Grabbing my purse from my seat, I hold back tears and don’t bother sitting to watch any more actors. I can’t bear to see them get an actual reaction.
Walking right through the rear doors, I rush to the lobby, right into something warm.
“Where the hell do you think you’re going?” Jeneva wraps her arms around me.
“Home,” I say. “I don’t want to cry in public.”
“Huh?” She squeezes me hard before letting me go. “Cry about what?”
“I just bombed again,” I say. “I need to process it.”
“No, you fucking killed it.” She smiles. “So much so that I’m going to change my audition request to a minor role instead of a lead.”
“If I was so good, why was everyone so quiet?”
“Because you literally stole the oxygen out of the room,” she says. “With both parts. I think the judges chose you after two sentences.”
“I don’t believe that.”
“I’ll believe it for you.” She laughs. “See you back on campus later. Drinks on me, okay?”
She rushes back into the auditorium before I can answer.
I pull out my phone and scroll through my contacts, wanting to share the news with someone, but Jameson is the only person who comes to mind.
Ugh…
“Scarlett?” A familiar high-pitched voice calls out to me from behind. “Is that you?”
“Mom?”I turn around, and my stomach immediately drops to the floor. My heart resumes its breakout plan.
Looking like every bit of a wealthy woman with no worries, she’s picture perfect in a cream-colored pea coat and nude stilettos. Flipping her sleek brown hair over her shoulders, she strolls towards me with pursed lips.
“Um, hi.” I stammer. “What are you doing here?”
“I should be asking you the same thing.” She looks me up and down. “What areyoudoing here?”
“I’m just supporting a friend,” I say. “It’s audition day for her.”
“Forher?” She narrows her eyes. “I could’ve sworn it was you stepping off that stage minutes ago.”
I swallow.
I don’t have a rebuttal for that; I don’t have any cards to play for when my house of lies collapses.
But it’s not supposed to be this soon…
“So?” She tilts her head. “Do you think you’ll get this part?”
“No, I…” I refuse to believe this is happening. “I was just supporting a friend. They let strangers audition as well, and I was just up there for fun, and?—”
“Cut the shit, Scarlett.” She cuts me off. “How stupid do you think I am?”
Silence.
“I called your dorm at Harvard this morning to confirm that you’d received a birthday care package,” she says. “So imaginemy surprise when they said you’d dropped outmonths agoand chose to pursue a different path elsewhere—a path that has nothing to do with the business major that you’ve been telling your father about.”
“And not only that—” She leans forward and presses a finger against my chest. “But you left behind a friend in the library who reroutes your phone calls whenever your father and I call your room phone.”
