With my jaw on the floor, I watch him head back on stage to join the rest of the dancers who had come out to pick up where they’d left off. I pulled the note from my chest and saw a series of numbers on it. Was this real? Was this part of the act? It felt real. He couldn’t fake that kind of chemistry. Could he?

I turned to Eleanor, and as soon as I saw her face, I knew I was in trouble. Big trouble. She was seething, so much so that I was surprised steam wasn’t pouring out of her ears.

“Come on,” she grabbed hold of my wrist and pulled me to my feet. “We need to go to the bathroom.”

I followed her, stumbling along behind her as she strode out of the theatre. I looked up at Chad and saw him watching us. Defiantly, I flashed him another dizzy smile. As soon as Eleanor and I made it into the bathrooms she turned on me at once, face dark.

“What the fuck was that about?” she snarled, waving her hand in the direction of the stage.

“What do you mean?” I grinned, the paper still clutched tight in my hands.

“You behaved like a bitch out there.”

I gasp. “It was just a bit of fun. He picked me, that’s all.”

“What kind of friend are you? You know that I came here to get with him and you go and take him for yourself,” she fumed, raising her eyebrows as though that was supposed to mean something to me.

“I didn’t take him,” I protested. “And I can’t help that he picked me out of the crowd-”

“You could have sent me up instead. You knew I needed this. You didn’t even want to come,” she pointed out.

I frowned. “I’m sorry, I guess I wasn’t thinking in that moment,” I apologized, even though I really felt I had nothing to apologize for. But I knew Eleanor, and I knew that if I didn’t concede my position to her the rest of the night was going to be a fucking nightmare.

“Yeah, I bet you weren’t,” she snapped. “Just like you weren’t thinking when you put on that dress.”

“What do you mean by that?” I ran my hands over my body. I liked the way the dress looked, doubly so now that it had gotten Chad’s attention.

“You look cheap,” she spat. To my horror, she suddenly plucked the piece of paper from between my fingers.

“Give it back to me,” I said, as she crumpled the scrap of paper in her hands. I fought to keep the dismay from my face. It’s not that I was expecting to start a relationship with Chad or anything, but I had wanted to at least see, to check if it had been his real number, and if he had actually wanted me.

“All he wants from you is a one night stand.” She looked me up and down, her voice echoing cruelly through the room. It felt as if it was filling up my head making me feel quite sick. “I mean, look at you. That’s what you’re dressed for, isn’t it?”

“El,” I protested, using the pet name that she had tried to stop me from calling her a few years before. “Please, come on, it was just a bit of fun—”

“Yeah, well, I was pretty sure I was the one who was meant to be having the fun.” She cocked her head at me, and then, before I could stop her, she ducked into one of the stalls, dropped the piece of paper into the toilet bowl, and flushed.

“No, Ellie, why would you do that?” I gasped as I watched my only chance at seeing Chad again spiral away into the toilet bowl.

“Because this was meant to be about me,” she snapped. She walked to the door. “And I’m not going to forget that. I’m going to find him now. So you just enjoy the rest of your night.”

She stormed out of the bathroom and left me standing there all alone, staring after her, wondering what in the hell had just happened and how responsible I actually was for it. I had never seen her that angry before in my life, or so I thought. And then it hit me.

All the times that she had spoken to me like this seemed to rush up and overwhelm me all at once. There was a reason my sister hated her so much. Because this was her game, the way she’d always treated me. I always had to be less-than her, always had to be propping up her pathetic ego. And now, as the sound of the flushing toilet faded away, she had just blown my chances for a bit of fun with a hot guy because she couldn’t handle the fact that he had picked me over her.

I retreated into one of the stalls and closed the door behind me. I wasn’t sure how long I was in there, trying to make sense of what had just hit me like a ton of bricks. Women came into the toilets, they laughed, they talking among themselves, they used the other stalls. They even tried my door. Then they left.

I felt stupid for not guessing it sooner, but now, here I was, stuck on a night I had never wanted to come out on in the first place, and wondering why the hell I had let that kind of woman stay in my life for so long.

Eventually, the music and the cheers and the chatter faded away outside the bathroom, and I got to my feet and went out. I washed my hands and automatically checked my make-up.

She would probably already be out of here, and knowing her probably with Chad.? Would he fall for her game? My heart sank at the thought, and I pushed it out of my head as I made my way out of the bathroom. I tried not to cringe at how much the taxi was going to cost back to my place now that I wasn’t splitting it with anyone.

My feet were killing me. Peeling my heels off my feet, I trudged out on the bathroom, and out into the lobby. The place was empty. Everyone else had headed home, likely at the end of a good night with their friends. I could still remember how it had felt to arrive here, how it had felt to be surrounded by the buzz of excitement that hung in the air as we waited for the show to begin. That felt like so long ago now.

“Hey,” called a voice from behind me.