In Love With Alex Brightman

chapter eight

September 29, 2018 [Saturday]
•30 weeks left•

When I got back home the day of callbacks, I immediately attacked Katie with the news. She screamed so loud, I thought the neighbors would knock on the door in curiosity. She tackled me to the floor and strangled me in a hug. We both rolled around, sobbing in laughter. Katie was definitely more excited than I was.

I FaceTimed Rory and told him everything. He was at work, so he went into the bathroom because his office was shared with three other snobby employees. He had to cover his mouth as he gasped into the phone. I would say he almost freaked out as much as Katie in the small stall he was in. He said he'd come back to visit soon so he could give me a proper hug and kiss in congratulations.

That night, Katie and I celebrated with a nice dinner and movie night. We watched Beetlejuice and I started to pick up some things from it. I had no idea how the show was going to portray the iconic movie, but I trusted them. I was a big fan of Winona Ryder and I loved her in all her movies. She played Lydia like a piece of cake and I was very excited to show I could do the same.

Throughout the rest of the week, Alex and I got closer. We had lunch a few times and it was so much fun. Alex was just a total sweetheart and an amazing person to be around. I introduced him to Katie the previous day and they both got along well. She whispered in my ear that he was in her approval, which made me elbow her in the side. She just snickered while wiggling her eyebrows at me.

We ended up talking about NYU, which all three of us attended at. Alex still had his hoodie, but it was somewhere lost in his closet. He told me he'd look for it though so we could match. And that earned me a sharp elbow in my back from Katie. But I didn't need to ask her what it was for because I already knew.

And actually, Katie and I already had matching NYU hoodies. But because we were the same size, we kind of mixed up who's was who. So, we just wear whichever's.

Not by any surprise, Katie, Alex, and I all majored in theater. Alex took the same classes as us—though not at the same time. I kept thinking about how nice it would have been if I had met Alex while in college. And, though he wouldn't have been replaced, Rory would have felt even more excluded because he wasn't interested in what the three of us were. He was the wake-up call that Katie and I weren't living in a Broadway show twenty four seven. We needed him.

"Wait, so what happened when he casted the lead role?" Alex asked, clearly interested in the story Katie was telling. It was a classic, and almost everyone she knew had heard of it.

"So, we all pretty much assumed that this girl, Callie, would get the lead role because she always did, but when our professor got to the main character's sister, her name was called. We were all a little confused, and Callie looked furious," she laughed as she thought back to Callie's beat red face.

"I remember that too, I went to check up on her after class. She had me worried, never seen her so mad," I chimed in. Both Alex and Katie awed at my kind heart.

Katie continued her story. "So then, the last character he casted was the main girl and when he read off who got the part, for some reason, he called me. I got the leading role. I even asked my professor if he said the wrong name on accident," Katie exclaimed.

"No way! And you didn't even audition for it, right?" Alex gasped. She shook her head and shrugged. "Wow, if only it was that easy to be casted."

Katie nodded in agreement. "He told me that the part was pretty much made for me, it was amazing. It actually makes me miss college and all those performances. We did a lot."

"Yeah, I remember when we had shows lined up back to back. The only breaks we got were the holidays," Alex sighed. "But it was definitely fun, I'd go back and do it all over again."