The Scene

Haunting Memory

You've been waiting for that moment for a year. You think it's going to be the night of your life. An experience that you don't get to have very often. You're in a play. A school play to be exact. It doesn't seem like much but it is. You've wanted to be an actress when you grow up for so long. You're a monkey in this play. The anticipation is growing more and more. Your heart is racing. You've been waiting for this. You were the first person to memorize your lines in the whole cast. In. One. Week. And while you may only have 2 lines, they're both a paragraph. You memorized these lines. Word for word. You practiced, made the perfect costume, made sure you put expression in your lines, and told yourself nothing could stop you. Because nothing could. It's almost time for your scene. You're nervous, because you don't have the best of a cast on your scene. They didn't work very hard to memorize their lines, unlike you. You're counting on them. You want to make your family proud today. Your mom, dad, sister, family friend, two other really close friends they're all here in the crowd supporting you. They came on this specific day. And your friends in the cast and in the crew they're supporting you too. You can do this. The cast from scene 7 walks down. The curtain closes and the crew. Gets ready for scene 8. You walk up the stairs and through the door. You get in your spot and hide behind the dark curtain until it's your turn to speak. You go up and say your lines. You're not scared. Not at all. Why should you care what others think of you anyways? I mean you're just playing a character. And why does it matter how many people are watching? The lights are so bright and blinding in your eyes you can't see them anyways. That was the good part about it. You didn't care and you weren't scared, you just did what you had to do. Your cast members seem to mess up a little. It's getting closer to your next line. One of the actors starts saying his line. It's a big line. But not that hard to remember. It's a few simple sentences with few simple words. What's so hard to remember? This line that he says introduces your line. Without it, you can't start your line. Halfway through he messes up. He doesn't say it. He stops. The play goes on and they act like nothing happened. Your heart stops. They just skipped your line. But the show must go on or else it would seem more weird than it already is, since nobody knows what line is next half of the time. Half of your scene was just your cast mates staring at each other confused and whispering, and the crowd probably thinking this school needs better actors. Your happiness starts to fade. Your smile is wiped away. The curtains close and the scene ends. You walk forward but stop. The crew starts to get ready but you're standing in the middle of the stage on the verge of tears now. A bunch of crew members come up to you. They're hugging you and trying to figure out a plan. But the scene is over now its useless. What's the point. These people hugging you and comforting you, they knew how much this meant to you. The crew is aggravated that nobody is moving out of the way. You tell your friends you'll be alright but they can clearly see you're crying now.  They say it's not alright and that this play was important to you. They tell you you're one of the best actors here and they remind you that this meant a lot to you. You just want to sit alone and cry but they think of some bright idea. They decide that you can just go in front of the curtain real quick and say your line and come back in bam it's perfect. You refuse. You say you don't want to but they say itll be ok. They say that they believe in you and you can do it. You're scared. You run out there and say the line. You mess up and completely leave out a part of the line. You feel like you're gonna pass out almost. You run back inside. You hear the whole crowd muttering in confusion. You just messed it up even worse. You continue to cry. You go downstairs and everyone asks what happened. You seek comfort from your friends, but it's curtain call line up already. You're still crying. Scene 9 finally ends and the whole cast starts curtain call. You're on stage and you're still crying but less visibly. You're completely embarrassed. Just when you thought you never could be. That kid won't stop apologizing and won't leave you alone, when you want nothing to do with him right now. And now you can't stop replaying this in your head.