A Play Can Change Your Life

A Friend in the Most Unusual of Places

It was only five minutes into the first act and Chrys already wanted to leave, but she made a promise to herself and Jace to look for him in this act. If he wasn’t in the play in the next ten minutes, regardless of what she said, she was going to have to get up and leave. She didn’t know where she was going to go. Daisy was asleep already since she had a fashion show early in the morning; she was her only real friend. If she called any of the girls she danced with they’d most likely be up, but they live with their boyfriends. And she most definitely didn’t want to call the cabbie; he gave her the creeps. She’d go to a motel but she barely had enough for a burrito at Taco Bell. She sighed and looked up. She gave a small smile; Jace was up there. She almost gave a small laugh when she noticed that he was the murderer. She knew that his character was it by the way he was saying his lines.

She looked down and saw her left hand on top of her other. She couldn’t take it anymore; she ran out to the main lobby and into the bathroom. She went to the farthest wall and slid down the wall, not caring if her white pants got dirty, and started crying into her hands. She heard the door from the seating open and she tried to stifle her sobs until she heard the door close again and she let it all out again. She went to wipe her eye with her hand and the ring gave her a small scratch. Chrys took it off and flung it at the door not caring about anything anymore. She heard the bathroom door fling open and saw Jace come into the bathroom and walk toward her.

“Go away,” she said through her tears and buried her head in her hands.

“Nope, not until you tell me what’s wrong because you are the first person to ever run out on a Moonstar play,” he said forcefully.

“God, why are you so stubborn. Just please go away. You wouldn’t understand, it’s a girl thing. It has nothing to do with you. I said please. Plus aren’t you in this act a lot, being the killer and all,” Chrys said when she looked up still crying.

“I have a 21 year-old sister; of course I’m going to be stubborn. Besides, I told my understudy to take over. How did you know…never mind. Will you say yes or no if I guess?” Jace asked. She just shrugged her shoulders. He sat down next to her and sat like a little kid. “I take that as yes. Let’s see. Umm, pregnant?” Her eyes widened and shook her head forcefully. “Ok, good. Got that one out of the way. What else is a girl problem? Errr, period?”

“That has the same thing to do with pregnancy dolt,” she gave a small laugh between her subsiding sobs.

“Uh, right. What about friend problems?” He asked.

“Pft. Yeah right. Me and Daisy getting in a fight never happens,” Chrys scoffed.

“Fine then, boyfriend problems,” Jace questioned. Chrys remained silent. “Ah-ha. I hit the root of the problem. What’d he do?” She looked over to where the ring was. There was nothing wrong with it. He followed her gaze and saw the ring. “He was your fiancé and he broke it off,” he whispered. She nodded her head and felt the tears starting to fall again. “Why would he do that?” Jace wondered out loud.

“Because my friend cancelled on me because she found out right before that she has to work early tomorrow, so I told him to just drop me off here. He took me to another one of his art exhibit’s opening, so I told him to take me here. He slapped me and I grabbed a cab here. It was the first time he ever hurt me,” she told him.

“I’m sorry, but if it’s any consolation. I was engaged too. To my high school sweet heart as a matter of fact. She broke it off though because she thought I was in the way of her reaching her dreams. She wanted to become a singer. Last I heard or saw of her, she’s singing in bars and nobody likes her,” he laughed.

“How could you laugh about her breaking off the engagement?” Chrys asked flabbergasted.

“I look at all the good things that came from it. I became more focused in my acting career. No more doing stupid things with her. I finally got my life back. Just think of the stuff that you’re able to do now that he’s gone,” Jace told her.

“Ok, let’s see no more fighting or getting yelled at. Don’t have to be dragged around to art exhibits with the same paintings everywhere. Spend more time with Daisy. Focus on dancing a bit more. More time to myself and not be dragged anywhere. But I can’t help but look at the downsides too. Like where am I gonna stay until I find an apartment, how am I gonna get to practices and where am I gonna stay for the night. My best friend is asleep and has to get up really early and the girls I dance with live with their boyfriends. I don’t have enough money for a motel room either. What am I going to do,” she cried to him.

“Well, how about this? We’ll go pick up my sister from her night class because we share a car. Then you could stay at my house until the morning and I could take you to your friend’s house. I know it sounds strange coming from someone you barely know, but you really have no other options as far as I can tell. So what do you say?” he suggested.

It’s better than the cabbie or wandering around the streets at night. “All right, but I’m warning you now get too close and I’ll scream so loud you’re ear drums will pop. Then I’ll call the cops on you. And I’m also still an emotional wreck too,” Chrys told him forcefully.

“Fair warning also. My sister’s into fashion and that’s what she’s studying actually. So don’t be surprised if she criticizes your outfit or anything and she’s also a tad bit eccentric,” Jace told her seriously. She tried to stifle a giggle, but didn’t succeed. “You think I’m kidding? Fine then you just wait til you meet her,” he scoffed.

“One question though. Why does your sister live with you?” she asked him curiously.

“Well, our parents wanted to move to Hawaii. They love the culture there. You see at the time she was a senior in high school and they wanted to leave her second week she started school and I had moved out already; I was 20. I knew she didn’t want to leave all her friends behind her senior year, so I asked her and our parents if she could just come and live with me. To be perfectly honest they seemed a bit happier when I asked though. Probably because they wanted to just live by themselves no one to look after, settle down I guess. Vi was more than ecstatic to stay here with me, she didn’t mind that I was living with my girlfriend either. She was just happy not to lose her friends. Ever since then she’s been living with me and she started her fashion dreams a couple of years ago, so she learned to mooch off me for as long as she can. Not that I mind of course. I get to spend more time with my little sis,” Jace told her thoughtfully as if remembering it the day it happened. He heard the door from the seating area open. “We should get out of here, so I don’t get trapped talking to people.” He got up and gave his hand to her and she grasped it. After she was up he walked over to where the ring was and picked it up.

“Why are you picking it up?” she asked exasperated.

“Well you can do some things to it. You could smash it to release your feelings on him. Sell it so you have a bit more money to spend. Or you can give it to him to show you’re over him,” Jace gave her a sly grin.

“Somebody thinks a bit evil. How about we just sell it? I’ll need the money soon anyways, so it’s the smartest choice of the three; although I’d really like to smash it. Oh well, I’ll lived.” Chrys walked over to him and took the ring out of his hand. “Can we go now? I really need to get out of here. Do you think after we pick up your sister we could drop by a jewelry store? I want to get rid of this thing as soon as possible,” she asked.

“Sure. I understand. This way Chrys,” he laughed and led the way out of the bathroom back to the stage area. "It's faster to go the back way so I don't get trampled by people." She raised her eyebrow. "I'm more popular than you think. Come on, I don't want to get caught by people that I work with either or they'll  start talking." He opened the back door to the parking lot.

***sorry if there's misakes but i dont have an editor so...hope you enjoy it vote comment like :D