Finding June (28 page)

After an uncomfortable moment of complete and
utter silence, I began to worry that he wouldn’t kiss me. Maybe
he’d just storm off the stage and my only chance to talk to him
would have failed. I heard someone in the audience cough, probably
just assuming that Joseph was nervous to kiss a girl onstage.

Finally, after what seemed like hours of
waiting for him to decide if he was going to play along or bolt, I
felt him lean down toward me. I thought he might whisper some angry
remark, but then I remembered he had a microphone taped to his
cheek. He pressed his lips against mine very briefly before pulling
away. It definitely didn’t feel like the time we had kissed while
rehearsing our scene together. This was a forced kiss.

My throat tightened at the fact that the
first half of my grand gesture apparently hadn’t been well
received, but I was hardly counting on him to forgive me just
because I crashed his play. The second half of my plan was the real
bid for his affection.

“Come, bitter conduct, come, unsavory guide.
Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on the dashing rocks thy
sea-sick weary bark. Here's to my love,” he said, jumping right
back into character after his little moment of shock.

“O true apothecary! Thy drugs are quick. Thus
with a kiss I die.”

I felt his body lurch forward violently
before falling sideways so that he was laying right next to me,
blocking my view of the audience.

I opened one eye cautiously only to find
Joseph facing me, both of his eyes wide open and looking like I’d
better have a good explanation for my presence. I stared at him
silently for a moment, hoping I could somehow convey in a single
look how sorry I was. We lay there for a moment, staring at each
other until Joseph motioned upwards with his eyes. I gave him a
puzzled look and mouthed a silent “What?”

“Get up and finish the play,” he whispered
between gritted teeth.

“Oh, right!” I said. I wasn’t sure how they
had rehearsed this whole scene, but I wasn’t exactly going by the
book (or play, I guess) anyway, so I sat up on the tomb and looked
down at Joseph. I could hear a wave of whispers sweep through the
room. Apparently I didn’t look as much like Xani as I had
hoped.

I could see my friend Jared standing off to
the side of the stage, frozen mid-stride. Apparently I had also
forgotten that the friar was supposed to come in and talk for
forever. He looked at me in shock and then slowly backed off the
stage, causing the audience to laugh. I’d have to remember to
apologize for stepping on his scene. Well . . . if I was really
thinking about it, I’d have to apologize to a lot of people for a
lot of things after this was all said and done. But that would have
to wait until I had gotten the most important apology off of my
chest.

Trying to channel my inner Shakespeare (which
was definitely not easy), I looked down at Joseph and placed my
hand on his cheek, turning his face so that it was pointed up at
me.

“Oh Romeo,” I began, wishing I had read more
Shakespeare so I’d at least have some idea of how I should word
this. Gran may have thought I had all of Shakespeare's works
memorized, but trying to translate your own muddled thoughts into a
work of art was a whole new ballgame. “How tangled our lives have
become. We confess our love with our lips and with our hearts, yet
neither is heard nor appreciated until it is too late.” Saying
these pseudo-Shakespearian lines felt like the cheesiest thing I
had ever done. But Candice was right—Joseph had put himself out
there for me, so if I had to look like an idiot to show him how
sorry I was, I would do it.

“You brought your love to me and I brought
you to a tomb. I reflect and wish I had admitted to myself and to
you, that my affections matched yours from the very first moment.
But I was naïve and . . . ” What was a Shakespearian word for "an
idiot"? Gosh, this was a lot harder than I had thought it would be.
There was a long silence while I tried to think of a good way to
put what I really wanted to say in the context of the play. I
wanted to tell him how sorry I was, how I hadn’t meant to be a
jerk, how I wished I had gone to Homecoming with him rather than
being with Lukas.

Unable to think of any possible way to fit
all of that into the storyline of
Romeo and Juliet
, I looked
down at Joseph. His eyes were closed but his face was bright red. I
couldn’t tell if he was embarrassed for me, angry, or just burning
up under these stage lights. Leaning down toward him slightly, I
smiled. It may have not been the most eloquent apology, but he had
definitely heard it.

“I’m sorry,” I said finally, my words echoing
around the auditorium. My hair covered our faces as I leaned over
him and brought my lips to his. Now, I may not be a Shakespeare
expert, but I was pretty sure dead Romeo was
not
supposed to
kiss Juliet back. Joseph grabbed my hand, hidden behind him and
kissed me back with full force. His kiss was like falling into a
pile of laundry fresh out of the dryer. It was warm and comfortable
and made me feel like I was home.

I had to physically pull myself away from
Joseph to finish the play off, though I did see the way he was
smirking with his eyes closed, his shaggy dark brown hair falling
across his forehead, as I turned to face the audience once
more.

I couldn’t remember exactly what Juliet was
supposed to say next . . . something about a happy dagger, which
seemed a little odd. So I improvised.

“Well . . . I have checked my Romeo’s lips
thoroughly for poison and can attest that none remains,” I said
with a shrug. I could hear a few giggles throughout the audience at
this statement. “So now with a dagger, I’ll loose these mortal
chains.” All right, all right, I know that’s not what she says. But
I figured maybe Mr. Carroll wouldn’t kill me after this was all
done if I at least made it rhyme.

Pulling the prop dagger from Joseph’s belt, I
raised it high in the air and plunged it deep into the folds of my
dress. I made a pained face for a moment and then let myself die,
laying my head on Joseph’s chest and entwining my fingers with his.
The audience actually applauded, which I found a bit surprising A)
because I had just killed myself over a boy, and B) because I had
just completely butchered one of the most famous plays in history.
But beggars can’t be choosers, and it looked like I had
accomplished my goal, so I smiled against Joseph’s chest and
listened to his heart beat for the rest of the scene. It felt like
the dénouement took forever, since all I wanted to do was talk to
Joseph.

When the lights dimmed on stage, Joseph and I
ran off to the wings while everyone else went on to take their
bows. The crowd's applause echoed all through the auditorium. I did
notice in my frazzled state that Xani had changed back into one of
her previous costumes and was now heading out to take her bow.
Joseph stood in front of me, his face flushed.

“You need to get out there and bow,” I said
urgently.

“Did you mean what you said?” he asked,
ignoring me.

“I did. Every word . . . well, more than
every word actually, because I wasn’t clever enough to fit
everything I wanted to say into the story . . . sorry,” I said
sheepishly.

“I can’t believe you hijacked our play just
to talk to me,” he laughed, admiration showing on his face. Candice
was right—sacrificing my pride for him really had showed him how
much I cared.

“It was the only way to get you to listen,” I
answered with a shrug.

“Well, I heard you. Loud and clear.”

“Not quite. I didn’t get to tell you that I
love you. Completely and unconditionally and really quite stupidly.
I’ve tried to ignore it all this time, but that doesn’t make it any
less true. I love you, Joseph Cleveland,” I said earnestly, feeling
all of my stress lift from me with that simple admission. “I love
you like those idiots in romantic comedies who make all sorts of
bad choices because they’re so blinded by their love. I love you
more than any silent film I’ve ever seen, or any piece of
old-fashioned clothing. I love you more than acting. And I
certainly love you more than I could ever love some immature,
disgusting, snobby A-lister.”

I beamed at Joseph and my eyes actually
teared up, which was embarrassing. “It almost hurts how much I love
you.”

Joseph gave me the happiest smile I think I
had ever seen on his face. He opened his mouth a few times to say
something, but couldn’t quite seem to ever get the words out. So
instead of trying to match my ridiculously ineloquent ramblings
about how much I loved him, he brought me close to him and gave me
a proper, unrestrained and completely amazing kiss. He held me
tightly, one hand on my waist and the other tangled in my hair as
he kissed me deeply. He only pulled away once in the darkened wings
of the applause-filled backstage to whisper his response.

“I love you too, June Laurie.”

THE END

Sneak peek at the first chapter of the
sequel!

Chapter 1

A rusty old Volkswagen Bus can mean a lot of
different things to a lot of different people. Okay . . . so maybe
that’s not true, and saying so might just a bit overly dramatic. To
most people, a VW Bus probably means, "hey, that person can’t
afford a car with more paint on it than rust." But to me, standing
on the front lawn of the house I grew up in, it meant freedom. Or
at least, it meant I was starting a new and scary chapter in my
life.

It had been more than two years since I had
first landed that life-changing role on
Forensic Faculty
and
launched myself into the world of some of the sleaziest Hollywood
people and some of the most wonderful Hollywood people. I’d been
kept on the show for more than my original four episodes.
Apparently the focus group liked the dynamic that Imogen Gentry
brought to the show, so I stayed on throughout my junior and senior
years of high school. That meant I became known to everyone in my
school as, "That one girl on
Forensic Faculty
."

It wasn’t bad, though. Joseph helped to get
me through the wrath of the online
Forensic Faculty
fandom,
which was full of girls who hated me simply because my character
was Lukas Leighton’s love interest. I hadn’t realized, going into
the show, just how crazy people would get about a fictional
character. What Imogen did on each episode the night before would
greatly impact how people at school treated me the next day, which
meant Joseph and I kept our group of friends limited. At school it
was me, Joseph, and Xani, (who, even though she could admit I
belonged with Joseph, wouldn’t stop herself from shamelessly
flirting with him every chance she got). Outside of school, I
turned to Ryan, Benjamin, and Candice.

Putting aside the reflection for the moment,
I looked around my front lawn at my small but perfect group of
friends and family. They had come to see me and Joseph off for our
big departure to college in Utah, and I couldn’t help but smile at
what I saw. Ryan, Benjamin, and Candice stood in a small circle
looking at Benjamin’s phone and laughing about something. Joseph
and my Dad, who had come home from his constant work-related
traveling for this farewell, struggled to shove one of my bags into
the back of the VW Bus. Gran stood and talked with Joseph’s
parents, looking misty-eyed and sentimental. I wondered if Gran
would start taking acting jobs again now that she didn’t have my
budding career to focus on.

After a few episodes of
Forensic
Faculty
aired, I had started getting offers for other parts.
Most of them were smaller TV roles, although a few were small parts
in big movies. As much as I had wanted to break even further into
the acting world, (Gran was practically salivating over the roles I
was being offered) there were always reasons I couldn’t do it. It
seemed like every role I was offered had something questionable in
it. I hadn’t realized that having such high moral standards was
going to hurt my acting career so much. Each time, I gracefully
turned down the parts I was offered, beginning to feel like the
only roles that would be free of "questionable content"’ would be
kids movies where I did a voice-over for a talking animal.

All right. That’s a bit extreme.

But I was honestly kind of grateful I
couldn’t find any clean roles in Hollywood, because it made the
decision to go to college
much
easier. When Joseph and I got
our acceptance letters to Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah,
there wasn’t a question in my mind that I was doing the right
thing. Besides, maybe once I had graduated, I wouldn’t keep getting
offered parts in dirty teen comedies and could instead act in
dramas or romantic comedies. At least, that was what I told myself
to make me feel better about leaving Hollywood right as my career
was starting to take off.

Gran swore I’d probably never be able to get
my foot back in the door if I left for school, but I told her I’d
be okay with that, since the only door open at the moment was the
kind you’d find behind the red curtain at video rental stores.

“New Girl, come here,” Benjamin said, pulling
me from my reverie and still using my old nickname even though we’d
been friends for more than two years now. I smiled at the three of
them and walked over to see some video of a cat holding onto a
ceiling fan . . . at least, that’s what it looked like from where I
stood.

“Thank you for that,” I said sarcastically,
shaking my head at them.

“You’re lucky you’re leaving. That’s the
third time today he’s made me watch that stupid video,” Candice
stated dryly.

“I’ll miss you too,” I said with a big cheesy
smile, pulling her into a tight hug, which she didn’t reciprocate
at all. It was like hugging a two-by-four, although the plank of
wood might have been more affectionate.