Time After Time

4

Jay rolls his eyes. “Show off.”

“I’m just saying,” I snatch the papers in his hand from him and skim them. Easy. “I’ll just have to practice memorizing these and I’ll be Sky Masterson this year no problem.” And that means that today will be my first and last appointment with this Seifert therapist man—fingers crossed on that. “I just need to show Mom that I got my fucking life in control still, that I’ve got my acting in control still. A little bit of alcohol and a little bit of fun isn’t going to change that.”

My best friend opens his mouth to reply when the blonde girl Jay thought I had been checking out taps his shoulder and he turns around and jumps. She gives him a sly smile before turning her attention to me, eyebrows raised.

“Hey, I’m new here, and I just want to get to know my new classmates,” she says, tucking a stray strand of honey-colored hair behind her ear, “I’m Ellie Kessler, I just transferred here from Westonshire Catholic. Nice to meet you.” Even though I don’t hold out my hand, she reaches out and grabs it, shaking it firmly before dropping it. “You must be the Alistair Beaufort everyone talks about.”

“Yeah, that’s me.” I can feel Jay’s gaze practically burning a hole into my head when he hears how disinterested I sound. He’s surprised I’m not even making an effort to pick her up. Girls have never been anything of much interest to me anyway. Unless I’m drunk.

Ellie’s grin doesn’t fade. “You must be a superstar here or something, everyone says your acting is legendary. I, for one, can’t wait to see you once rehearsals start.” She giggles.

“You must be great, too, if you managed to get one of the two spots left for grade eleven,” Jay interjects, smiling his most charming smile before shooting me a quick look that says to me Hey, if you’re not gonna try getting this hot chick, I will. I roll my eyes.

Ellie completely ignores him, her eyes still trained on me. “I couldn’t help but overhear that you want to be Sky Masterson, the male lead,” her lips are still curved into that little grin, “And I was just thinking of what a coincidence it is that I’m trying out for Sarah Brown.”

A cursory glance at the list of characters on the back tell me that Sarah Brown is the female lead, and is Sky Masterson’s love interest. Forcing back a scowl, I look up and beam at her instead, as if I think it’s wonderful that this weird new girl with as much confidence as the most popular girl in the school wants to audition as my character’s fucking love interest. It doesn’t matter, I rationalize, she’s just a transfer, for goodness sake. She probably doesn’t have much acting experience. She probably just got real good on those easy-as-hell monologues Oxford gives for aspiring future students when they audition.

“That’s…swell,” I manage. Who in the world says swell anymore?

“Maybe, since we’re both trying out for leads, we can practice sometime after school?” Ellie asks, faking shyness. Jesus Christ.

I frantically think of a good excuse. “Um, sorry, I can’t,” I say quickly, “I already promised Jay here that I have to help him prepare his audition for…uh,” I think of the first name I saw beneath Sarah Brown’s in the character list, a supporting character, “I have to help Jay prepare for his audition for…Adelaide.” Did you just say Adelaide? Dumbass.

“Adelaide?” Ellie looks taken aback.

Giving me his most venomous glare, which I pretend to completely ignore, Jay says, “Oh, no, Alistair meant to say that I’m trying out for Nathan. Nathan Detroit, I mean.”

The girl looks at Jay for the first time, eyes starting from his hair, then down to the black Jordans he’s wearing. Then her focus comes back to me, and she looks so disappointed my stomach gets a pang of guilt for rejecting her offer. Still, it goes away after a few seconds, though.

“Oh,” she says softly, “Well, I must go now. I’ll see you at tomorrow’s class?”

I nod, turning away from her as she leaves.

“What the fuck was that?” Jay demands, sounding supremely annoyed, “I know you’re not interested, but can I at least get your leftovers? And what the hell was this Adelaide thing all about? Adelaide, for your information, is Nathan’s—”

I sigh, silencing him. “I know, I know, man. I’m sorry, I’ll help you next time.”

“Cockblock.”

“Not exactly,” I grin, crashing back onto my seat and patting the chair next to me, “Anyway, where were we?” I glance down at a few of the sample songs Jay had collected. “When you see a guy, reach for the stars in the sky…”