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I backed up toward Betty and moved my arm so Mandy was forced to let me go. But that only brought her attention to Betty.
“Nice job, Betty,” she said then leaned in and whispered secretively, “don’t worry about ruining Act Three. I’m sure not many people noticed.”
“Shut up, Mandy,” I ground out. “Like you haven’t ever missed a line.”
Before I could say anything else, Betty had pushed past both of us toward the side curtain and hallway that led backstage.
I hurried after her and grabbed her arm in the backstage corridor, pulling her to a stop. “Hey. Don’t listen to her. She’s just being a spiteful bitch.”
“I’m going to take off,” she told me, looking away, brow pinched tight. “I need to get out of here.”
This wasn’t the Betty I knew. She was a fighter, not a runner.
“Seriously, don’t listen to Mandy.”
Her gaze shot to mine, anger tightening her features. “I don’t want to talk about fucking Mandy Harper.”
“You’re letting her get to you. So you fucked up on stage. So what?”
She scoffed with disgust. “Yes, I fucked up on stage, Bennett. I’m sorry I’m not as perfect as you. Or Mandy!”
“Whoa, whoa. What the hell? Who said I was perfect? Or that you had to be? And she sure as hell isn’t—”
“I can see it in your face. You’re mad that I embarrassed you on stage.”
I scoffed. “Now you know what the fuck I’m thinking?”
“It’s obvious.”
“I’m thinking I had a seriously shitty weekend at work, and yes, I’m pissed we didn’t perform well on our last show of the weekend when my parents were here. So what?”
“You mean thatIdidn’t perform well.” Her cheeks flamed with fury, but I couldn’t figure out how all her anger was directed at me. “I was the one who screwed it up. And to have her see—” She gestured toward the curtain where the audience still milled around on the other side.
That expression of anguish tightened her features before she turned and stomped down the ramp that headed to the dressing rooms.
“No way.” I stormed after her into the dressing room, where she was undoing the side zipper of her dress.
“Get out. I need to change.”
“Betty,” I tried to tamp down my own anger rising by the millisecond. “There isn’t anything under there I haven’t seen.”
“But I don’t want you to see it right now.”
“What the fuck is happening here? You’re making way more out of it than it is. Sure, you screwed up and dropped some lines.”
“I droppedpages,” she snapped back with disdain. “Obviously, I’m not ready for a role this big. I’m sure that’s what you’re thinking. That sure as hell is what Mandy’s thinking.”
“Who gives a shit about her? And you don’t know what I’m thinking.”
“Then why don’t you tell me,” she huffed, her cheeks flushed pink with anger.
“I think you’re being absolutely irrational about this.”
“Irrational?”
Fuck. I shouldn’t have said that.
“That’s not what I meant.”
