The week after prom, the second thing that I'd been dreading for weeks suddenly befell upon me: the musical. The posters for prom came down and the advertisements for the musical went up. Everywhere you went, there was something related to Singin' In The Rain staring you right in the face. I wasn't going to go, but every student got a free ticket for one of the two performances and Stella forced me to go with her, Rosemarie, and Neil.
I arrived at the auditorium in a pair of old jeans and one of my usual fandom t-shirts. Most of the girls were mildly dressed up, but I didn't really think it was necessary.
"Hey Neil, are you enjoying hanging out with the girls tonight?" I joked.
"Most definitely," he replied with a smile.
The four of us chatted quietly among ourselves until the house lights went down and we saw the principal standing on the side of the stage, holding a microphone. I glanced at the time on my phone. It was 7:00 sharp, time for the show to start.
The principal thanked everyone for coming, introduced the senior actors (Ansel, Hadley, and Bree were included in that group), and she headed off the stage and down into the audience before the curtains opened and the show began.
I'd seen Singin' In The Rain tons of times, unlike Neil, Stella, and Rosemarie, so I already knew everything about the plot. Ansel starred as Don Lockwood, a singer, dancer, and silent film actor. Bree was also in the first scene as Lina Lamont, a shallow actress who is convinced that she is in love with Don. I thought the part suited her very well. Bree is an awful singer no matter what, and Lina's character can't sing either. No wonder she got that part. Other than that, Hadley played Kathy Selden, the girl that Don ended up falling in love with at the end of the musical (cue my gagging). Dash played Cosmo Brown, Don's best friend.
Despite Bree's abhorrent singing and Ansel and Hadley's romance, the musical actually wasn't a total flop. Ansel's singing blew me away, and Hadley wasn't as bad as I thought she would be. After it was over, the cast members lined up in the lobby of the auditorium so that you could talk to them as you left. Neil, Stella, and Rosemarie all got in line in front of me. They all hugged their friends and told everyone how good they did. All I did was awkwardly smile at everyone as I went by, trying to avoid everyone's harsh glares. I'm pretty sure everyone was still angry at me for what happened with the chocolate fountain at prom.
Bree and Hadley both shot me dirty looks as I walked by. "Hi guys," I said, trying to be cheerful.
"Hi, Mallory," the two girls chimed in the most fraudulent voices ever. Ansel stared blankly at the beige tile floor and wouldn't meet my gaze.
"You guys did well," I said before I was swept away by the rest of the people in line behind me.
The next two weeks were an absolute blur. Finals, studying, graduation, my last day of high school ever! It all went by so fast, I can barely remember any of it. The one significant thing happened on Tuesday, during the second to last week of school. I passed by Hadley in the hallway that morning, and I noticed something odd. She was walking alone. I didn't think much of it at the time, but I mentioned it at lunch that day when Rosemarie brought up the subject of Hadley and Ansel's relationship.
"Haven't you heard? She and Ansel broke up," Stella said.
"No, I haven't heard..." I stuttered. Was this really true?
"Yeah, it's the latest hearsay around school. Everyone knows about this tragic ending of their epic love story," Rosemarie said.
"Who broke up with who?" I asked.
"From what I hear, he broke up with her. I'm not sure why though. There's been a number of assumptions, but no one really knows," Stella replied.
Graduation was pretty sweet too. I just felt so official, all dressed up in my cap and gown and accepting my diploma. Turns out, I won valedictorian! Out of almost 350 other kids, I topped all of them. I guess all my studying and hard work paid off. I cried. Stella and Rosemarie cried. My parents almost cried (that was a first for them). Actually, I'm pretty sure everyone cried.
I'll never forget that feeling I got when we all threw our caps in the air and watched them rain down on us as everyone in the room erupted into cheers. We were officially graduates! Just for a moment, I actually felt like I wasn't a failure.
Life sort of died down after that. I spent my days sitting at home in my pajamas, watching old Doctor Who episodes on Netflix and stalking Harvard's website. I had applied for an academic scholarship, but I still hadn't heard anything back from them.
A couple weeks into the summer, I was doing just this when I heard my phone buzz from across the room. I looked at the caller ID, and Ansel's name popped up on the screen. "That's weird. Ansel never calls me," I thought. I decided to go ahead and answer.
"Hello?" I said quietly.
"Mallory! It's Ansel. Where are you at? How fast can you get here?" he said quickly, with an aura of panic in his voice. He sounded a bit congested too, almost like he'd been crying.
"I'm at home... what's going on? Are you OK?" I asked worriedly.
"I'm at my grandma's and there's something wrong. I got here just a few minutes ago and she's passed out on the couch. I checked and she's barely breathing. I think she might have had a heart attack. I already called 911 and they're sending an ambulance but I really need someone here with me," he stuttered out.
I instantly shut my laptop and turned off the TV. "I'll be right over," I told him as I hung up. I clambered upstairs and threw on some jeans. I left on my old purple sweatshirt, slipped on my old pair of Toms, grabbed my phone and keys, and ran across the street to Ansel's grandma's house.
I rang the doorbell and Ansel answered almost immediately.
"Mallory! Thank God you're here," he exclaimed. We both ran into the living room and there was his grandma, just like he had said.
"The ambulance should be here anytime. Sorry to drag you over here. I really needed someone here and I didn't know who else to call, plus you live really close," Ansel said quickly, his panicked eyes shifting to mine. That was the first time he had made eye contact with me in months.
"No problem," I told him. I heard a blaring siren approaching outside, and I looked out the window to see an ambulance and a firetruck pull up outside the house. The medics rushed inside, put Ansel's grandma on a stretcher, and placed her in the back of the ambulance. Ansel and I jumped in the back just before they shut the doors and the ambulance squealed off down the street on the way to the hospital.
Ansel and I didn't speak to each other the entire trip to the hospital. Ansel was calling his parents, and I was too busy watching the medics scurrying around the slightly cramped ambulance.
When we finally pulled up to the hospital, Ansel and I stood back from the medics as they wheeled her into the building. We ran into Ansel's parents in the lobby, but I didn't get a chance to talk to them since they went back into the emergency room with Ansel's grandma and left us out in the waiting room.
The two of us just sat next to each other in silence, until I tried to break the ice.
"So did you enjoy being in the musical?" I asked.
"Yeah, it was really fun. The musical is always cool," Ansel replied.
"Cool. You guys did really well," I told him.
Ansel gave me a half-hearted smile. "Thanks," he said.
I paused. I wasn't sure if I should bring up the next thing I was thinking about.
"So I heard you and Hadley broke up," I said at last. He just sighed, then nodded.
"Why did you guys break up?" I asked.
He sighed again. "The night of the musical, I went over to Hadley's house after it was over. Once I got there... she wanted me to spend the night, if you know what I mean." He paused. "I told her I just wasn't ready, and we broke up the next day."
I paused to let this information soak in. "Wow. I'm sorry," I lied.
"It's OK. She's always been a bit overbearing," he said.
Ansel and I didn't talk much after that. I stayed with him in the waiting room until I had to go home and eat my late dinner.
.........................
Ansel's grandma died the day after she was hospitalized. Ansel's intuition had been correct, she had had a heart attack. They did a surgery to try to save her, but it was too late.
I met Ansel's parents in the lobby that morning. I recognized them and went up to introduce myself.
"Excuse me, are you Ansel's parents?" I asked shyly. They nodded. "Hi, I'm Mallory," I said, shaking both their hands.
"You must be the Mallory I've heard about," his dad said.
"Really?" I said, blushing slightly.
"Of course. It's great to finally meet you," he said.
"Thank you! It's nice to meet you too. Where's Ansel at?" I asked.
"He's in the room talking with her. They don't think she's going to make it," his mom said quietly.
"Oh. Can I go back there too?" I asked.
"Sure, honey. Make sure you check in at the front desk first," she said. I thanked them and got permission from the lady at the front desk to go back.
I reached the door of her room just as a teary-eyed Ansel was being escorted out by a nurse.
"She's gone. Her heart stopped as I was saying my goodbyes," Ansel said, wrapping his arms around me.
"Oh my gosh, I'm so so sorry," I murmured into his chest. We stood there in the hallway like that for what felt like forever, or at least until his parents came in and Ansel hugged them too. They told me that I could go home. Ansel said he didn't want to be a bother and keep me there. I went home, but only at his request.
A few days later, Ansel sent me a text inviting me to the funeral. My parents both had to work that day, so I dug out my black dress I usually wear to funerals and drove to the cemetery myself.
There weren't a ton of people there, but it was still the biggest gathering that I'd been to in a while. I didn't recognize anyone except Ansel and his parents. I hadn't been to a funeral since I was younger, so the whole process made more sense to me now than it did ten years ago when my own grandma died. I won't go into detail, but a few people spoke, Ansel's grandma was buried, and just about everyone cried. Most people left after the burial was over, but Ansel and I hung back to talk for a bit.
It was a rather dreary day, with a thin layer of stratus clouds covering the sky as Ansel and I walked in between the rows of gravestones.
"Were you and your grandma close? I asked him.
"Yeah, we were pretty close," he replied. "How about you and your grandma?"
"Well, I've never met my grandparents on my dad's side. I was really close with my grandma on my mom's side though. She would always tell me stories from when she was younger. She used to be a journalist and she would travel all over the world to write reports for the newspaper. I remember she always used to tell me that I could do anything I wanted with my life if I set my mind to it, and those stories still have an impact on me today. My mom disagreed with her though. She thought that if you weren't told what to do, you would have no direction in your life. She raised me with that philosophy, and that's one of the main reasons that we don't get along," I told him.
I paused, taking a deep breath. "Then one day, my mom and I went over to her house and she couldn't remember who we were. She had a panic attack on the spot. After that, I wasn't allowed to see her anymore. My parents were over there 24/7 taking care of her, and I barely got to see them either. She died about a month after my 8th birthday," I finished.
"Wow. That's horrible. Did she have dementia?" Ansel asked.
"Yeah. They thought she also had something else, but they couldn't diagnose it. That's what I want to do when I grow up. I want to be able to cure diseases like that," I replied.
"That's cool. I can see you doing that," Ansel said.
We walked in silence for a little while longer, until it started drizzling and we parted ways.
"Thank you for coming," Ansel said, mustering a smile.
"No problem. Thanks for having me," I replied. Ansel headed to his car, and I trudged back to mine.
I hate getting that "what now?" feeling after a funeral. I hate leaving feeling mournful, dismal, and worried about the person's family. Unfortunately, that's exactly how I felt after the funeral. I was so worried for Ansel and his parents. I wished that there was something more that I could do to comfort them. The only thing I could do afterwards was drive around town in a worried, melancholy state before finally going home.
A/N: Hey guys! I haven't updated in months, and that's not cool. I've been so busy with school and cheerleading and just typical procrastination that I haven't been able to update in forever. This chapter was kinda hard to write, so I hope you guys like it. That's about it for now. I'll try to update as soon as I can! God bless. XOXO, -Serena