Rehearsal

Riley

Against Jace and Charlotte's wishes, I drove myself to UCLA the next morning. I wasn't interested in having the two of them baby me any longer than need be. I needed to get back to the normalcy of life as soon as I could. Having agreed to have lunch with my Aunt Debbie before she headed out of town would be the last of my wallowing in self-pity over my mom's death. Sadness would come and steal away my breath and my attention many times over the rest of my days, but self-pity could fuck off.

Nothing felt worse.

I walked to my drama class with my shoulders back and head held high. On campus, no one knew about me losing my mom, about my darkest fantasies being about Ethan Lewis, about my insecurities to ever be good at anything. I was just me. Senior drama major and lead for the spring production, Riley Phillips.

The class was already gathered up in the front few rows of the auditorium when I walked in, and much to my surprise, they stood up and started to clap and cheer. I glanced