Losing It Part 24

They weren't calling anyone back.

It was just me.

I'd gotten the part.

And then, breaking all the rules of the list, I screamed. Cade laughed, and picked me up at the waist, spinning me around. People around us were clapping, and I knew some had heard rumors of our kiss based on the way they were looking at us. But for a moment, for one blissful moment, none of that mattered.

I'd gotten the part.

Chapter Fourteen

I went to Senior Prep in a daze.

They always called people back. Even if they were pretty sure they knew who they wanted, it was a chance to be certain, to see the best one more time.

But they cast me outright, which meant they were already certain.

Something swelled in my chest, and before I could help it there were tears building in my eyes. I took a second to myself behind the curtains before entering the s.p.a.ce for cla.s.s.

I tried deep breaths, but that didn't release any of the pent-up emotion in my chest. So, I did the next most logical thing.

I danced.

I danced without music. I screamed without sound. I celebrated in silence, in the dark, behind the curtains where no one could see.

Except as my luck would have it, someone totally saw.

"I'm guessing you saw the list."

I froze, my b.u.t.t still c.o.c.ked to the left from my last celebratory hip swing. Slowly, I righted my posture, and turned as I said, "Hi Garrick."

His lips were pursed and his eyes wide, and I knew he was working hard not to laugh. "h.e.l.lo Bliss. Congratulations."

My hair was everywhere due to the aforementioned dancing, so I tucked it behind my ears as best I could. "Thank you. I'm, uh, pretty excited."

"As you should be. Your audition..." He stepped closer, and as always, his presence stripped away the embarra.s.sment and any other emotion, and replaced it with heat, with desire. "Your audition was fantastic. There was no compet.i.tion."

I swallowed, but the lump in my throat remained. My thank you came out as a whisper.

"But Friday night..."

"Oh, G.o.d-"

"As ridiculously cute as you were, please don't get that drunk again. Eric will need you to be at your absolute best for this role."

"Of course," I nodded, petrified. "Absolutely. I promise."

"And... I was worried about you, too."

"Oh."

His eyes flicked around my face, darting from my no doubt crazy hair to my eyes to my lips, then quickly down to my leg, where the burn had healed and left a dark pink scar. "I don't like being worried about you."

My heart felt like it was going to make a jailbreak from my ribcage if I didn't do something soon. This was dangerous territory. There were things rearing up inside me, things beyond attraction, beyond an obsession with his looks and his body and his accent-dangerous things. His fingers touched a curl near my cheek, and the proximity of his skin made me feel like I was on the verge of explosion.

I smiled and tried to lighten the situation. "You should probably worry about yourself. Calling me 'cute' again is bound to get you injured, possibly maimed for life."

He took a step closer to me, and the world felt like it was shrinking around the two of us. The hand in my hair swayed closer, his knuckles brus.h.i.+ng my cheek. He lowered his voice and said, "Since I can't very well call you the alternative here, cute will have to do for now." My mind flashed back to the first time he'd called me ridiculously cute. I'd had my pants trapped around my knees. He'd then called me ridiculously s.e.xy and helped me take them off.

Clearly, I needed to learn to stop saying the first thing that popped into my mind. But I couldn't think about that at this moment, because my mind was stuck on his last two words... for now, for now, for now.

He cleared his throat, and stepped back, dropping the curl he'd had trapped between his fingers. "Why don't you go take a seat for cla.s.s?"

I nodded, slipping past him and through the curtains.

There was a seat saved for me between Kelsey and Cade, both of whom were wearing identically huge grins. I smiled, shaking off the encounter with Garrick to bask once more in my joy. Kelsey leaned in to hug me when I took my seat, and whispered in my ear, "I guess being hot for teacher really did help you get into character. I'm so proud of you, honey."

I glared half-heartedly, but nodded my thanks. And then turned to Cade.

We'd held hands earlier, and hugged when I found out, but I wasn't sure what the protocol was now. Living in the world of maybe was... complicated.

Before, Cade and I were effortless. Being with him was just as low pressure as being alone. And now suddenly there was this intensity to everything we did and everything we said. Like my life had been italicized.

When we were touching, I noticed. When we weren't touching I noticed. And suddenly I could find no in between. No maybe.

So I froze.

We were both waiting, stuck in that area between action and refusal. We were nothing. We were inaction. Then Garrick called the cla.s.s to order, and the awkwardness was postponed for a bit longer.

I knew... I knew eventually we'd have to get over this... figure out some way to co-exist again. You could only postpone so long before s.h.i.+t hit the fan. But surely I could wait a little longer. Today was an exciting day, no reason to rain on my own parade.

When cla.s.s ended, Eric was waiting for me outside.

"Good morning, Bliss. Can I speak to you for a moment?"

I blinked, caught off guard.

"Of course."

He opened the theatre door, and gestured for me to re-enter. I followed him through the curtains, and he waved me toward a seat directly beside Garrick. I perched on the seat carefully and glanced between them, unsure of what was happening. Then it dawned on me.

He'd found out.