light. I’m hoping to sit up front with her, find out more about her. Chatting to Cara, you push ahead with her onto the bus and drop into a seat halfway back, reaching out to save space for me. You see me lingering and peer quizzically over the seat backs. With Mia in mid-conversation, I dismiss my tinge of disappointment—maybe we’ll talk later—and make my way back to you. Given the rocky start to our friendship this year, it’s probably a good thing.
THE BUS. SOON AFTER.
Quiet ride. I’ve been trying to be more open with you recently, so I should tell you my news about tomorrow. Tucking up my knees, I lean against you. You shift your weight, to accommodate me maybe—still, you feel strangely tense. I can’t see your face because you’re looking out the window but it’s getting dark out so I catch your vague reflection in the glass. I’m about to speak when Cara’s face appears over the seat in front.
CARA
Hey, kids. You’re quiet!
Neither of us replies.
Pipe down. Don’t make me come back there.
She wedges her face between the seats.
You’re a wacky pair!
I smile and you do too.
How about this theater malarkey? Not bad. Phy, I’ve got a new video camera. Maybe we could play around with it over the weekend?
I smile and nod. Sounds like something that could get Mia’s attention. We’re nearly there and up at the front of the bus she’s turned and is kneeling on her seat. She calls above the rising hubbub.
MIA
Collect a ticket from me as you go in, everyone. And pay attention tonight. You’re going to have a paper to write.
People groan. She smiles.
THEATER FOYER. MOMENTS LATER.
We’re crowding through the doors of the theater, past the review posters with stills of the cast and printed quotes: Thrilling. A tour de force. Mesmerizing from start to finish. Excitement pulses in my chest. This is what I want, to have my picture with a quote beneath it in a theater like this. We crowd past the bar to the mezzanine stairs, carpeted in plush crimson and studded with tiny bulbs. At the top, Mia stands beside the velvet curtains framing the doors to the auditorium. She hands out tickets as we pass her. I take mine and smile. She doesn’t see me.
THEATER AUDITORIUM. FIVE MINUTES LATER.
Mia takes her seat in front of me across the aisle as the giant chandelier dims. I look at her in the darkness, the curtain rising. She’s looking at me! No, what I thought was the light in her eye is her earring glinting in the aisle lights. My eyes adjust to the dark and I can see the same concentrated expression she has in class when she watches us. The stage lights come up, finally taking my attention. I imagine myself up there with the lights, the audience, the adrenaline. It could be me, I know it could, and every moment I sit here, I wish more and more that it was.
THEATER FOYER. INTERMISSION.
We crowd into the bar area at intermission and watch people swan away from the bar with their wineglasses, making comments that sound like the posters. We have just found an alcove when I see Elle with her arms around someone. I crane my neck with curiosity and swallow my reaction. She’s kissing Tony! Tucked over by the bar stools, in a corner lit by a blue bar light that makes her yellow top look green, they’re making out. So, the skirt did the trick! I elbow you in the side and point them out. You make a “to each their own” face. Turning away, I can’t help thinking about Tony’s lanky embrace—I guess the boat has sailed there, then. I hadn’t heard anything about him liking Elle all of a sudden and that gets to me. It’s not that the attention had been nice but it seems fickle. I’m more certain than ever that Tony is not what I want—maybe I’m just a little envious of how much simpler it would be. I flick through the program and we talk about the play instead. You’re sweetly sincere, so I manage to forget about the goings-on in the corner and look forward to the second half. A brassy bell rings to send us back to our seats, and I scan the crowd for Mia as we herd back into the auditorium. She is talking to Kate, in the attentive way I’ve seen before. I look instead at the chandelier and push away my