She Will Be Loved- Ben Tyler Cook

Chapter 47

Kasey's POV

January 9, 2020

I put in my last pin curl, and then looked at the mirror and smiled. I missed putting pin curls in my hair every night- which is something I never thought I'd say about such a tedious process. But I had missed this type of performing, I missed everything about it. I missed pin curls, putting on costumes, mic checks, listening to the orchestra rehearse, and so much more. Tonight was opening night for Moulin Rouge, and it was hard to believe that I was finally making a broadway debut. I'd been able to see so many of my friends make theirs, and now it was finally my turn. Ben couldn't come to watch because of West Side Story previews, but I knew that Josh, Dan, Casey and many of our other friends were sitting in the audience.

As our hair stylist started to carefully put on my wig, I went on Instagram. Many of my friends had made posts wishing me luck for my opening night, and I went through and liked and reposted some. I decided to check my tagged photos, which I hadn't done in awhile. I was so lucky to have so many amazing people supporting me and I tried to reply to as many posts and messages as I could, but there was always the occasional rude comment or hateful post that was hard to see. Tonight, I saw many sweet posts of people telling me to "break a leg", and I made sure to comment on almost all of them.

"Break a leg Kasey!! So excited to see you kill it on broadway🤩"

"Can't wait to see Moulin Rouge at some point!! Happy opening and happy broadway debut to Kasey☺️"

"Feels like yesterday she was just Young Katherine :,) miss it but so proud of our girl!!"

Again, I was so lucky to have such amazing people support me. I didn't quite feel deserving of all the support, I don't think I'd ever get used to people knowing who I am. I'm verified on social media, how weird is that? I still felt like such an average person. I don't know what I did right to make the universe shine down on me about 6 years ago when I got cast into Newsies, but I was forever thankful for the career I get to have and for all the dreams that have turned into reality.

I continued scrolling through my tagged photos, and I saw a photo of Ben and I together. It was an old photo, taken sometime on tour together. I hesitated before clicking on it and reading the caption.

"ben and kasey haven't posted anything together in awhile :( i sure hope they're okay bc they've been together for so long. do y'all think they broke up??"

I knew I shouldn't look at the comments, but I was too curious and I clicked on the comment section and read the whole thread.

"I think they did :(( i wonder what happened"

"maybe they just want to keep their relationship more private, y'all gotta stop assuming things"

"why do i low-key feel like kasey cheated or something i just feel like she'd do that"

"i feel like they've just fallen out of love"

"no i feel like ben cheated. kasey would never and i feel like she cares about him more"

"i doubt either of them cheated lmao. things just don't work sometimes"

"didn't ben make an opening night post for kasey today? i think they're fine tbh"

"omg noooo don't break my newsies heart"

I turned off my phone and put it on the counter, and sighed. Yeah, I shouldn't have clicked on the post. It's never fun to read about people assuming things about your life on the internet. That's all that it was, assumptions. But I couldn't help but think about how even fan accounts could notice something was off with us. Have things really gotten this bad? I need to stop letting internet comments get to me. It didn't matter what anyone thought of me, I reminded myself. Ben and I were okay, for now. That last fight had been big. But we were okay I think. My wig was finally on and I stood up, straightening out my costume and making sure my makeup was perfect in the mirror.