"Nora, stop sulking! I know you're still angry but enough is enough. How many years have you been out of school? You’re lucky if you occasionally land a bit part. Why can’t you be more realistic like Karen and get a stable job? Do you still naively believe you’ll become a big star?” he asked.
“I’m not sulking. I just want to focus on my work.” I calmly hung up the phone after that.
At this crucial moment, I didn’t want to waste a single second on Bart. It was not the right time to break up with him yet. I couldn’t let him affect my emotions.
However, I would never expect that later that night Bart drove to my studio and waited downstairs.
"Bart, didn't I tell you that this was the right time to catch Nora? Aren't I clever?" Karen chirped as she clung to Bart's arm intimately. She was wearing a bright red short-sleeve shirt and had her hair tied up in a high ponytail, looking full of youthful energy.
"Nora, let me see your wound!" Without waiting for my agreement, she already grabbed my hand. Her sharp manicure nail pressed hard on my skin graft, sending a surge of pain through me. Instinctively, I pushed her away.
Unexpectedly, she landed on the ground with a thud. When she looked up, her pretty face was already covered in tears. She gazed at Bart, her eyes brimming with tears. "I was just worried about her injury, but Nora seems to hate me so much. She pushed me and now I’m in so much pain!"
Bart rushed over and in just three long steps, he arrived beside her and helped her up.
"I'm sorry, Bart. If you hadn’t rushed to save me that day, Nora wouldn’t have been hurt. Luckily, she’s just an extra in so many years. So, having a skin graft probably won’t affect her career much, right?" Karen’s voice was trembling with tears, but the sideways glance she shot me was filled with smugness.
Bart's eyes filled with sympathy for her. "It's not your fault. That day was so chaotic, no one could have predicted what would happen."
I stared calmly at the "siblings" comforting each other in front of me and my mind drifted back to the day of the fire.