Chapter 6
EvanAnn
Tuesday is more of the same. We go to class. Abby and her clique glare at me during lunch and watch my men like they should be on the menu. I try to ignore them the way they usually ignore me.
Hawk talks to me about the play and asks me questions about some of the directions I’m giving. We’re off book now. Everyone has their lines memorized. We’re working on the little things to tweak the performance. The things that will hopefully make it unforgettable.
Mia comes over at the end of lunch so she can walk with me to our class and sits down with a huff. “We need to discuss a joint custody arrangement.”
Damon arches an eyebrow at her but shakes his head and looks back down at the book he’s been studying for his test next period.
“What do you mean?” I ask and gather my things to head to class. “Who are we sharing custody of?”
“You. I get that you guys are new and need your space, but Abby can be such a bitch,” she says in a low voice. “The way she pisses and moans, you’d think she actually had a shot with Damon, Hawk, or Cam, and you fucked that up for her.”
I laugh. It’s like Olivia was gatekeeping Damon before, and without her here, it’s open season on him.
I’m not blind. I’ve seen the way other girls look at them.
Hawk and Cam have always been more accessible.
But Olivia allowed girls to be with Damon.
Not that I want to think about any of them with other girls.
Hawk rolls his eyes. “I fucked Abby once years ago. It wasn’t memorable.”
My laughter stops as my chest burns and my stomach twists. We haven’t really talked about all the girls they’ve slept with. After all, Hawk had a reputation for getting around. So did Cam. Damon was more particular, I guess.
I don’t really know. I only know what I overheard shared in the girl’s locker room.
Or when someone desperately needed to pass on the latest gossip and decided to confide in me.
And now that I think about it, Abby did say she fucked Hawk in the bathroom during auditions.
But it didn’t matter then. Does it matter now?
“She just wants to take Olivia’s place as queen bee.” Cam shakes his head. His dark eyes look over at their table. “It’s sad when you think about it. She’s probably just as wealthy and pretty as Olivia, but the hierarchy always divides along the schools first.”
“She’s just jealous you not only got the hottest guy in school.” Mia smirks. “But you got the three hottest guys in school. I doubt any of those girls would be willing to try to please three guys at once though. They seem too selfish.”
Damon rolls his eyes as he closes his book. He grabs the back of my neck and kisses me hard, possessive. “I’m not sharing Evan for lunch.”
I inhale and glance at Mia’s amused face. “Maybe you could eat over here with us more.”
“Maybe.” Mia stands and waits for me to join her. “It’s no fun when I can’t flirt.”
“You could flirt with me,” I offer with a cheeky grin.
She laughs and shakes her head. “Don’t tempt me.”
Hawk gives me a kiss before I stand. After I get up, Cam grabs me to kiss me before releasing me to Mia. He pats my ass. When I arch an eyebrow, he smirks and makes a kissy face.
“Behave, goody,” Cam calls after us.
“You really are the luckiest girl in school.” Mia leans into me as we walk to class.
“You have Liam and Fletcher,” I point out. “It’s not like they aren’t hot. And hockey players. And two of them.”
Mia smiles smugly. “Who knew I could be a two-guy type of girl? Usually I don’t settle on even one guy, but those two definitely make it worth my while.”
“Okay, change of topic.” I smile as we reach the Anteros building. I’m trying to talk about more than boys with Mia. “What do you think of the new Taylor Swift album?”
Mia’s eyes light up, and she bumps into my shoulder with hers. “So fucking good.”
We walk into senior acting discussing the merits of each song and which ones are our favorites. Mr. Watson is already seated, so we grab chairs to drag out to the center of the stage.
He glances at Mia before he looks at me. “How’s the hand?”
“It’s healing,” I say and set my bag on the floor beside me.
We haven’t told anyone there was something on the rose.
Mr. Watson emailed me the incident report he filed with the school.
There’s not much detail, just that I was cut and had to go to urgent care to have it looked at.
The rumor mill believes I have an allergy to roses and that’s what caused the emergency.
It feeds into my dislike of actual roses.
We weren’t able to find much more even after digging. We know someone planted it on the desk and that person couldn’t have been Jackson.
There are cameras Damon accessed in the hallways and the parking lot. I try not to think about whether he had limited access to the recordings or if he’s now stalking me at school too.
Jackson couldn’t exactly sneak into our performance and leave the rose without someone seeing him.
He stands out as much as Damon, Hawk, and Cam do.
And if he’d tried to sneak in during rehearsal, the light from the hallway would have given him away.
It’s almost impossible to be sitting in the audience and not notice when the door opens and closes.
That means he’s either working with someone from my school, or someone in my school knows more than they’re letting on. How would they know about pretty girl? Someone could have overheard him call me that at the football game. Or even the hockey scrimmage.
It’s not like the stands were completely empty. But how would they put the pieces together, even if Jackson called me that and they overheard? How would they know he had the potential to stalk me?
Even though it was a weekend, a lot of people were carrying backpacks to do homework during breaks or when they weren’t on stage. Anyone could have brought the rose into the theater or left it there earlier.
We’ve tried to make a list of comings and goings. But we don’t know if the rose was put there during rehearsal or the beginning of the break while I was talking to Mr. Watson.
“Today you’ll be working with a scene partner.” Mr. Watson stands and goes to shut the door after Crystal rushes in. I focus on class.
He passes out scripts. “Find a partner to work with.”
I glance over the pages and see it’s characters of opposite sexes. Mia gives me a sad smile before she turns to the guy on her other side. I blow out a breath and my eyes collide with Chase’s. He smirks. Hell no, I’d do a one-woman show before doing anything with Chase Chadwick.
Mark steps between us. “How about it, director? Need a partner.”
My hero. I sigh with relief and nod at Mark. I didn’t want to get stuck with Chase, but Mark is an amazing actor who I haven’t actually acted with. So I’m a little excited about this opportunity. We walk over to a section in the audience away from the others rehearsing their lines and sit down.
He glances at my hand but doesn’t say anything about the bandages. I didn’t miss much of Sunday’s rehearsal, and even though we cut it short last night, things are going well with Othello. Obviously, what happened hasn’t held me back.
He clears his throat and asks with a raised eyebrow, “So I’ll be Rick and you’ll be Cathy?”
I smile. “We could do it opposite just to throw everyone else off.”
He chuckles. “We could, but I’m not sure how I’ll look in a skirt.” He leans in like he’s telling me a secret and loudly whispers, “Knobby knees.”
I shake my head and smother the little laugh that wants to erupt.
I’ve always appreciated Mark’s seriousness for the craft, but getting to know him through Othello has given me an appreciation for the guy he is.
He’s punctual and prepared. Smart and insightful when taking notes.
He looks at his character through a lens not many can.
And when he’s not on stage, he can be funny and inspiring despite his intensity with acting.
We run through the class scene a few times, each time tweaking our performances to match the other’s. It’s the easiest scene read I’ve had to do. Mr. Watson walks the room during class and stops at each set of partners to see how they’re doing.
When it’s our turn to perform for him, he nods. “You two are excellent. It’s a shame we couldn’t have capitalized on this pairing earlier.”
“Thank you,” I say. That’s the best compliment I’ve heard during acting class.
“We all have different parts to play,” Mark says. “EvanAnn chose to follow directing. I focused on acting. We didn’t have as many opportunities before this year to work together.”
Mr. Watson asks us to run the lines again with another tweak, and then satisfied, he moves on. I kind of wish Mark had been my scene partner last year instead of Chase.
Toward the end of class, we head back to our chairs. Everyone performs their scene and then we discuss how the exercise went for our groups. When I grab my bag at the end of class, Mark comes over.
“I do think you could have continued with acting if you wanted. Not that you aren’t an amazing director, but...” He shrugs. “I wish they allowed you to do both here.”
“Thank you.” My cheeks heat at the praise I hadn’t really expected. “I’ve always thought you were brilliant too.”
He gives me a smile. “I’ll see you at rehearsal tonight.”
Mia stands and walks with me to the door. Keira waits in the hallway for me, looking at her phone. She doesn’t look up when we stop next to her.
“Did you know Mark is gay?” Mia says to me in a hushed tone. “He’s not out, but he told me last weekend when I tried to hit on him again.”
My mouth opens and closes.
“Are you supposed to tell me that?” I can’t help but ask because if he told her in confidence...
She chuckles. “I think he’d rather not have three hockey players breathing down his neck if Chase decides to poke your men with Mark.” She pauses and seems to consider for a moment before she grins. “Actually, Mark might be into that.”