Chapter 29 #3
“You’ll never work here,” he crowed at Gavin. “Now that you hit a student. You walked right into this.”
Backstage, a door creaked open.
“Corey, sweetie?” Eden’s voice came closer. “Did you find that jacket you were looking for?” She emerged from the wings, and her hand flew to her mouth. “Oh my God.”
Eden’s shocked gaze moved among the three of us. Gavin, standing between the two rooms of the set, fists still clenched. Corey, backed up against the kitchen table, his face smeared with blood. Me, by the prop bed, wearing only Gavin’s shirt.
“Corey, are you okay?” She walked toward him carefully, as if she wasn’t sure where her feet would land. “Jorie…Gavin…what’s going on?”
“Eden, baby, go back outside.” Corey managed to look both innocent and caring. Taking her arm, he tried to steer her toward the set’s front door. “There’s something very wrong here. I don’t want you to have to see it.”
“See what?” Eden shook free of him. “I’m not going outside. Someone better tell me what the hell is going on right now.”
Her eyes were wide and wild. It was the first time I’d ever seen Eden truly angry.
“Eden,” I started, “there’s something I need to tell you. I have a — a history with Corey.”
“What?” she gasped.
Corey turned pale beneath his bloody nose. “She’s lying. She’s jealous.”
Eden stepped back, bumping into the rickety wooden table, making the beer bottles rattle. “Why — why would she be jealous?”
“He’s been using you,” I blurted. “He was angry that I ended things between us.”
“Ended things?” Her hands were shaking. She reached for a kitchen chair to steady herself. “I don’t understand.”
“She’s lying,” Corey repeated calmly. “Eden, listen to me. Jorie is playing you. She’s been playing you this whole time. She doesn’t want you to be happier or more successful than she is. She only wants to be the star.”
Gavin made a low, angry noise, drawing Eden’s doubt-filled gaze. Her brown eyes turned to me — large, round, shocked.
“Explain this to me, Jorie. Make it make sense.” Her voice cracked.
Corey’s nostrils flared beneath the glossy smear of blood. He rounded the table, putting his hands over Eden’s on the kitchen chair. “It’s not going to make sense to you, Eden,” he said patiently. “Don’t try to understand. She’s making it all up.”
Eden blinked at him, her lips parting, struggling to draw a breath. Then she tore her hands free, backing up against the kitchen window with its broken slats and tattered red curtains. She groped for a handhold on the small counter.
“What do you mean, ‘ended things?’” she repeated to me.
My stomach lurched. The edge of the prop bed pressed into my bare calves. I wanted to hide under the covers, rewind time to where I could tell Eden the truth before she ever had sex with Corey.
“I told him I wasn’t going to sleep with him anymore. That I wasn’t his to use.”
“To use?” Eden looked utterly bewildered. “What does that even mean?”
She glanced at Gavin, as if he could somehow explain, make things right.
He stood in the middle of the set, halfway between Corey and me, in the doorway dividing the kitchen from the bedroom, his arms hanging loosely at his sides.
I could only see him from the back. He let out a long exhale, but said nothing.
“We were never together, Eden,” I muttered. “But when he called, I came. For two years. From the first day of acting studio freshman year until last Sunday night.”
Eden just stared, her mouth working, nothing coming out.
“You can’t believe her,” Corey insisted, shoving a chair out of his way with a bang and walking toward her.
Eden held up a hand. He stopped.
“Two years,” she said, her voice distant, like she was working something out. “Two years? But we dated last year —”
“He texted me every week!” I burst out. “While you were dating him. He wanted to meet. I didn’t do it.”
Eden pushed away from the window, the slats clattering, the walls of the ramshackle apartment quivering. “Show me the texts. I want to see them.”
I shook my head numbly, fisting the hem of Gavin’s flannel shirt. “I deleted them. The whole thread with Corey, after I ended it. I wanted to be free. I blocked his number.”
Corey swept me with a scornful glance, making me feel more undressed than ever. “Of course she’s saying that. There are no texts.”
I looked at Gavin’s back as he stood between us, wishing I could see his face. “Tell her, Gavin.”
He didn’t turn. “You really want me to?”
“Yes.”
He sighed. “I saw them together last Saturday night.”
“You did?” Eden’s voice cracked. “Where?”
“You can’t listen to him,” Corey said patiently. “He’ll do whatever Jorie tells him to.”
“Behind the theater,” Gavin sounded pained. “Between the buildings.”
“Where we were?” Eden grabbed an empty beer bottle from the counter and gripped the neck. “Corey, you and me, tonight? We made love out there!”
“Eden,” he began, reaching for her. “Sweetheart.”
She pushed past him and walked unsteadily toward me, halting by Gavin at the bedroom’s entrance. Gavin’s head moved from Corey to Eden to the bottle in her hand, alert.
“How could I not know?” she demanded, staring at me. “All this time…”
“Did you really not know?” I blurted. “Never? Not even a guess?”
“Are you blaming me?” Eden’s knuckles were going white on the beer bottle.
“No!”
“You think I only see what I want to see!” She brandished the bottle. I wondered if she’d throw it at me. “Well, maybe I do. Maybe I want to believe that the people I care about are always telling the truth.”
“Baby, she’s making this up to hurt you.” Corey moved cautiously toward Eden, avoiding Gavin. “She can’t stand to see us happy.”
Eden shook her head. “No,” she said slowly. “I believe Jorie.”
“Eden!” Corey said.
“She has no reason to lie. There were things that didn’t make sense, and now they do.” Her fingers opened, and the beer bottle fell from her hand to the stage. “I believe her.”
Corey cupped her face, trying to get her to look at him. Panic glinted in his eyes, his nose swollen and bruised. “No, no. Jorie’s crazy. She’s not well, baby, she’s not right in the head. And him, Gavin, he isn’t helping. He’s just an enabler.”
“Jorie isn’t crazy! Stop!” Eden stepped back, sounding choked, and turned to me. “How could you keep this from me?”
Tears started in her eyes and streamed down her cheeks. My heart sank.
“Eden, I-I didn’t want to hurt you. I never wanted to hurt you. But I was ashamed. Okay? This was what I had. This fucked-up thing that was still closer to a relationship than anything else in my life.”
“You bitch.” Corey shook his head, his voice rising. “You lying, crazy bitch.”
Gavin growled, taking a step toward him. Eden stared at Corey like she’d never seen him before.
“You’re surprised, Eden?” I demanded. “To hear him talk this way? He called me names like that all the time. He’d order me to get on my knees. Lick the floor at his feet. The dirty, disgusting dorm room floor.”
“Because you wanted it!” Corey roared.
Eden gaped at him, backing away toward the front door. “It’s really true.”
“Don’t act like I’m some villain. Some freak,” Corey spat at me. “You wanted everything I gave you, just like you want it from him.” He pointed to Gavin.
“Why did you date me if you had this thing with Jorie?” Eden looked bewildered. “And try to cheat on me? I don’t understand.”
“Sweet Eden.” A bitter smile pulled at Corey’s lips. “You don’t know what’s inside me and her. There’s a darkness in us. But you…you’re too good to comprehend it. You’re pure. Perfect. Am I so wrong to want that?”
Eden reached for the handle of the screen door, holding herself upright. Her brow creased, eyes darting. She took a shuddery breath.
“Corey,” she said, slowly and distinctly. “You’re full of shit.”
His mouth parted. As he tried to interrupt, she spoke firmly.
“You never even tried to show me that side of yourself! You always lied to me. How would you know if I’d understand?
But Jorie—” Her eyes met mine. Hoping, just for a moment, I stepped away from the bed.
“You showed me. I know exactly who you are, except — except for this.” Her face crumpled.
“Corey, we’re done. You hear me? Forever.
Don’t come near me again. And Jorie, don’t talk to me. Just leave me alone.”
A stone lodged in my throat, making my knees want to buckle.
Eden yanked open the screen door and looked wildly around the set. “We’ll do the play. One more night, we’ll do the play. But offstage? You’re both dead to me.”
Whirling, she ran out and slammed the door so hard the set shook.
“Are you happy?” Corey snarled. “Is this what you wanted all along?”
“Eden, wait,” I called, snatching up my coat from the stage.
Finally, Gavin turned, moving swiftly toward me. “Jordana, are you okay?”
“I need to talk to Eden.”
“You won’t.” Corey tried to block my path.
“Go,” Gavin urged, putting himself between us. “I’ll handle him.”
The light threw his bruised cheek into relief. It was swelling, turning purple.
“You’re hurt.” I reached for Gavin.
“I’m fine. Go and find your friend—”
“Corey?” A new voice cut briskly through the theater. “Are you out there? I got your message saying I needed to come right away…”
Rachel hurried out from the wings. She halted, her eyes widening. Taking off her glasses, she propped them on her head.
“My God. What happened?” She surveyed the stage in disbelief, looking from Corey’s bloody nose, to the rumpled bed, to my bare legs. To Gavin, his hands on my shoulders, my fingers frozen on his chin.
“Gavin?” Her voice came out uncertain, shaken. “How could you?”
Gavin let go of my shoulders. “Rachel,” he began, but she was shaking her head, pressing her lips together until they turned white.
“No,” she murmured. “No, no, no. This can’t be happening.”
My coat fell from my hand. Her eyes followed, lighting on the prop bed which was clearly the site of sex.
“You fucker,” she muttered, glaring at Gavin. “On my stage? With Jorie Green, after everything I said?”
Shame bolted through me, chased by anger. My bare toes curled on the stage. Corey watched smugly, his arms folded.
“And what happened to Corey’s nose?” Rachel burst out. Corey pointed to Gavin like a little boy tattling in the schoolyard. “Gavin, did you hit him?”
“Yes.” He leveled his gaze at Rachel. “He threw the first punch and insulted Jordana. I gave him fair warning.”
Rachel turned from one of us to the next, her mouth opening and closing like a fish. She tried to speak, but nothing came out.
“I don’t believe this,” she muttered, pressing her fingers to her temples. “I won’t tolerate this…this unprofessionalism. This absolute chaos.” She glowered at me. “Jorie, you’re equally to blame. You’re fired from the show.”
“But—”
“Hope will play Blanche for closing night,” she continued, her voice shaking. “You can forget about your recommendation for the internship. And Gavin, you’re done at Hawthorne. You don’t stand a chance of teaching here.”
“Rachel,” I started. Gavin looked dazed.
“It’s for the best.” Corey managed to sound virtuous. “You don’t want to know what kind of pictures he’s been taking of her.”
My stomach sucked in like he’d punched me. Rachel’s face turned bright red, and her eyes shot daggers at Gavin.
“That’s enough, Corey,” she said tightly. “You’re excused. I’ll see you for closing night tomorrow.”
What? As I desperately searched for the words to defend Gavin and myself, a triumphant smile spread across Corey’s face.
“Go,” Rachel barked at him. “Take care of your nose. I don’t want to hear anything between now and then.”
Corey had the sense to leave, but not before he shot me a look of cold victory, his face streaked with drying blood.
“So you’re going to keep him in the show,” I blurted. “But I have to leave, and Gavin too. Do you know how toxic Corey’s been? This is just like Streetcar. Stanley gets rid of Blanche so he can stay on as the king of his shitty little domain.”
Rachel’s eyes widened, and her face turned hard and set. She took her glasses from her hair and shoved them onto her nose. I’d known her long enough to see that she was about to tell me to get out.
“Rach,” Gavin said carefully. Still clad only in his boxers, he put his hand on her shoulder. “Let’s talk this over, okay? You’re making a big mistake. Don’t do this.”
To my amazement, Rachel stood silent, frozen and unsure.
“You really think we can have a conversation right now?” she asked.
“Yes, I do.” Gavin gave me a significant look and inclined his head toward the door. “Jordana, if you don’t mind.”
I was being dismissed. While the grown-ups talked.
It was the final blow.
With all the dignity I could muster, I scooped up my clothes and stalked out of the theater.