“If you’ll have me,” I managed. There was a silence then as we stood, simply looking at each other. Since the first day that I met eyes with Liam, I felt like we knew each other from before. His eyes were so full of expression and soul that it was overwhelming. I felt comfortable, simply being there with him.
“I’ll see you in class then, tomorrow, unless you need anything else?” he finally said, breaking the gaze and I nodded.
“I’m going back home for dinner, and then I’m sleeping here tonight. So…unless you wanted to talk to me tonight?”
I was asking innocently, there seemed to be so many things I needed to be caught up on. However, Liam’s face instantly darkened and he shook his head.
“No, I won’t be free tonight. If you have any questions, you can call Sheena at security,” He turned on his heel, suddenly, and was gone before I could stop him.
I sat at the desk, my mind whirling at what I possibly could have said wrong. I hadn’t meant to offend him, of course, and I couldn’t imagine how I had. Somehow, I must have managed.
Losing my motivation to unpack, I went to put my coat back on. I had never lived alone before, and it was certainly going to be lonely. At that moment, a small part of me I wanted nothing more than to head home, see my father for dinner, and sleep in my own bed. But that life was over.
CHAPTER 9: AMY
The first week of classes were a blur to me; a constant stream of people and text books; lines and instructions; hallways and colors. Unlike simply sitting in the classes and auditing them, I actually had to participate, to do the work, and answer questions. More than once, I found myself lost trying to find a small classroom, or backstage entrance. The students were helpful, friendly for the most part and willing to share their textbooks and scripts with me until I got my own … at least in the beginning. But as time went on, it was Liam who gave me the support I needed, making sure I had time to find my way and pausing to offer definitions of terms or words that must have obviously confused me. And soon, I found the friendly looks from others turning to raised eyebrows, and snickering; dirty glares that would have stopped even the hardest heart in their tracks.
I told myself he was just being nice. He was helping me out. After all, we were to perform together soon, and so we had to work together. I even tried telling the others that. But soon, I found being at school was not much different than being at home. I was isolated, alone and different. The walls were thin, and I could a lot through them. I was used to sleeping in pitch darkness and dead silence. But at school, with the hall light constantly on, and the thin walls, I got neither.
It’s just that…I don’t know. Maybe I’m so useless and need all this extra attention, so they are frustrated with me. And my lack of talent. I texted Sarah one evening, as I sat in one of the common rooms alone. I was supposed to be writing out a modern day translation of a Shakespeare verse, but I found myself unable to focus.
Are you kidding? They’re jealous. She replied back instantly. You beat out a million girls for a scholarship, you’re awesome and gorgeous, and the hot movie star/headmaster is paying attention to you. Why are you sad?! This is the ride of your life!
Maybe he thinks I’m so useless that I’m ‘special.’ I replied back, sullenly. And that’s why he has to stop every five seconds to tell me what something means.
Video chat. Now. Came the reply, and I sighed. I didn’t really have an excuse to say no to her, now that I was at school with free unlimited Wi-Fi. Our video chats could go on for hours without me worrying about our internet bill. I hit the screen share button and waited for her camera to load up, holding the phone up to my face.
Sarah was pretty, in a kind of exotic way. Her hair was cropped short, in a style I never dared to try, and she always wore eye shadow that made her almond shaped eyes pop. Up in Canada, she was a community theater actor, being forced by her parents to study finance in University. However, that didn’t stop her from dressing like Madonna and auditioning for everything she could find. She had spunk, energy about her that I always envied.
“You know what you should do?” She said, as soon as her face popped up. Sarah had a liquid French accent that I imagined made every man around her want her. “Take me on a tour of your school. The Wi-Fi goes all over, right?”
“Nooo,” I whined, leaning back in my chair. “It’s getting dark and I want to go to bed.”
“But you’ll just lie in bed for hours and listen to whoever is sobbing their eyes out every night continue to do so. Besides, it’s like 8pm, Amy, you’re acting like a 50 year old.”
“Hey,” I grinned at that, struggling to my feet. “I have a disease, you know.”
“There’s the disease…and then there’s just you,” Sarah teased me. “Or you can sit here and tell me how gorgeous Liam is.” I sighed, and hit the button for the rear camera, so she could see things from my point of view.
“Alright, fine,” I stood up, heading out into the hallway. “But if I get in trouble for illegally filming or something, I’m sending them to arrest you too.”
“Show me Liam!” Sarah said to me, and I rolled my eyes, quickly turning the camera around and pulling my headphones out of my pocket, so the whole corridor wouldn’t hear her outbursts.
“Sarah, hush,” I said, burning with embarrassment. “I don’t know where he is, geez.”
“I thought he was always with you?” She teased, and I rolled my eyes. “Ooo, what’s that?”
“That’s the dance studio for the juniors,” I said, putting the phone up to the window. It was empty, but she could still see the barre decorated with Disney characters and the multicolored lights.
“Wow. You could have had so much fun as a kid,” Sarah said, as I continued to walk, angling the camera to show her various pictures or sticking it into classrooms so she could see my daily environment. I was just about to see if the theater was open when I was distracted by the sudden sound of breaking glass. Sarah must have seen my eyes dart away, because she leaned forward.
“What?”
“Hold on a second,” I said, walking carefully towards the sound. Curiosity killed the cat, my father always used to tell me. However, I ignored his voice ringing in my ears as I peeked around the corner to the classroom.
“LIAM! OMG!” Sarah almost deafened me with her scream. I gave the phone a quick glare, wincing. Sure enough, inside the class room, was Liam, standing in the middle and waving his arms. Porsche sat on a desk, glaring at him.