Damaged In-Law by Colleen Masters Read Free Book Online Page A

even work on
monologues and scenes up here in my room, trying my hand at transforming into
my favorite characters. I absolutely love the challenge of it, even if no one
ever sees the fruits of my labor. I ’ ve never had the
chance to explore my hidden interest here at home. My parents want me spending
my time on “serious” activities. Model UN, the debate team, all that stuff. But
once I ’ m in college? I ’ ll
be free to try my hand at whatever I like, at long last. Even acting.
    That is, if I don ’ t bomb this audition
and prove to myself once and for all that I have no business being on stage.
    I shake off my doubts, take a breath, and go back to the
beginning of Juliet ’ s monologue. But as I open my mouth to
start, a trilling peal of laughter rings out from the balcony. I peer through
the french doors leading off my bedroom and spot Avery outside, having just
burst out of her own room into the fading golden sunlight. Her long blonde
curls cascade down her back, as she raises her arms in an overdramatic gesture
of romantic longing.
    “ O Romeo, Romeo! ” she sings out,
twirling around in her tiny yellow sundress, “ Wherefore art thou Romeo? ”
My sister stops short, glancing down at the script in her hands. The very same
book I now clutch to my chest. She cocks her head at the page, looking up
toward the doorway to her bedroom. “Why is she so hung up on where Romeo is?”
she asks aloud, waving the pages around, “What the hell does it even matter?”
    “She ’ s not, hung up on where he is,” I hear a familiar voice reply. My heart nearly bulldozes through my
chest as I spot Jack striding out onto the balcony after Avery, a script of his
own in hand. “‘Wherefore ’ doesn ’ t
actually mean ‘where ’ ,” he explains, “It means ‘why ’ . So—”
    “Well, that ’ s just stupid,” Avery says
lightly, cutting him off.
    “Tell it to the Bard,” Jack laughs, as she prances over the
balcony ’ s railing.
     I bite my lip as I watch her move to the very place I
was standing that night Jack almost kissed me. It ’ s been
years since that happened, but I still feel a stab of raw longing every time I
think about it. Since that night, nothing remotely romantic has happened
between me and Jack. We ’ ve each gone on to date other
people, and I ’ ve done my best to stop hoping for another
chance with him. But I have to admit, I ’ ve been nursing
some pretty steamy daydreams about playing Juliet to his Romeo in our school ’ s production. Hell, that was the very play we were joking about
the night of my sweet sixteen, when I thought for certain that something was
starting between us. It seems like fate.
    Or at least it did three seconds ago, before Avery stepped
out onto the balcony, spouting Juliet ’ s monologue, looking
happier than I ’ ve seen her in months. Though her life has
always been haunted by past traumas, her demons have really started to get the
best of her this year. Her drinking has been getting out of control, and she ’ s barely eating a thing these days. Her bones press up through
her skin, her matchstick limbs looking like they could break any second.
Nothing has been able to jostle her out of her depression—not senior year, not
the prospect of leaving for college, not the steady stream of gorgeous
boyfriends she ’ s had of late.
    Nothing except rehearsing Romeo and Juliet with her
oldest, best friend, Jack.
    I refuse to let my eyes well up or feel let down as Avery
launches into the rest of Juliet ’ s monologue. Jack looks
on, so proud of her enthusiastic, if haphazard, performance. He ’ s
been as worried about Avery as I have, and looks absolutely elated to see her
having so much fun with this. I know, as I watch Jack explain Shakespeare ’ s dialogue and meanings to Avery, watch her focus on and
respond to what he ’ s saying, that I have to let them have
this. Without me.
    With trembling hands, I close Romeo and Juliet and
slide it back onto my