My Life After Now - By Jessica Verdi Page 0,64

right back to her after me. My eyes were suddenly wide open and, for the first time, I saw him clearly. I couldn’t believe I’d fallen for his whole charade.

Amazingly, I actually felt bad for Elyse. Her face was sallow, her lower lip trembling, as she waited for him to say something. She was heartbroken.

“Listen, Elyse,” I began, not quite knowing what I was going to say. I worked out my own feelings as I spoke. “You actually got the better end of the deal. At least you can still get out early. Imagine how I feel—he had me wrapped around his little finger for almost two years.” I shook my head, ashamed, thinking about how much I’d loved him, and the part having my heart broken by him played in my decision to go home with Lee. “And then after everything, he shows up on my doorstep, tells me a few lies, and I immediately fall right back in his trap. Trust me, you don’t know how lucky you are that you’re finding out the truth now.”

I moved to place a comforting hand on Elyse’s shoulder, but just then there was a loud crash down the hall. My heart stuttered when I saw who had made the noise. Evan was there, his face pale, hastily collecting the sack of prop swords that he had dropped.

“I…uh, sorry,” he muttered.

“Evan…I…” I didn’t know what to say. How much had he heard?

But before I could form actual words, he turned and ran back in the direction he’d come.

I stood there frozen for a short moment, putting everything together.

Evan had heard me say I had sex with Ty. He was the only person in the school who knew about my HIV. He was scared to even go near me. And now, for all he knew, I’d given it to Ty.

I turned back to Elyse and Ty. “You guys figure out the rest. I gotta go.”

I had to find Evan before he said anything to anyone.

32

The Sword of Damocles

I caught up with him backstage, where he was steadfastly laying out the swords on the prop table.

“Evan?” I said softly.

He flinched at the sound of my voice. “I don’t want to talk about it, Lucy,” he said, not looking up.

“Just let me explain, please. It’s not what you think,” I pleaded.

His hands froze. “You didn’t have sex with him?”

“That’s…not what I meant. I just—”

He looked at me then, his eyes scorching. “Then it is what I think. Like I said, I don’t want to talk about it.” He brushed past me and walked quickly away.

• • •

I was in a panic. Evan was obviously freaked out by what he thought he knew, and he wouldn’t let me get close enough to explain that Ty and I had used protection and that there wasn’t anything to worry about. Every time I tried to bring it up backstage during the dress rehearsal, either there wasn’t enough privacy or he would pretend to be terribly busy doing some mundane prop or costume thing.

Before I knew it, it was time for our fight.

I did a few stretches to loosen up, adjusted my corset, and entered the scene. But I quickly became more interested in Evan’s lines than my own.

I’d never seen him act like this. He was so…intense.

“Romeo,” he seethed at Ty like a man out for murder, “the love I bear thee can afford no better term than this: thou art a villain.”

“Tybalt,” Ty responded unsurely, apparently as surprised at Evan’s sudden passion as I was, “the reason that I have to love thee doth much excuse the appertaining rage to such a greeting. Villain am I none. Therefore farewell. I see thou knowest me not.”

“Boy, this shall not excuse the injuries that thou hast done me,” Evan shouted back in his face. “Therefore turn and draw!”

What was going on here? It seemed like Evan was using his lines to act out some sort of real-life resentment against Ty. But that didn’t make any sense. It was me he had a problem with, not Ty. In his mind, Ty was the victim, not the villain.

Our fight scene began, and immediately I noticed a change. We should have been rehearsing in costumes all along if that was the cure for Evan’s hang-ups. He was no longer hesitant. We fell into sync from the very moment our swords collided. Our eyes locked, and as we jousted and tumbled across the stage, it felt almost like therapy, like we were finally