Cast Party.
As we all prepared to leave I felt my heart began to break. This couldn’t be ending. It felt as if things had just gotten started. It just didn’t feel right. Simon saw my eyes begin to swell and he pulled me into him. I dug my face into his shoulder but I knew that I had many goodbyes to say and not a lot of time to say them. I looked up from his shoulder to see what seemed, an endless sea of faces that all looked up to me. Some were faces I had known for a while, some where faces I had just met this year, a few where those of people who made me smile endlessly, and one was a face I knew I wouldn’t see again. The tears that began to form in my eyes spilled over and down my face. It was time for the heart-wrenching goodbyes I had been dreading all year. Fiona’s little sister, Kate, was first. She opened her arms for me to hug her and I pulled her into me. As I embraced her I could hear small sobs leaving her. Kate was like the little sister I never had and I loved her. I would miss her, but I knew that with the new bond between Fiona and I, I would be seeing a lot of her.
“You have to promise to come and visit.” she said sorrowfully. I let out a small laugh.
“Trust me, you’re going to be seeing so much of me, you’ll get sick of me.” I reassured her. She pulled apart from me to reveal that she was crying. My heart twinged. This was going to be even harder than I thought.
Fiona was next. She was of course holding on tight to Keith, as I was to Simon. I looked at her eyes and noticed that like me, her face was red and her eyes were foggy. The two of us smiled at each other before we lunged into a sisterly hug. Over the course of this show, the two of us had shared giggles and frustrations and we became infinitely closer, something I was grateful for. Finally we separated and looked at each other with sad grins.
The good-byes continued, and with every farewell I had to mutter, I felt myself getting weaker and weaker.
“I’ll never forget you! You’re so talented and such an inspiration to me, I’ll never ever forget you.” One confessed to me between cries. I begged with her to stop, why did everyone have to make this so hard? That was it, I couldn’t take this anymore. I was going to pass out from sadness, right there, in front of everyone. I ran to Simon. I was sure I looked pitiful with eyeliner and mascara streaks painted on my face, and I knew my mother and father were watching but it didn’t matter. I fell into his arms and he held me tight and tenderly while tears continued to leave my eyes.
“I don’t want to go to high school!”
“I don’t want you to go to high school. I love you so much you don’t even know.” he confessed. I shut my eyes tightly and tried to think of something to say. He just told you he loved you. Say something, ANYTHING! I thought to myself. My emotions twisted. Was I ready to tell him I loved him? SAY SOMETHING NOW!
“How do you do that? How do you always know what to say?” It was true. Simon always seemed to know what to say, how to say it, and when to say it. He was perfect in so many ways. And even though I wasn’t ready to vocalize it, I did love him.
“You make it easy Tabitha, you make it easy.” My body turned to mush in his embrace. I squeezed him tighter as he pulled me closer to him. It was a miserably beautiful moment and I never wanted it to end. I never wanted to separate from him. But I knew I had to. There was still many people I had to say goodbye to and time was of the essence. We broke apart. I saw his eyes glitter and I realized, I wasn’t the only one who’s emotions were being ripped to shreds. I turned around to continue and I saw Aurora. I was sure her face resembled mine, flushed and stained with makeup. This was a hard one. I flung my arms around her and brought her close to me. She cried to me as I spoke.
“You have become my best friend. I love you so much. You’ve been there for me when other’s haven’t. You’re my best friend.” I whispered. Her cries intensified and I hugged her tighter. It was all true. She seemed to be one of the only people I never got tired of and in the past months I had come to realize that we were more alike then even my sister and I were at times. Aurora, I had come to realize, was, my sister. I let go of Aurora and looked at her in silence. There was nothing more to be said and there was nothing else I could do but cry. I looked over her shoulder to see Rose. Her usually smiling face was set in a heart breaking frown. If I thought saying goodbye to Aurora was hard, then saying goodbye to Rose was going to be impossible. Rose was the one person I could count on to cheer me up whenever it was necessary, she always smiling and laughing and always happy. Her optimism and wisdom were traits that I had always admired and I didn’t know how we were going to manage when she moved to Kentucky in 2 weeks. She instantly pulled me into a hug. This was so unfair. Why did she have to leave? Why did I have to leave? Why did everything have to end when it was just getting started?
“You aren’t leaving!” I told her.
“I’m tying you to that flag pole and you are not going anywhere, you hear me?” My brain went through numerous ways of keeping her from leaving but ultimately I knew that she had to, and I knew that I would probably never see her again. But just in that moment I tried to convince myself that she wasn’t going anywhere. That when I came to visit next year she would scream my name in that infamous Rose way and go running up to me. But somewhere in my rational brain, I knew that my it was in my head.
I heard her breaths sharpen and I could tell she was having just a hard time accepting her imminent fate as I was.
“You’re going to be on Broadway Tabitha. You’re going to grow up and take over Broadway and you’re going to star in Rent. You’re going to be as big as Idina Menzel.” She tried to calm me down but it wasn’t working. It only made me realize how much I was really going to miss her.
“No, you’re going to be bigger than Idina Menzel. You’re going to be the biggest Broadway star there ever was. And I’m going to come to New York and sit in the 1st row of every show you’re in.” I appreciated her attempt at making me feel better but with every word she spoke it hurt even more. I held her tighter, thinking that maybe if I held her tight enough, she wouldn’t have to leave.
I felt someone else’s presence beside me and I looked to see who it was. It was Aurora, red faced and heart broken, just as we all were. Rose and I pulled her into our hug. There we stood for a long while. Eventually I broke apart from Rose and Aurora and turned around to see Simon standing right behind me. He had been watching, waiting, and had never left my side. No words needed to be said as he pulled me in close to his body. Nothing would comfort me more than this, more than his loving arms. They were band-aids, helping to heal the wounds inside of me. I couldn’t ask for anything more.
“Alright guys, we’ve got to get going!” we heard our music teacher shout. It was almost 10:30 and being on school grounds at this time of night wasn’t something that the administration was too pleased about. But I wasn’t ready to go home, not yet, not ever. As far as I was concerned, I could stand here with Simon forever and be perfectly content. My parents, however, were a different story. They were tired and they waned to go home. Reluctantly, I took my arms away from Simon and looked at his dark and beautiful face. I tried to think of a humorous parting line but my mind could only conjure one phrase. I love you. I began to open my mouth to tell him but as hard as I tried, I couldn’t muster it. Not because I didn’t love him, but because it was too cliche. Nevertheless, I did love him and I wanted him to know. My chance came and went however as we were shooed off the campus. The two of us walked to the outside of the music room where my mother and our teacher were standing, neither of us saying a word. What else was there to say? I couldn’t think of anything. As we approached my mother I instinctively tried to hide the fact that I was upset. For some reason, I hated showing weakness to my mother, and tonight was no exception.
“I left my stuff in the music room.” Simon muttered quietly. He shuffled away to collect his things, it was the first time he had left my side all night. I contemplated whether or not to follow him. I decided that following him would be awkward, as neither of us knew what to say to the other.
“Ready to go?”my mom asked me. I would never be ready to go. This school had been my home for so long, and although I would be coming back on Monday, it wouldn’t be the same. It would never be the same. Nonetheless, I nodded and the two of us made our way to the parking lot where my father and brother were waiting in the car. I walked as slowly as possible, hoping that I would be able to catch Simon before I left. I got the gate and heard the gym door open. There was Simon, trying to put on his shoes and hold open the door at the same time. I acted nonchalant and continued to walk forward where Aurora was standing. I gave her one last big hug as I waited for Simon to catch up with us. Acting nonchalant was not one of my talents for I kept turning around to take glances of Simon, watching to see if he was moving towards the 2 of us. Surely enough, he was.
“We should do something on Monday, after school. I’ll go insane if I have to just go home.” Aurora suggested as Simon came up behind us.
“Yeah.” I said. “That would be good.” The two of us looked at Simon for approval and he nodded at us.
“That’s my mom.” Aurora nodded toward a light blue car that was coming up the driveway to the school. She made a face and I could tell she would resent that little blue car for coming and taking her away from somewhere, something, that meant so much to her and to all of us. Lord knew that I would resent the world for the same thing.
As the car stopped in front of us she turned around to say goodbye one more time. She gave us what I could tell was her best faux smile and hugged us both once before getting into the car and leaving. It was just Simon and I now.
“Are you getting picked up?” I asked him casually.
“Yeah my dad is going to come and walk with me.” He replied blankly. It felt as if we had just gotten into some terrible fight that neither of us wanted to talk about. But it was the polar opposite, not too long before he had told me that he loved me, and I didn’t say it back. Could he possibly be mad at me for that? We were just kids, and he had said those 3 little words to his last girlfriend as well, could he really blame me for being skeptic? I decided to face it head on. I moved closer to him as I asked,
“Simon, tonight, when you told me...you...loved me.” I paused, afraid to go on.
“Were you just caught up in the moment or...what?”
“Or what?”he asked. I didn’t want to say it but he seemed he was going to make me.
“Did you mean it?” I asked quietly, hoping I hadn’t offended him. He sighed.
“Tabitha...” he took my hands and looked straight into my eyes.
“I meant it, I really did.”
“Really?” I asked skeptically.
“Yes.”he said as I grinned.
“I do too.” I squeezed his hands as I said this.
“Really?” It was his turn to be skeptic.
“Yeah. Actually, I think I have for sometime now.” I had thrown this idea around in my head many more times than one. Simon was different from any other boy I have ever known. He did things to me that no one had ever did and he made me feel like no one else did. I loved him, I loved him with all my heart and soul. No more words needed to be spoken. We had just said it all.
“Ok Tabitha, let’s go.” my mother said as she walked right past me and towards our car. The smile on my face quickly went sour. I didn’t want to go, how could I leave now? I didn’t move at first, testing to see how long I could stand here before my mom started to get frustrated with me. It wasn’t long at all.
“Come on Tabitha!”she yelled back at me. Damn it.
“Go,” Simon said.
“I’ll talk to you later.”
I whimpered. “But I don’t want to go.”
“I don’t want you to leave either.”
“Tabitha! Now!”My mother was getting angry with me, but I didn’t care. I didn’t want to go anywhere, not now, not without Simon.
“You should go, look there’s my dad. I have to go too.” he cut me off before I could start to pout.
“Ok.” I said dejectedly There was no bargaining now, we had to leave. I put my arms around him and hugged him lovingly.
“TABITHA! LET’S GO!” my mother always knew how to interrupt.
“Bye.” I whispered as I began to let go of him.
“Bye Tabitha.” I looked at him with a heavy heart. Why were my emotions so twisted? I was so incredibly gleeful about Simon but absolutely brokenhearted about having to leave the school and The Wizard of Oz. I walked away, turning around to look at his caring face one more time before I left. As I did so, tears formed in my eyes once more. I didn’t know how I was going to make it home without completely breaking down.
My body felt weak as I stepped up into the car and shut the door. I looked at the school one more time and I knew from here on out, nothing would ever be the same.
Key
Simon=Tom
Fiona=Alexandra
Kate=Katherine
Keith=Kael (Obviously, Lol)
Aurora=Mackenzie
Rose=Audrey
Tabitha=Me
I think that's it but if you're still confused. Ask.