Page 138 of Brutal Little Secrets

“If he tries anything…” His words are for me alone.

“I’ll tell a teacher. That’s why they’re there.” I lift his head and look into his blue eyes. “You can’t always be there to protect me. I love you for it, but I can hold my own, especially with Chase.”

“That’s my little devil.” He gives me a cocky grin.

I lean in and kiss him. It’s so easy to lose myself in the hint of mint and taste of Damon.

Someone clears her throat. I pull back and look over my shoulder at Mia. She gives a little finger wave. Heat washes through me at how intimately Damon and I are locked together. At school. Not being able to touch him made it easy to avoid touching him through the school day. Now that I can, all I want to do is touch him.

“Figured you’d like some backup heading to acting?” Mia smiles, and her eyes sparkle.

Damon helps me stand. “Text me if anything happens.”

I nod, but my cheeks are red. It’s so hard to think when they touch me. The courtyard wasn’t completely empty. Abby and her friends stand off to the side. When they notice me noticing them, they give me a look of disdain and head inside.

So, business as usual.

“I’ve got her from here.” Mia winks at Damon, who rolls his eyes.

The guys follow us to the intersection of the schools and then head off to their afternoon classes while Mia and I head to the black box theater. We’re a little early, so I touch her arm as I head over to Mr. Watson.

“Can I talk to you?” I gesture toward the sound booth.

He nods and leads the way.

“Did you get my email?” I ask when the door is shut. I can see Mia, but I know she can’t hear us in here.

Mr. Watson rests his hip on the counter and crosses his arms. His back is to the glass. “It’s your production, EvanAnn. What do you want to do?”

“I don’t want Chase to fail because we broke up, and it wasn’t an easy split.” I sigh and watch the classroom fill with students I’ve been with for the past three years.

“The difference is that you didn’t blow up at him while at practice.” Mr. Watson sighs. “It doesn’t matter what you did or what he did. What matters is how you behave during rehearsal time. That’s sacred space. He wasted everyone’s time and threatened another student.”

Mr. Watson isn’t wrong. I didn’t so much as blink at rehearsal after Chase left me out in the middle of nowhere or after I found out about the cheating. Hell, I saw the cheating. Chase just heard about it from Olivia.

“We can bring Brandt into this discussion if it would make you more comfortable.” Mr. Watson straightened. “If Chaseneeds to be off your production, then he would need a spot on Brandt’s. There might be someone you could exchange for.”

“If I were to recast, I would have Jason perform as Iago and whoever came in would need to understudy Cassio.” But the real problem is Chase is Iago. “I do think Chase is the best actor for the part still.”

Mr. Watson nods thoughtfully. “After class, we’ll talk. You, me, and Chase. If we can’t come to an agreement, then we can talk with Brandt to see if he has a solution.”

“I think that will work.” I’m still not sold, but at least we have a course of action now.

Chase sits in his chair like a sullen toddler. Legs kicked out. Arms crossed. A frown on his face. He looks ridiculous because he didn’t get his way. He didn’t get to keep me and fuck around too.

We sit across from each other, and Mr. Watson sits between us.

“What we need to know, Chase,” Mr. Watson begins, “is if you’re going to be able to keep this production professional and keep your personal life outside of rehearsals?”

Chase’s eyes narrow before he releases his breath, but he keeps his lips pressed shut. Fine. I can be the bigger person.

“I’m willing to ignore Sunday’s interruption,” I say. “But that’s the extent of it. You don’t bring negative energy to my rehearsal, and you don’t waste my actors’ time.”

He leans forward. His gaze flicks to me before he looks at Mr. Watson. “What are my options?”

My chest tightens. Jason will do fine as Iago, but Chase would give a brilliant performance. I wasn’t blowing smoke uphis ass about him being suited for Iago. And the more I find out about the real him, the more I see the character Iago is part of who he is.

Mr. Watson leans forward and clasps his hands between his knees. “You have a lead role inOthello. If you don’t think this will work, we can discuss with Brandt what he can do for you onthe Crucible. But it won’t be a lead role and may not even be a walk on. You might have to work backstage.”