Page 39 of Unspoken Words
We stopped at our lockers, which were two rows apart, and both consecutively opened the doors, placing our books inside. “Yeah, I’m fine. Sorry. Just got a lot on my mind.”
“Anything I can help with?”
“No. But thanks.” I grabbed my bag and closed the door, the metal slamming no matter how hard I tried not to slam it. “I gotta go. I’m not catching the bus home, so I’ll see you tonight, okay?”
“Oh. Sure. Okay. Bye, Connor.”
Lilah waved, so I waved back and turned away, jogging along the corridor and dodging students as I made my way out of the building. I had a bunch of flowers to buy my talented and very sexy girlfriend for her first school production.
*
“Tristan is Doody?”I nearlyyelled, as the opening scenes to the production unfolded.
“Yeah. Hilarious, isn’t it?” Lilah tossed a piece of popcorn into her mouth then tilted the box toward me. “You want any?”
I shook my head, my heart somewhere lodged in my throat. I was furious. Why the hell hadn’t Ellie told me Tristan was her boyfriend in the play?Fuck! Do Frenchy and Doody have a kissing scene?I racked my brain, trying to recall scenes from the movieGreasewhile they sang and danced to “Summer Nights” on stage.
Lilah and her mum had taken the last two seats in the row Ellie’s family and I were seated in, and while I tried to pretend I was glad to be there, to see Ellie perform something she’d practised for months and months, I wasn’t glad. I felt sick to my stomach, and I was pissed that she’d deliberately kept Tristan’s involvement a secret. It was very unlike her.
“If you tell anyone what I’m about to tell you …” Lilah said, lowering her voice and popping another mouthful of popcorn into her mouth, “I’ll kill you.”
“Then maybe you shouldn’t tell me,” I mumbled, my focus fixed on Ellie.
“Well, that wouldn’t be much fun then, would it?”
“Maybe not for you.”
She laughed quietly then continued. “Sooooo, ever since watchingGreasefor the first time when I was younger, I’ve always wanted to be a Pink Lady.”
I scoffed. “Yeah, you and every other girl in the world.”
Every other girl except my Ellie; she was different. She didn’t follow what ‘every other girl’ in the world did. She had her own thoughts, wants, and goals. She’d told me she auditioned for the role of Frenchy because Frenchy wanted more than to wear a pink jacket and play follow-the-stupid-leader, and that’s what she’d liked most about her character. She’d also said that Frenchy got to wear lots of different coloured wigs, which had made me laugh.
“Well, I really only wanted to wear the jacket. The jacket is cool.”
I gave Lilah a nod and half-smiled then sat back in my seat and watched the entire production. Ellie nailed her bubblegum blowing scene—something she’d worried she’d stuff up—and every other scene she was a part of. She and Tristan also ‘nailed’ their dancing scene, his hands on her waist, hers on his shoulders. It made me cringe. In fact, every scene they were in together made me cringe. The only time I didn’t cringe was during the song that Ellie wrote. Hearing her words sung by the entire cast at the end gave me goosebumps, and I couldn’t have been prouder.
Ellie had written the lyrics on her own, and I’d even found myself trying to apply them to song, because I couldn’t help it. I just loved mixing her words with my music and making it our own. It was one of the things that had brought us together in the beginning.
Humming my own tune as the cast closed the song, I smiled at Ellie’s powerful presence on stage. She’d worked so hard, and despite Tristan’s involvement, I couldn’t wait to tell her just how proud I was. There had to be a logical explanation as to why she’d kept me out of the loop.
The curtain fell, and I shot to my feet, applauding with the rest of the audience.
“She was so good.” Mrs Mitchell sobbed, her hands clapping faster than a flapping sail in the wind.
“I can’t believe it,” Mrs Perez said, her eyes wide. She turned to her daughter and shook her head. “I didn’t know your brother could dance.”
Lilah laughed. “Neither did I.”
Yeah, that makes three of us.
The curtains lifted once again, the applause continuing. I scanned the stage in search of Ellie, my eyes finding her in Tristan’s arms, both of them hugging with enormous smiles on their faces. My heart wrenched within my chest and I swallowed what felt like a rock; they looked so happy … and close.
Closer than I thought they were.
“Connor.” Lilah leaned into me, her lips at my ear. “I didn’t want to say anything, but I think Tristan likes Ellie more than he should.” She pulled away and collected her cardigan from her seat.
Her admission stunned me, and I almost didn’t reply as she started walking to toward the exit. “Wait! What makes you say that?” I asked, jogging to catch up to her and Mrs Perez.
