Page 134 of Tell Me It’s Right

“No—no!” She snatches the phone off the counter, a close-up of her face abruptly coming into view. “I wanted to talk to you anyway! I havenewsss.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yes!” she squeals and sets the phone down, leaving me to stare at her ceiling. She snatches me up again just as quickly, and I have to look away from the screen for a moment, starting to get motion sick. “Gracie, I got the part!”

“I—what?”

“Yes!” she screams. “I just got the call from my agent like thirty minutes ago. I. Got. The. Part! I’m screaming. I’m dying. I’m levitating. I’m dreaming, right? This isn’t real.”

“Oh my God, Marti, that’s amazing! I’m so happy for you!”

“I really thought I didn’t stand a chance,” she gushes, props the phone up, and goes to town blending the blush on her cheeks. “So I wasn’t getting my hopes up. My agent was a little more optimistic since they got the big name for the male lead, so they had a little more leeway with my part, but I didn’t think they’d cast anobody.”

I roll my eyes. “You’re not a nobody.”

“You know what I mean.” She drops the brush onto the counter and leans her face close with a goofy smile. “I don’t know, Gracie, I just really feel like this is going to be my big break, you know? If this goes well, this could open so many doors for me. I’m just—I’m so—” Tears fill her eyes. “Ugh.” She looks up and fans her face with both hands. “I’m going to ruin my makeup!”

“So are you going out tonight to celebrate?”

“You bet your ass I am! I want to stay out until the sun comes up. Ugh, I wish you and the girls were here too. You’d love LA…” She grimaces. “Okay, you’d hate it. ButIwould love having you here.”

“So what’s next? What happens now?”

“I don’t have all the details yet, but it sounds like it’s going to be alot.Rehearsals, trainings, choreographing, table reads. It sounds like we’ll be jumping right into prep here pretty soon.”

“God, Marti, I’m, like, in shock. This is so amazing.”

“I know, me too!” She does a little dance as she sifts through her lip gloss options, then pauses. “Wait, you called me. What’s up? Tell me alllll about the new job!”

“Oh. Um. Great. Everything’s great. I actually just went out with some coworkers for drinks.”

“Oh my God, that’sgreat.I’m so happy for you. So you guys get along well?”

“I—yeah, yeah.” I cringe at the way my voice shoots up an octave. “They’re very…passionate, but nice. More welcoming than I was expecting.”

“And how’s the new apartment? It must be so nice being out of the basement, right?”

A weird longing settles into the pit of my stomach, but I clear any trace of it from my face by the time Marti looks back at the screen.

“Yeah. The building is nice. It feels really safe, and it’s close to work, so I’ve been walking there every day.”

“Ugh. A dream. LA is sonotwalkable.”

A dream.

“Wow, I love this for us.” Marti beams. “Everything’s working out for all of us right now, isn’t it?”

I don’t correct her. How can I? Especially not today, the day she got the most amazing news of her life. She doesn’t need my pity party energy right now.

“Well, have fun tonight!”

“Tell Liam I said hi!” She air kisses the camera and waves before hanging up.

The following silence rings in my ears.

I didn’t lie to Marti. Iamhappy for her. Of course I am.

But that conversation did the opposite of make me feel better.

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