AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Two
~BETTY~
I hurriedinto the theater at precisely five o’clock. Our community theater, the Beauville Performing Arts League building, was originally built as a movie theater downtown in the fifties. The front reception area was tiny compared to modern-day movie theaters, and there was only one cinema, which seated a maximum of three hundred.
It had been renovated at the founding of BPAL with a proper ticket booth in the reception before theater-goers stepped through a large arched doorway into the concessions area.
For performances, they served snacks and sodas as well as wine and beer. On both sides of the concessions area—a horseshoe-shaped glass counter on a dais—were the curtained-off arched entrances into the theater. Where the movie screen once stood was now a stage.
The reception area was completely empty, as expected when I passed through. Voices carried from beyond the curtains. I swooped in to see a few people milling about on and off the stage. That buzz of excitement I always got when I stepped into the theater hummed under my skin. It lit a spark inside me I couldn’t explain.
Walking down the slight incline past the rows of cushioned seats, I took it all in. A few people in their forties and fifties stood around, the call-backs for the lead’s mother, Ethel Banks, and her romantic interest, Mr. Velasco. I only saw one other person around my age who I knew had auditioned for the female lead—Mandy Harper. She was busy gesturing wildly and talking a mile a minute to the assistant director, Trish.
Mandy played the lead for nearly every play that BPAL put on, and she was my top competitor for this role. She was not one of my favorite people. Not because she was my competition, but because she was annoyingly conceited.
Of course, I was a harsh judge of people, in general. They were typically disappointing to me in one way or another. But Mandy’s personality reminded me of that one sweater in your closet—tiresome, clingy, and loud—that you kept around for some unknown reason.
Expelling a big breath, I let my gaze wander to the stage where the director Peter stood next to Bennett, showing him something in the script. Bennett had changed since this morning, no longer in a starched shirt, pants, and tie. His faded Levi’s and navy-blue T-shirt outlined his shape to perfection. Not that I needed to be reminded that he had a broad chest and a tight ass.
He was chewing gum, which made his chiseled jaw look ridiculously amazing. I frowned as I rounded the front row and stepped toward Trish, the assistant director. She had that dazed look that one gets after being caught in the trap called Mandy Harper for too long. Her eyes brightened when she caught sight of me over Mandy’s shoulder.
“Betty! So glad you’re here. Excuse me, Mandy.” She then zipped over to me.
I ignored the offended look on Mandy’s face and smiled at Trish. I knew Trish fairly well. She’d been assistant director forMoon Over Buffalolast summer.
Honestly, it was Finn’s way of luring me back to Beauville for the summer but also for good. It had worked. Not only did it make me miss home, but I’d also gotten bitten by the theater bug again. I ended up spending the whole summer living at my mom’s and wasting rent money on an apartment in Baton Rouge that I didn’t use.
It had been worth it. Being back in Beauville and back on stage had felt so right. Reconnecting with Finn and my family after living away so long had filled something in my life I didn’t even know I was missing. That was when I started planning to find a teaching position back home.
Fortunately, neither Bennett nor Mandy was in Moon Over Buffalo since they’d just finished starring in the spring musical,The Producers. They were both amazing, I had to grudgingly admit. I was hoping they might not audition for this play since this year’s musicalGuys and Dolls,in which they’d both starred again, had just finished.
But here we all were. Lucky me.
“Hey, Trish. What scenes are we doing?”
She stepped up beside me with a script, showing me the highlighted lines of Corie Bratter’s character. “We’re going to do this opening scene where Paul arrives home on the first day at the apartment.” She flipped a few pages. “Then we’ll do part of the dinner party with Ethel and Mr. Velasco.”
“The knichi scene?”
Trish laughed pleasantly, making me smile. “Yes. My favorite.” She surreptitiously glanced in Mandy’s direction, who had accosted the stage manager, Brittany. Trish whispered, “You’re going to kill it and get this part.”
Grinning, I whispered back conspiratorially, “I hope so.”
“Ah, Betty! Glad you made it,” bellowed Peter from the stage before leaving Bennett to hurry down the steps. “David and Pam,” he called to the group of four call-backs for Ethel Banks and Mr. Velasco. “You two will go first. And Mandy, why don’t you come on up here?”
“Break a leg,” murmured Trish before returning to the front row, where she sat with her clipboard.
I sat on the end as Mandy practically flew with invisible fairy wings onto the stage next to Bennett. The nauseating smile she wore for him reminded me of some stalker movie I couldn’t quite remember the name of.
“Alright, everyone. We’ll try that first scene after Paul gets home, starting on page twelve. Then we’ll jump forward to the dinner party scene. Mandy and Bennett, whenever you’re ready.”
Mandy inhaled a deep breath, then dove in, like a gumdrop splashing into a pool of chocolate. Her interpretation of Corie Bratter was so syrupy sweet; it was creepier than the fan-girly smile she’d laid on Bennett when she first marched up onto the stage.
I mean, she was actually a decent actress. I’d seen her pull off some challenging roles, but her version of the young newlywed Corie wasn’t how I thought she should be.
Suddenly, I was questioning if my version of Corie was the right way to go, doubting myself already. Mandy had been in far more plays than I had. Was I going to get this all wrong?
Bennett was nailing Paul—the uptight, anxious attorney making next to no money and living in a drafty, top-floor New York apartment. I couldn’t help but snicker to myself at Bennett’s portrayal of Paul, audibly winded as he climbed to their apartment on the top floor and frowning in utter disgust at his wife’s optimistic view of their new place.
