“I think so. My hair feels weird. Does it look weird?”
“It’s perfect.”
“Should I take it out? The pin is stabbing my head.” I reach back for the French pin, but Daphne cups her hands around my wrists.
“Don’t you dare.”
“Can we leave after the red carpet?” I ask desperately.
“You don’t want to watch the movie?” Her face falls.
“I don’t know if I can.”
She shakes her head firmly. “You forget—I was aTorchedfan before I was your friend. I didn’t make my own dress not to see how the story ends.”
I sigh heavily. I have no interest in seeing Fox and Juniper get the happy ending I stubbornly refused to give them. Someone grabs my hand and pulls me toward a camera.
“I’ll meet you inside!” Daphne calls.
I nod, stumbling over the hem of my dress. I feel like I’m moving underwater. Everything is slow and surreal, right up until the moment a microphone is put in my face, and I snap into focus.
“We’re here with Margot Darling, the author of theTorchedseries. How excited are you to be here tonight?”
“Very,” I say in a voice that is unfamiliar to my own ears. Another loud scream erupts from the crowd. I don’t look, but I think the actor who plays Fox has arrived. “Everyone has put so much love and hard work into these movies. You can really feel that energy here tonight.”
“Will fans of the book be happy with the movie?”
What fans of the book?“I hope so!”
“Do you think the movie closely follows the book?”
I smile until it hurts. “I guess we’ll see!”
I’m ushered along the carpet for a handful of identical interviews. Once the cameras are off, I pull the pin out of my hair and shake it loose around my shoulders.
“I told you to leave it up!” Daphne scolds me as I take a seat next to her in the front row of the packed theater. In addition to the cast, crew, and family members, the studio held a contest that selected one hundred fans to come to the premiere. The room is buzzing with energy as Daphne tries to fix my updo, but the pin is difficult to maneuver, and as the lights dim, she settles for my flat, mediocre hair.
The movie is good, but the waiting is agony. I find myself bracing for impact the entire last hour of the film. The final battle arrives as the mortal and faerie realms are both unraveling, and I feel the entire theater collectively hold their breath in the moment when Fox and his wolf are supposed to die in an unremarkable, unsymbolic, unnecessary way. When they don’t, the held breath becomes a gasp, followed by cheering. I watch as Fox and Juniper fight side by side, defeat the evil, and—my stomach drops.
Juniper in a wedding dress.
“She’s like twenty years old,” I hiss into Daphne’s ear.
She squeezes my hand. “I have to pee.”
“Now?”
“Too much soda.”
“I’m coming, too.”
“No.” She presses her hand to my shoulder to keep me in my seat. “People are watching.” She jogs out of the theater as the wolf walks Juniper down the aisle.
“Traitor!” I whisper after her.So much for being aTorchedfan.
It’s misery to watch Fox and Juniper get the happily ever after that West and I never will. As the audience swoons and cheers, I can’t help but wonder if any of these people were the ones ripping me to shreds four years agoorlast week. I’ve tried so hard to give them what they wanted, and where did that get me? Alone, unhappy, and desperately wishing for the end of what should be one of the highlights of my career.
Someone slips into the seat next to me as the credits roll and the lights on the stage come up. “You missed the worst part—” I say, but the rest of that sentence dies on my tongue as I turn and see West sitting next to me.
