Chapter 22
I tried to tell myself, as I walked up to the door that led backstage, that it wouldn’t be stealing. I was borrowing, if anything. And everything was going to reset, so who would be bothered by it?
I’d gone back to the usual routine—telling Bryony to go on the roller coasters, and then splitting off from Ms. Mulaney when she got her phone call—which meant I was free to do some light breaking and entering.
But it wasn’t even really breaking, I reasoned as I looked around before pushing through the wooden door and walking along the path that led to backstage. It wasn’t like anything was locked here. I was pretty sure it was only breaking in if you had to, well, break in. Right?
I’d tried to time it as best I could, even though I didn’t really know where Freddie was, since I hadn’t met him in this loop and we hadn’t gotten food or spent any time together.
Probably he was off getting Irn-Bru for Niall, to apologize for daring to pursue his own dreams…
not having any idea that Niall was going to do everything he could to wreck them.
I pulled open the unmarked door, and all the stagehands looked up from their poker game at me.
“Can we help you?” Violet asked.
“Oh,” I said, blinking and looking around. “This isn’t—the bathroom?” They all just shook their heads. “My bad! I’ll just…”