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She hesitated for a moment. “I know.”
And then she was gone too.
october
Omigod. Jake Graydon and Chloe Appleby are totally hooking up behind Ally Ryan’s back!
What? Who told you that?
No one. They didn’t have to. Have you not noticed the extreme PDA?
You’re making this up.
Nuh-uh. He waits for her every single day after first period, he’s been jumping in front of her at volleyball during gym, and today I saw him run back up to the line at the cafeteria to get her a Diet Sprite.
Maybe she’s helping him with his math or something.
And all guys are ball hogs.
Then explain the Sprite to me. What about the Sprite?
Yeah. That is kind of telling.
They’re so doing it.
Ugh. How rude.
ally
“Whatcha doin’?” Faith asked, dropping down next to me on the stage floor, where the cast of A Midsummer Night’s Dream was gathering for our first read-through. She popped open a bottle of water, took a sip, and leaned over my shoulder to see my notebook. “‘Love is patient? Love is kind’?” she read, screwing up her face like she was sucking on a lemon.
I flipped my notebook facedown. “I’m working on my maid of honor speech for my mom’s wedding.”
Faith settled back on her hands, looking around at the rest of the cast, who were slowly trickling in. “Isn’t that, like, months from now?”
“Yeah, but believe me, I need months to figure out what the heck I’m go
Faith shrugged. “Just fake it. Act like you’re happy for them.”
“Easy for you to say,” I mumbled.
Faith got a text and pounced on her phone. “Chloe,” she said with a groan. “She wants to know if I want to come over for ice cream after.” She texted something back and shoved the phone under her thigh. “Ugh. This is, like, the third time this week. Pretty soon people are going to start thinking I’m pregnant.”
“Faith,” I said through my teeth, glancing around to see if anyone in the expanding circle of cast members had heard. Everyone was munching happily on their vending-machine chips and the conversation was growing louder and louder with each new arrival.
“What? I’m totally getting fat from hanging out with her, trying to be Miss Supportive,” Faith countered. “And have you seen Chloe lately? I can’t believe her mother hasn’t figured it out yet. Her ass is drooping and her nose is, like, spreading across her face. Look at this picture I took of her at the mall last night! Look! It doesn’t even look like her.”
Faith shoved her phone in front of my nose until I had to look at it. Chloe was backlit by the awful lights of the food court and therefore looked, understandably, bloated and white.
“Could you find more unflattering lighting?” I whispered back.
Faith glanced at the screen. “True. But for reals. She has to tell her parents soon. Oversize sweatshirts can only hide so much.”
“Faith!” I admonished again.
She gave me an exasperated look. “Ally!” she said in the exact same tone.
I looked at the girl next to me to see if she’d overheard anything. Luckily she had her iPod on, the cords dangling from beneath her thick black hair and pink-and-red knit hat, and she was staring up at the stage lights overhead.
“So have you and Jake, like … you know?” Faith asked. “Because, I mean, I would be terrified that he had some kind of, like, supersperm or something and—”
“Omigod!” I said through my teeth. “Can we please talk about anything else?”
She pulled her face back, offended, and turned away. “God. You’d think you were the hormonal one.”
I closed my eyes and said a quick prayer for patience. I had joined this production so I could get away from this crap, but I should have known. I should have known that as long as Faith was a part of it I wouldn’t be getting away from anything.
“Good afternoon, cast!” Mrs. Thompson called out, finally finished with the intense tête-à-tête she’d been having with our stage manager. “And congratulations on wi
The girl next to me turned off her iPod as everyone in the circle applauded our mutual achievement. I clapped louder than anyone, because I was actually thanking Mrs. Thompson for distracting Faith.
“Today I’d like to do a line reading of the script so that everyone can familiarize themselves with who’s playing which parts, and so we can start to get a rhythm down,” Mrs. Thompson continued, removing her tweed jacket and tossing it over the back of a chair. Beneath it she wore a fitted black T-shirt and jeans, and suddenly she looked ten years younger. She sat down story-time style next to Faith and leaned over to take her copy of the script out of her battered leather bag. “But first, I’d like to shift things around a bit,” she said, looking around the circle. “Corey? If you could come sit next to Faith … and Lincoln? If you could come sit next to Ally,” she said, pointing at me.
A guy directly across from me unfolded his long legs and pushed himself to his feet. He had adorably mussed red hair and wore an old suit vest over a faded U.S. Navy T-shirt. He strolled across the circle with his backpack dangling from one hand and a white wax-paper bag clutched in the other. As he sat next to me, forcing the iPod girl to scoot away, he shot me a smile. It was a nice smile.
“Lincoln Carter,” he said, his voice a surprisingly low rumble. “Named after my parents’ two favorite presidents.”
“Really?”
“No.” He opened the wax-paper bag and held it out to me. “Gummi bear?”
“Sure.” I took a red one and popped it onto my tongue.
“Just don’t call me ‘Link,’” he said. “Makes me think of ‘the missing link’ and that’s not something I want to be.”
“Good,” Mrs. Thompson said as Corey Hinds settled in between her and Faith. “The four of you play our two couples, so I think it makes sense for you to start getting used to being close to one another.”
I looked at Lincoln and blushed. “You’re playing Demetrius?”
“You’re thinking about the kiss, aren’t you?” he said with a grin. “Don’t worry. I’ve been told by several people that I’m quite skilled.”
I guffawed. “Really?”
His grin widened. “No.”
He tossed three more gummi bears into his mouth and his elbow brushed mine. I had no instinct to move away and, in fact, suddenly found I couldn’t stop smiling. I
jake
Ally hadn’t looked up from her silverware in about ten minutes. Actually, the silverware at the country club is gold, but I’ve never heard anyone call it goldware. Whatever it’s called, she kept flipping the pieces over, then flipping them back, like if she did it enough times she would open the gateway to the magical world of Narnia and be able to get the hell out of here. Not that I could blame her. For some reason I could think of exactly nothing to talk about. Well, nothing other than Chloe and the baby, which were probably not the best date topics. I wished I could ever think about anything else, but it was next to impossible.
“Are you okay?” I asked finally.
She stopped and forced a smile. “Yeah. I’m fine. This is … great.”
Her eyes shifted to that spot across the room that I’d been glancing at all night—the table where my father, mother, and brother, Jonah, were sitting with a whole mess of my dad’s colleagues, everyone dressed up for the occasion. Her mother and Dr. Nathanson were sitting a few tables away too. I guess Dr. Nathanson was invited because he and my dad worked at the same hospital or whatever, but having both sets of parents here just made it that much worse. When I’d asked Ally out for tonight, I’d completely spaced that my dad was getting some kind of philanthropy award and that I’d promised to come. I’d seen it on the kitchen calendar as soon as I’d gotten back from practice and was so pissed I’d practically put a hole in the wall with my head.