by Mia Archer
“You ready?” someone said from behind me.
I turned and was surprised to see Courtney standing there. Sure we’d seen each other in passing. It was difficult to miss each other considering she had a supporting role as Mr. Farnsworth’s maid. No. Ms. Farnsworth’s maid.
She hadn’t said much to me though. I got the feeling she was still a little salty that I got the lead as a freshman and she, a senior, didn’t.
She was all smiles now though. And I felt a lot less nervous about her looking at me with all smiles now that I knew a little bit about the history between her and Sarah.
Now that I knew she wasn’t a threat.
“I’m as good as I’m going to be,” I said.
“Don’t worry about those opening night jitters,” she said. “Once you get out there on the stage they’re all going to melt away and you’ll feel so much better.”
I smiled. “I hope so. Thanks. Break a leg tonight.”
“Yeah, you break both of yours,” she said with a wink that said she wasn’t serious. At least I didn’t think she was entirely serious.
Maybe.
She disappeared and I closed my eyes and started reciting lines just like everyone else back here. I felt ridiculous in all this makeup caked on my face but they said it was necessary to look right under the stage lighting.
Whatever. What mattered was it was about to happen. After all the practice and preparation I was going out there onstage and this was going to be my debut. And in a lead role no less!
“Hey Chloe?”
I opened my eyes and was surprised to see Mike standing there. He still looked frazzled, but why would he be looking for me in particular?
“What’s up?” I asked. “Is something wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong, not exactly,” he said. “But there’s some guy hanging out in the halls behind the theater saying he needs to talk to you.”
I frowned. Some guy wanting to talk to me? I couldn’t think of anyone who wasn’t in the drama club who’d want to talk to me. It certainly wasn’t my dad.
Something told me he wasn’t going to take the occasion of me starring in a play to suddenly realize he wanted to take an interest in his daughter’s life.
I pushed that unpleasant thought aside though.
“The halls behind the stage?”
“Yeah,” Mike said. “Now if you’ll excuse me. There are still a hundred things I need to see to in the next twenty minutes.”
Twenty minutes. I figured that’d be plenty of time to get out there and figure out what was going on. Have a quick chat with whoever this was and then get back in time for my big debut.
I really hoped it wasn’t Craig. I hadn’t really talked to him much this year. By design. That kiss had convinced me I didn’t have any feelings for him, his attitude had convinced me I didn’t want anything to do with him, and getting with Sarah had been the perfect excuse not to be around him anymore.
It would be just like him to show up tonight of all nights trying to win me over though.
The halls behind the stage were strangely quiet. All the lights were still on and everything, but it was still really spooky without a bunch of kids going to and from classes.
That spookiness had nothing to do with why I felt my heart jumping into my chest though. No, it had everything to do with who stood there with a program in his hand looking through it with a look that only got more and more angry.
Pastor Dave looked up at me. His eyes narrowed and he shook his head in a look I’d come to recognize all too well in all the time I’d spent in the youth group.
Disappointment. Deep and abiding disappointment. The sort of disappointment that usually came right before he started yelling.
There was a time when I would’ve been terrified of seeing him looking at me like that, but that time ended a couple of months ago. At least I thought it had ended a couple of months ago. I stood up to him once, and I could do it again.
Though I wasn’t quite so sure of myself as he got closer, waving the program like it was a weapon.
“This is what you’re doing now Chloe?” he asked. “This is why you haven’t been coming to youth group? This is why you broke poor Craig’s heart?”
“Craig never had a chance with me,” I said, narrowing my eyes. “And you have no right to be here.”
He smiled a triumphant smile. “This is after school hours and there’s a play happening tonight. I can be here if I want and the sinners can’t keep me away with their laws that take God out of these institutions of learning.”
There was something in his eyes that gave me pause. Something that seemed way worse than he usually was. There was a craziness there that was unsettling. That made me want to take a step back.
“Well I don’t want you around me,” I said.
I turned to go back behind the stage, but he grabbed my arm and turned me around. His eyes burned with a fury.
“You’re turning away from God’s path and that’s only going to end in tears. You know what’s waiting for people like you.”
For people like me. The unspoken implication there was obvious. For lesbians like me.
I took a deep breath. Forced myself to meet his eyes. There was a time when the thought of meeting his eyes when he was in a fury like this would’ve terrified me.
I’d changed a lot in the months since then though. I wasn’t the same girl I was back then. I wasn’t the quiet shy thing who tried to be good. I’d learned that maybe being good was something that came from inside you and not from what other people told you.
“Go fuck yourself Pastor Dave,” I said.
His eyes went wide and he let go. Though it was more like he shoved me back as he moved down the hall. I rubbed my arm where he grabbed me. That really hurt.
“You’re a sinner and a whore for going up on stage and spreading these lies! You’ll get yours. Mark my words!”
He was still shouting as he disappeared around a corner. I waited until he was gone before I relaxed, and as soon as I relaxed the shivers started.
I looked down at my arm. There was a big red mark where he’d grabbed me. He really had manhandled me there.
A head popped out from the backstage area. I was relieved to see it was Sarah. She took one look at me standing there shaking, all my strength gone now that I didn’t have to use it to stand up to him, and she was there in a flash with her arms wrapped around me.
“What happened?” she asked.
“Pastor Dave,” I said as tears started flowing.
Damn it. This is not what I needed right now. This was going to ruin my makeup and they were going to have to go over it again.
“He was here?” she asked.
“Yeah, he…”
I couldn’t bring myself to repeat what he’d said. I couldn’t believe he would say things like that. I’d heard him yelling at people behind closed doors in his office and I knew people were always on the verge of tears when he was done yelling at them, but nobody ever talked about what was said behind those closed doors.
I was starting to understand why if that’s how he acted.
“Come on,” she whispered. “It’s going to be okay.”
“No, it’s not,” I said. “We need to find Mr. Thompson.”
It didn’t take long to find him. He was trying to get a piece of scenery back on its track. Somehow the wheel had come loose and if they didn’t get that fixed asap it was going to be difficult to do quick scene changes.
He looked up with some irritation, but that irritation turned to worry when he saw me standing there with tears streaming down my face and the makeup that had been so meticulously applied to my face streaming down.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. “What happened?”
“Her youth pastor showed up and yelled at her,” Sarah said.
Mr. Thompson’s eyes narrowed. He looked furious for some reason. Furious enough that it made me wonder if there was a Pastor Dave somewhere in his past that he was thinking about.
/> “Why would he yell at you?”
“For…” I stopped. Took a deep breath and tried to get myself under control. I hated that I was sobbing like this, but it was like it had taken all my strength to stand up to that jerk.
Thankfully Sarah was right there with a hand on my shoulder. She was the strength I needed in that moment.
“He was yelling at me for dating Sarah. For being in a play about…”
If I thought Mr. Thompson looked upset before that was nothing compared to the pure fury on his face now.
“Is he still here? Was he the one who made that mark on your arm?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “He walked back towards the auditorium screaming at me that I was a whore and I was going to hell or something.”
I couldn’t really remember exactly what he said. It all started to run together there at the end.
Mr. Thompson muttered a few things under his breath that surprised me. He had a mouth like a sailor when he wanted to. It was difficult imagining this guy who was usually so gentle, other than the week of hell blocking the play, talking like that.
“You’re going to point him out to me and we’re going to take care of this,” he said. “And we’re going to get some pictures of that arm too.”
A few minutes later we were at the back of the auditorium looking out over the place. The lights were still up so it wasn’t too difficult to make people out. And sure enough I saw the familiar blonde hair of Pastor Dave sitting towards the middle.
“That’s him,” I said, pointing.
“Right,” Mr. Thompson said. “Give me a moment.”
He moved across the auditorium silently. I watched him lean down and say a few things to Pastor Dave. Pastor Dave refused to budge. Said something that looked pretty heated. Mr. Thompson stiffened and stood back up. Walked towards the back. Walked right past us.
“Excuse me girls.”
Sarah and I looked at each other. I wasn’t sure what was going on here. Could Pastor Dave really just refuse to leave? Was Mr. Thompson going to leave it at that? Was I going to have to go through the whole play knowing he was out there glaring at me?
I wasn’t sure if I could do that. I could barely be brave enough to stand up to him for more than a couple of minutes, let alone for the duration of a two hour play.
I probably shouldn’t have worried. I mean I knew Mr. Thompson wasn’t going to leave it at that, but what my logical brain was telling me and what my gut-level reaction to everything happening was telling me were two very different things.
So it was with some relief that I saw him come back into the auditorium with a big broad-shouldered guy who was completely bald up top.
Not that I thought anyone had probably had the guts to make fun of this guy for his bald head for a good long time. No, he looked like the kind of guy who could cause some trouble.
“Come here Chloe,” he said.
I walked over, still in a daze and wondering what the heck was going on here. Mr. Thompson gently took my arm and pointed out the red mark on my arm. A red mark that was already starting to turn a little black and blue.
Well wasn’t that just great. Not only had Pastor Dave yelled at me, but he’d also left a mark on my arm right before I was supposed to go out onstage and give the performance of a lifetime.
The jerk.
The big guy’s eyes narrowed. “You got pictures of all this?”
“Yup,” Mr. Thompson said.
“Show me where he is.”
I still didn’t know who the big guy was, but he didn’t sound happy. Mr. Thompson led him down into the crowd and tapped Pastor Dave on the shoulder again. Pastor Dave looked up and seemed even more irritated, actually raising his voice to Mr. Thompson this time and drawing some attention from all the people around him.
The big guy stepped around Mr. Thompson and Pastor Dave saw him for the first time. I found myself wishing I could see whatever was going on there, because I had a feeling Pastor Dave’s reaction to seeing the big guy had to be pretty darned funny.
He was too far away for me to really see what was going on though. There was more conversation, Pastor Dave started yelling loud enough that everyone in the auditorium was turning to look at him.
Then he did the unthinkable. He actually took a swing at Mr. Thompson!
There was a collective gasp from everyone in the auditorium. My hands went to my face. I couldn’t believe he would do something like that. I’d seen him get angry before, but never so angry that he took a swing at someone.
Sure there was a difference between taking a swing at a kid in the youth group and taking a swing at a grown man, but it wasn’t much of a difference considering Mr. Thompson hadn’t done anything to him and he was in the middle of a crowd of people, no less.
A crowd of people who stood a good chance of recognizing him considering we were one of the bigger churches in town. That was saying something in a town where there were a lot of churches despite the small size.
The big guy with the bald head was there before the punch could connect. One moment Pastor Dave’s fist was flying through the air and the next the big guy had his own hand wrapped around Pastor Dave’s fist and it wasn’t moving at all.
Something happened. The big guy did something and there was another gasp as Pastor Dave was swung around with his arms up against his back and the big guy was holding him there pulling something out of his back pocket.
I squinted.
“Are those handcuffs?” Sarah asked.
“He’s a cop,” I said, and suddenly it made sense. I’d seen the guy around town in his squad car, but I didn’t make the connection now because I was used to seeing him in his uniform behind the wheel of the squad car and it’s not like I’d ever had occasion to get up close and personal with the police before.
I watched in disbelief as the man who’d been my youth pastor for the past couple of years was marched along the aisle right past us. He was shouting and screaming the entire time about how his rights were being violated and he was going to sue anyone and everyone he could find, but that didn’t seem to do anything for the cop.
He stopped briefly as he was marched past me. He stared daggers at me and Sarah, but I stood tall and stared right back at him.
Sarah did more than that. I saw a flicker of movement out of the corner of my eye and turned to see her standing there with her middle finger raised.
His eyes went wide at that and he started shouting again, but thankfully it didn’t last long. He was out the door in a flash and that was that.
“Damn,” Sarah breathed out. “I never thought something like that would happen.”
“You and me both,” I said. “That was crazy.”
Mr. Thompson came up and looked at the two of us. Really looked at us intently.
“Are the two of you okay? Do you think you’ll be up to a performance?”
Sarah and I looked at each other. We both grinned. Sure my arm hurt a little where I’d been grabbed, but that wasn’t going to stop me from going out and enjoying opening night!
“There’s not a chance I’m not going up onstage tonight,” I said.
“Yes, well let’s get you back in makeup then,” Mr. Thompson said. “Yours ran just a little while you were crying.”
I blushed, but I didn’t look down or away. I stood proud and looked out over the crowd I was about to perform for.
I wasn’t ashamed of who I was or what I was doing. If anyone should be ashamed it was Pastor Dave for the way he’d acted towards me and Sarah, and it looked like maybe there was a higher power working after all because it sure felt like he’d got what he deserved!
“Come on,” Sarah said, grabbing my hand and pulling me along. “Let’s get you ready for your big debut!”
I grinned as I let her drag me along. “You mean our big debut!”
"Exactly!"
25
Chloe
Oh my God. I didn’t think anything could feel as good as when I had my lips pressed
against Sarah’s. Sure sneaking off to some secluded part of the school where we didn’t have to worry about getting interrupted was thrilling, but the actual kiss?
Amazing. The single most thrilling experience of my life. Better than the stomach-dropping terror I felt when I was on a roller coaster.
And none of those feelings came close to the feeling I got deep in my gut as I stood on the stage in the center of a long line of people in the cast and took a bow.
The applause were deafening. At least I thought they were deafening. People were standing on their feet and cheering and whistling and clapping so hard that their hands had to be turning red.
It was addicting. It was the single most incredible experience of my life. With kissing Sarah coming in at a close second.
Let’s just say that in that moment I suddenly understood why Sarah had been chasing this moment for so long. I understood why Courtney was so upset that she wasn’t getting her moment in the sun with this play.
Well that was tough for her. This was my moment and I loved it. I bowed a second time and looked back and forth along the line to the smiling faces of everyone who made this come together in this one perfect moment.
I even winked at Mike who stood Just behind the curtains staring out at the crowd with a big dumb grin on his face. I guess he decided to come down from the control room to see the audience reaction.
Finally Mr. Thompson came out onstage, and I was surprised to see that he actually had two bundles of flowers in his hands. He walked up to us and presented one to me and one to Sarah, then grabbed our hands and held them up.
Even more deafening applause. More cheers. He pulled our hands down and we all went into a third bow.
“You realize, girls, that after that performance we’re going to be taking this little show to competition, right?” he asked.
He was probably trying to be quiet, but to be heard over the sound of the crowd he had to come close to shouting. Either way it was loud enough that we could hear him but no one in the audience could.
My head swam at the idea. Taking it to competition? I didn’t even know that was a thing. That would mean even more time rehearsing the show and even more time with an excuse to make out with Sarah on school time in the guise of those rehearsals.
