Page 135 of Everything's Coming Up Rosie

I shimmy my shoulders. “I just might. I’m cool. I’m with it.”

She rolls her eyes, shaking her head.

I sigh. “I don’t know. I guess I need to figure out what to do.”

A long pause, and then she says, “I don’t think you should quit on your dream. You’re good.”

“Thanks,” I say dryly. “I don’twantto quit on it. I think maybe... I just want to reimagine it. Maybe the dream just got away from me. Maybe I idealized it a little? Convinced myself there was only one path when really there might be a hundred.”

And then, I’m lost in thought again. Thinking about how different I am now than I was when I first arrived at Sunset Hills. “I’ve changed, I think.”

Even the simple act of speaking hard things out loud changed me. Maybe it took the fear out of using real emotions in my workandin my life? I don’t know... but I want to find out. And I wantto do that without the desperation I’ve been lugging around on my shoulders all this time.

“I didn’t know you before, so I can’t say,” she says. “But I guess you’re pretty cool, for an old person.”

I feel the slow smile creep across my face. “You’re pretty cool too, I guess, for a bratty teenager.”

She grins. “I have to go. My grandma is forcing me to eat full meals instead of grabbing Pop-Tarts on my way to bed.”

“That monster.” I stand, stretching.

She stands. And she lingers.

“Yes?” I quip, keeping the banter going. “May I help—”

She stops me midsentence and pulls me into a fierce hug. It’s tight, and I can feel her heart beating, fast.

I’m suddenly aware of exactly who Dylan is. And why. It doesn’t take a heart-to-heart for me to fill in the blanks about her life. A teenager only ends up living in a retirement community as a last resort. Which means that Dylan and I have something in common.

I wrap my arms around her and hug her back.

I want to tell her I understand, even without knowing all the details. That I only came here because I didn’t have another choice.

But I say none of those things. This isn’t about me.

“You’re so special, Dylan,” I say quietly. “You’re smart and creative and strong.” I pull back and look at her, but she avoids my eyes. “Don’t forget that, okay?”

She dries her cheeks with the sleeve of her sweatshirt and nods.

“Promise?”

Now she looks at me. “Shut up.”

“Close enough.”

As she goes, I draw in a breath, feeling like maybe for the first time in my life I’ve made peace with the fact that this big dream isn’t going to happen for me, and also for the first time in my life—I’m okay if it doesn’t.

Chapter 38

Over the next two weeks, all my spare time is spent on the show. There are so many last-minute odds and ends that suck up every minute of the day, making it nearly impossible to see Booker as much as I want to.

When he’s not working, he’s at the theatre, helping backstage, bringing me dinner, and reminding me to stay hydrated.

The ticket sales, thanks to a joint effort from the entire cast and the news story, are booming.

Our cast feels more like a little family than ever with so many of us spending every spare second at the theatre, taking care to get the show ready.

I’m looking over a few of the remade costumes with Ginny when Connie bustles in through the scene shop door. “Rosie!” She rushes toward me. “Do you have a minute?”

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