Understudy (14 page)

Chapter Fifteen

Eric

She was avoiding me. It shouldn't have bothered me, but I felt a nagging itch to know why. I was pretty sure it had something to do with me following her to the woods and walking her home. But I did that because it felt like it was the right thing to do. I also reminded myself that I apologized to her. Twice, if I wasn't mistaken. It would've made Adam proud. Unless he was the jealous type. Or maybe it was her BFF, Sara, who was jealous. She loathed me and she made it clear that night. I bet she told Kat to stay away from me, not that I didn't expect it.

Kat was sitting by the edge of the stage when I came in to the gym. She wore a white sleeveless button down shirt with her wavy brown hair tucked to one side, creating a curtain that shielded almost half of her face. She didn't even glance up from her clipboard as I stood in front of her.

All around us, people were busy with the rehearsals. If I didn't know any better, I would've believed that they were actually passionate about this stupid play, but on close inspection, it was easy to see that they hated every part of it. I knew because I felt the same. The only one who seemed to be interested in all this aside from Mr. Blake, was Kat. At least that was how I saw it ,as she studied her clipboard so seriously, I wouldn't be surprised if the thing disintegrated in her hands.

I didn’t know how long I was standing in front of her, or if she even knew I was there, but I almost jumped in surprise when she finally looked up with an annoyed expression in her face. Yep, she knew I was here alright.

"Can I help you with anything?"

Yes, a lot actually, I thought, but I ended up gaping at her.

She tapped her pen against the clipboard, and shook her head. "Look, I'm busy, if you have any questions about your costume, please ask Tina or Diana instead." She started walking away, and that's when I finally found my voice again.

"I brought my props."

She stopped and stared at me for a while, confused. Then her gaze shifted to the leg brace I was holding and she blinked.

"Oh."

"I just want to make sure that it passes your standards, since you're the creative one," I said. I meant it as a joke, but it came out wrong. She didn't seem to mind though.

"Where did you get this?"

"I made it."

Her brown eyes widened but she immediately regained her composure. "That's...good."

"I told you I could do it."

"Yes, I can see that," Kat said, her eyes still fixed on the leg brace.

We were both silent for a moment, and she avoided my gaze. I wanted to ask her if something was bothering her, but I had the gut feeling that if there was anything, then it was probably me. That made me want to apologize to her again. For what exactly? I had no idea.

I thought about making small talk. It wouldn't hurt to try. She already hated me. But then, a hand over my shoulder made me pause. It was Mr. Blake.

"Hey, Tiny Tim, it's time to run your lines." Then glancing at Kat, he added, "Is that okay or is it a bad time?"

"We're good," Kat said, almost defensively.

"Okay, shall we go then?"

I wanted to say no, that I didn't give a damn about this stupid play, but I followed him to the stage where the rest of the cast were waiting.

I watched as Kat joined her design team, breaking into a smile.

"Tiny Tim?"

"What?" I stared around the faces looking back at me expectantly. One of them was Sara. She was giving me the stink eye.

"What?" I asked again.

"You were supposed to say your lines," Drake Kendall said.

"Right. Remind me again next time."             

He laughed at that, though the rest of the group didn't find it funny.

"Let's get on with it and stop wasting time," Sara said, looking around the group, though I was pretty sure that she was referring to me. God, she really hated me. I wondered if my brother got along well with her.

I spent the rest of the hour running my lines with the Cratchit family. I couldn't say that I did a good job, but I wasn't bad either since I delivered them on time and verbatim. Wish I could say the same for Nigel Armstrong though. That kid had serious stuttering issues.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Mr. Blake called it a day and everyone was too eager to leave the gym.

I grabbed the leg brace from where I left it, cursing myself for not bringing a case or even a plastic bag to carry it with. Guess I was too excited to show Kat what I came up with. For what? To prove to her that she could trust me? Why?

"Do you want to keep it with the rest of the props?"

I whirled around to see her walking towards me, still holding that goddamned clipboard.

"You're still here?" I asked.

"I have to make sure everything's in order."

"You always do."

Without answering, she turned around and walked over to the storage room like she didn't hear me at all. I followed her.

"How come Sara’s not with you?" I asked, taking the opportunity of talking to her while she wasn’t ignoring me...sort of.

She grabbed the door knob and twisted, but it didn't budge. I thought she wasn't going to answer, until the door finally opened and she grabbed the leg brace from my hands. "I told her not to wait."

"But aren't you two like the best of friends? Best friends stick around all the time, right?"

She stared at me for a moment, her jaw tightening. "It's none of your business."

"Right."

"Hold the door," she said brusquely as she entered the cluttered storage room. Inside were shelves full of props ranging from actual objects to cardboard structures, to stuff that looked like garbage. There wasn't an inch of space left for the leg brace save the floor, but Kat seemed eager to make room for it.

"I don't mind taking it home with me," I said.

"Nope, I got this," she said scanning the top-most shelf. She grabbed an old stool nearby and climbed on it.             

"Careful," I said, taking a step forward.

"Stay by the door!"

"Okay, okay! Geez. No need to be grumpy."

"I'm not−"

The stool wobbled. At first I stood frozen, but something inside my head snapped and I immediately ran towards her as she jerked backward, her hand still clutching the leg brace.

Her eyes were wide with panic as blood drained from her face. My heart started to race and I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up. In an instant, I was transported back to the past. Reliving a nightmare that had forever changed my life.

Time seemed to slow and I willed my body to move forward. Adam's scream rang in my ears and I shook my head to get rid of it.
This is different,
I thought to myself.
Keep your shit together.

Chapter Sixteen

Kat

My hands were shaking but I held onto the leg brace as tight as I could so he wouldn't notice. It happened so fast. One moment I was scanning the top shelf and then I was falling.

The next thing I knew, I was staring at his face with his arms wrapped around me. For a split second, I believed he was Adam. Thinking that he had appeared to save me, or that I had died and gone to heaven. But the moment he spoke, the dream shattered, much like the stool I was standing on just a few seconds ago.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes," I said. I could feel his heartbeat where my arm touched his chest. It was fast and strong, almost in tune with mine. I immediately pushed myself out of his grasp.

Eric had landed in a kneeling position with his right leg sprawled unnaturally. At first I thought he had broken his leg when he hit the floor, but he immediately pushed himself up to a more comfortable position, resting his back against the wall.

"I told you to be careful," he said in between breaths.

"Yes but−" My gaze flickered towards the door. It was closed. "I TOLD YOU TO STAY BY THE DOOR!"

He looked at me incredulously, his mouth hanging open. "I may have just saved your life, and you're welcome," he said.

I walked to the door and twisted the knob, hoping against hope that the custodian had it fixed it already. He hadn't.

"What's the matter?" Eric asked, standing beside me.

"We can only open the door from the other side," I said, keeping my voice down this time.

"Seriously?" He tried it himself. As expected, nothing happened. "Well, you can call Sara and tell her to ask someone to open it for us."

I fished for my phone inside my pocket, only it wasn't there. Then I remembered... "I left my phone outside with my bag."

Eric swallowed, his expression unreadable. "Oh, that's...convenient."

"Can I borrow yours instead?"

He looked at me for a moment then,  slowly, he said, "I don't have a phone."

"What?"

"I don't have a phone. I don't own one. I don't see the need to own one since I moved back here." He patted his pockets to prove his point, though it felt like he was just doing it to annoy me. "Everybody seems to hate me. Who needs my number?"

Now it was my turn to gape at him. "You have got to be fucking kidding me."

He chuckled.

"This isn't funny."

"Yeah, it's not. You are though."

"What?"

"Didn't expect you to drop the F−bomb so easily. I always thought of you as the soft spoken type. Brave but a softie inside."

Any guilt I felt for raising my voice at him earlier had vanished. I wanted to punch his face.

"Aren't there any tools we can use to break the knob?" He looked around the room and grabbed a hammer prop from a nearby shelf. It was made of Styrofoam. "Real tools?"

"If there were any, I'd use them to break your face."

He tilted his head and smiled. "I don't think you have it in you."

"What? To break your face?"

His smile disappeared. "No. Hurting other people."

"You don't know me," I said, glaring at him. He didn't answer nor did he avert his gaze. In the end, I was the one who looked away.

I took a step back until I was leaning against a shelf. The room was small. Too small for two people. There were no windows, not even an exhaust vent. I wondered if we would die of oxygen deprivation. And if that were to happen, how would people react to it? My parents? Adam and Eric's parents? Would they believe that it was a coincidence that I had accidentally locked myself in a room with my dead boyfriend's identical twin?

"You're not in a hurry now, are you?"

I looked up at his face, startled and confused by his question.

"I couldn't help but notice that you're always in a hurry to go home," he added. "Well...are you?"

I felt my throat close. Did he follow me again to the woods? Did he see me talking to Adam? No. I made sure to be careful ever since he showed that day.

"No, don't answer. It's none of my business," he said even before I could think of an answer.

I swallowed. Relieved. The last thing I needed was to explain myself to him, not that I intended to.

"I'm sorry about the door," he added. "But you could have told me it was broken."

"It's common knowledge."

He shrugged. "Not to me."

I sighed. There was no use arguing with him, and besides, he was right. I bet this was the first he knew that this storage room even existed.

"So how long do you think we're going to be trapped here? Think they have to drag our corpses out, like say...in a day or two?"

I just ignored him.

"Sorry about that. I'm just thinking out loud here." When I didn't respond, he continued. "You know there was this one time when Adam and I got trapped in an elevator. I think we were five at the time. We pretended we were trapped in a dungeon until our parents arrived. It was sort of fun."

I gaped at him in disbelief. "Are you trying to say that being trapped in here is fun?"

"It depends on how you look at it."

I stood up and began pounding the door with my fist. "HELP! WE'RE TRAPPED IN HERE!"

Eric also stood up. "Really? You hate me that much?"

"Well, it depends on how you look at it. But seeing that I'm desperately making some noise to get us out of here, I think it's safe to say that yes, I hate you. That much."

I expected him to have a comeback, but he just stood there staring off in the distance. I continued pounding the door.

"SOMEBODY HELP US! WE'RE TRAPPED IN HERE!"

I had been in scarier situations. I’d survived a car crash. I was spending time with my boyfriend's ghost. But I was scared of staying in a room with my boyfriend's twin brother. Scared because I had a hard time controlling my emotions when he was around. He kept on reminding me of everything I’d lost. Yet, there he stood, staring at me. The same way Adam looked at me when he was confused.

I tried to ignore him, focusing instead on crying out for help. My throat started to hurt and my hand was starting to get numb. It was around this time he stopped staring at me and grabbed the leg brace from the floor.

"Step aside," he said.

I did.

Eric started removing the leather from the steel frame of the brace. And before I could even ask him why he was dismantling his prop, he used it to strike the door knob. It fell on the floor with loud clang and the door swung open.

"Open sesame," he said, pushing the door further.

I was conflicted between getting angry or feeling relieved. "You could've done that earlier!"

"Once again, you're welcome," he said as he examined the bent steel frame of the leg brace. "Guess I'll need to make a new one, huh?" He looked up at me and smiled, very much like how Adam used to.

I shook my head and walked out of the room.

"A simple thank you would've sufficed."

"Oh really? Do you think I should thank you after you watched me make a fool out of myself when all along you could've gotten us out of that room much earlier!"

"I wasn't really sure if you needed my help."

My legs were shaking underneath me and I had no strength to argue with him. I turned towards the gym's exit.

"Wait!"

I continued walking.