In Harmony

Angie frowned. “What does he know about it?”

“Some guy he works with has a daughter here. She told him all sorts of shit about Isaac’s home life.”

“Let me guess, Tessa Vance?” Caroline rolled her eyes. “Her dad works at Wexx. Last year, she got a hold of Isaac’s cell phone number and asked him out over a text. He shot her down, and her little brother stole her phone, screenshotted the exchange, and posted it on Facebook.”

I froze up at the thought of a guy, however young, using screenshots to humiliate a girl. It hit way too close to home.

“What happened to Tessa?” I said.

“Mass humiliation,” Jocelyn said.

“What did Isaac say in the text? Was he a dick to her?”

“Worse,” she said. “He wrote, No, thanks.”

I blinked, my chest loosening. “That’s it?”

Angie nodded. “That’s it. And when Tessa asked if he might want to expand on that, he never replied.”

“Tessa’s been talking shit about Isaac ever since, to recover,” Caroline said.

“She’s relentless,” Nash said. “Always the first one to whisper ‘murder’ whenever Pearce senior isn’t seen around town.”

I wrinkled my nose. Apparently country high school bullshit wasn’t all that different from city high school bullshit. In a lot of ways, it was worse. My high school in Manhattan was big enough to hide secrets in. Here, you coughed and half the student body heard it.

“Well, whatever,” I said, relieved Isaac hadn’t been a complete asshole in this scenario. “I’m not in the play to follow Isaac unless he’s giving advice. I don’t know what I’m doing. And I have no idea how I’m going to get to and from rehearsal every night.”

“Your parents can’t help?”

“It was like twisting my dad’s arm to get him to sign off on the paperwork since I’m a minor. He works late most nights anyway and my mother was never the ‘carpool and cupcakes’ kind of mom. She’s not about to start now.”

“I’ll help when I can,” Angie said, “but you need to learn to drive, girl.”

“Or get a ride home with Isaac,” Nash said, and caught Angie’s pointed stare. “What? I’m being practical.”

“What about Justin Baker?” Angie said, jerking her chin to where Justin sat with Doug Keely, Ted Bowers, and couple of other jocks. “Your Laertes.”

“He’s super-hot,” Jocelyn stared and caught Caroline’s pointed look. “If you’re in to that sort of thing. Which I’m not.”

I smiled at the cuteness of the couples in front of me with a wistful kind of ache. I glanced over at Justin Baker and found him watching me. He smiled that friendly, curious smile and I quickly looked away.

“Who is Laertes again?” I asked Angie.

“Ophelia’s brother,” she said and rolled her eyes. “Girl, you need to get to work on that play. Maybe start by reading it.”

That afternoon, Angie gave me a ride to downtown Harmony after school. “What’s the rehearsal schedule again?”

“Monday, Wednesday, Friday nights and Saturday afternoon,” I said. “It’ll be every weeknight and all weekend as we get closer to opening night.”

“I got you covered on rides down here, and we can hang out at The Scoop sometimes, but you still got a lot of ground to cover between now and seven o’clock.” She leaned an arm on the steering wheel. “Why don’t you want to go home?”

“Because I can’t get back here,” I said. “I’m fine, I promise. My parents are self-absorbed assholes but it’s not worse than that.”

“Okay,” Angie said. “You know, when you first walked into class with your Disney princess hair and Manhattan clothes I thought you’d be a self-absorbed asshole, too. But you’re okay in my book, Holloway.”

“Thanks, McKenzie.” I gathered my stuff. “I’m going to kick it in the library for about four hours.”

“A suggestion about how you can spend that time…?”