Page 110 of Holly Jolly July

“Almost.” Mariah disappears for a moment and returns with the box of decorations from my closet.

I clap my hands in excitement.

She sets it down and pulls out a box of red ornaments. “How do we start?”

“We start by putting on a Christmas movie!”

Mariah groans. “Again with the Christmas movies? Can’t we watch the lastAlien?”

“Nope. For this we need the real deal. I’ll let you do the honours.”

She kneels in front of the box and digs around, looking at a few options. Then, she picks up the plain black VHS tape with sharpie on it. “Wait...Romeo and Juliet, 2006. That movie came out in the mid-’90s. Is this your high school play you told me about?”

Now it’s my turn to groan. “Yes. It must have been put in the Christmas movie box by mistake.”

“Can we watch this instead?” She stands, turning it over in her hands like it’s a precious artifact.

“No. Christmas movie.”

She pouts, her bottom lip sticking out. “Please? Consider it a Christmas present.”

My heart stammers at how freaking adorable she is, begging to watch one of the most embarrassing moments of my life, and asking for it to be a gift to her. I sigh, relenting. “All right. But don’t judge me too harshly. It was my first time.”

“If your first time acting was anything like your first time giving head then I have high hopes for this movie.”

As the play kicks off, Mariah and I remove one of the strings of lights from the ceiling to repurpose for the tree. When we finish with the lights, we move to the red and green plastic balls, then to the homemade decorations my family has had since the dawn of time. The tree is a lot smaller than the ones I usually decorate so we only manage to get about a quarter of the decorations on before every branch is overflowed to the point of sagging. It looks even more hideous than before, but in a cute, cheerful way.

Mariah is helpful in the beginning, and I love watching her place her first decorations on her first tree, taking far moretime than necessary to find the perfect spot for each bauble. But as the play progresses it steals more and more of her attention, until she ends up on the couch, elbows on her knees, rapt.

I don’t mind at all, unsure if she’s more adorable decorating a Christmas tree or watching my old high school play.

By the time Act 3, Scene 1 rolls around, the tree is finished and I have no way of avoiding watching the play any longer. I take my seat next to Mariah and cringe watching my past self act in a crude deep voice as Mercutio, challenging Jaime Wyatt as he plays Tybalt. Moments later there is a flurry of plastic swordplay, and then my fatal blow where I deliver my final lines. The whole audience laughs as I make my last joke about being a grave man, then again when I “slap” Brian Zanderhurst and yell at him to find me a surgeon.

“Well, there you have it,” I say, moving to turn it off.

“Wait!” She grabs the sleeve of my sweater. “I want to see the rest of your acting.”

“That’s my last line,” I say, puzzled. “Wait. Have you never readRomeo and Juliet?”

She gives me a pointed look. “I slept through most of high school English. I think I saw the film once, but don’t really remember.”

I blink several times, shocked. Sometimes I forget that not everyone is as obsessed with acting as me, and that they haven’t at least read the CliffsNotes of each of Shakespeare’s plays.

“I don’t know how you can say you’re a bad actress after something likethat,” she says, gesturing at the screen as the play continues. “You’re so good.”

“Not good enough.” I sigh.

“What? Why?” She manages to tear her gaze away from the screen to look at me.

I watch for a moment as Juliet takes the scene, Ashleigh Blake with her silken hair and button nose fumbling her lines. I point. “I auditioned for Juliet and was cast as Mercutio.”

“No offence to Juliet, but I think Mercutio is way cooler.”

I frown, then nod in agreement. “Yeah, but the whole point of being in the play was so I’d get to kiss James Tyler at the end.”

“Ooo-oooh,” Mariah singsongs, elbowing me. “Was he your crush?”

“Yeah. We had band together. I applied to be a clarinet player because all the cool kids played the clarinet—”

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