Always Never Yours(9)

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Hours before the first Romeo and Juliet rehearsal, I want to vomit. Or disappear. Or both.

Instead, I try to pretend nothing’s bothering me as I sit down in one of the circles of drama kids decamped on the hill outside the drama room for lunch. Everyone’s here except Anthony, who without fail uses lunch to get ahead in his classes. I once tried hanging out with him until the librarian ejected me for complaining too loudly and too often about how boring geometry is.

I usually enjoy sitting with the rest of the drama kids, running lines and planning cast parties. Not today. I don’t like the way everyone’s eyes turn to me when I sit down.

“You must be, like, totally excited,” Jenna Cho says, beaming at me from across the circle. Her enthusiasm’s as infectious as a headache, and no less uncomfortable.

“I’m . . . Yeah, definitely excited,” I halfheartedly reply. Ugh. If my acting’s this stiff in rehearsal, this play is screwed.

I notice Alyssa eyeing me. “You know, I played Juliet in a summer production at the community theater downtown. I’d be happy to sit down with you and show you my notes.” She forces a saccharine smile.

I smile back at her, just as insincere. “Thanks, but I’ve got it, Alyssa.”

Jenna reaches forward to hand me the plate of cookies they’ve been passing around. “I mean, it shouldn’t be challenging playing opposite Tyler.” Her grin widens.

“It wouldn’t be the first time sparks fly between a Romeo and a Juliet,” Cate Dawson chimes in, eyebrows raised. “You two even have a history.”

Of course that’s the moment Madeleine happens to walk up, arm in arm with Tyler. I see her smile fade, and I know she heard Cate’s comment. Even worse, I’m not oblivious enough to figure she’s not already worried about it.

I have to defuse. “I’m the last person who could have sparks with Tyler. Been there, done that, right?”

The girls laugh, and Madeleine gives me a grateful smile.

“Yeah, creating chemistry with Megan,” Tyler starts, looking around the circle like he’s on stage. “This will be the truest test of my acting prowess yet.” He flashes the crowd his most charming grin, and I remember Hamlet—“one may smile, and smile, and be a villain.”

Just because I’m over Tyler doesn’t mean his insults don’t hurt.



* * *





The sting of Tyler’s words hasn’t faded by the end of the day. But when I get to drama, Owen’s sitting outside the classroom, writing in his notebook. Again. Everyone else has gone inside, and I decide to enjoy a couple more Tyler-less minutes.

I stop in front of his feet. “Ready to sell some drugs to underage girls?”

Owen looks up, his dark eyes going wide. “What?”

“You know”—I nudge his shoe with my boot—“Friar Lawrence?”

He pauses, then asks with feigned seriousness, “You ready to pursue an inappropriate relationship with an overemotional teenager that’ll end terribly for everyone involved?” His features harden into an inquisitive challenge, underwritten with humor.

“Sounds like a typical Monday,” I reply.

Now he smiles, and it’s the same smile from Verona, the one that brightens his entire face. He gets up and holds the door open for me.

Where on an ordinary day the drama room’s just chaos—improv games breaking out in the front of the room while the choir crossovers belt show tunes by the piano—today there’s order to the commotion. Most of the Romeo and Juliet cast sits in a circle of chairs in the middle of the room. The senior girls have gathered around Alyssa, who’s reading from Juliet’s death scene. Anthony paces in the back of the room, doing vocal warm-ups. I’m hit with a new rush of nausea, remembering what he said on Friday, how much this means to him.

Jody comes in a second after I sit down with Owen. “We’re doing a read-through of the scene where Romeo and Juliet meet,” she announces, and shoves a stack of scripts into Anthony’s hands.

I notice Tyler, seated opposite me in the circle, smirking when he finds his place in the scene. Once Anthony’s handed out all the scripts, Tyler stands up and starts right in. “O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!”

I poorly restrain an eye-roll. In every read-through I’ve been to, the actors didn’t get out of their seats. Tyler’s just grandstanding. But even I have to concede he’s delivering it perfectly. If this is the truest test of his acting prowess, he’s acing it.

“Forswear it, sight, for I ne’er saw true beauty till this night,” Tyler continues, his eyes burning into me.

“Either he is good,” Owen mutters beside me, “or he means it.”

“He’s acting. Definitely acting,” I whisper, crossing my arms and sinking into my seat. I’m dimly aware of the scene progressing for the next couple minutes, but all I can think about is my impending first line.

Like he knows he’s screwing with me, Tyler saunters from his seat to mine and stops in front of me. “If I profane with my unworthiest hand this holy shrine, the gentle sin is this.” He reaches for my hand, and I snatch it away on instinct.

Tyler’s eyes narrow. Whatever Juliet’s supposed to do in this moment, it’s not that. I feel the whole class staring at me. Tyler repeats the line, reaching for my hand once more. I force myself to let him take it. But when he leans down to brush his lips across my knuckles, I flinch and rip my hand from his. I hear Anthony groan.