Chapter 4
I knew I didn’t have a ton of time, but I took advantage of the fact that I had a little bit of a window before Eton Mess would be onstage.
I walked to the bathroom across from the door that Freddie had gone through.
Now that I was closer, I could see it was wooden and marked with an EMPLOYEE ACCESS ONLY sign.
I used the bathroom, washed my hands, and then dug in my bag for the tinted lip balm I was sure was rolling around in there somewhere.
If I’d known I was going to be meeting a cute British musician at Grad Nite, I might have tossed in a lipstick or something, but I had to make do with what I had on hand.
I had just raked a hand through my curls, willing them to behave but knowing it was a losing battle, when I heard the unmistakable sound of someone crying in one of the stalls. I walked back over toward them. The crying was louder now—someone sniffling and sobbing.
“Um…is everything all right? Do you need help?”
There was no reply. I tried to think about what could be causing someone to have a breakdown here. Was there also a sink at Disneyland that sprayed you in an unfortunate area? All at once I realized that maybe it was Amy and that she and Carlos had, once again, broken up. “Amy?” I ventured.
The door unlocked and opened up, and I took a step back in surprise—because Tabitha Keith was walking out of the stall. Tabitha Keith, nepo baby, burgeoning actress, and cosmetics mogul. So she was the celebrity that was here tonight!
But she didn’t look at all like the Tabitha Keith I was used to seeing in paparazzi pictures and Instagram ads. Her face was puffy and her eyes were bloodshot—she’d clearly been crying. “Who’s Amy?” she asked me.
“Oh,” I said, blinking. I shook my head and attempted to pull myself together. “Um, she’s my friend. She and her boyfriend break up tonight—I just didn’t know if it happened yet.”
Tabitha frowned, looking confused, but just said, “Oh. Okay.” She took a step closer to the mirror and stared at her reflection. “God. I really look bad, huh?”
“No, no,” I said quickly, even though my voice was higher than usual.
“Just like you’ve been crying maybe? But not bad.
” I flashed suddenly to what would be happening not that long from now—remembering the security scrum escorting who I now knew was Tabitha out of the park.
Because pictures of her had been sold to DitesMoi, and she was getting swarmed.
Clearly, I was just seeing the prologue to that.
But was there anything I could do with this knowledge?
If the crying was anything to go by, it seemed like she was already well aware that something bad had happened.
“Sure,” Tabitha said, shaking her head. She waved her hand under the dispenser to get some paper towels and blotted her cheeks with them. “Just—you think you can trust your friends, right? And then to find out like this….” She let out a shaky breath.
“Why?” I asked, taking a step closer. “Did something happen?”
Just then, I heard the crackle of feedback from a speaker. “Make your way over to the stage,” a voice said. “Eton Mess will be going on in just a few minutes!”
“Oh,” I said, looking from the speaker and then back to her. “I actually…”
“It’s fine,” she said, waving this off and giving me a smile that didn’t meet her eyes. “I’m okay. Thanks for checking on me, though. It was really nice.”
She gave me a nod and turned to her reflection, pulling a makeup bag out of her purse. I was half tempted to ask if she had any of her own line with her—and if she did, if I could try her new blush—but realized that was very not appropriate. And besides, I had to get to the show.
“Take care, okay?” I said as I headed for the door. She gave me a nod, and I gave her one back before I pushed my way out of the bathroom.
There was nobody on stage yet, but it looked like the crew had finished their work—there were two mic stands, a drum kit in the back, and speakers placed all around the stage.
The whole thing looked so professional, I was grateful that I’d met Freddie before I’d seen him perform.
If I’d seen him taking the stage in front of this huge crowd, would I have been able to see him as the nice guy I’d had dinner and ice cream with?
Would I have been able to open up in the same way? I had a feeling the answer was no.
I pulled out my phone and texted Bryony that I was waiting by the stage. She texted me back that she’d be right there—along with a thumbs-up and three roller coaster emojis.
I looked around for anyone else I knew and spotted the well-dressed woman in black, the one that I now knew was the manager coming to see Freddie.
Smiling as I remembered his request, I edged my way over to her.
I also wanted to make sure that I wasn’t in the same spot where I’d run into Bruce during the first loop.
We’d just had an awkward conversation, and I wasn’t sure we really needed another one.
I pulled out my phone, about to have a pretend conversation about how good I’d heard the bassist of this band was, when someone tapped me on the shoulder.
I turned around to see Greta and Nora, both looking shocked. “Cass?” Nora asked, her eyes wide behind her glasses. “Cass Issac?”
I silently groaned. “Hey, Greta. Hey, Nora,” I said, waving, hoping we wouldn’t have to go into the whole thing again. I really wasn’t sure I wanted a second lecture this loop about how I was a terrible person.
They just blinked at me, and I realized a moment later, that I should be more surprised to see them. “I mean—hi! What a shock. That we’re all here at Grad Nite!”
“I just think it’s shocking that you’re here at all,” Nora said. “We thought you fell off the face of the earth.”
“Seriously,” Greta agreed. “You just vanished, Cass. We were worried.”
“You were?” I asked. This hit me somewhere deep in my chest, and I blinked, trying to shake it off. “Well—I was fine. I just moved.”
“But you didn’t tell us. You just disappeared. Like Amelia Earhart in—”
“1937,” we all finished at the same time. I smiled. For just a second, it felt like we were back on the quiz bowl stage together.
“It wasn’t cool,” Greta said, shaking her head. “It was really hurtful.”
I opened my mouth, trying to think what to say to this. “I…”
“There you are!” Bryony hurried up to me and gave me a quick hug.
“Sorry that took so long, we kept switching roller coasters, thinking we could beat the line. We should have done the Incredicoaster first, then Guardians. We definitely went in the wrong order.” I glanced behind her and saw the Emmas.
Emma R. was holding a cookie shaped like Jack-Jack and looking worriedly at the other Emmas, who were sniping at each other.
“Oh sorry,” Bryony said, noticing Greta and Nora. “I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
“You weren’t,” I said, more than ready to end this interaction. “I was just leaving.”
“You’re good at that,” Nora said, the hurt clear in her tone.
I didn’t know what to say to that, so I just turned around and walked toward the Emmas, feeling my heart pound in my chest.
“What was that about?” Bryony asked me, keeping her voice low.
“I went to school with them in Arizona,” I said, speaking quickly, trying to move on from this. “They were mad that I moved.”
“But it wasn’t your fault,” Bryony said, looking outraged on my behalf.
“I know, right?” I was well aware that I was skipping over lots of pertinent facts here but was choosing to ignore that for the moment. We’d reached the Emmas, and I turned to Emma R. “Hey, how were the roller coasters?”
“Really fun,” she said, giving me a smile that immediately faded as she looked at the other two Emmas. “Cookie?”
I broke off a piece, then handed it back. “What’s going on with Emma and Emma?” I asked, lowering my voice.
“We don’t know,” Bryony said, matching my volume. “But they’ve been like this all night.”
“What did you get up to, Cass?” Emma R. asked me.
“I spent most of my time with Freddie!” I said excitedly. Emma and Bryony just stared at me blankly. “Oh, right, you don’t know who that is. Well, he’s super cute, he’s a musician, he’s British….”
“That’s amazing,” Bryony said, giving me a grin. “Cass has a crush!”
“Bryony does, too,” Emma R. said, giving her a shove. “She saw this brown-haired guy and immediately turned into the heart-eyes emoji.”
I grinned at her. Bryony hadn’t really had a crush on anyone—well, except Tom Holland—since her breakup in December. “That’s great! What’s his name?”
“I didn’t get it.” She sighed. “I guess it wasn’t meant to be? I wasted my only shot.”
“Well,” I said, trying to think about how to put this, “maybe not? Maybe you’ll have more chances than you think?”
The countdown clock ended, but Eton Mess didn’t take the stage.
After a few moments, I could see the crowd starting to get restless, a few people peeling off and heading to rides.
I could understand it—we were getting close to the end of Grad Nite, and unlike me, they probably thought it would be their only chance to do this.
Bryony took a breath to reply, but before she could speak, the lights onstage started swirling around, and the announcer was back.
“Disney Grad Nite seniors and chaperones! Please welcome—all the way from jolly olde England—Eton Mess!”
Everyone cheered and the band came out onstage.
I noticed that Niall and Freddie were laughing together, both of them holding bottles of water as they took their places, and I let out a sigh of relief.
It seemed like maybe Freddie hadn’t told him about the music manager coming.
I figured if he had, they wouldn’t look so happy and relaxed, and Niall wouldn’t look so pleased with himself—though judging by the poster, maybe this was just his default expression.