Finding June (7 page)

“What could you possibly be thinking?” Joseph
asked me harshly, letting me know the scene had started. “Robbery
is an
art
, not an excuse to throw a brick through a
window!”

I let him pace back and forth a few more
times, just to get the point across that he was fuming. Once he’d
taken a few trips across the floor, I stood up to begin my lines. I
walked behind him silently so that when he turned around to
continue pacing, he ran into me, with my water gun sticking into
his chest. The water gun was neon green, which wasn’t very
convincing, but Mr. Carroll thought it might not be a good idea to
bring black water guns to school. I have to say, I didn’t blame him
for thinking this.

“What’s more artful than smashing a window,
taking the cash, and still not getting caught?” I asked, pushing my
water gun into his chest hard enough that it made him stumble back
a few paces. Joseph looked down at me through narrowed eyes for a
moment and then leaned in close.

“If you don’t point that thing somewhere
else, I’ll have to reconsider my idea of working as a team,” he
said icily, still giving me chills with the way he could instantly
become so dark and threatening. I balked for a moment at his sudden
change of tone and let my mouth drop open a fraction to show my
surprise before turning and beginning to walk away.

“And just where do you think you’re
going?”

“To find a new partner,” I threw over my
shoulder.

“Perfect. How about while you do that, I’ll
stay here and count all that money you just made me,” he said with
a sneer, patting the bag next to him loudly. Just as we had
rehearsed, I stopped dead in my tracks and turned my head so the
audience would be able to tell I was considering this without
turning enough to be looking at Joseph. Taking a deep breath, I
spun around to face Joseph, who looked a bit comical. It looked
like he was trying to keep his sneer in place and look tough, but I
could see just a hint of nerves somewhere around his eyes. I
dropped my water gun on the floor and put my hands up in mock
surrender before walking slowly toward him.

“I see your point,” I began, letting my lips
form an alluring smile, walking closer to Joseph until I was right
in front of him. I let my arm rest lightly on his shoulder as I had
done every time we rehearsed this scene the past two days. My
fingers spun his wavy dark brown hair into little curls behind his
head while I continued to look at him.

“Really, there’s no reason to fight, right?”
I asked innocently, looking up at him through my eyelashes while I
moved our pillowcase full of money behind me with my foot. Joseph
looked at me intently, his brown eyes dark and intense. He was a
good actor—I had to give him that. I let my face move incrementally
closer to his as I said my last line. “We are on the same team
right?” Joseph continued to stare at me, and I couldn’t tell if he
had forgotten his lines or was pausing for dramatic effect.

“Yes, we are,” he finally said slowly, the
words coming out just above a whisper. For a moment I hesitated.
This was going to be weird. I was going to kiss my best friend. But
then again, it was just for a skit, so it wasn’t
really
like
I was about to kiss my best friend, right? Just before I urged
myself those last few inches, I thought of all of the stress and
stomachaches I had put myself through these last few days by
over-thinking things, and I made a resolution: this scene would be
one less thing for me to over think.

I looked up into Joseph’s brown eyes one last
time. He seemed to be holding his breath as he stared back down at
me. This was it. I closed my eyes and pressed my lips against his.
At first it was just like holding hands—it didn’t feel intimate at
all. But as the kiss deepened and Joseph wrapped his arms around my
waist, I could tell this wasn’t really a stage kiss. I ran my
fingers through his hair, pushing his face against mine as he
pulled me tighter against him, and for a second, I felt all of my
stress melt away in his warmth. It was a perfect moment where the
only thing I was concentrating on was letting my breath come out in
a slow, even pattern, and how soft Joseph’s lips were. I guess I
hadn’t ever given him much thought in that way. As much as I was
letting myself enjoy the kiss, Joseph must have enjoyed it more,
because he didn’t seem to want to let go of me.

By the time we pulled apart, we were both
breathing hard and red in the face. Most of that, I soon realized
(much to my horror), was because of the red lipstick I had decided
to wear that day. I kept my fingers tightly entwined in his hair
and his arms were still firmly around my waist as we stared at each
other, dumbstruck.

“Sorry,” I said sheepishly, although I wasn’t
quite sure what I was sorry about.

“Wow,” was all he said. His eyebrows were
raised as if he was surprised and his lips were pursed
together.

“I’ve just been so stressed and I really,
honestly, didn’t mean to . . . attack you,” I finally said. This
made him laugh as he let go of me, somewhat reluctantly, I
thought.

“Attack me?” he repeated with just a hint of
mischief in his smile. “Yeah, I’d say that’s a good way to describe
what just happened here."

“You have lipstick all over your face, by the
way,” I said in embarrassment, bringing my hand up to my mouth,
partially to remove the lipstick from my own face, but mostly to
hide the blush that was rising in my cheeks. Joseph wiped at his
face, rubbing most of the red away except for a small trace right
around his lips. I quickly wiped it away with my thumb. He placed
his hand over mine for just a moment before letting it go.

I stood in front of him, looking at the
ground and feeling slightly ashamed that I had pounced on Joseph
just because I’d been so stressed. It wasn’t his fault he happened
to be the innocent bystander of "June’s mental meltdown."

“I really am sorry,” I said again. Joseph
opened his mouth to talk, but I quickly cut him off, wanting to
make sure he understood me entirely. “It’s just everything’s been
so crazy lately and I’ve been stressed about the show and even
about the skit. And I guess I was thinking if I just let go for a
minute I could maybe . . . get rid of some of the stress. But I
didn’t mean to attack you and I definitely don’t want you to think
I’m some crazy hormone-filled girl like Xani,” I said all in one
breath. Though I expected Joseph to look relieved by my revelation,
he just looked a bit disappointed to me.

“Don’t worry about it,” he said somberly. I
couldn’t figure out exactly when we’d gone from being happy and
full of jokes right after our kiss, to being suddenly all somber
and depressed. “We did forget the last part of the skit though,” he
said with a halfhearted smile.

“Well, tomorrow we’ll be much better,” I said
resolutely. “I promise. I won’t attack you again, all right?”
Joseph nodded, his pursed-lipped smile still in place.

We didn’t talk about the kiss at break. Or in
Spanish. Or during lunch . . . well, the whole fifteen minutes I
was at lunch before Gran came to get me. As I left our spot, I gave
Joseph a little wave over my shoulder and smiled at him. He
returned the wave but his smile just looked sad. I hadn’t upset him
that
much by kissing him, had I? I asked Gran on the way to
the table read what she thought of the whole situation, needing
some input from someone I trusted.

“Bliss, you’re a smart girl. How can you not
see this?” she asked in exasperation.

“See what?” I replied, confusion and stress
clouding my mind.

“Joseph likes you. He’s probably wanted you
to kiss him since you were five and now that it’s happened he’s
probably hurt that you tried to downplay it so much,” she
explained, sounding wise and sure . . . even though I knew she was
completely wrong.

“First off, Joseph’s not a girl. He doesn’t
get his feelings hurt over things like that,” I told her
matter-of-factly. “And second, I know that because we’re such good
friends it seems like we like each other in that way, but we really
don’t. We’ve just always been really close.”

“So you’re telling me you don’t feel anything
other than friendship toward that boy?” Gran asked skeptically. I
thought about it for a moment. I had definitely always treated our
relationship as a friendship. Did that really mean I didn’t have
feelings for Joseph? Or was I just constantly telling myself we
were just friends to make sure I didn’t spoil something I
knew
we had for something we
might
have? I decided to
go with the former.

“That’s what I’m telling you,” I said at
last, making Gran shake her head in an "I give up" kind of way.

We spent the rest of the drive to the
production office discussing what I should expect from this table
read today. The more we talked about it, the more nervous I became,
and soon all thoughts of my kiss with Joseph that morning were
gone, replaced by the hypothetically traumatizing situations I
could possibly experience today.

By the time I walked into the designated room
for that day’s table read, I was about as stable as a bowl of
Jell-O. None of the other actors were in the room when I took my
seat and began to read over the script for the millionth time.
Three long tables were set up in a U shape in the small room. There
were a few crewmembers there, and Mr. Hill gave me a quick briefing
of what we’d do today. Once he finished talking, I sat awkwardly by
myself, waiting for the other actors to trickle in.

The first two to show up were Ryan Hex and
Benjamin Hampton, who played Rich and John on the show. They were
the notorious comic-relief detectives who got all the clever
one-liners and catchphrases that people printed on T-shirts. They
were both in their 20s and couldn’t have looked more different from
each other if they tried. Ryan had fair skin, short blonde hair,
and deep blue eyes. Benjamin, on the other hand, had dark brown
skin, brown hair, and brown eyes. Even though they looked so
different, I could tell instantly that they had great chemistry as
they bounced jokes off of each other while walking into the room.
The second they spotted me, they flanked me—Ryan with a wide,
inviting smile, and Benjamin with a sideways smirk.

“New Girl,” Benjamin said, pointing to me. I
wasn’t really sure if this was a question or simply a statement. I
worried they were trying to put me in my place right away, but
quickly found that wasn’t the case.

Ryan put his arm around me and gave me a
tight squeeze. “So, New Girl, I hear you’ll be joining us for a few
weeks,” he said. He shifted, putting his elbows on the table in
front of him and resting his jaw on his fist. From the intent way
Ryan and Benjamin stared at me, I could tell they were sizing me
up.

“Yeah, I hope so,” was all I could think of
to say. How did you reply to that? Especially when you’d never met
the people before in your life? On top of just being a socially
awkward person, I was feeling a bit star-struck at meeting the cast
of
Forensic Faculty
. I smiled at them sweetly, trying to
look friendly even though I was scared out of my wits.

“You’re adorable, New Girl,” Benjamin said,
also resting his elbow on the table and looking at me from the
other side. The whole situation was pretty awkward, to say the
least.

“She’s like a reincarnated . . . oh, what’s
that girl’s name? Greta Garbo?” Ryan asked Benjamin. I knew exactly
who they were thinking of, but thought it best to just keep it to
myself and let them hash it out.

“Greta Garbo was blonde,” Benjamin said,
looking at his friend as if he were a complete idiot. “It’s the
brunette you’re thinking of. With the big eyes.”

“Mae West?” Ryan said.

“Well, Mae West didn’t have big eyes she just
had . . . well . . . never mind,” Benjamin trailed off, giving me
an apprehensive look.

“Lillian Gish?” I finally chimed in
helpfully.

“Yes!” they exclaimed together, making me
grin at how much they were like their characters in real life.

“So you’re our new big star in ‘Vaudeville
Vice’,” Benjamin stated in an overdramatic way, referring to the
name of the first episode I’d be in.

“Oh yeah,” I said jokingly. “I’m the biggest
star you’ll ever see.”

“I like the New Girl,” Benjamin said over my
head to Ryan, on my other side.

“She’s funny,” he agreed with a grin.

As they continued to talk over my head, the
next star to walk in caught my attention. Anna Farthing, who played
Captain Juliana Ryder, was the hard-nosed woman in power on the
show. She was in charge of everything and often hindered the actual
process of getting things done because she wanted her team to
follow the rules. Of all of the characters on the show, she was the
one I was most intimidated to meet. If she was anything like the
character she played, then she was a pretty terrifying person.

The boys must have seen my eyes watching Anna
like a hawk, because Ryan quickly said, “She’s not a man-eater in
real life.”

I started, surprised by his sudden
exclamation right next to me. I turned to him with big eyes. “Was I
that obvious?” I asked sheepishly.

“Not really,” he said, shooting a sideways
glance at Benjamin, who snorted to cover up a laugh. “You may have
looked like your puppy got run over when she walked in—”

“But other than that, you were very
collected,” Benjamin finished with mock seriousness. I sighed
deeply at the two of them. This was going to take some getting used
to.

As soon as Anna set her large leather purse
down, she walked over to me and extended her hand. “You must be
June,” she said in a thick British accent. The fact that she had an
accent caught me off-guard, but I tried to recover quickly as I
shook her outstretched hand.

“Yes, I’m June,” I said, sounding brilliant,
I’m sure.