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“Don’t freak out?” I ask, my nerves already sparking. “Do you even know me?”
He bobs his head, signaling for me to look behind me.
I twist in my seat and gasp. “Courtney?!” I launch out of my seat to throw my arms around her. “What are you doing here? I thought you couldn’t come.”
“Of course I came, Beauty! I wouldn’t miss your big debut.” She rubs my back. “Hey, little brother,” she says over my shoulder.
“Hey, Court,” Connor says. “See? I can keep a secret.”
“Can you?” she snaps at him as we pull apart, clearly still a little bitter about Connor letting it slip about her and Kelly.
I grin at Violet standing behind her. “Hey, Vi!”
“Hey,” she says as she shucks off her jacket.
The lights dim. We quickly sit down along with the rest of the audience, all voices lowering to whispers. As the curtain opens, my parents sneak into our row to sit in the remaining reserved seats next to Violet.
A single spotlight illuminates a face on the stage, triggering a wave of applause throughout the audience as people recognize her.
Alyssa is dressed in black from head-to-toe, her hair tied up in a tight bun.
“I… am Eunice,” she says, her voice reaching the back rows. “And this… is the night I die.”
The spotlight turns off and the stage lights come on, showing off a minimalistic set. There is one door frame attached to nothing. One table. One chair. Nothing else.
After a moment, the door flings open and Grant steps out, holding an axe. He’s dressed in white, the long sleeves of his shirt ripped in various places.
“I am… Bertrand,” he says. “And I… am the one who kills her.”
Blackout.
Set change.
Connor leans over to me. “What the hell is this?” he whispers.
I grin. “Grant’s first play.”
“It’s…”
“Shit,” I say.
He nods. “Yeah.”
It goes on for seventeen more minutes.
Thank you, Uncle Grant.
Feeling a little better about my one-act now.
But as the night continues and the theatre classes perform more and more of my class’s scripts, I grow nervous again as I wait for them to get to mine. Connor discreetly takes my hand and holds it the entire time, his thumb running along my skin. My heart aches from pounding too hard, but his soothing touch keeps me anchored.
He catches me looking at him and he mouths, “I love you.”
“I love you, too,” I mouth back.
The curtain opens on a familiar set. It’s a young woman’s bedroom, the walls painted to look like cobblestone with a single large window that looks out over a kingdom.
I squeeze Connor’s hand. Hard.
