Laugh Until You Cry

14 Talking

Two weeks go by and nothing gets easier. If anything, it gets much worse by the way that everybody gets so cheery for Christmas. In the middle of December, Santa Clause always visits on the weekend (he’s just some football player from the normal high school (OHS) that visits dressed as Santa Clause and then he gets laid) and it’s stupid but everybody still gets pretty excited about it. Not only is the idea of Christmas getting people excited, but the fact that we’re just one week away from winter break is what’s really getting everybody going. Two and a half weeks of no classes, no early mornings, no anything.

The only thing to stress about now is the winter show, which is a recital-type thing that we do on the Friday before break starts and it’s open to the public even though mostly just parents and college scouts show up. It’s not really a big thing to stress about, so the excitement of the break and the holidays are way more permeating and annoying than the stress.

As for Andrew and Charlotte, I haven’t seen them talking at all, which is nice, but Charlotte does glare at me every chance that she gets. It’s pretty annoying, but I guess I can deal with it. I don’t really care about her as long as she’s not talking to Andrew. I know that sounds ridiculous and unfair considering we’re broken up but that doesn’t mean that I want to see him with anybody else. At least not anytime soon. I haven’t talked to Andrew either, but we do glance at each other every once in a while and Brian keeps me updated on him even though there’s really not that much to be updated about. He got accepted to a few colleges, he’s going home for Christmas, he still talks about me. That’s about it.

And I wonder if Brian tells him about me. I wonder what he tells him, even though there’s really nothing going on in my life. I signed up for my dorm in Julliard. I talked to my mom. I still wake up in the middle of the night, crying for Andrew like a little kid waking up from a nightmare and crying for their mother. Then again, nobody really knows about that one except for the people on either side of my dorm who probably hear me crying and/or screaming.

“So the Santa this year is a junior from OHS,” Mason informs me on Friday- just one more week until winter break.

“People here really get into Santa coming?” Sienna wonders with a small laugh.

I nod but I haven’t been in much of a talkative mood lately, so I let Mason explain. “It’s pretty funny because it’s a different person every year and we hardly ever have any contact with OHS- it’s kind of a rivalry of sorts- and this guy is almost always either a little high or a little drunk but not too much to where he attracts the attention of the teachers or anything. So then he goes around hitting on girls- ‘do you wanna sit on my lap’- type of things and it’s all in good fun, it’s not harassing or anything. And then eventually, one of the girls will go with him and then ho ho ho.”

“Wow. That’s kind of weird,” She says. We’re sitting down in the food court for dinner while the guys are hanging out with each other. After we have dinner though, Sienna is going to go spend the weekend with Penn and then I’ll probably be stuck having a movie marathon by myself if Mason goes off with Brian like she does on weekends. It’s not like I’m mad about that or anything- just because I’m not in a relationship doesn’t mean that my friends shouldn’t be happy in their relationships- but it just sucks being alone all of the time. I didn’t really realize how much time I spent with Andrew until I had to start spending my time avoiding him.

“It’s really weird,” I add to the conversation. “But it’s just one of those stupid traditions that everyone insists that we keep doing.”

“I think it’s cute,” Mason shrugs.

“Well, I think it’ll be interesting to see,” Sienna chuckles with a mouthful of macaroni and cheese.

“Speaking of interesting, I have practice until four tomorrow for that holiday show next weekend,” Mason pipes, changing the subject a little bit. The winter show has a bunch of different acts because it’s not like they could fit our whole school onto the stage at once but it’s a required show, so everyone has to participate on stage. They have different acts and different types of music that people can dance to so the show tells an actual story. Mason and Sienna are doing lyrical but they’re two different lyrical parts, so they don’t practice together, and then I’m doing jazz just because I’m not too good at jazz and I like to challenge myself. Each instructor at the school is assigned a different dance and then we all are assigned extra hours outside of school to work on it. I’ve had rehearsals all week after school and stuff but luckily, we get tomorrow off but we’re rehearsing all day on Sunday.