Free Between You & Me by Marisa Calin Page A

take shape. At least this is my chance to spend time with Mia. My new sense of purpose intensifies as I walk; I’m recognizing with every step how imperative it is that I get this part. If I don’t, I can’t begin to imagine the jealousy that I’ll have to live with—about all the time she’ll be spending with someone who isn’t me.

MY BEDROOM. THAT EVENING.
    First thing when I get home from a tediously long shift at Peele’s, I run upstairs and fling myself down on my bed, pulling Mia’s script carefully out of my bag. Lying on my front, I tuck my hair behind my ears and press open the paper cover. Holly pushes through the door and jumps up onto the bed, stepping across the small of my back to find a choice spot on the windowsill. I reach to rub the top of her head, and then start to read …

    THE PRICE HOUSE. EVENING. 1950.
    The bedroom of Lily Price. A record player plays jazz. Lily, seventeen, a pretty, vivacious small-town girl, turns it up. She sweeps her hair out of her face and dances to the music. She puts on lipstick, curls her eyelashes, and then fastens her necklace and smooths it down beneath the collar of her satin dress. Abuzz with nerves and excitement, she is almost ready for her first date with Michael. She has dreamed of this moment. He should be here any minute.
    The front doorbell rings. She takes one last look in the mirror, sprays herself with perfume, and runs down the stairs into the kitchen. Bobby, their farmhand, is sitting down for soup at the kitchen table. He grins at her affectionately.
    BOBBY
    Where are you going, Miss Price?
    LILY
    Never you mind.
    BOBBY
    But I do.
    LILY
    I’m going on a real date, Bobby, with a real man.
    BOBBY
    Fine by me. You’ll come back when you know what’s right for you.
    LILY
    You just see if I do.
    She snaps her purse shut, shoots him one last glare, and stalks out the door as sexily as she knows how.

    MOM
    Phyre.
    I flip the play shut. Mom is calling from downstairs. I consider pretending I didn’t hear but she calls again.
    ME
    Yeah!
    I can’t hear her reply, so I reluctantly slide off the bed and go into the hall. At the bottom of the stairs, I see
you
beside her, looking up at me.
    ME
    Hi!
    Right now I’d rather read the play than anything but as I look down at your open expression and Mom disappears back into the kitchen, I figure I can spare a minute. Trotting down the stairs, I jump the last step and meet your gaze.
    YOU
    So what did she say?
    You haven’t taken off your coat yet so, instead of inviting you in, I pull my sweater off the peg by the door and we go into the garden. There’s a chill in the air but it smells good out and we wander over to the tree house we built in fifth grade. “Tree house” equals plank between two branches, barely five feet off the ground, but it seemed death defying at the time. We squeeze side by side onto the plank, legs dangling.
    YOU
    So?
    ME
    Mia thinks I should audition for the play this year.
    I look at you in the light from the windows of the house, wondering if your expression will give away the “Is that all?” that I tried not to feel.
    YOU
    Of course you should!
    I smile.
    ME
    She gave me a copy and I had just started reading—
    YOU
    Oh, sorry, would you rather get back to it?
    ME
    No. No, that’s okay.
    Sitting in the tree beside you, staring up at the night sky, it really does seem okay. The breeze picks up and makes me shiver.
    YOU
    Cold?
    I shake my head, even though I am a little. Then, forgetting that I wanted to be by myself tonight, I suggest we get hot chocolate and go up to my room to read the play together. We attempt a dismount at the same time, getting temporarily wedged together in the crook of the tree. After choreographing the maneuver, we head inside, laughing.

MY BEDROOM. SOON AFTER.
    You’re lying beside me with the play, catching up on the first scene. I roll onto my back and stare up at the