GUYS! Hi :) So look to the right, there's a GORGEOUS chapter picture of Courtney, what she looks like in the play. Thanks to LunaReader for making it, that girl is the biggest sweetheart in the world :) So yep. Enjoy!
Part 45: The Play
Everything except my heart was frozen. This was it; the moment I’d been dreaming about since it first happened.
My gaze locked with Nate’s emerald green eyes, and the rest of the world melted away. It was just me and him. For some strange reason, I wanted to cry. I wanted to feel my face crumple, to let the silent tears roll down my cheeks. I wanted to snuggle into his chest, and feel his strong arms go around me like it was the most natural thing in the world.
I wanted to hear his heart beat at a tempo as crazy as mine; but most of all, I wanted to forever remember the expression that his eyes held now – tender, pained, urgent, pleading... and loving.
He was sorry. I knew it; I’d known that he was for just about forever. And I’d already forgiven him. Time to let him in on that news.
The rush of noise around us ceased, trapping us in a little cocoon while I leaned closer, my eyes never leaving his. The tears dove deeper into me, and instead I felt a smile lift up the corners of my mouth.
Nate didn’t smile; he was too upset for that. But I fully intended on changing that as I leaned even closer, waiting for that moment when I knew Nate couldn’t stand it anymore and his arm would reach up behind my neck, pulling my lips onto his as he lay before me.
I got even closer. His green eyes were a raging inferno now of pent-up emotions; I could sense him torn between holding himself back and the desire to kiss me. My smile got slightly wider. I could feel his mint breath on my face...
Just as we were inches apart, noses touching, about to kiss, someone decided they had a death wish and yelled, “CUT!”
Briefly, I considered ignoring the command, but before I knew it, Nate was already sitting up, and I leaned back, turning around with a fearsome scowl at my current least-favourite person in the world – Ms. Williamson.
As usual, she’d left this scene to the last second – and I quite literally mean last second. And since we’d taken too long to get to the kiss, we weren’t practicing this part at all. Like we needed practice; kissing Nate was like riding a bike: once you learned, you never forgot. No, I frowned. That was way off. Kissing Nate didn’t even require learning – it was like breathing air, there was absolutely no thinking. Seriously, coherent thoughts disappeared as soon as that boy got close enough to smell.
I sighed, standing up and stretching. Williamson was yelling something about half an hour until it would start, something about a first guest sighting, something about getting into costume and make-up, something about... I didn’t even know.
Feeling suddenly insignificant and lost, I looked around and realized people were madly dashing to and fro, waving wigs and props, and something that looked like a papier-mâché horse’s leg. Suddenly, my make-up artist materialized before me, grabbed me and started dragging me backstage, avoiding the crew.
I caught sight of Jeremy, one of the stage workers, helping to change the background for the first scene. He caught sight of my slightly panicked gaze, and sent me a grin and a thumbs-up. I swallowed drily.
“Break a leg!” he called out to me, at which pointed I disengaged myself from the girl and marched over to him to make him take it back. Who knew what could actually happen, with my luck?
While my make-up artist fussed with my face and hair, I nervously twisted the hem of my purple skirt. If I ever confessed, I’m sure people would never believe that I – loud, obnoxious, attention-demanding, confident Courtney could possibly get stage fright. And I didn’t... mostly.
The thing that scared me most was that initial shock when you walk onto the stage and suddenly, you’re vulnerable. You feel alone, but you know that you’re being watched. And as you glare into the spotlights, every once in awhile you see through it and catch a glimpse of someone in the audience, just staring.
I would be completely fine after the first minute or so. But the problem was getting to that point, without my knees giving in and dumping me unceremoniously on the hardwood floor.
“You’ll be fine!” my assistant was chirping – I think her name was Philippa something – and I gaped as I heard the muted sound of chatter that sounded like the stadium was packed full.
“It’s time?” I gasped out. “Already?”
She gave me a quick hug which I was too late in responding to, then quickly led me by the hand to the side, where my entrance would be. Everything was happening much too fast; I hadn’t had any time to think about any of this. Through the curtains, I could hear Ms. Williamson grandly announcing the play and then I was watching from the sidelines as the first scene unfolded – Sharon played the part of the mother gypsy extraordinarily well. For a Leaguer, that was, I thought sniffily.
I watched Mark give chase as she splashed through fake water, clutching the baby bundle. The choir did an amazing job with the fast-tempo music, building the tension as Mark’s cape flared out behind him, making him look truly evil. In a terrifying way.
It all ended as Sharon crumpled to the floor, dead, and Mark took away the baby, successfully resisting the temptation to drop it in the well. The puppet master kid got on, sang his bit, introduced Quasimodo, and then I was on.
Gulping for air, I stumbled onto the stage, eyes wide. It hit me overwhelmingly: that knowledge that suddenly, all pairs of eyes were on me. Dimly I could hear several wolf-whistles which were silenced pretty quickly, and gradually I got back my confidence.
My eyes turned and I saw Nate in his sexy, soldier outfit that exposed his lean muscles. He stood on the opposite end of the stage and he was looking straight at me, smiling as if it was just me and him. He began to walk towards me, and as if by magnet, I did too. I walked into him and he caught me, giving me my favourite smile in the world.
“My apologies, Miss,” he said huskily. I somehow mustered up a glare.
“You look stunning, by the way,” he added, diverting from the script. I fought a grin; Williamson would have his head. But everything was just the way it should be, and I realized that Esmeralda and I were more alike after all.
Fiery, witty, both of us betrayed at one point by our knights in shining armour. But it was a happy ending, and I threw myself into it with all my vigour, passion and expression that I’d been lacking for the past two weeks.
My energy and zeal ignited everyone else too, and we all acted like we never had before. I could hear several people give sniffs in the audience as I sat with Quasimodo, telling him he was not a monster, laughed as Nate and I mock fought, applauded my sarcasm, and hissed whenever Mark came on. I could tell he enjoyed the effect he was producing. And people definitely sobbed as Nate saved the family from being burned, falling off the bridge with an arrow buried in his chest.
Slowly, I approached him as he lay on the stage floor. I could feel everyone holding their breath, riveted on my next words. Weakly, the injured Nate turned his head as he heard me come on, and it was impossible for everyone to miss the way his face lit up when his green eyes landed on me. The same way it was probably impossible to miss how hard I blushed.
I knelt by his head, and we exchanged our soft lines about the arrow missing his heart.
It took awhile for me to realize that our lines were over and all I was doing was sitting there, staring into his eyes, quite happy with this arrangement. I saw a tiny smirk in Nate’s eyes as he looked at me suggestively.
Oh, right. That was a dumb moment to forget.
I slowly leaned down and kissed him, his lips eager against mine. He responded instantly the way I knew he would, both of us ignoring everything Williamson had ever threatened us with. I registered more wolf-whistles before my coherent thoughts abandoned me and it became the familiar mindless fire – it described it so perfectly, what Nate did to me.
We only broke apart when all of a sudden, a horrified little voice rang out. “OH MY GOSH, HE’S EATING HER FACE! SOMEBODY DO SOMETHING!”
I pulled away, shocked, and stared hard into the glare of the light, completely blind. The little boy’s panic, along with my expression, must have been hilarious because suddenly the room erupted into laughter.
Blushing beet red, I turned away, trying to compose myself. Behind me, on the floor, Nate was flat on his back, suffocating from the effort of holding in his own laughter.
But I was still absolutely mortified. With all the hustle and last-minute rush, I had completely, entirely, absolutely forgotten that my family was in the audience. My parents, my three little brothers, my uncle and Julie. If I’d remembered, I would have tried to make it more G-rated. Poor Timmy, he’d sounded so horrified...
Burying my face in my hands, it was awhile before everyone got themselves under control and my lines came back to me.
My sexy soldier was forced to get up and limp over to encircle my waist and whisper into my ear something that made me forget the embarrassment and gave me the strength to finish the play.
***
The audience was cheering madly as we took our bows. Despite the interruption, we had finished beautifully. Our acting, combined with the special smoke and fire effects, the music, and the choir, had made it the most amazing play ever.
“I could definitely get used to this,” I said smugly, and Nate chuckled into my ear.
“I believe you.”
Somebody presented Williamson with flowers, and I was feeling generous enough not to wish that they had pepper in them to make her sneeze. Or red dye, to stain her nose when she took a sniff...
I dreaded leaving the backstage and having to face my family. I wasn’t sure if I could ever look them in the face ever again.
“Congratulations! You were awesome!” someone roared, and I was engulfed in a pair of armpits. To be fair, they smelled all right.
“Thanks,” I said in a muffled tone, wondering vaguely whose chest I was smooshed up against. Jeremy pulled back, and I blinked. “Oh, it’s you! Good job with the stage!”
“Thanks,” he grinned.
I felt Nate materialize behind me, and he slipped a strong arm around my waist. I gave a tiny little sight of contentment, so happy to have him touch me again.
“Shall we?” he murmured into my ear, “I think you’ve collected your congratulations from everyone in sight, we should move into the open.”
I gulped and Nate chuckled, guessing correctly why I wasn’t in a hurry to face the audience again. He kissed my cheek, and I saw Jeremy give a wicked smile.
“Careful not to suck her face off,” he said solemnly.
“Whoa, easy there,” Nate said, tightening his arm as I fought to lunge across.
“No! Let me at him!” I said, struggling. Jeremy gave an infuriating grin, crossing his brawny arms across his muscular chest with cocky confidence.
I eyed the muscles that could easily overpower me, but it had never been my plan to match him in that department. Nope, a kick much lower would do the trick.
Suddenly Jay was hugging me, and then Grace and Jake were there, also invading my personal space as their faces threatened to split apart from the insane diameter of their grins.
I obstinately refused to let go of Nate, so hugs were really awkward. I got a rather unfortunate front-up view as Grace congratulated Mark on his spectacular performance – thoroughly non-verbally. Nate looked nauseated. More people came over, and I even congratulated Sharon on her performance. She accepted rather graciously, Shane with his arm around her. It seemed like the night for romance – Shane had been obsessed with Auburn for a freakishly long time. At least he got the girl.
Of course, naturally, some people stayed far away from me. Ariel and Thing Two were in a corner with their own friends, and I snickered to see that no amount of make-up had been able to cover Thing Two’s black eye. She looked like a cake.
I didn’t notice that Jake was gone from the chattering crowd around either, until I caught sight with him on the opposite end of the room, in a low conversation with a slim girl.
Ellen.
My eyes narrowed, but I had no right to interrupt. So I stayed where I was, watching out of the corner of my eye as Ellen seemed to plead with Jake. I could see how tense he was, and it didn’t look like it was going too well for Ellen. I saw her blink back tears as she crossed her arms.
I found that it didn’t make me happy, knowing Ellen was miserable. In fact, I’d come to know the hard way that when Ellen was miserable, so was everyone else around her. Besides, Jake was in love with her, no matter how awful a person she was.
Maybe it was because she was so unapologetic about who she was, that Jake loved her for it. Nevertheless, the thought was still puke-inducing.
I turned and saw Nate gazing at me worriedly. I wondered how long the both of us had tuned out of the conversations, but I figured it was time to go. Wordlessly, Nate led me out, after we all exchanged last smiles and hugs and promises to see each other the next day – the last day of school before winter break.
My family was waiting for me outside the backstage door when we came out. None of them looked surprised to see Nate accompanying me.
My father stuck out his hand and Nate shook it, looking slightly nervous.
“So, I assume you’re one of the reasons for the fit my daughter threw.”
Nate looked confused. “What fit?”
“Yeah, what fit?” I echoed hurriedly, throwing my dad a glance that clearly said pursue-this-train-of-thought-at-your-own-risk.
“A very cute reason, by the way,” my mom added.
I was mortified. “Mom!”
“What?” she looked at me innocently.
“Anyways, congratulations, honey,” my uncle Isaac told me, hugging me. I hugged him back, scowling at my parents who sent me cheerful looks. They were embarrassing me on purpose. I narrowed my eyes. So that’s how they wanted to play, huh?
We were all distracted by Timmy fighting his way through everyones’ legs, walking up to Nate and punching him – where else? In the no-no spot, which, in his defence, was the highest place Timmy could comfortably reach.
“Um, ow?” Nate commented, wincing. I was thankful that it didn’t seem like Timmy had done it hard enough to cause serious damage.
“Don’t touch my sister!” he said furiously, little hands balled into fists. Clearly, he thought I needed protecting. Not likely, but still. What a cutie.
“No, honey, Nate is a good guy,” I told him.
He didn’t look convinced. “I’ll be watching you,” he told Nate, looking up a good four feet higher to glare at him in the eyes.
Nate looked torn between looking amused and taking him seriously. I snickered.
“So. Ice cream, anyone?” my dad asked cheerfully, and my little brothers raced for the doors. Well, Jared took his sweet time, wanting to appear mature in front of Nate.
“On one condition,” my dad added sternly, staring hard at Nate.
“Yes, sir?” Nate asked, arm still around me.
My dad grinned. “Keep your face in your cup, and off my daughter.”
“DAD!” I shouted, going completely red. To my chagrin, Nate also sniggered.
“Yes, sir.”
Traitors. That’s what all of them were. But what can I say? I loved them all.
Note from ella:
Whoops. Almost a month without an upload. Sorry if this seemed boring to you, I wrote it really quickly. And sorry, Safiaa! For not sending it to you for edit! People were getting really mad at me for not uploading...