Page 12 of All Hallows' Rage
“Ooh, that does things to me,” he teased. He looked at our team as they made minor adjustments, shouted down the hall, and squeezed past others. “Ready for tonight? We’re the first act.”
I shrugged. “It’s no different than a regular season performance. Different costumes and music with a ticket upcharge for the holiday, but we’ve done this routine a thousand times and my trust hasn’t wavered.”
“You don’t want to switch it up on Gretchen anymore?” I smirked at the tempting thought. I’d brought it up because I’d been championing for something new, but she was hard-pressed that it was the perfect routine and nothing should be changed.
“You’re not dropping me.” Matt’s first go-to was to always give me a heart attack despite knowing I was always safe in his stunts.
“Double-checking,” he said, playfully holding both of his hands up with palms facing me.
Before I could respond with a serious alteration idea, a flash of orange hair moved into my view, followed a by shriek. Aimee covered her mouth, looking me up and down as she backed up.
“Sorry, you scared—” she started, finally running into Matt and turning to face him. Another shriek left her as she clutched her chest. “My god, that makeup is frightfully good.”
“Taking it as a compliment,” Matt said, shimmying his shoulders in victory.
“Looking for Lane?” I asked. She focused on the hallway, looking it up and down.
“Yeah, she told me to come back here, but I haven’t seen her yet.”
“She and Ev are doing opening introductions for the team. Follow me.” Matt motioned with a two-finger wave at her before turning and effortlessly making his way through the crowd. We sandwiched Little Red between us and stopped at the front. “She should be here in a minute.”
Matt peeked behind the curtain, and I caught a glimpse of the red carpeted floor before the wall of black fabric returned.
“Turn out?”
“Pretty damn good actually,” he said, beaming back at me.
“Aimee!” Lane’s voice chimed over the buzzing of everyone else as she elbowed past us, mainly Matt.
“Pest.” I heard him grunt from the elbow he took to the ribs. When I looked over, he grinned.
“I can’t kiss you yet because Monroe will have my head if I ruin her artistry,” she explained to Aimee before the two fell away in conversation to our left.
Matt opened his mouth but was interrupted again.
“What’s up?” Everett exclaimed, appearing behind me.
“Looking good, man,” Matt said, clapping him on the shoulder as Everett looked over his costume. “Nervous about kicking things off for us?”
“Not so much now that it’s time. Lane forced me to run through our stunt and script only a hundred times today.I’m certain I can repeat it in my sleep at this point.”
“You’ll be fine,” I assured him.
“Hands, hands!” Lane yelled, pushing her way in and making us form a circle. She cleared her throat as we took each other’s hands. “Tonight’s going to be amazing. You guys are rockstars and I believe in you.” She threw her hands up and we followed suit, dropping them by our side after her little pep talk. “I’m going to take Aimee to her seat, and I’ll be back. Tell Gretchen not to have a coronary.”
Easier said than done.
“I can still drop you,” Matt teased, whispering in my ear.
“I can still throw you,” I quipped back.
“How long have you guys been doing this?” Everett asked, drawing our attention back to the night’s events.
“Fuck, I’ve been in gymnastics for ages,” Matt answered first.
“Same for me. It was a sport my parents had me start as a kid, kinda just stuck.”
Gretchen’s yelling from the back of the hall caused our group to flinch.
