Page 209 of Charming Like Us

Oslie stans still exist, but there’s a stronger fanbase around my relationship now. All because of one video.

Just one changed everything.

Paparazzi caught footage of Oscar spinning around my baseball cap and kissing me. We were grinning, and I might’ve slapped his ass. People decided that one was “authentic”.

Fan sites popped up with headers and banners of orange juice. O & J—our initials.

“We have fans,” I tell him into a bite of cookie.

While his eyes sweep the theatre, he whispers, “Just don’t forget I’m still your number one fan, Highland.”

“Don’t forget I’m yours, Os.”

His hand slips into mine, mine into his. Our grins bigger, and we try to focus onRomeo & Juliet.All the Hales, Meadows, and Cobalts are here today, some strewn in other boxes. Some seated in the orchestra section. Leo Valavanis is out sick, and Beckett is filling in as Romeo for maybe the only time all season.

My parents are also here.

And my brother. Along with Oscar’s family. They’re shadowed in the darkened theatre. All in their own boxes, watching the ballet. Waiting for the end.

Yet, it’s not really the end for me.

The structure is all over the place, depending on the perspective. For some in the theatre, today is the rising action. For others, it’s the fall.

Maybe for people like Charlie, it’s eternally stuck at the beginning. And that’s the frustration of it all.

Act 1, Scene 2, the Capulet family hosts a ball. The stage is full of ballerinas and—

Thump!

One goes down.

The audience lets out a collective gasp. Oscar is hawk-eyed more on Charlie, and I realize he’s dropped the legs of his chair he’d been leaning back on. He’s bowed forward.

The young ballerina quickly rises to her feet. We’re close enough to see embarrassment shade her face. Hurrying, she continues the dance like nothing happened. She looks shorter than the girls next to her.

Charlie careens back to whisper to us, “Who is that?”

To free my hands, I bite onto the cookie I’m eating and flip through the program. Oscar is checking NDAs for her name on his cellphone. Since Beckett works here, the dancers have had background security checks.

Oscar finds her first. He leans forward and whispers, “Roxanne Ruiz. She’s eighteen.”

Charlie just turns forward, but I catch his smile.

Even with thatsmallhiccup in Act 2, the ballet ends with a standing ovation, and pink flowers are tossed onto the stage for Beckett and the other dancers. I hear whistling from the audience, and I’m almost positive it’s Jane Cobalt and Daisy Calloway.

The lobby.

We all wait for Beckett Cobalt in the lobby as the whole theatre begins to clear out. Security ushers some stragglers to the exit. They want to take more selfies with the Calloway sisters.

Oscar stays near Charlie, who loiters in the direct middle. On purpose. I asked him to.

I’m sweating bullets. And I unwrap a lime-flavored sucker and stick it in my mouth.

“Love that shirt,” Oscar says, motioning to the white button-down I wear.Hisbutton-down. Everyone is in formal attire. “How many more are you going to steal from me, Long Beach?”

“Probably all of them,” I smile widely, sucker up against my cheek. “You want it back?”

“I have a feeling that even if I sayyes, I won’t see it again.”