As soon as everyone split up and went to their tents, I ducked into EJ's to find him still aggressively highlighting.
"You haven't highlighted the entire script yet?" I asked, stepping inside and wrapping my arms around myself.
"Not yet." He mumbled. I walked over, sitting down on his cot.
"You mind if I join you, or...or you worried a conversation might be a waste of your time?"
He furrowed his eyebrows, looking up at me.
"Are you mad at me?" He asked.
"I'm not mad," I clarified, "I'm worried. EJ-"
"AAH!" I jumped as the tent flap opened and Ricky stuck his head in, screaming in an attempt to scare us. EJ just looked up at him, seeming vaguely annoyed.
"Dude, this legend," Ricky said, coming into the tent, "We found like, a shrine in the woods. Let's go."
"I can't," He said seriously, "I have to finish this thing before-"
"Wait," Gina stuck her head in too, "What's the thing in the woods?"
"Its literally the spookiest thing I've ever seen and I've seen Hereditary. Megan, tell them. We found it earlier."
"We?" EJ asked looking over at us. His eyes flitted between Ricky and I before falling onto the flannel shirt that I was still wearing. I looked down at it, quickly taking it off and shoving it against Ricky's chest.
"Aw, come on, let's go, Me-J." Gina tried, trying to lighten the mood.
"EJ-" I started.
"Don't mind me," Ashlyn said, poking her head in "Just having a teeny tiny identity crisis. EJ, do you remember when I was born? I just need to know if it was 11:37 AM or 11:37 PM."
"Everyone stop!" EJ shouted, turning around to face us. "It was 11:37 AM, I know that because my mom always tells me how you forever ruined the eggs Benedict. Remember? Eggs Benedict is a strictly morning dish." He turned to Ricky and Gina. "No, I can't come and see the shrine tonight. I have to finish marking up the script before Corbin comes tomorrow. I've got a lot, on my plate and-"
"You gotta focus," Gina finished for him, "We get it...come on guys."
She walked out, dragging Ashlyn with her. Ricky glanced at both of us, still holding his wadded up shirt, but he wasn't far behind, leaving EJ and I alone in the tent. I looked over at him and He sighed, raking a hand through his hair.
"I'm sorry." He said quietly. I just sat down, not responding as I took the binder out of his hand, flipping it to the end and grabbing a handful of pages. "What are you doing?"
I opened the clips, taking out half of Act Two and closing it again before handing the binder back to him. I pulled his backpack closer to me, grabbing a highlighter and sitting cross legged before pulling the pages into my lap and beginning to highlight.
"Megan-"
"Why are we still talking?" I asked, looking up at him. "Corbin will be here tomorrow, and we still have an entire Act to mark up so...let's get to work, yeah?"
"You don't need to help me," He said, "You should go with them. Its Newbie night, have fun, go look at the alter or whatever."
"Its not going to be fun if I' out there all night worrying about you," I pointed out, "You are focused on the show, and that's great, I love that. But I'm not gonna go goof around with the rest of our friends and leave you in here to stress all by yourself. So shut up and let me help you."
He sighed, but smiled nonetheless, reaching over and squeezing my knee before going back to his own pages.
Our somewhat comfortable, somewhat tense silence lasted about...five seconds.
"Why were you wearing his shirt?" EJ asked. "And what were you doing out wandering the woods with him?"
"You just told me to go wander the woods with him." I pointed out.
"Yeah, with him and Gina, not you and him alone."
"We weren't alone...the whole time, we ran into Jet." I argued. He shot me an unamused look. "He was taking me to the bathroom, EJ! He gave me his shirt because I was cold, and he's my friend!"
"Yeah, well, we were friends once too, but that didn't stop you from being in love with me." He retorted. My eyes went wide and he winced. "Megan-"
"Are you comparing me to Ricky right now?" I asked. "Are you insinuating that I stole you from Nini?"
"Of course not-"
"Of course not?" I repeated. "Then tell me what you meant, EJ, because if Ricky, is me in this situation, supposedly having a crush on the person who is very clearly in a relationship, then it sounds to me like you're saying your break up with Nini was my fault, which we both know is not true."
"And I wasn't saying that! Can you just stop jumping to conclusions, assuming you know what I'm trying to say?! That's how we ended up in that mess last semester in the first place!"
I quickly closed my mouth, tears welling up in my eyes.
"Ok, no...no, Meg, I definitely did not mean that. I have no idea why I said that."
I slapped the script down onto his cot, tossing the highlighter away from me and standing up, heading for the opening of the tent.
"No, please, don't leave," He stood up, "I'm sorry, Megan. I shouldn't have said that, it was stupid-"
"We really don't need to talk about this anymore," I said, pushing the flap of the tent aside and turning around to look at him, "Wouldn't want to waste any more of your time...Mr. Director."
I left the tent, deciding to just give up on the whole campout thing and spend the night alone, in the Honeycomb cabin. I wrapped my arms around myself, feeling cold for multiple reasons outside of the loss of Ricky's shirt.
When I got back to camp, I heard screaming coming from the barn, and in spite of the tears that were still wet on my cheeks, my curiosity got the better of me and sent me running through the doors.
I found Ashlyn sitting at the piano in a stand-off with a terrified Ricky and Gina.
"What the frick is going on in here?!" I exclaimed.
"We thought...she was the woman in the woods." Ricky breathed as Gina cowered behind him.
And suddenly, my sadness and frustration at the argument I'd just had didn't matter, because I was chuckling. Then I was giggling. Then Gina, Ricky, and Ashlyn were laughing along with me, and before long, we were all holding our stomachs in pain as a different kind of tears flowed down our cheeks.
And I forgot about it for a moment...
Just for a moment.
~~~
"Ok, I think I get it." Ricky said. He was pacing in front of us, while Gina, Ashlyn, and I sat together on the barn stage, and the girls were trying to explain 'Mercury in retrograde' to him, "Because of an optical illusion, right, it seems like Mercury's going backwards, right?"
"Right." Ashlyn said, while they nodded in agreement.
"And when this is happening, bad things happen." Ricky confirmed.
"Its science."
"And Mercury's in retrograde? Right now?" He questioned.
I leaned my chin on my knee.
"Kinda seems like it." I muttered, smiling sadly at him.
"Honestly?" Ashlyn asked. "Honestly, no, I just...I wanted to blame the whole Val, ensemble casting thing on something out of my control."
I looked up at her sadly and she shook her head, pointing a finger at me.
"No, Megan, don't you dare feel guilty about getting Anna."
Gina wrapped her arms around Ashlyn's neck, hugging her.
"Its ok Ash, you were bummed," Gina comforted her, "You wanted an explanation."
"Last semester, I didn't think I could be a leading lady," She said, "And tonight I found out I was born at brunch time. Guess there's always something new to learn."
I leaned my head on her shoulder, and Gina rubbed her back.
"Is that it, Ash?" Ricky said, clearly sensing there was something else on her mind.
"This um...Corbin Bleu TV show thing," She said, her voice wobbling slightly, "I thought it was gonna be like, my big break."
"It still could be!" I told her. "People are gonna be looking at everyone in this cast-"
"Nah," She denied, turning to look at me, "But I think it could be yours. More so of a break then you have, even online, Anna...and you deserve it."
I bit my lip, the tears starting again as I wrapped my arms around her shoulders and hugged her.
She chuckled, fist bumping Gina before standing up.
"Goodnight cool ids," She said "Leo Rising, out."
She walked to the door, exiting the barn and leaving the three of us alone. I propped my chin on my knee, my sadness catching up with me again.
"Don't let the woman in the woods get ya." Ricky called after her. He and Gina did mock screams and I smiled, watching as she went.
"She's right, you know," Ricky said, turning back to me, "This could be your big-er break."
I raised my eyebrows skeptically.
"I'm serious, you're Anna, that's like, a big deal." He said. "I'm proud of you."
"Me too." Gina agreed, hugging me now. I smiled, hugging her back.
"The only problem is...I don't know if I even want a big break," I admitted, "I don't...I don't know what I want."
"Well you don't have to figure it out right this second," Gina told me, "For now you could just have some fun, enjoy getting your first leading role."
I shrugged nodding in agreement.
"Your boyfriend could use some of that." Ricky pointed out. I Nodded, averting my eyes to my feet.
"Um...Ricky, if you get a chance, could you make it...abundantly clear to him that you and I are never going to happen?" I asked. He nodded.
"Don't know why he thinks that, but sure I'll talk to him."
"Really?" Gina asked skeptically. "I mean, you do have a history of stealing his girlfriends."
"Ok..." I chuckled, leaning on Gina's shoulder.
"I just wanted this summer to be fun," I said quietly, "What's so wrong about that?"
"Nothing, sweetie." Gina cooed. "EJ is just...stressed. And sometimes when he's stressed or angry or...scared, he says things he doesn't mean. He's like that one...oh, that Taylor Swift lyric, what is that?"
"My words shoot to kill when I'm mad?" I quoted.
"I have a lot of regrets about that," She finished, "I'm sure he does too."
~~~EJ~~~
"There you are!"
I looked up from my conversation with Carlos as Kourtnee stormed into the tent.
"Carlos, you need to stop leaving our tent without a hall pass! I woke up and you were gone and I thought you were dead."
"For the millionth time, the woman in the woods is not real." I told her. By now I had taken my hoodie off and wrapped a blanket around my shoulders. I'd also spent the last hour beating myself up about how awful I was to Megan earlier, and then Carlos came in, I explained it to him, and he helped me beat myself up too.
"He's in a tough place tonight." Carlos told her.
"Ugh! So am I! Gee, I wonder why I can barely sleep, tonight, when I've reached the pinnacle of my theater career."
"Don't look at me. The monster costume was Ricky's idea."
"Guys, I really don't mean to be rude," I interrupted, "But I have much bigger things happening."
"What's bigger than monsters?"
I held up my camp walkie talkie, tossing it down onto the table.
"Well, there are three issues," Carlos said, "One, Dewey called with an update. Corbin Bleu is coming extra early."
"Oh!" Kourtnee sat down.
"Its a major code red. We're doing a first readthrough before I've had my third cup of coffee."
"What's the second issue?"
"EJ and Megan got in an argument and he said some pretty nasty things to her," Carlos told her, "Like really bad, like If I said anything that bad to Seb, he'd probably break up with me on the spot-"
"Thank you, for the insight Carlos. Really helpful." I said dryly.
"And third...Ricky and Megan are 100% missing."
"What!?" I asked, sitting up straight.
After all of that?! She's out there, alone, in the woods, with him!?
"What if the woman in the woods-"
"Kourt, I'm gonna stop you right there."
"But-"
"Carlos is right," I said "I'm sure Ricky and Megan are...fine."
I closed my reassembled binder, tossing it onto the table.