October
Olivia took a depth breath. She had been staring at the envelope from the selection committee for the past five minutes. She was typically up at six a.m., but for the past two months had tossed and turned, replaying the moment when Lizzie snuggled into Blaine’s lap. She sighed and took a sip of her green tea. The moment that she’d been working toward her entire life could become reality - if she got up the nerve to open the little white envelope on the table.
She looked up as Maddie shuffled into the kitchen, home from college for the weekend. Her black eyeliner was smudged down her face and her hair looked like it could house a family of chickadees. She poured herself a cup of coffee and slumped down at the table.
“Good Night?” Olivia asked.
“Sort of,” Maddie said, and took a sip of her coffee. “Are you still obsessing over that asshole?”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Olivia said, and tapped the envelope on the table. “I have bigger things to worry about.”
“Is that from the selection committee?”
Olivia didn’t answer, she just slid the envelope across the kitchen table. “You open it. I’ve been sitting here all morning trying to get up the guts to do it myself.”
Maddie picked up the envelope and stuck her finger in the corner and then paused, “I want to hear what happened that night at the clubhouse.”
“Fuck you Maddie. Why are you asking now?”
“Fuck you?” Maddie asked. “What’s gotten into you kid? A backbone? I followed you that night and when I saw that you got home safely I went home with my boss. I needed to thank him for sitting in the car all night on a sister stakeout.”
Olivia slumped in her chair. “I’m sorry. I had a shitty night. I found Blaine and when I did he was getting a lap dance from the girl that poured the beer all over you.”
Maddie sighed, “After his big speech about loving you? What a dick. I thought he was different.”
“Yeah, well, he’s not. They’re all shit. Straight laced college boys, band nerds, bikers. They’re all the same.”
“Liv. I’m sorry I didn’t talk to you about this sooner. I wasn’t sure that you were ready, and I didn’t want to do it over the phone from school.” Maddie had her finger stuck in the corner of the envelope and she ripped it open. “You need some good news.”
Olivia’s heart sank as she studied her sister’s face as her eyes darted across the page of the letter.
“What the fuck?” Maddie whispered under her breath. She looked up at her sister and had tears in her eyes.
Olivia grabbed the sheet of paper from her sister’s hand.
Dear Applicant,
We thank you for your application for the audition scheduled for October 30, 2018 but have found your submission to be incomplete.
There are three components to the application process and while your technical and theoretical components are strong, we did not receive a recommendation letter from your mentor. Unless we receive a recommendation by October 15th we will not be able to entertain your application.
We invite you to apply again for the 2019 auditions.
Regards,
The selection committee.
Olivia’s hands shook in anger. She was Mr. Tunbridge’s best student and he knew it. Why hadn’t he sent a recommendation? Her guts contracted like a coiled serpent and she felt like she was going to throw up. Olivia felt a rage brewing in her like none she’d felt before. She stood up, screamed at the top of her lungs, and lifted the corner of the breakfast table tossing it, along with its contents, over and onto the floor.
Maddie’s eyes were wide as she watched the hulk version of her sister go crazy.
Olivia picked up her coffee mug and smashed it on the ceramic floor, cracking one of the dated terra cotta tiles. As suddenly as it arrived, her wave of rage subsided and she collapsed into a heap on the floor. Maddie flew to her sister’s side and wrapped her arms around her. Olivia stood up and pushed her away. She ran up the stairs and into Maddie’s room. Maddie sat on the floor in shock and then started picking up pieces of the broken mug. She righted the table and then approached her room cautiously. Olivia strode past her wearing one of Maddie’s push-up bras, a lacy tank top and tight royal blue skirt. She had the straps of Maddie’s favorite wedge sandals looped through her fingers.
“What you doing?” Maddie asked, keeping a safe distance from her enraged sister.
“I’m going to go get a letter,” Olivia seethed.
“I can’t let you do that.” Maddie blocked Olivia’s path.
“Get out of my way Maddie.”
“No.”
“Get the fuck out of my way!” Olivia screamed, her eyes wild and her hands bunched into fists. She pushed Maddie’s shoulders as hard as she could and Maddie fell to the floor, unprepared for a physical attack. Olivia appeared to have hulk-like superhuman strength.
Olivia ran past Maddie, grabbed the car keys out of the pottery bowl by the door and screeched the car out of the driveway.
Maddie sat up, and rubbed her lower back. Olivia had pushed her right into the baseboard and the bruise had already started to form. Maddie was stunned by her sister’s crazy state and frantically tried to figure out what to do next. She ran to the kitchen to find her phone, which had been one of the victims of the kitchen table incident. She flipped it over saw spiderlike cracks across the screen. She held her breath as she tried to get her phone to work. She needed help. Olivia was going to do something very bad, something that she would regret the rest of her life, and Maddie needed to stop it.
She bolted to her room to get dressed. If she didn’t have a phone or a car, she was going to have to run to her dad’s work to get him. She cursed the fact that she didn’t know any phone numbers off the top of her head anymore, damn cellphones. She planned to ask the neighbors, Phil and Nancy, to borrow their car. She hastily wiped last night’s makeup off her face, grabbed her fringed purse and bounded down the stairs. As she reached the front door she heard the unmistakable sound of a Harley as it rumbled up the street.