Side Effects May Vary (ARC) by Julie Murphy

Author:Julie Murphy
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Published: 2013-12-03T22:00:00+00:00

UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

HarperCollinsPublishers

Harvey.

Then.

Who are we supposed to be meeting again?” asked Alice.

“Some kid named Glen,” I said. “He’s the one who got the dress rehearsal video.”

We stood in the alley behind the school auditorium, waiting to be let in. It was the first week of April and the last performance of Oklahoma!, starring none other than Celeste. Glen was Dennis’s inside guy, who did all the lighting design for the school plays. I’d never heard of him, but from what Dennis said he never ventured far from the theater tech warehouse behind the auditorium. When I asked Dennis how we should compensate Glen, he said that these guys operated strictly on favors and that he’d take care of it. I didn’t want to know, so I didn’t ask.

Alice and I rented Oklahoma!, but we only made it through the first half, which was all that mattered anyway. From what I gathered, this girl named Laurey liked these two guys named Curly and Jud, but she really loved Curly. Anyway, right before intermission there’s this big ballet number, which is some dream sequence where Laurey realizes she loves Curly. All I can say about Oklahoma! is that I officially have no desire to visit the state of Oklahoma.

“Hey, you guys!” I turned to see Dennis jogging up behind us. “I texted Glen. He said we’ve got about twenty minutes and that he’s on his way down to let us in.”

And then, as if on cue, the stage door opened. “Come on,” said a voice from the shadows of backstage.

I looked to Alice and she motioned for me to go ahead.

It took a minute for my eyes to adjust, but when they did I found a guy two heads shorter than me with greasy black hair, round glasses, and translucently white skin. He wore cargo shorts and a T-shirt with a fire-breathing dragon flying through a rainbow. He had to be Glen.

“Bro,” said Dennis, giving him some kind of handshake-high-five combo. “Harvey, Alice, this is Glen.”

“Hey,” I said. “Thanks for helping us out.”

Alice nodded. “Yeah, thanks.”

Glen crossed his arms over his chest and widened his stance, claiming his territory. “No problem,” he said. “All the leads are always assholes to us anyway. This should be good.” He rubbed his hands together and smiled. “I have to head back up to the booth. Good luck.”

We did our best to blend in with the theater kids. Glen had advised us to wear all black so that we might be mistaken for techies. The three of us hid behind a rolling staircase made of plywood that had been painted to look like marble flooring (an old set piece, I assumed).

Alice shed her coat to reveal her pink gown, the one from Nifty-Thrifty. The dress dipped down in the front, lower than I’d realized at the store. So low that . . . Alice wasn’t wearing a bra. I felt her eyes on me, catching me staring at her chest. My cheeks flushed, and I pretended to study an old paint splatter on the concrete floor.

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