She grunted in annoyance. “Can you not tell when a girl is hitting on you?”
Madeline wasn’t hitting on me, was she? My mind got stuck on the question, and I missed the next several things Dahlia said. I’d been the one to suggest the kiss, not Madeline. Although, she did agree to kiss me without argument. And she’d been very thorough. Very, very thorough.
If Madeline had actually been interested in me, though, she would’ve flirted and gone out of her way to be nice. I mean, granted, she had flirted and been nice, but that was just part of her girlfriend role. Her feelings for me hadn’t changed. If they had, she wouldn’t have told me how hard it was to pretend to have a crush on me.
I cut into Dahlia’s allegations. “Madeline is just a perfectionist about her acting. It’s the reason she always gets the leads.” One kiss from Madeline, and now I was publicly admitting she deserved the roles.
Dahlia went back to insisting that I was naive for not seeing Madeline’s ulterior motives, but I didn’t feel like hearing it. “Look, practice is starting, so I’ll talk to you later. Can you delete the picture Sherwin sent you?”
“Okay.” Her voice sounded chilly. She was still mad.
I ended the call and texted Madeline.Are you all right?
I thought about telling her that Sherwin had deleted the photo of us kissing, but she didn’t know there’d been a picture. Maybe it would be less stressful for her not to know.
She didn’t answer my text.
I told myself that was because she was at drama practice, probably up on the stage belting outHello, Dolly!songs.
I hoped it wasn’t because she was angry with me too.
18
Madeline
Drama rehearsal went horribly. I couldn’t concentrate on anything except for the fact that a significant portion of the football team had caught Cooper and me kissing.
There was no containing that sort of news. The whole school would find out. I’d called Dahlia his homewrecking date, and now I was the one who looked like I was his secret side fling.
I’d always had a good reputation. And now, well, when people said, “Your reputation precedes you,” they wouldn’t be talking about musical theater.
Had Cooper admitted that we were fake dating for our parents’ sake? He probably had, but his teammates wouldn’t believe it. Because how do you make a kiss that is nowhere near your parents seem like it’s for your parents’ benefit?
We’re fake datingwould seem like the lamest excuse ever.
How long did I have until everyone in school found out and the crippling judgment began? It was common for people to scroll through their phones while they waited for their turn onstage, but it seemed like more than usual were on their phones. Which of the cast members already knew? The room felt hotter and like there wasn’t enough air in it.
Onstage, I recited all of my lines wrong. I knew I was reciting them wrong even before Mrs. Russel stopped the entire performance and said, “This is supposed to be a comedy. You’rehelping young lovers find happiness, not leading them to an execution.”
“Sometimes you don’t understand people’s motivation,” I said too loudly. “Sometimes you could, say, catch someone in a situation that looks bad, but there’s a perfectly good explanation for it, only the person just can’t divulge the reason.”
Mrs. Russel sniffed with a look of sour distaste. “Yes, perhaps sometimes. But that’s not really Dolly’s motivation, is it?”
“That’s what I’m saying. Sometimes you don’t know people’s motivation, and you shouldn’t judge them.”
Now everybody was gawking at me. Maybe because I was babbling.
Mrs. Russel in particular looked at me like I may be in the midst of a nervous breakdown. “Why don’t you take a few minutes to think about your lines. We’ll work on another scene.” She dismissed me and clapped her hands to get the next group’s attention.
I had never been told to go think about my lines before. Any other day, I would’ve felt the reprimand with a sharp sting. Now I was just glad to get off the stage.
Kinsley and Harper were part of the next scene and passed me on the way to the stage, each looking at me questioningly. I just shrugged. What could I tell them?
I didn’t pick up my script or look at my part. I knew it by heart. As I walked across the theater, I checked my phone. Dahlia had messaged me on social media. She’d only written one word, and it wasn’t a nice one. Well, she knew. Who else did?
I pretended I needed to go to the bathroom, went out into the empty hallway, and called Selena. I told her what had happened, the words tumbling from my mouth in a rush.
“You kissed him?” she asked in disbelief. “What happened to the girl who firmly said ‘ew’ to kissing the quarterback when I warned you he would suggest it?”
