Page 98 of Absolute Certainty
Shenodded. “I know. I’ve been having a rough few days, and I didn’t want to miss a show on top of everything else.”
“I get it. I do.”
Sam motioned for her to sit on his sofa and forced her to put her leg up on his chair. “Stay here until you have to go out,” he said, then his eyes widened with an idea. “You know, you could probably disappear during the ‘Midnights at Pemberley Reprise’ and come back out during bows. It’ll be jarring at first, but we could make it work, I think. Want me to talk to Dina?”
Sahar pondered the idea. “Yeah, maybe.”
Sam held up a finger as if to say hold and ran out of the room.
Five minutes were called, but for Sahar, that meant at least fifteen.
In a few short seconds, Sam returned to the room with Dina.
“Sahar, Sam filled me in,” Dina started. “I think we could make it work if you want to sneak away during the reprise.”
Sahar nodded. “Maybe we could have Willa step in just for the choreography part of it? She won’t be in costume, but we’d have one less ensemble member.”
“Willa could still probably make the ensemble bit work anyway because you four leave the stage during their solos. Someone get her in here. Willa,” Dina bellowed.
It was convenient that Ethan’s dressing room was right next to Sam’s because if she were in it, she’d hear.
“Wait, who called me?” Sahar heard Willa's voice from the hallway.
Dina popped her head out of the door. “We’re in Sam’s dressing room.”
“What’s up?” Willa said, walking in.
“We need to have Sahar sit out of the final reprise. Do you think it’s possible for you to quickly step in as her—stay in costume, we have to make do, and then step back out for the ensemble solo.”
Willa’s head cocked toward Sahar’s on the sofa. She had every inkling of what was now happening, and Sahar knew her well enough to understand the depth of concern appearing on her face. “Yeah, I think that’s possible. I’ll just have to fill Miles in, and we’re set.”
Sahar groaned and leaned her head back. She hated herself for this. In an effort not to make things difficult, she managed to add ten times more trouble. Their voices disappeared in the background for a beat before Willa stepped beside her. “I had a feeling something was off with you. I wanted to ask, but I thought maybe it was an emotional thing you didn’t want to talk about. How are you feeling?”
“Like shit for countless reasons,” Sahar answered.
Willa placed her hand on Sahar’s shoulder. “Why didn’t you talk to me?”
“I didn’t think it’d get this bad. I’ve been all over the place, Wills. I hate this.”
“We’ll talk afterward, yeah?”
“Yeah.”
Readying herself to go back on stage, Willa smiled and walked off.
The duration of the show was all a blur. Sahar thanked every lucky star looking out for her that she had the type of friends who immediately worked around her blunder and made everything possible. She just hoped that whatever came out of this wouldn’t be too bad.
She couldn’t deal with that. Not now.
Sahar was supposedto stay off her ankle until Sunday.
Fuck everything.She would be missing three days of work and four shows. How could she have allowed a small irritation to get thisbad? She and Willa spent over two hours at the emergency room last night until the doctors determined that it was a bad flare-up and thankfully, nothing more serious.
Ethan had picked them up and dropped them off at home, and Sahar spent the entire night moping. She hated every part of this. Willa had also advised her not to play any video games because Sahar was susceptible to kicking and stomping when she got frustrated.Cool, great.
What on earth was she supposed to do for three whole days? Four, technically, if she counted Monday.
She took about five naps, foot elevated and all, and that passed some time in the morning. Maybe she could play a crossword or word search; those didn’t make her angry often. Sahar searched for one on her phone.
