I let my gaze shift to a clock on the wall and wonder mildly how long this will take and if I care about being rude or if I can just turn around and leave again.
“You think you’re just so special, don’t you?” she rambles, her breaths harsh.
My gaze skims back to her, and she’s trembling. Caged. What led her to become this kind of person, and why is she the one who’s haunted me all these years? So many people bullied me all throughout my childhood, but only she stuck. Because she pretended to be my friend for so long?
“I’mspecial. You’re nobody. Mother always told me I had to take what I wanted. The world doesn’t just hand you things. When you’re special—”
Her words mute as a horridohechoes in my skull.
Agatha stands in front of me, her lips moving, but no words reaching me. For a painful instant, I see her clearly. An equal opposite. The one who fought for the greatness someone promised her instead of the one who hid from it. The one who refused to let the pressure break her even to the point of missing all the hairline fractures stretching over her skin.
Agatha is what I could have become, if I were exactly the opposite of who I am. If I didn’t let my mother’s doubts overshadow her forceful assurance that I wasbrilliant.
I lift my hand, setting it on her shoulder, and whatever she’s been saying chokes to a stop. She looks at my hand like I’ve hit her.
“You’re never going to get anywhere if you think that you can only be special when no one else is. If you have to live in gray-scale to be the only one with color, your life is going to be nothing but dull.”
Rage sparks through her eyes, and she slaps my hand away. “I don’t need a lecture fromyou. You’re a patheticliarwho will never amount to anything. You’re not even brave enough to claim this—” She swears. “—play as your own.”
My heart thuds, and my eyes widen.
A smile trembles to her lips. “Yeah, I heard you tell Lex thatyou wrote this play. I couldn’t believe it at first. But of course you did. How you managed to hide behind our own teacher, I may never know, but I think it’s disgusting.”
I pull the hardest façade I can find around me as my mouth turns to ash. “What do you honestly think you can do with that information?”
“Mr. D’plume could lose his job for exploiting a student like this.” Agatha’s eyes gleam.
“I can have a contract made in twenty minutes stating that I’ve sold the rights to him.” My heartbeat pounds in my ears. I strain to hear past it, keep my wits about me.
Agatha lifts her chin, purring, “You’re bluffing. You wouldn’t give up the rights to this. You’d never be able to say it was yours.”
“So?” I ask, ignoring the way my heart tightens. She’s right. I don’t want to give up Kenneth, never be able to say he’smine, but I will. If I have to. And she has to see that. I take a step toward her, encroaching upon her space. “There’s a vital difference between us, Agatha. I’m not doinganyof this for glory. Glory is a pressure I decided long ago I wasn’t interested in. If you find a way to steal something from me because you discovered the truth, I’ll just write another play. I already have, actually. And my songs? I have hundreds of those, too. If you take one, I’ll make a thousand more. Because I’m notyou. Some people were born to play a role in this world.” Heart stampeding, I dare. “I was born to write them.”
She stumbles back, and for an instant she seems so small. “I’ll tell everyone. If you don’t want the attention, then I’ll—”
“First, you’d have no proof. And second?” I take a page from her book and let a cruel smile taint my lips. Lifting a hand like Lex once did, I drag my fingertip down her cheek. “That seems counter-intuitive for you, doesn’t it?”
“You’re insane!” She gasps a breath, shoving me away from her. “You and Lex both! You’re both crazy!”
“Yep,” I state, lifting a shoulder and turning toward the doors. “All that matters is that we’re the same type of crazy. And I’m done being silent.” I shove my hands into my cute overall pockets. “See you on stage, Agatha. And don’t get me wrong. You’ve got talent. You’re just wasting all your energy on trying to prove it.”
But I can’t blame her.
After all, everyone has their own flaws.
Lex
~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Are you sure this is okay?”
Mr. D’plume laughs. Actually laughs. Rolling his eyes toward me, he pins me with a look that I can only dubobvious. “As if I’d ever exploit my students.”
Dropping my gaze to the program Mr. D’plume not-so-subtly handed me the moment I left the back after getting into costume, I release a breath. “Well, you’ve known her longer than I have. If you think she’s ready, I won’t assume less of her.”
“You helped make it possible.” He folds his arms, glancing past the buzz of stage prep toward the alcove Calypso disappeared into shortly after we arrived. “‘Sometimes our wings have been broken so long we don’t realize they’ve been healed until after a push forces us to fly’.” Passing me, Mr. D’plume pats my back. “Isn’t it strange how the greatest roles we play in this world are as the supporting cast…”
A soft laugh leaves me, and I run a finger across the title in my hands.
