The room was dark and the air a stifling mix of dust and sweat, but I wouldn’t have traded anything to be here. In fact, I had paid to be here considering the ticket, the taxi and the hotel I was staying in during acting camp. It was a glorious week of lines and pines, weeping and peeping…which I suspected was the cause for landing me in the mess I was in right now.
“So how long do you think it’ll take for them to miss us?” Logan asked.
I didn’t know what hurt worse. My arm when we fell through the trap door and got stuck, or the fact that Logan sounded so eager to get out of here. We had been practicing a scene. A love scene of all things, when the floor beneath us gave way and we fell through the stage. I suspected foul play even though it had collapsed twice already during the week when it was clear no one was by the switch. The set was as decrepit as it was cool, AND a perfect opportunity to pull a prank. They had been happening all week, though were usually a little less dangerous. Hair gel in place of toothpaste. Cellophane on the toilet seat. Logan and Lance had been trading off pranks all week, and this time I had gotten caught in the middle.
Not that I minded too much seeing as who I was currently stuck with, though my arm had seen better days. Logan was awesome in every possible way. Dashing and charming, with more than a few muscles–though they had failed to pry the hatch open once we fell through. I wasn’t much help.
“How’s your arm,” Logan asked, and I heard a shuffling sound and then a hand reach out for my arm.
I tried to keep my voice steady. “It’s fine. You don’t have to–” He put his hand against my shoulder and pushed gently.
“Liar. No wonder you’re here. You need all the acting classes you can get, Deb.”
“As much as you need a lesson in humility.”
He laughed. “Who needs to act when the truth is so much fun.”
“You’re telling me you enjoyed getting tossed through the stage and trapped with all the bugs? At least it’s dark so I don’t have to see what’s crawling up my leg right now.”
To his credit, Logan ran his hand down my leg and tried to brush aside whatever creature was trying to befriend me, making some very unsettling noises. “How can you be so calm?” he barked as I heard him brushing his own legs. Just to be sure.
“Good acting,” I said, taking a deep breath. I had been holding it ever since the bug first attached itself to my leg, but I didn’t want Logan to think he had been trapped with a complete baby.
“Huh. Well, congratulations,” he said, and I could hear the admiration in his voice. “Maybe there is a thing or two you could teach the rest of us. Like the scene you were just helping me with? Why don’t we finish what we started while we wait for someone to find us.”
“It could take all night.”
“Practicing or someone finding us?” he asked.
“Yes,” I smiled.
“Hmm. I like the sound of it either way,” he said and slid the hand at my shoulder around my back. “So where were we.”
“You were proclaiming your undying love although it sounded more like you were dying than proclaiming.”
“Well, let’s see if I can’t get it right this time.”
It took two hours for someone to come and get us. By then, Logan had perfected his art.
Oh, yeah. I wouldn’t have traded this scene for anything.
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Next week: Tell me about your first kiss. Perfect? Not so good? Good, but perfect because it was still a kiss? Do tell…
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Oh, I’m so late getting around to reading this! So sorry, I had a bad weekend that drifted into a bad week… it happens.
I love the YA voice in this piece. I like the contrast of good news/bad news. I can see how they would take advantage of the situation and how it would be a story, a great memory forever. Very nice!
Thanks Shelli! I love writing YA, and um…yeah it would be kind of a cool memory, wouldn’t it. Not like this has ever happened to me or anything. Really it didn’t.
But there were other “advantageous situations” in my life. But good luck sorting out which of my pieces are based on dreams and which ones, reality. Maybe I should hold a contest to see if people can figure out which is which. Hmmmmm….