𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐒𝐘 - 𝐡𝐬𝐦𝐭𝐦𝐭𝐬 | ✔

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ 𝒙𝒙𝒊𝒊𝒊. 𝐰𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐲-𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞
━━ 𝒘𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒇𝒖𝒍 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒏𝒆𝒓

She slept like a baby the whole night, ignoring any message or call that arrived to her phone and, the next day, E.J. picked her up and offered her coffee and a muffin, to make sure that she ate breakfast before the hard day that lay ahead of them.

But, of course, things could not remain like this for long and, as soon as they arrived to the school, she stumbled into Ricky.

"Please, listen to me," he pleaded, taking her arm to stop her. Juliette, about to tell him to leave her alone, looked over at E.J. and decided to follow the same advice he had given her some weeks ago: confront him.

"No, you listen to me. You had told me everything was going to be okay and I believed you. You kissed me and you made me think you could actually like me and I believed you. I let myself fall for you. And I know that I have absolutely no right to say anything because we were never a couple but I don't think this is fair."

"I like you, Juliette and yesterday, I was not going to kiss her, I swear."

"Ricky, let's be honest. You like Nini. It has been clear since the first minute you step through that door at auditions and sang the same song she had written for you. And I am not Nini nor I can be but I would have appreciated if you had told me that you still wanted to be with her instead of giving me hopes, I wish that you would have thought this through before I went and fell for you. You knew I liked you and you took advantage of that," she let out without stopping to even think. She needed to get everything off her chest before she doubted herself again, "would you have told me? About the kiss?"

"Of course I would, Juliette please..." he continued talking, but the girl's red hair was nowhere to be seen anymore.

"Look, Ricky. Let her be. I have seen her crushed because of you two times already. And that is two times too many. This poor girl does not deserve that."

"Why are you suddenly so defensive over her?"

The senior scoffed, looking directly at the other boy and stopped to think before answering, "Because I, unlike you, know that she deserves better."

—

The backstage was crazy. Everyone was running around and nobody knew what to do. They were like chickens without head.

"Can somebody help me run my lines?"

"I need a pin here!"

"Is my make-up okay?"

Carlos then, took Juliette by the arm and literally dragged her to another room, "I need you!"

"What happened!?"

"I need you to dance."

"What are you talking about, Carlos?" she asked, not understanding a single word.

"And maybe sing. One of our dancers for Stick to the Status Quo has twisted her ankle. Please fill in for her."

Juliette did not know what to say and she started stuttering before she could even utter a sentence, "Are you mad?"

"I know for a fact that you can sing and dance. Please help us, you can literally save this show," he begged. She was sure that a dancer was completely prescindible but Carlos was asking her for a reason so she did not have another choice but to accept.

From that moment on, she stopped being the "art girl" and transformed into "a stressed art girl trying to learn a dance in less than half an hour to do it in front of the whole school". And let me tell you, that did not go well.

By the time she entered the dressing room, Miss Jenn was asking for all of them to gather around and think of a word or phrase from the show to express where their head was at those moments, or their goals for that very night. At first, some members remained behind, but Miss Jenn prompted them to join the cirle. They had worked in the show as well and today's success was theirs too.

"You're my guys and this is our team," Big Red started.

"What if you wanna try something really new, and it's a total disaster and all your friends laugh at you?"

"Do you ever feel like there's this whole other person inside of you just looking for a way to come out?"

And one by one, all the members there put their quotes forward, including Juliette: "The stage can be a wonderful partner in the process of self-discovery."

"And I'll just say, no matter what happens tonight, we're all in this together," Miss Jenn tried to calm them, "Okay, Wildcats, take a moment to settle your nerves. If we had a curtain, it would be up in 20 minutes!"

Everyone spread around again and Nini, as she always did before every production she had participated in, went around handing little gifts to the whole tech crowd and art club. She even approached Juliette, although at first she was not sure about it.

"I get that... maybe you don't want to talk to me but I made you this," she gave her a little card and look at the redhead with a sad smile, "I am so sorry, Juliette, really."

"It's okay, Nini. Ricky and I... I'd rather not talk about it, okay? Thanks for the card, it's sweet," she returned the smile and Nini, after caressing her shoulder softly, continued her round. She could not help but smile at the cute text in the little coloured paper and, little did she know, but there was a boy in the other side of the room that could not take his eyes off of her.