Page 77 of The Wrong Prom Date

Our dress rehearsal today had been a disaster. Eli messed up some of his scenes as Gaston and Evan made mistakes almost every time he was on stage. Even the Beast costume was too big for Evan. He was just as tall as Liam, but he didn’t have his ridiculous muscles, and the costume sagged sadly on him. Like everything else with the play, there hadn’t been time to fix it.

“You’ll be fabulous tonight,” Carol reassured me, as she drove me to school.

I smiled and nodded. She’d never seen me act before, so I knew it was an empty compliment. She sounded so certain though, like it was impossible for me to fail.

“And I’ll be watching you from the audience. Oh, I’m so excited.”

Her enthusiasm brought a more genuine smile out of me. I couldn’t remember the last time a member of my family had been at one of my performances. I could pretty much always count on Mom to forget they were on. The closest I ever got was when Nina came to watch with Topher. She was on shift tonight though, so unfortunately, she couldn’t make it.

“I’m really glad you’ll get to see it too,” I replied. I only wished it was going to be the performance I knew our drama class was capable of. If Evan had been given a proper chance to practice his role, we’d be unstoppable. As it was, he barely managed to stop himself from cracking up in giggles whenever we kissed. We’d survived one kiss without laughing, but it was the most awkward encounter ever, and we were both scarred for life from the experience. Ever since, he had been complaining that I kissed like a girl. “Duh,” I’d responded each time, only making him laugh more.

“Here we are,” Carol announced as we pulled into the school parking lot. “Now, don’t be nervous. I already know you’re going to be the best Belle the world has ever seen.”

“I’ll try,” I replied, before jumping out of the car. It was dark out, and I pulled my jacket close to my chest to ward off the cold as I walked up the steps to the school entrance. Carol honked as she drove away, sending a small jolt of reassurance through me. It was nice to have someone around who cared enough to drop you at school before an important night.

I was the first student to arrive in the dressing room, and the others slowly started to trickle in as I began to get ready. I took my time as I did my makeup. A part of me dreaded finishing it because that meant I’d be one step closer to the start of the play. It was a horrible feeling to have right before a performance and didn’t bode well for the rest of the night.

“Teagan,” Madi’s voice called from behind me. “These came for you.” I turned and saw she was carrying a huge bunch of red roses in her arms. There must have been a hundred flowers in the beautiful bright red bouquet, and Madi’s arms seemed to be heaving under the weight of them.

“What?” I exclaimed, jumping from my seat in front of the mirror to take the flowers. “Who are they from?”

“I think we can all guess,” Hayley said, coming up to take a closer look. “They’re totally from Liam.”

“They’re not from Liam.”

“Uh, we all saw the way he looked at you during rehearsals. And unless you’ve been secretly seeing some sugar daddy, no boys at school could afford such a huge bouquet.”

“I don’t have a sugar daddy.” My cheeks flushed and I distracted myself by picking out the small card that was tucked between the leaves. It read:Break a leg — L xx.

“See, I told you,” Hayley said, reading the card over my shoulder. “Look, he even sent you kisses.”

“This doesn’t mean I don’t still want to slap him,” I replied, carefully placing the flowers on the table. They were really beautiful, but it didn’t excuse what Liam had done. It also didn’t excuse the fact he hadn’t had to guts to call me once since he left. All I wanted was to hear his voice again and I didn’t think it was too much for me to ask for an explanation directly from him as to why he left so suddenly.

If he cared about me enough, he would have called, and a bunch of flowers and an apology from his assistant just weren’t the same. I’d experienced a whole rollercoaster of emotions since he’d been gone, and I still wasn’t certain if I was livid he’d ditched our play, pissed he’d left without a goodbye, or simply lovesick and missing his presence in my life.

“Has anyone seen Evan?” I asked, hoping to change the conversation. I had enough to worry about right now and didn’t need to add my feelings toward Liam into the mix.

“He’s getting ready in one of the classrooms,” Madi said.

“Why the hell would he do that?” I asked. “Everyone else is here.”

Madi shrugged. “I guess he wants to be a diva tonight. It’s fine though, I’ll make sure he’s backstage in time for the start of the play.”

I didn’t like the idea that Evan was alone in a classroom. I highly doubted he was doing it because he wanted special treatment, and it was far more likely he’d separated himself from the rest of us because he was freaking out with nerves. “Maybe I should go check on him,” I said.

Madi placed a hand on my arm to stop me though. “I just talked with him, and he’s fine, I promise. But if you’re worried, I can go check on him again. You still have to finish getting ready.”

I smiled and nodded. “I’d breathe a little easier if you wouldn’t mind checking on him once more. He’s really overwhelmed with all those lines he’s had to learn.”

“No problem,” Madi replied, with a smile. She didn’t seem the least bit concerned, and I was impressed by how calm she remained. Given how disappointing our final rehearsal had been today, I’d have expected her to be on edge, but she seemed to be keeping a cool head as stage manager.

I made the finishing touches to my makeup, before I put my costume on and took a look in the mirror. The soft blue dress fit me perfectly, and with my hair swept back and my subtle makeup, I looked every inch the part of Belle. Now I just needed to act it convincingly.

“Gather round, everyone,” Miss Appleby called as she walked into the room. She was beaming and bursting with energy as we all formed a crowd in front of her. It was as though she too had forgotten about our terrible performance from earlier today. Either that, or she was just a really good actor.

“We’ve got a full house tonight,” she said. “So, let’s give them the brilliant performance I know you’re all capable of. Break a leg out there and do me proud. Now, places everybody.”

My palms were sweaty as I made my way to the stage wings. I felt a sprinkling of nerves before every performance, but right now, it was more of a deluge. My whole body shook with anxiety, and I was terrified we were going to fail. I still hadn’t seen Evan yet, and I was really beginning to worry. Why hadn’t he come to the dressing room for Miss Appleby’s pep talk?

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