A Love that Endures

by Forrest, Bella

  “I don’t care,” Cassie said in a thick Southern accent, grabbing his hands even tighter. “I don’t give a damn! They can’t stop us now. Not now that we’re a family.”

  Oh, boy. If Cassie kept chewing the scenery at this rate, the stage was going to be reduced to pulp.

  “You don’t understand, my love,” David recited. “They’ll never let this happen. They’ll never let us happen. I’m the heir to a”—he hated saying this part—“coffee creamer empire. And they think you’re just poor white trash. Because they don’t know the real you.”

  Connor sniggered in his seat. For once, David completely agreed with him.

  “Well, maybe I am poor white trash,” Cassie said in her manufactured drawl, “but when I’m with you, I feel like I could be so much more. And now we have the chance to give little Derek a better life than either of us had.”

  Cassie drew one of David’s hands toward her and laid it on her totally unpregnant belly. David tried not to laugh while “little Derek” echoed in his head in Cassie’s horrible Southern inflection. Am I supposed to talk in an accent, too? That wasn’t in the script. But why does she have one if I don’t? And why the hell did she choose to make me a coffee creamer heir? Of all the things!

  After a beat, he looked up to see that Cassie’s eyes were wide, cueing David that he had forgotten a line.

  “Oh. Um.” David racked his brain to remember the dialogue. “They’ll never let me bequeath”—totally natural word to use in conversation—“their money to a girl from your side of the tracks.”

  David could already hear Mrs. Clarke’s pen scratching feverishly. She was probably preparing to constructively criticize them into outer space.

  “We don’t need the money,” Country Cassie replied, a fake sob under the surface of her voice. “All we need is each other. And they’ll have to kill me if they try to get in the way of that.”

  “But it’s not you they’re angry with,” David said in turn, cueing the coffee creamer barons to emerge from the other side of the curtain.

  Zeke and Katy plodded onto the stage, both looking a bit ridiculous in their costumes. Thankfully, their appearance meant that the end of the excruciating play was nigh.

  Of course, so was the kiss.

  David had gone ahead and memorized their lines, too, since they had so few. Katy would speak first, shrilling, “How could you?” and then Zeke would tell David that this was only going to happen over “a dead body.” To which David was supposed to say, “You mean ‘your’ dead body?” and then Zeke would deliver the king of all cheesy lines—“No, I mean yours!”—and pretend to shoot David. Cassie would give him an as-I-lay-dying kiss, and he’d promise his eternal love. Yadda yadda yadda. Terrible stuff.

  But it seemed Katy had other plans.

  “I see you’re using non-dairy creamer now, son,” Katy-as-David’s-mother said in her own hilarious, villainous drawl.

  A titter of laughter escaped the crowd. David stared for a second, trying to think of how to respond to an unscripted line, but he already felt himself catching on. Katy was turning it into a parody after all. And she needed someone to play along.

  “You always knew I was lactose-intolerant,” David replied. Suddenly, he had the accent, too. It made everything much more fun.

  Cassie looked wide-eyed between the two, but Katy winked at her and continued.

  “I know,” Katy replied in an even heavier accent. “I’ve known for years. That’s why I’ve served your breakfast cereal with heavy whipping cream since you were a little boy. I was trying to get rid of you.”

  The audience delivered a genuine peal of laughter at that line. David broke character as well, unable to repress a chuckle.

  “You’re a disgrace to the Fartmore name,” Zeke shouted at David, adding his own twist to the developing scene. His country accent was the best of all. David sputtered with laughter, looking over to see Nur in the audience, a humongous grin shaking her face.

  “And you will never inherit the Fartmore Extra-Lactose Powdered Coffee Creamer empire,” Katy finished, eliciting a roar of laughter. Even Mrs. Clarke was chuckling, her pen completely still and forgotten in her hand.

  Katy held up a finger gun and fired, shouting BANG in sync with her wrist snapping upward. David dutifully fell to the ground, trying and failing to remove the grin from his face. Had Katy and Zeke conspired to do that while they were behind the curtain? It had made the play so much better! Hopefully Cassie wouldn’t be too upset.

  But Cassie had jumped right back into the theatrics, picking up where the ad-libs left off. She dropped to her knees beside David.

  “My love,” she said in a tone of desperation, “how will I raise little Derek without you?”

  The audience laughed again, but, to her credit, Cassie kept a straight face.

  “By telling him about his father,” David said, pretending to seize and shudder. He raised one hand to the back of Cassie’s head. It was almost time.

  Cassie’s lip curled ever so slightly in the beginning of a smile. David just had one line left now, and then he would have to kiss Cassie and die. He had rehearsed it a million times. He knew it by heart. This play was in the bag.

  “I love you, Katy.”

  What?

  Cassie’s eyes narrowed in confusion. The laughter in the audience had been replaced by complete and utter silence. Suddenly, David could only focus on the heat from the spotlight and the roar of his own pulse in his ears.

  I love you, darling! That was the line! DARLING!

  David was frozen, half in shock and half in disgrace. He stared at Cassie wide-eyed, unwilling to look at anyone else, even if he’d wanted to turn his head and break character. He couldn’t bear to even think about what Katy’s face looked like right now. What would she think of his little slip? That he was insane? Or just completely pathetic?

  David took a deep breath and did the only thing he could. He had to end the play somehow. He pulled Cassie down and kissed her, mashing his lips against hers with absolutely no romance and no pleasure. If anything, he was trying to hide behind her face. But Cassie seemed to feel otherwise. Even after all that, after his humiliating admission, she seemed thrilled with the turn of events. She ran both of her hands into his hair and somehow managed to pull his entire torso up to press against herself. David hung limply in her arms, wishing he was as lucky as his alter-ego. David Fartmore was dead and wouldn’t have to face Katy after this. But the real David . . .

  How could this get any worse?

  As the kiss went on for long, painful seconds, David ventured a glance over toward Katy, peeking through half-lidded eyes. She was standing in utter defeat, her arms hanging limply by her sides, all of the fun of their ad-libbing totally sucked away.

  That was how.

  31

  Katy

  Did he just say that he loves me?

  Katy stared, her eyes wide and jaw slack. She didn’t have a single ounce of willpower left to stay in character. David had just said her name. Right? Surely that hadn’t been some sort of auditory hallucination. Even Cassie had looked shocked afterward!

  For just a moment, when he’d said it, her heart had filled to the brim with excitement and joy. Just how accidental could a slip-up like that be? Did it mean that he had been thinking it? Or had it just been a simple mistake? Either way, her pulse was thundering in her chest, an electric shock tingling up her limbs.

  That joy had lasted for all of about three seconds. Or as long as it took for David to grab Cassie and kiss her.

  Katy watched David and Cassie’s embrace, helpless to stop the rush of emotions and thoughts that poured roaring through her brain. David had told her himself that he wasn’t interested in Cassie. And Katy had known going into this project that the kiss was going to happen. She thought that she’d mostly come to terms with it.

  But seeing Cassie and David lip-locked, Katy was no longer as confident and collected as she had felt even just a moment ago, hearing David accidentally
use her name in his lines. It was like the kiss had set off a powder keg inside her chest. If Katy hadn’t been totally sure that she was falling for David before, she was now. She liked David. A lot. And she didn’t want to put her feelings aside to make her cousin comfortable anymore, especially if her silence was stopping Cassie from finding someone else—someone who would actually be interested in her. She had to tell Cassie how she felt.

  At that moment, David’s eyes flickered her way, meeting her miserable gaze. Had she been thinking straight, Katy might’ve smiled or winked at him to prove that it was no big deal, that she could separate fiction from reality. But all she could do was stare back at him.

  The staged kiss probably only lasted a few seconds, but it felt like it went on for hours. And when it was over, the audience erupted into applause.

  Cassie stood and offered David her hand. When they were both on their feet, Cassie still grasping his hand, she bowed, and David went down with her. Zeke reached over to grab Katy’s hand and followed suit. Katy bent her back without thinking, her mind still replaying the kiss.

  “That was a great idea,” Zeke whispered when they rose. “Made the play a million times better.”

  Katy nodded. And that was another problem. She hoped that Cassie wasn’t offended by the added improv, but, honestly, Katy had just wanted to add something—anything!—to the project. The drama club was her passion. She’d wanted to be more involved in the final project.

  And maybe a little part of her had done it so she could soften the blow of the scripted kiss by making it funnier and a little less cloying and sentimental. Not that it had worked much.

  Cassie began to walk out into the audience, still leading David by the hand. Katy and Zeke followed.

  “Very funny!” Mrs. Clarke said when they stepped off the stage.

  “Thanks,” Cassie replied with a smile.

  Okay, good. Maybe she didn’t mind Katy’s script tweaks.

  Before Cassie could lead David into a row of auditorium seating so the drama club could conclude the meeting, she turned to face him. Katy’s heart clenched in her chest. What was coming now? A lingering hug? Or was Cassie going to go in for a sincere kiss? Katy couldn’t bear to watch.

  But before she could turn away, she noticed that David had finally dropped Cassie’s hand. She watched as he simply offered Cassie a curt nod and then turned to face . . . her. Katy felt her jaw hanging slack in surprise as David walked over to her, a bounce in his step and a bright smile on his face, and then pulled her into a hug.

  And it wasn’t just any hug. When David grabbed her, he literally lifted her off her feet, effortlessly lifting her chest up against his, bringing her face up closer to his. And even when her feet touched the floor again, David was still hugging her, his arms warm and comforting around her waist. After a few moments of giggling shock, Katy wrapped her arms around David’s neck, closed her eyes, and finally allowed herself to completely dissolve into their embrace. It was exactly where she wanted to be. And the longer he held her, the more that the image of him pressed against Cassie melted away.

  But when Katy opened her eyes, her cousin was there. She was still standing beside the row of auditorium seats—where just seconds ago she had been leading David by the hand—and she was staring at Katy with a look of hurt, embarrassment, and dejection. Katy’s heart sank, and regret crept over her. She had betrayed her best friend. And not only that, she had possibly broken her heart.

  As guilt washed over Katy, something changed in Cassie’s face. Just for a moment, her soft, miserable frown hardened, and her eyes narrowed, not just in sorrow, but in . . . was that anger?

  The guilt building in Katy’s chest went cold, and an involuntary flicker of fear took its place. What if Cassie ended up hating her? And, well, who could blame her if she did? But, almost as quickly as it had appeared, the look vanished from her cousin’s eyes, and then it was just ordinary Cassie standing there again, looking wounded and a bit confused.

  David pulled away at last, completely oblivious to whatever Katy had just witnessed.

  “That was hilarious! Did you and Zeke come up with that?”

  Katy smiled humbly as Zeke appeared beside them.

  “It was mostly Katy,” he admitted. “But how about my accent? Pretty convincing, eh?”

  Katy forced a chuckle while the boys shared a heartier laugh, but she was too bothered by the unspoken conversation that had transpired between herself and Cassie to feel genuine joy. They would have to have the conversation about David now. And Katy didn’t like the way it was heading.

  She looked back at Cassie, whose expression was blank now, and took a few slow steps toward her, leaving the boys to chat behind her. Cassie’s face shifted again, this time into a smile, but Katy wondered how much of it was forced.

  “Cassie, I’m sorry about the improv,” Katy started.

  But Cassie held her hand up. “Don’t be. It was great!”

  Katy exhaled, relieved by the change of tone. But still . . . it seemed a little too quick to be genuine. Was Cassie just burying her feelings to make things less awkward? She couldn’t be sure, especially after she had just witnessed the intensity of her cousin’s stare.

  It was time to unburden herself of her guilt and anxiety over David. Cassie had to know.

  “And,” Katy started again. But she was thwarted a second time when Cassie interrupted.

  “Katy . . . I’m starting to think that David has a thing for you,” she said.

  Katy’s eyes widened. “Oh,” she replied, feeling stupid. What could she say to that? She’d been hoping to start the conversation with an admittance, not respond to Cassie’s conjecture.

  “Do you like him, too?” Cassie went on. Her smile stayed put, but her eyes were wide and emotionless in a way that made Katy feel uneasy. There was a pain there that Cassie was trying not to acknowledge.

  “I don’t know,” Katy replied. “Maybe.” It was a half-lie, sure, but it was a start. “Is . . . Is that okay?”

  Cassie paused. She looked down for a few long seconds, as if she was contemplating her response. “I do really like him. I don’t think he feels the same.”

  Katy stood still and quiet, trying to keep her hands from fidgeting at her sides. Anxiety clenched at her insides.

  Cassie looked up at Katy, her eyes softer. “But I’d never want to get in the way of what makes him, or especially you, happy.” Slowly, painfully, a weak smile overtook the one that she had only worn for politeness moments ago. Katy’s heart went out, knowing that Cassie was hurting. But her cousin’s eventual response surprised Katy. “I think you should go for it.”

  “Are you sure?” Katy clarified, her voice growing slightly stronger. She knew that Cassie was feeling rejected right now, and maybe even angry and betrayed. And rightfully so. But Katy did like David. So much. It was undeniable. If Cassie could get over the initial shock and process her feelings, maybe she could understand. “I know that you really liked him, and I don’t want to compromise us for someone else. Friends and family should always come first.” Katy meant that. If Cassie asked her not to see David, she would swallow hard and agree. As hard as it would be.

  “Katy, honey,” Cassie replied quickly, wrapping an arm lovingly around her. “You could never compromise our friendship. After everything we’ve been through together, after how long we’ve known each other . . . Well, if you and David are a thing, then I am nothing but supportive!”

  “Oh, Cassie,” Katy said, breathing out in limp-limbed relief. She grabbed her cousin, crushing her in a tight hug. She had been such a terrible friend for cavorting around with David behind Cassie’s back. Even if nothing physical had happened, Katy still felt so guilty for not being forthcoming about her whereabouts and her feelings from the beginning. She should’ve known that Cassie would be willing to talk through things reasonably, that she would consider Katy and David’s best interests, too. But while Katy was flooded with shame, this time there was also a tinge of relief and excitement
. She was finally free.

  If David was even interested. Katy—and apparently, now, even Cassie—thought that he was, but even if that were true, he didn’t know just how hard dating a princess would be. Would that change things?

  As Katy pulled away from her cousin, she realized that there would be time to think about the details later. For now, she was just grateful for the opportunity to even consider David as more than a friend. And grateful that she could be honest with her best friend again.

  “But do you think things will work when he doesn’t even know your true identity?” Cassie asked.

  Well, not completely honest yet. But it didn’t feel like a good time to bring up the rest of it. Luckily, Zeke and David walked over and saved Katy from having to outright lie again.

  “Awesome job, guys!” David said.

  “Yes, well done,” Mrs. Clarke said over them from her spot at the front of the stage, bringing Katy back to reality with a snap. Obediently, they all sat together to finish the club meeting. And, for once, Katy got to sit beside David. She was practically giddy at the turn of events.

  After two more mini plays—both of them fair one-act dramas—it was at last time for the meeting to adjourn.

  “That’s all for this semester,” Mrs. Clarke said in a booming, formal voice. “But I hope to see you back next semester. Until then.”

  Mrs. Clarke offered a bow, and the students applauded her dutifully. Katy clapped along. Although her instructor may not have always been the most tactful, Katy nonetheless respected her. And she had really enjoyed the club.

  As the last smatterings of applause died down, people began to file out of the auditorium. Cassie, Katy, David, and Zeke stood and made their way to the back. But they stopped together as a group once they got outside.

  “Thanks for writing the play,” David said to Cassie.

  “Well, thank you guys for inserting a little fun into it. Definitely made us stand out!” Cassie replied cheerfully. Katy noticed that she had already shifted from flirty to platonic. What an amazing, supportive friend.