Pluck Out The Heart To See What Makes It Move
“Okay everyone, let’s take five! Take a piss or smoke a cigarette, but you don’t have time for both!” Dr. Ansary called out, clapping her hands together.
I sighed. We had been at rehearsal for almost two hours and I had barely set foot on the stage at all. I knew Dr. Ansary was trying to help all of us get a feel for the show by sitting in the audience for such long expanses of time while everyone else fiddled with their blocking, but I could not recall the last time I had been so bored. Most of the rehearsal, at least when Dr. Ansary wasn’t looking, I had spent trying to read Ulysses, a feat I was quite confident I would not accomplish. As I stared at the page, plotting ways to go back in time and prevent James Joyce from ever writing the novel, I felt someone sit down beside me.
“I bet this is boring you out of your mind, huh?” Donovan’s voice was soft and smooth and I could nearly hear the flirtatious smile creeping across his face.
“Yeah, and not just because I’ve read the play a million times,” I replied, my eyes still glued to the same page I had been staring at for a good ten minutes.
“Then maybe you don’t need my help running lines after all…” Donovan trailed off, his eyes big and pleading. I had to admit he was rather good looking and eerily similar to how I had always pictured Hamlet to look. It was no secret that the melancholy Dane was my favorite literary character. Some girls loved Holden Caulfield, but not me. Maybe this Donovan boy wasn’t so bad after all.
I closed my book and smiled up at Donovan. “I don’t know about that. We could still get together some time, I suppose. More practice is always a good thing, isn’t it?”
“Definitely. Tomorrow night?” He asked. “Unless you have other plans, of course.”
“Tomorrow night sounds good to me,” I replied.
“Great. Coffee and Hamlet it is, then. Your cell number is on the cast list in the green room, right?”
Before I could make any reply other than a small nod, Dr. Ansary burst back into the room, once again clapping her hands and announcing the scene we were picking things up at. Surprisingly, I did make a tiny appearance in that scene. I scurried backstage to wait in the wings for my entrance.
While I waited, I peered through the curtain. One tiny beam of light streamed through, illuminating Donovan’s figure on stage. It was a date, wasn’t it? He asked me on a date. I couldn’t quite wrap my brain around it. My last date had required a dress with far too many sequins and roses that made my nose itchy and red by the end of the night. I had a feeling this one would be rather different, and that was perfectly alright.
I wasn’t kidding when I told Donovan I had read Hamlet a million times. Peppering my speech with hyperbole, perhaps. But nevertheless, I knew the play inside and out. I vowed to humor him anyway, and tried to smile pleasantly as he stumbled through the monologues between sips of iced coffee. He was a good actor, and the love scenes, or what passed as such, were coming together quite well, even if he was struggling to get everything memorized.
“Oh, what a rogue and peasant slave am I…”
I listened to him for a moment, as he worked through the speech a few lines at a time, pausing occasionally to reconsider the sound or meaning of certain words. It was a bit boring to just observe the process. I slid my hand across the table to touch Donovan’s, gently getting his attention. “I’m gonna go grab another coffee, alright? And probably a little snack, do you want anything?”
He shook his head. “No, I’m fine. I’ll just run through this soliloquy a few more times while you’re gone.”
I nodded and stood up, grabbing my purse. We were in the same Starbucks which every VCU student appeared to have a preference for, but it was late enough that the cafe was nearly deserted. I walked toward the counter, and I could hear Taylor’s voice pouring out of the back room. The words were muffled by the music funneling out of a speaker somewhere above my head, but it sounded like he was in the middle of an argument.
A few seconds later, Taylor emerged from the back, wiping chocolate frosting from his face. I raised an eyebrow but couldn’t even formulate an appropriate question for the scene at hand.
“Don’t ask. Don’t fucking ask,” Taylor answered my unasked question, burying his face in a towel from beside the sink.
I recognized the high-pitched laugh before I saw its source. Then another figure emerged from the back room, a cupcake in each hand.
“Zac?”
He looked up and I saw a hint of surprise on his face before he smiled. “Toria! Hey, what’s up?”
“Not much, just running lines,” I replied, motioning toward the table where Donovan sat. “Zac… did you–”
“I didn’t throw it!”
Taylor removed the towel from his face and shot Zac an evil look.
“I dropped it.”
Another glare from Taylor.
“Sideways?”
Taylor walked over to Zac and rubbed his chocolate-icing covered towel all over Zac’s shirt. He leaned in close to Zac’s face and growled, “You. Bastard.”
Zac walked toward me, giggling softly. “Cupcake?”
“Don’t you think it’s a bit soon for pet names, honey pie?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Oh, shut up. Seriously, want a cupcake? I got red velvet and double chocolate,” he said, holding the cupcakes in front of my face.
I plucked the red velvet one from his hand. “Don’t mind if I do. Since when do you work here?”
“Nope, just dropped by to keep Taylor company. The other guy, Joseph, is back here too, but he’s taking a smoke break,” Zac replied, biting into the chocolate cupcake. “That’ll be three bucks, by the way.”
“Geez, that’s pretty steep, even for Starbucks,” I replied, licking a bit of frosting off my finger and taking a small bite of the cupcake.
“Well you gotta pay for the wonderful service too, you know. And service like this–” Zac said, posing and attempting a sexy face. “Doesn’t come cheap.”
I felt a shadow descend behind me and I turned my head to see Donovan standing there, script in hand.
“I was thinking maybe it was time for another coffee after all,” Donovan spoke.
Zac turned his head and yelled toward the back room. “Taylor! Come do your job, coffee boy!”
Donovan wrapped his arm around my shoulder. “Who’s your friend, Victoria? I don’t think we’ve met.”
Wiping cupcake crumbs off his shirt, Zac held his hand out. “I’m Zac. Me and Toria have a couple classes together.”
Taylor walked over and handed Donovan a fresh coffee. He took out a few bills and laid them on the counter, then turned back to look at me. “Well, I think I need to run. I’ve had fun tonight, though.”
“Alright, I’ve got some other homework to get done before tomorrow anyway,” I replied, then added as an afterthought, “I had fun, too.”
“Great. I’ll see you at rehearsal,” Donovan said, then leaned down and placed a small kiss on my forehead. I stood there stunned as he walked away, swaying slightly with a confidence that unnerved me.
I watched him walk out of the coffee shop, then turned to look at Zac. His mouth hung open for a moment like he wanted to speak but couldn’t. I offered him a small shrug and what I hoped passed for a smile. He shoved the rest of the cupcake in his mouth, and I almost thought it was an attempt to silence himself.
“Told ya he was interested,” Zac eventually said, his mouth still partially full of chocolate cupcake.
“Whatever,” I replied.
I wanted to say more, but I could see Taylor’s approach, a cupcake held in the air high above his head. He crept silently behind Zac, motioning for me to be quiet. With an exaggerated sweep of his arm, he brought the cupcake down on top of Zac’s head and smeared the frosting throughout his hair.
“You asshole!” Zac screeched, reaching his hand up and grabbing a handful of smushed icing and cake. “But I guess I deserve that.”
“Damn right you do,” Taylor replied, handing Zac the towel that he still had slung over his shoulder. I wondered how much good it would do, since it too was covered in chocolate.
Stifling my laughter, I said, “Well, speaking of people being interested, I know someone with a thing for Taylor.”
“Oh yeah?” Zac asked, idly licking cupcake remains off his figures.
“Yup. You know Whitley? She’s in theatre with me,” I replied.
Zac tilted his head to the side, looking as though he were in deep thought. “Light brownish hair? Tall? Eats lunch with you?”
I nodded. “That’s the one.”
Taylor didn’t speak for a moment. He looked blankly back and forth between Zac and me. “What?”
Zac tossed the towel to his brother. “You should go for it, Tay. She’s pretty cute.”
Taylor shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess. You know I work almost every night, though.”
“Take a night off? It won’t hurt anything,” Zac replied, walking over to the sink. He turned the water on and ducked his entire head under it. I gawked and pointed, and Taylor could do nothing but offer me another shrug.
Taylor walked over to the counter and leaned over it. “So who is this girl?”
“Like I said, her name is Whitley. She’s a sophomore, I think. She’s a theatre major, too. That’s how I know her. I’ll admit, I don’t know her that well yet, but she seems nice enough. And she’s definitely noticed you.”
“You think she’s interested?” Taylor asked, his already rosy cheeks turning a slightly darker shade.
I nodded. “Yup. She told me. You’ve got nothing to lose here, Tay. She’s already said she wants to go out with you, so you know she won’t say no. It’s all on you now.”
Taylor looked down at the counter, his golden bangs flopping down over his eyes. He staring at the marble for a moment, his hand reaching out to pick at an imaginary stain on the surface. Finally he looked up and I couldn’t quite place the emotion in his eyes. He almost looked sad, but maybe it was just nervousness. “Alright. I guess. We’ve got some new people starting here tomorrow, so I’ll be able to take time off once we’re not so short-staffed.”
I smiled. “That’s great! I’ll let her know you’re up for a date.”
“Where should I take her?” Taylor asked. “I haven’t been on a date in a long time.”
From the sink, Zac called out, “You’ve been on plenty of dates! They just all ended with you waking up naked in an unfamiliar room.”
Taylor frowned at his brother’s back. “Do you want another cupcake to the head?”
“Children. Behave!” I spoke, trying to sound stern. Truthfully, I thought the two were hilarious.“How about a movie? That’s pretty painless, isn’t it?”
Zac walked over and put his arm around Taylor, his soaking wet hair dripping over the counter and onto Taylor’s shirt and apron. “Sure, a movie’s good. How about me and Toria come with you guys? That’ll take the pressure off you even more. Unless the loverboy has a problem with that.”
I gave Zac a dirty look. “He isn’t my loverboy. Besides, we’ll just make it a friendly group thing. You won’t even have to call it a date if you don’t want to. Just get to know her and see if you want to really go out.”
Taylor shoved his brother away and smoothed his damp apron. “Yeah, I guess that’ll work. I guess it can’t be too bad, right?”
“I promise, it’ll be totally painless. And you won’t even need an STD test the next day, like with your other dates,” Zac replied, then instinctively backed away from Taylor’s slap.