The Time of Our Lives – Chapter 21 – Brenda and the gang party a little
Brenda stands backstage watching the scene taking place. She begins to pace back and forth and tries to calm her nerves.
'Two minutes,' the stage manager whispers to them. Brenda paces a little bit faster as she tries to run her lines in her head.
The scene on stage ends to thunderous applause.
'Well, at least there's a full house, right?' Todd says to her.
Brenda nods and smiles at him, and watches the stage crew strikes the set that was on the stage and puts out the set pieces for their scene.
She is kind of glad that the scene she hates the most is up first, that way she can get it over with and focus on the other scene she has to do that night.
'Brenda, let's go,' Matt says as he walks out onto the dark stage with Todd.
'Brenda's scene is up next,' Donna tells Kelly and Brandon.
They sit up in their seats as the scene begins to unfold in front of them. They watch Brenda, Matt, and Todd almost trip over each other as they are crossing the stage and hear muffled giggles from members of the audience.
As much as they had worked on the blocking to make it better, it still wasn't perfect. The scene comes to a close, with Brenda and Matt almost colliding into each other, but barely missing as Matt falls to the ground. Along with applause, there is clearly an audience of laughing students as they make their way off of the stage.
'Oh my God, I am so mortified right now,' Brenda says. 'I can't believe it. They are laughing at us.'
'Bren, are you okay? I didn't hurt you or anything, did I?' Matt says as he puts his arm around her shoulder.
'No, no, I'm fine. Are you okay?' she asks him.
'Nothing a little Ibuprofen and an ice pack won't heal,' he laughs.
Brenda moves quickly to the dressing room to change for her next scene. She brushes out her hair and touches up her makeup after changing her clothes.
'Three minutes, Brenda,' the director of her next scene yells into the dressing room.
'Okay, thank you,' she says.
She tries to pull herself together for her next scene and begins to run those lines in her head. 'Thank God this is an angry scene.'
She makes her way backstage and meets up with her scene partner, Tyler.
'Can you help me with this?' he asks her and hands her the rope that he's supposed to be tied up with.
She begins to wrap the rope around his hands, wrists, and chest while the scene on the stage ends.
'Ready?' she asks him. He nods and they walk out onto the stage.
Brandon, Kelly, and the gang stand in the back of the theatre waiting for Brenda to come out after the show had ended.
She comes out and walks up the aisle as soon as she sees them. Dylan immediately gives her a hug and kisses her on the top of her head.
'Bren, you were amazing. I really liked that last scene. You were just mean,' Brandon says.
'Yeah, that one was fun to do and the direction actually didn't suck,' she says.
'The other one wasn't that bad, it was just really hard to follow while watching you guys trip over yourselves,' Kelly says.
'Yeah, well, it was like a thousand times worse. Matt, Todd, and I reworked the blocking yesterday so that we wouldn't get dizzy, but there just wasn't enough time to fix it completely,' she explains.
'Well, it's not your grade, right? That guy is definitely going to have some explaining to do,' Dylan says.
'Right, look guys, there's a cast party tonight for the actors, directors, stage crew, and students if you want to go,' Brenda says to them.
'Cast party? Will there be hot drunk females at this party?' Steve asks.
'Most definitely, Steve, remember, these are all drama majors. They can't even have a party without some kind of drama,' Brenda laughs.
'I'm in,' Steve says.
'I think I'm going to go home. I'm tired and I still have some work to do,' Donna says.
'Brandon, do you want to go for a little while?' Kelly asks him.
'Yeah, sure, why not? Let's experience a cast party,' he says. 'Dylan, you coming?'
'Um,' he starts to say as he looks down at Brenda. She is not showing any emotion either way on her face so he can't tell if she'd be upset if he said no.
'Dylan, you don't have to come if you don't want to. I'm really only going to stay for like an hour or two. I still have lines to memorize for 'Virginia Woolf' and a paper to start for my Shakespeare class,' she says.
'I think I'm going to skip out of this one, if you don't mind,' he says.
'I don't mind,' she says and leans her head up to kiss him.
'Okay, well, let's get going to this party, huh?' Steve says. 'Andrea, are you going to join us?'
'Yeah, I think I will,' she says with a smile.
'I'll meet you there, okay? There's something I have to do first,' Brandon says. He gives Kelly a look and she just nods at him.
'Okay,' she says.
Brandon walks out of the theatre with Dylan, as the rest of the group goes down to where the cast party is just getting started.
'What are you doing?' Dylan asks him.
'Going to tell David what's going on,' Brandon says.
'Be careful, man, don't get too involved.'
'I know, but I told him that I'd keep him in the loop and I just think he needs to know that everyone else will be at the theatre, while Donna is home alone,' Brandon says. 'He's been trying to find the right time to talk with her and I don't think he's going to get a better one than this.'
'Alright, good luck, see you later,' Dylan says as he takes off toward his car.
'David, it's Brandon, open the door,' Brandon says.
The door opens and David stands on the other side. 'What's up, Brandon?'
'Look, Brenda and her actor friends are having a cast party tonight,' Brandon starts.
'I'm not going to some stupid party, if that's why you're here, you can just leave now,' David says.
'David, just shut up and listen,' Brandon says firmly. 'Everyone else decided that they were going to go to the party and hang out for a few hours, except for Donna,' he says.
David quickly looks up at Brandon.
'She went back to her house?' David asks him.
'Yeah, and will be there by herself for at least the next two hours,' Brandon says. 'I just thought you might want to know.'
Brandon leaves David standing at the door with his mouth open.
The Cast Party
Brenda sits on one of the couches drinking a soda, while she watches Steve try to teach Andrea how to do a shot of some liquor. Kelly walks up and sits down next to her.
'Well, this is quite different than I thought it would be. I mean, there's dancing and drinking just like at the fraternity parties, but there's something different about it,' Kelly says.
'Yeah, there's a kind of scary calm over everything. Don't worry, give it a few minutes, I'm sure that will change,' Brenda says with a smile.
Brandon makes his way down the steps and scans the room to find his friends. He spots Brenda and Kelly talking and walks over to them.
'Ladies, how are we doing so far?' he asks.
'Fine, did you get done what you needed to do?' Brenda asks.
'Yup, all taken care of, so now I'm free to party,' he says.
'You should try this Brandon,' Kelly says, handing him a cup full of something that looks like 7-Up, but smells like Skittles.
'Ug, Kelly, what the hell is this? It smells like liquid sugar,' he says with a slightly disgusted look on his face.
'I'm not sure, some berry schnapps or something. It's really good,' she says, taking a huge swig.
'Brandon, come over here and watch this,' Steve says. Brandon walks over to where Steve and Andrea are standing. He sees two empty shot glasses and a few used lemon wedges.
'Tequila shots? You started Andrea off on tequila, Steve? Come on, isn't that a little cruel?' Brandon asks.
'Not tequila, Brandon, vodka. She ordered it, I didn't do anything. I just taught her how to drink them,' he says.
'I like it. It's fun. I didn't know that there would be skill involved in drinking,' Andrea says as she licks the rim of the glass covered in sugar and downs another one.
'Yeah, well you better slow down a little. Your cheeks are already red,' Brandon says.
Brenda and Kelly wander around the party and Brenda introduces her to some of her actor friends.
'Bren, we're playing Caps in the next room, are you in?' Matt says.
'Not drinking tonight, Matt, but thanks for the offer,' she says.
'What's Caps?' Kelly asks him.
'Are you drinking?' he asks and sees Kelly nod her head. 'Well, then you can be on my team.' He hooks arms with Kelly and leads her into the other room.
Brenda walks over to where Andrea, Steve, and Brandon are standing.
'Kelly just got roped into a game of Caps, so if you want to play some games and drink at the same time, I would suggest moving this little party into the next room,' Brenda says.
The gang makes their way into the other room to see Kelly and Matt sitting on the floor throwing beer bottle caps at a half-filled cup of water about four or five feet away from where they are sitting.
The team they are playing looks to be not very good at this game and when Kelly sinks a cap, she lets out a very loud shrilling laugh.
'I love this game!' she says as she gives Matt a high-five.
'Oh, God, Brandon, I think you may have just lost your girlfriend for the night. This game sucks you in,' Brenda says.
'Brenda, what are they doing over there?' Andrea asks.
Brenda looks over to where Andrea is pointing.
'Ah, looks like High-Low. Don't even think about it, okay? We're going to have to work you up to High-Low if you plan on being able to walk out of here on your own,' Brenda warns.
'Okay, but will you teach me how to play sometime?' Andrea asks her with excitement.
'I promise I will,' Brenda says with a smile.
'Bren, how the hell do you know this much about drinking games?' Steve asks.
'Yeah,' Brandon adds on.
Brenda looks around at her friends sheepishly. 'Look, this isn't the first cast party I've been to and while I was working on 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' a few members of the cast would get together in someone's room, run lines, and play drinking games,' she says.
'Well, looks like Brenda is going to have to teach us a whole lot, since she knows them all, huh?' Steve says. 'So, when's the party?'
'Uh uh, I don't think so,' Brenda says, shaking her head. 'Not only do I not drink very often, but I'm not going to alienate Dylan like that.'
'Well, there will be times when he's not around, so maybe then?' Steve asks her.
'We'll see,' she says and walks back into the other room.
'Brandon, are you watching? Look how well I'm doing!' Kelly says emphatically.
'I see, I see,' he says as he watches her try to aim at the cup.
Brenda comes back to say goodbye to her friends about an hour later. Kelly is still sitting on the floor playing Caps with Matt and Andrea and Steve are the opposing team.
'Well guys, I've got a lot of work to do, so I'm going to take off,' Brenda says.
'Oh, Brenda!' Kelly whines as she tries to get up.
'Don't get up Kel,' Brenda says as she leans down and gives her friend a hug.
'Are you guys alright to get yourselves home?' Brenda asks them.
'We live on campus, so it's just a hop, skip, and a jump for us,' Steve says looking at Andrea.
'I'm not drinking, Bren. I'll be able to take a very inebriated Kelly home later,' he says with a smile.
'Okay, guys, have fun, don't embarrass me, and I'll see you later,' she says.
She makes her way to the dressing room, grabs her books and scripts, and goes out to the car. She drives over to Dylan's house.
She knocks on the door and waits a few seconds for him to come and open it.
'Hey, baby,' he says as he grabs her and pulls her in for a kiss.
'Mmmmm,' she says.
'How was the party?' he asks her.
'Boring as usual, although Kelly and Andrea were having the time of their lives.'
'What do you mean?' he asks her as he pulls her to the couch and sits her on his lap.
'Steve was teaching Andrea how to take Lemon drop shots, at her request, and Kelly has discovered the game of Caps,' Brenda says.
'Oh, that sounds like some good embarrassing photo opportunities right there,' Dylan says.
Brenda smiles at him and leans down to kiss him.
'I can't stay long, I still have work to do,' Brenda says softly to him.
'Why don't you do your work here? I promise I won't bother you,' he says innocently.
Brenda thinks about it for a minute. 'You promise?' she asks him with a serious face.
'I swear I won't bother you until you're done, okay?' Dylan says.
'Okay, let me get my bag from the car,' she says and gets up off of his lap.
She comes back in and sees that Dylan has cleared the dining room table for her to spread out her things.
'Thank you,' she says and kisses him.
'Don't forget about me,' he says and walks back into the living room to read his book.
Brenda works on the outline of the paper she has to write for her Shakespeare class. She lays out her 'Complete Works of Shakespeare' book on the table and begins to thumb through it making notes.
She finishes a few hours later and looks down at her watch to see that it reads 2:15am. She begins packing up her books and papers and puts them back in her bag. She takes her shoes off and walks quietly over to the couch where Dylan is sitting.
She almost laughs out loud at the sight of him completely passed out, sitting with a book in his hands, his legs crossed, and snoring lightly.
She puts her hand on his arm and rubs it gently. 'Dylan?' she says.
He stirs and after a few seconds finally opens his eyes. 'Bren?'
'You fell asleep, come on, you can't be comfortable sitting like that,' she says to him with a smile.
Dylan stretches his arms and legs and then gets up off of the couch.
'What time is it?' he asks her as he walks back to the bedroom.
'After 2,' she says, guiding him.
'Did you get everything done?' he asks.
'Yeah, I did. Thank you for letting me do it,' she says and takes his shirt off. He steps out of his pants and lies down on top of the covers.
She changes into one of his t-shirts and crawls up next to him. He puts his arms around her and falls asleep.