RILEY

It’s hard to concentrate after that kiss, but after Dez heads back to class, I try working through my monologue.

As I mark my way through, I feel a presence. Then I hear a loud thud.

“Sorry,” I hear a girl’s voice call out. She comes out from behind the curtain. It’s Stella.

“Hi, sorry,” she says again. “I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

“It’s okay. I’m just avoiding Geometry and stressing over the audition.”

“That’s right. The Guthrie posse.”

“Yep, and I’m crazed.” I walk over to her, comforted to be talking to someone who isn’t involved in all the drama in my life. “So, what are you doing?”

“Just getting this place ready for the festival and fixing some of the props for the auditions,” she says.

“Ah, you must be the man behind the curtain.”

“What’s that now?” she asks, confused.

“Like in The Wizard of Oz?”

“No, that ain’t me. I’m just the chick who fixes broken stuff.”

And then it strikes me just how pretty Stella is. Maybe that’s what love or lust—or whatever’s going on with me and Dez—does to people. Makes everyone look better, brighter.

“Ya know, you look more like the chick who should be on stage.”

“No, no way.” Stella looks around. “I like it back here. In the shadows. Working on the film was great, but I like being in the theater. This place has so many hidden mysteries, know what I mean? All the ghosts. And you never know what you’ll find in the rafters.”

“I get it. That’s actually the part I like most about acting. You think you know a person, a character, but you never do. You have to pull them back, layer by layer—like an onion—to uncover the mystery. To really find out what’s going on.”

“Exactly.”

“So, I never really said thanks yesterday for the hangover remedy.”

“My pleasure. Just don’t make a habit of it, okay?”

“Yeah, I think my drinking days are over for a while.”

“I’m glad to hear it. And you’ve figured things out with Dez?”

“You know, I think I finally have,” I tell her, still feeling the heat from his kiss.