The Pretty One(84)

“Break a leg,” Drew whispers.

And just like that, I’m awake.

I turn back toward the curtain, keeping my eyes trained on the rodent. The rodent says something into his headset and gives us a nod, indicating that it’s showtime.

I feel like I licked my finger and stuck it into an electrical outlet. Every single muscle is wound tight and ready to spring into action.

Just breathe.

Just breathe.

Just breathe.

The curtains open and I’m suddenly flooded in light. I’m supposed to look over the audience at the moon in the corner of the theater that Laura made out of cardboard and painted a fluorescent, glow-in-the-dark yellow, but instead I make my first mistake, staring directly into the packed audience. At first I can’t see anything, but I keep staring until my eyes adjust to the darkness. I squint, trying to make out the shapes and forms in front of me. Slowly, recognizable figures form in front of me: my parents front row center; off to the left, on the side of the theater, Simon. Toward the back of the auditorium is George, sitting next to Laura and Catherine. A couple of rows in front of them are Lucy’s friends Annie, Maria, and Jane. A couple rows over from them are Mr. Lucheki, Mrs. Bordeaux, Mrs. Habersham…in fact, everywhere I look I see someone I recognize. Everyone, apparently, has come to see Drew’s play. Everyone except Lucy.

“Hey,” Drew says, as he walks toward me.

The entire audience is looking at me. I swallow, readying myself for my first line. “What…what…,” I begin. What am I doing here? Someone help me!

“You’re probably wondering what I’m doing here,” Drew says, covering for me. My first line. I screwed up my first line. How in the world am I going to make it through the rest of the play?

“I’ve been looking for you,” Drew continues. “We need to talk.” He sits down next to me. He pauses, glancing toward my hand, which is visibly shaking. MY HAND. That’s right. I’m supposed to take his hand. I put my quivering hand on his and he withdraws it, just like he’s supposed to. Just like we’ve done a million times before.

“Don’t you want to know why I was afraid?” I blurt out. Oh God—that’s the wrong line. I skipped a line.

“I know why,” Drew calmly improvises. “Because you heard that bad things happen on a full moon. That all the vampire lore, the werewolf stuff—that it’s based on documented truth.”

I’m breathing really hard now and even though I took a double dose of my nasal spray I can still taste something dripping into my mouth. I wipe my nose with my other hand as I glance at Drew as if to say I’m sorry.

“That’s why I gave you the necklace,” Drew says. I know he’s trying to feed me my line but it doesn’t help. I’m drawing a complete and total blank.

“Do you still have it?” he asks calmly, trying to feed me my line again.

But I can’t think. Instead, I stare into the audience. I can see people begin to look at one another, like, what the hell is going on? Why is she dripping snot all over the place? Why doesn’t she wipe her nose? Why doesn’t she KNOW HER LINES? Simon has taken a seat in the third row and is covering his eyes as if he can’t bear to watch.

Oh God. I can’t do this. I’m sinking. I’m dying a slow, painful death…

“You told me that the Rune is the key to eternal life, that it would protect me…” I hear someone whispering offstage.

I glance over Drew’s shoulder, to where the rodent is standing. But he’s no longer there. In his place is Lucy, standing with Drew’s script in hand. She nods at me to continue as she mouths my line once again.

“You told me that the Rune is the key to eternal life, that it would protect me…,” I say. My eyes fill with tears. She came.

“Even when you weren’t around to do it yourself…,” Lucy whispers.

“Even when you weren’t around to do it yourself,” I say loud and strong, blinking back the tears and wiping my nose again. “I never take it off.”

“Look, about last night…I—we—it was a mistake,” Drew says, visibly relieved.

I glance at Lucy, waiting for my next line.

“Personally, I think there’s something to it…,” she whispers.

“Personally, I think there’s something to it. The werewolves and vampires theory, I mean,” I say. And then, even though my character is supposed to be totally upset, I smile. I can’t help myself. I’m so happy that my sister is here, that it’s impossible to pretend otherwise. I’m not that good of an actress.

I make it through the rest of the play with Lucy in the wings, feeding me an occasional line. Finally, the lights go down as the curtain closes. It opens again almost immediately and I take my bow as the audience claps. I think a lot of people are happy and relieved that I made it through without having a heart attack or gushing anymore cerebrospinal fluid in front of everyone. But I’m pretty sure the applause has little to do with me and almost everything to do with Drew. But even though I may not have knocked it out of the park and wowed the crowd with my performance, it wasn’t horrible. I mean, I wasn’t horrible.

When the curtain closes again, Drew takes my hand and sweeps me into his arms. “You did it!”


But there’s no time for tender moments. Almost immediately, Drew is surrounded by well-wishers and I finally have an opportunity to do what I’ve wanted to do all night. I hurry over to the side of the theater where Lucy was just standing. But she’s not there.