school boy, had finally found someone to tame the wild beast?

  I’d probably know the answer to that if I’d actually hung around her instead of spending all my time with Chloe lately. Just another reminder of what a bad friend I’d been.

  Not that I regretted any of that time I spent with Chloe. Not for an instant. But I would have to be more mindful of my other relationships too.

  “What was that all about?”

  This time it was Chloe. I’d recognize that voice anywhere. Just hearing her sent a thrill running through me and made me want to dance around on my tiptoes and sing to the world how wonderful everything was.

  Basically the exact opposite of how I’d acted, at least the face I showed to the world, before things started to get serious with Chloe.

  I wheeled around and grinned. “Oh Chloe. You’re about to be introduced to one of the great traditions of the drama club.”

  “The great traditions? What do you mean?”

  I put an arm around her and pulled her to the opposite end of the stage. Away from where Courtney and Mike had disappeared to. Something told me they were going to want a little privacy back there, and I really didn’t want to walk in on a moment between those two that might require some privacy.

  “You, my dear, are about to experience the fun that is a drama party,” I said. “A night of more fun than you can ever imagine.”

  “I don’t know,” she said. “I could imagine a lot of fun.”

  Now it was my turn to arch my eyebrow at her and not at my best friend. That sounded very suggestive. Not the sort of thing I would’ve ever expected from Chloe when I first met her, but then again she’d really started to come out of her shell since that first time we met.

  She was practically a whole new person, and I kind of liked it.

  “Oh yeah? And what did you have in mind?”

  I really wanted to know what she had in mind. The only problem was she got a weird look on her face and I somehow knew that look meant the fun was going to be over before it even really started.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  She blushed. Looked down and away from me. A reminder that even though she’d really come out of her shell there were still some vestiges of the old Chloe lurking inside her.

  It had only been a couple of months of the new her, after all. People changed when they came to high school, but sometimes those changes took awhile to really take hold.

  “My mom’s never going to let me go to a party,” she said.

  I frowned. Of all the things that might destroy my chances to have a little fun with Chloe tonight I was not expecting this.

  “Come on. Is your mom really going to make a big deal out of you going to a party? It’s not like it’s a real party or anything. Just a bunch of drama kids getting together,” I said.

  “What do you mean it’s not like it’s a real party?” she asked. “I mean I’ve never…”

  My mouth fell open. I mean I probably shouldn’t have been surprised to hear that she’d never been to a party before. She was a goody-two-shoes before I started corrupting her into the life of a drama kid.

  Still. I’d been to so many drama club parties and had such a good time at all of them that it was hard for me to remember a time long ago in my own life when I didn’t know the joy that was a drama party.

  Especially a drama party at Courtney’s house. She might be high maintenance and a bit of a diva sometimes, but nobody could throw a party better than her. Mostly because her parents were a pretty big deal in this town and they were always having parties of their own with all the high rollers here.

  Big fish in a very small pond, but they knew how to put together one heck of a party pad and we were more than happy to take advantage of all their hard work!

  “Oh God you don’t know what you’re missing!”

  I realized what I’d said a moment too late. It’s not like I could help it. I got so excited at the thought of drama parties that I was even willing to invoke the God I wasn’t quite sure I believed in these days.

  That’s how awesome they were.

  “Courtney has the best setup at her house. There’s a pool in the back and a hot tub and a jacuzzi you can warm up in, and then her parents have this ginormous ranch house with all the best games and a pool table and darts and shuffleboard and…”

  I was rambling. I could tell I was rambling from the confused look on Chloe’s face. Not that I could blame her. If she’d lived a sheltered existence and she’d never been to a real party before then she probably had no idea what half that stuff was.

  I just took it as a given that people knew what that stuff was. I’d been friends with Courtney since forever and I’d grown up around it since going over to her place to spend the night was always a plus.

  Even after I admitted my little crush to her and we worked through the awkwardness that naturally came from that confession.

  “But there’s no drinking or anything?” she asked. “Because my mom would flip if there was drinking.”

  “No,” I said. “Nothing like that. Courtney’s dad is the prosecutor.”

  Again Chloe looked at me like she had no idea what that meant. I sighed. Did she know nothing about how things worked in a small town?

  “It means he’s an attorney, but he’s like the good guys or something. He’s the one who argues to put criminals in jail. Come on, didn’t you ever watch Law & Order or something like that growing up?”

  She blushed and looked away and I knew in that moment that I’d hit on something that brought the old Chloe out to play. That hap
pened from time to time and I was quickly learning that it mostly happened whenever I brought something up that she’d been brought up to think of as “bad.”

  I could understand thinking that drinking at a party was bad. That seemed like the kind of thing a guy like Pastor Dave would have a problem with. But watching Law & Order?

  “What, like you’re not allowed to watch TV or something?” I asked.

  I held my breath. If she said that was the case then I might as well forget about seeing her at the party tonight. If her mom was that strict about watching TV then there wasn’t a chance she would let Chloe out to go to a party.

  Even if it wasn’t quite a party.

  “I mean we have a TV and everything, but it’s just not something we watch all that often.”

  “Oh,” I said. “So do you think your mom would have a problem if you were hanging out with some friends for awhile?”

  I couldn’t explain why, but I really wanted to get her to the party. Maybe it was because so far we’d spent time together mostly at school, aside from that one disastrous moment where she dragged me to her youth group.

  I wanted to spend some time with her outside of school. Somewhere where we weren’t just holding hands when we got a chance or sneaking kisses when we didn’t think anyone was looking.

  And maybe sometimes when people were looking. I still blushed every time I thought about the day we’d been caught making out on the couch while everyone up in the lighting room watched us.

  Talk about embarrassing!

  “I don’t know,” Chloe said.

  I racked my brain. Maybe I wanted this too much, because I was starting to think things that Chloe’s mom wouldn’t appreciate.

  Not that I cared all that much. I might’ve found myself changing just a little and taking on some of Chloe’s personality ticks, but at the end of the day I liked to think I was still the same girl who didn’t give a fuck what other people thought of her.

  Which included not giving a fuck what Chloe’s mom thought of me. Especially since I could pretty much guarantee that what she thought of me wasn’t going to be any good if she came from the same church as that Pastor Dave guy. The same church that had obviously put one heck of a zap on poor Chloe’s head.

  “Okay,” I said. “Why don’t we do this instead. You call your mom and tell her that we’re having a rehearsal at someone’s house, and that it might go late.”

  “I have a curfew,” she said. “She’d have to pick me up by ten o’clock or I’d be in trouble.”

  “Whatever,” I said, waving a dismissive hand. “You tell her to come get you whenever she needs to come get you, but the point is you don’t ever breathe a word of anything that sounds like party and we should be good.”

  “I don’t know,” Chloe said. “I mean if she’s coming to the party to pick me up then she’s going to see that it’s a party. She’s not stupid.”

  “Don’t worry,” I said. “You’ll be at a party with a bunch of actors. We’ll just act like we’re rehearsing lines when she gets there.”

  Chloe eyed me like she was having trouble believing that was actually going to work.

  “You’re kidding.”

  “Nope,” I said. “We’ve done it before. You think you’re the first person to join the club with a parent who isn’t comfortable with their little baby staying out past their bedtime?”

  Chloe blushed and looked down again, but I could tell that I was close to having her. She was thinking about it, and I figured it was a hop, skip, and a jump from thinking about it to giving in to my twisted logic and deciding to go for it.

  Finally she looked up. The blush was still there, but it wasn’t as pronounced.

  “Fine,” she said. “If you promise they can pull that off and my mom will never know…”

  “I promise,” I said.

  “Good. Then I need to make a phone call!”

  20

  Chloe

  I wasn’t sure what to think as Sarah pulled up to the house. Honestly it still felt a little weird to have friends who were old enough to drive me places.

  It was a big change from the social life I had last year. If you could call having my mom driving me to youth group much of a social life.

  That little confrontation with Pastor Dave had left me wondering why I was ever excited about going to that place, but whatever.

  “Here we are,” Sarah said.

  The place was on the edge of town. Like there were houses and roads and even a park on one side of the house and then there were fields and even some corn off in the distance in the other direction.

  One of the hazards of living in small town America, I suppose. The corn was always there waiting even if you thought you were in the middle of civilization.

  “Wow,” I said.

  The place was huge. I mean it wasn’t that big by the standards of maybe, say, a mansion in the big city or something. Still, it looked pretty big.

  It was bigger than the tiny house I shared with my mom. That was for sure.

  The house was only one story. There were windows running along the middle of the thing and I could see people in there milling about and talking. I recognized Mike, and Courtney, and about a dozen other faces I’d come to know since getting involved with the drama club.

  And… they looked like they were all having a good time. That was it. It didn’t look like the dens of sin and vice that Pastor Dave was always going on about. Sure I was just watching from the driveway, but the place didn’t look all that bad at all.

  I guess that was just one more thing that Pastor Dave had lied to me about. He’d led me to believe that this sort of thing was terrible, and the entire time he was the one who was wrong.

  That’s when it really hit me. I was going to a party. An actual party with other high school kids.

  And I’d lied to my mom about what I was doing. I shot her a couple of quick texts telling her we were having a “rehearsal” out here and that she could pick me up close to my curfew.

  I didn’t want to push my luck and try to stay out after my curfew even though I thought I might be able to get away with it if it was for a school thing. I also didn’t want to make her suspicious by asking her to pick me up right at my curfew.

  I figured if I was going to sneak around then I didn’t want to make any amateur hour mistakes. I wasn’t going to get caught.

  “Like what you see?” Sarah asked.

  “It’s incredible,” I said.

  Sure it was just someone’s house on the edge of town. A nice house, to be sure, but still just a house. I guess it was what it represented more than anything that had me on the verge of shivering and shaking.

  That house was freedom. It was me finally breaking free of the life I’d lived before. The life I thought I’d be forced to keep on living whether or not I wanted it.

  After a summer of thinking I’d be stuck with Craig whether or not I wanted it because that’s what I was supposed to do it was a crazy feeling knowing I was free.

  I was free and I was here with Sarah.

  “Let’s go,” I said, unable to keep the grin from my face. This was so exciting!

  As we got closer to the house I could hear music playing. The door opened and for a surprise Courtney was actually all smiles as she invited us in.

  Huh. Whatever conversation Sarah had with her earlier must’ve really changed her tune. I’d been convinced ever since auditions that the girl hated me.

  “So glad you two lovebirds could make it!” she said with a wink.

  I blushed, but I didn’t look away. I was getting better about that. Besides, I was happy to be here with Sarah and I didn’t care who knew.

  That was another part of me that was changing the more time I spent around people who didn’t seem to think it was a big deal that I was dating a girl. Or that I was starring in a play where I was making my relationship with that girl a very public thing.

  “Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Sarah said, winking at Courtney. />
  Courtney rolled her eyes and I got the feeling there was something going on there. I also got the feeling they weren’t going to tell me what that something was even if I asked, so I didn’t push it.

  To be honest I was a little intimidated by Sarah and Courtney acting all friendly with each other. Courtney might be crazy and she might’ve been walking around the set like she owned the place and it was the biggest tragedy in the history of history that she didn’t get one of the main parts, but she was also a very pretty girl.

  The way Sarah looked at her made me wonder if something had been going on there in the past. Then again Courtney walked over to Mike and wrapped her arms around him the moment she was done doing door duty so maybe I was imagining things.

  “Come on,” Sarah said. “We need to get out to the pool. It’s the best!”

  I stopped. Crap. Sure she’d told me there was a pool and a hot tub, but I hadn’t stopped to think about what that really meant.

  “What’s wrong?” Sarah asked.

  “I don’t have a swimsuit,” I said.

  I didn’t have a swimsuit and it’s not like I’d be able to go over to my house to get one. No, if I suddenly showed up in the middle of “rehearsal” that would look suspicious enough. If I showed up in the middle of when I was supposed to be at a rehearsal and went looking for one of my swimsuits?

  Well mom would know something was up then. She wasn’t stupid, after all, even if I was trying to pull one over on her.

  Sarah grinned. “Don’t worry about that. Courtney has plenty of stuff back in her room and I’m sure we’ll be able to find something for you.”

  I blushed and stayed rooted to the spot, but this time it was for a completely different reason. Sarah took a couple of steps towards a hall leading towards one end of the house before she realized I wasn’t following her. She wheeled around and put her hands on her hips.

  “What’s wrong now?” she asked, a hint of exasperation coming to her voice.

  How to explain this to her? How to explain that it was one thing to hold hands with her and even maybe sneak off to some hidden parts of the theater room so we could make out but it was another thing entirely to be alone with her in some strange girl’s room trying on suits?