My Life After Now - By Jessica Verdi Page 0,75

I supposed to know what to believe?” she said.

“Elyse,” I said calmly. “Trust me. You have nothing to worry about. I swear.”

She looked me directly in the eyes for the first time then. “Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure.” I paused as she exhaled in relief. “So that’s why you told Mr. Fisher? Because you were scared you got it?”

“Yeah.”

“That doesn’t make sense.”

“But it was the only thing I could think to do. I wanted revenge.”

That still didn’t make any sense. “What did you think he was going to do? Give me detention?”

She shrugged weakly. “I thought maybe he would tell the school board and they’d kick you out of school or something.”

“But…Elyse, if you thought you had it too, then wouldn’t they have done the same thing to you?”

“Well, I never said it was a thought-out plan.”

I almost laughed, but the gravity of the moment pressed down on me again. “Did you tell anyone else?” I asked.

Elyse shook her head. “Ty and I aren’t speaking, and my parents would kill me if they found out I was having sex,” she admitted.

“What about your friends?”

Her shoulders slumped down a little. “I haven’t really gotten to know many people here. Everyone’s already in their little cliques and no one ever seems to want to talk to me.”

I took a second to reinforce my resolve. There was no way I was going to let her make me feel bad for her. “You know, you don’t really make it easy for people to like you. You’re pretty…intense. Since we’re being honest.”

She just shrugged. “I don’t know how else to be.”

Wait a second—how had this conversation drifted to her problems? “How did you find out about me, anyway?” I asked, resolute to get this discussion back on track.

“I knew something weird was going on because you and Courtney and Max were being all secretive. When I saw you go into the light booth, I followed you up there. I was curious.”

There’s a difference between being curious and being nosy, I thought. But I kept my mouth shut.

She continued. “I sweet-talked one of the techies into lending me his headset. The microphone was on in the booth, so I could hear everything you said.”

I mentally slapped myself in the forehead. How could I have been so stupid?

We fell back into silence then, both lost in our own thoughts.

I took my time looking around the cluttered dressing room, at the bizarre and eclectic collection of costumes and props and show posters from years past. An old Macbeth head, impaled on a stick and outfitted with an Annie wig, hung from the ceiling. I shook my head. My life was too weird.

Finally I nodded toward the clock. The dress rehearsal was due to start in a few minutes, and the entire female half of the cast had been banished from the dressing room. “I guess we should get going.”

Elyse nodded and stood up. “Right. The show must go on.”

“Don’t forget to do your other eye,” I reminded her.

She looked in the mirror. “Oh yeah. Thanks.”

I watched as she resumed her makeup application. Part of me was actually glad that we’d had this conversation, if only to prove that Elyse was human after all. A downright irritating human maybe, but also a marginally less vile, somewhat more relatable one. “Elyse?”

“Yeah?”

“Please don’t tell anyone what you know. Especially Ty.” If he learned the truth, he would be furious—and rightfully so. He didn’t have any reason to keep my secret after what I’d done. It wouldn’t be long before the entire drama club knew, and soon after that, the whole school.

Elyse turned from the mirror and gave me a closed-lipped smile. “I guess you’re just going to have to trust me,” she said.

I took a deep breath and nodded. What other choice did I have?

38

Let Me Entertain You

“Fifteen to places!” the stage manager announced to the women’s dressing room.

“Thank you, fifteen!” we responded in chorus.

I applied another layer of fire-engine red lipstick and stepped back to survey myself in the full-length mirror. Calf-high lace-up boots? Check. Red corset and prop sword? Check. Exposed upper arm threaded with dozens of black stitches? Check.

I grinned. I was going to be the most badass Mercutio this play had ever seen.

The energy backstage was electric, the way it can only be on opening night. I ran my hands along the thick, royal blue curtain until I found a breach and peeked, sleuth-like, out into the house. It was a sold-out show, and most seats were