It Had to Be You

thirty six

"I WANT to thank everyone for coming out tonight," Schneider spoke into the microphone, her smile blinding against the stage lights, "and for supporting our theatre. These kids behind me put in a lot of hard-work and hours to make tonight a success. And that was on top of all their schooling responsibilities. On Sunday, we're going to recognize our talented seniors that we're sad to be letting go. But I'm going to save those sappy speeches for later." The crowd laughed. "We hope to see you all again in our Spring musical. Thank you all again for coming out tonight. Have a great night!"

Like a herd of elephants, we bustled off the stage and through the stage door. We raced one another down the hallway to claim our spots for greeting the audience, puffing and out of breath from the added exercise.

"You know," Hadley panted from beside me, "why doesn't Schneider add in her speech, hey, wait a moment before you leave so our cast can get ready to come meet you? Because now I'm even more of a sweaty mess."

I pushed onto my toes, struggling to see over the heads of audience members as they burst from the auditorium. "Do you think Adrian knows to come out here? He probably doesn't. I should go find him."

Hadley's hand gripped my wrist before I had the chance to escape. "Whoa. Slow your role, girl. This is your moment. Own it." she graced me with a blinding smile. "Adrian will still be there when this is all over."

Will he?

Hadley and I stood side by side, smiling as random people congratulated us on our performance. My cheeks hurt from all the smiles. And as the line started to reach its end, my smile deflated.

And then, my dad stepped out of the auditorium.

Followed by my mom and...

Shane!

Sidestepping the old lady that's set to criticizing Hadley for her cringey character portrayal, in which Hadley's had to say three times now that her character was meant to be cringey, I bypassed my parents and threw my arms around my older brother. His deep laugh rumbled in my ear as he squeezed his arms around me.

After one final squeeze, I pulled back and sacked a punch right into his arm.

"Ow," he recoiled immediately, "what the fuck was that for?"

"For giving me complete radio silence these past two years and then you didn't even tell me that you were coming to my show." I punched him again. "What is wrong with you?"

While Shane and I were never close growing up, once I passed through my annoying pre-teen days and he got over his too-cool-to-hang-with-his-little-sister mantra, the final two years he lived at home, we became best friends.

And now, I get it. Our parents were complete assholes that only cared about their self-image. I get that. But that didn't mean he had to shut me out, too.

"I know I've sucked at my older brother duties. Leave it to you to remind me of it. But it's your senior year and I took a couple of more days off for Thanksgiving break to fly out here for you." He glanced at our parents over his shoulder. "But I'm not staying at home. I'm crashing at a buddy's house"

"Fine," mom said nonchalantly as she adjusted her jacket on her arm, "you know we turned your bedroom into a home gym when you left, anyway."

Lies. His room hasn't been touched.

I turned to face my parents. "Did you know he was coming?"