"…Can I start again?" Kyle fidgeted nervously with one of the buttons on his shirt.

"Kyle, take a breath," Karen rose from the sitting position she was in on the side of Kyle's bed, and put a hand on her best friend's shoulder. She held a script in her hand, helping Kyle recite lines. "You're doing fine."

"But I can't just be doing fine! I have to be better than fine!" The Collins boy yowled, throwing his arms up in the air. "Sorry," he apologized, when she raised an eyebrow at his flared temper. "I'm sorry. But this is the first Broadway audition for a lead I've gotten. I just want to make sure it's perfect."

"It will be," the blonde girl told him. "You will be." Kyle took a much-needed breather. "Okay, are you better now? Not gonna explode for no reason at all?"

"Ha-ha," he deadpanned sarcastically. "You're very funny."

"And your temper's so hot it could start a fire!"

Kyle burst out laughing.

"What?" Karen asked.

"My mom says that to my dad sometimes," the boy laughed. "She says I have my dad's 'ability to loose myself in my anger'."

"You do."

"I know."

It was then when Karen's phone vibrated in her pocket, startling her.

"It's probably my dad texting me again," she sighed, and checked her phone to see that she was right.

"Oh, God," Kyle rolled his eyes. "Is it another 'you better not be with that Collins boy' text?"

"You guessed it."

"Why does your dad hate me?"

"It's not just you," she told him. "My dad hates any boy that comes within a ten-mile radius of me."

"I know he does," he said. "But he really hates me. It's weird. Your dad and my mom have worked together for years, and the guy can't stand me!"

"It's not just you," the blonde repeated. "But my dad holds your mom on a pedestal."

"Ew!" The boy spat. "Are you saying your dad loves my mom?"

"No! Gross!" She stuck her tongue out. "But to my dad, your mom is like…like this perfect thing that nobody can mess up. It's like…" her eyes wandered to Kyle's desk, and sitting on it was a copy of The Catcher In The Rye. Karen walked over, and picked it up. "Your mom is the Jane to my dad's Holden," she elaborated, gesturing to the book.

"Um…what?" The Collins boy didn't follow.

"You've read The Catcher In The Rye, right?"

"I bought it for school," he shrugged. "Honestly, I Spark Noted it."

"Well," said Karen. "A big piece of symbolism in the book centers around the phoniness of the adult world and the perfection of innocence. The main character, Holden, holds his childhood friend, Jane, up on a pedestal of being this perfect thing because he only remembers her that way. Your mom was the first Marilyn in Bombshell, right?"

"In the Boston previews," Kyle answered.

"Right," she said. "That's why he idolizes her. She's the Jane to his Holden. You know what? Maybe…maybe that's why I'm named after her…"

"My mom's the only Karen your dad knows? It couldn't be a different Karen?"

"I don't think so," she said. Her phone vibrated yet again. "I have to go."

"Here," he said, walking over to the window and opening it. "Let me walk you down the fire escape!" They both laughed at this, as they had played on fire escapes together since they were just children.

"Kyle!" A new voice called as the front door opened and then closed. It belonged to Kyle's mother, who the two friends could hear was now clomping up the stairs. She stood in the doorway and started to say something, but stopped when she saw Karen there with her son. "Oh," she quickly curtailed what she had been saying. "I didn't know you were here, Karen."

"Hi, Mrs. Collins," Karen waved shyly. "I…I was just leaving…"

"Mom, can I walk Karen home?" Kyle asked. "I'll come right back."

"Well…" she didn't seem too enthusiastic. "I suppose," she agreed with a sigh. "Good to see you, Karen."

"Good to see you too, Mrs. Collins," said the girl, and the two of them exited out of Kyle's bedroom window, and closed it behind them. "Why does your mom hate me?" Karen asked her friend as they started down the fire escape together.

"She doesn't hate you," Kyle answered.

"Yes, she does!" The blonde exclaimed. "She's warm and fuzzy to everyone else and bitter and cold to me! It doesn't make any sense," she continued. "Like I said, my dad idolizes her."

"She doesn't hate you," the boy repeated. "She just…" but then he thought about it, and gave his friend a shove. "Yeah, actually, she does hate you!"

"What do you think she wanted to talk to you about?"

"I don't know," he shrugged. "I need to be in her good graces though – I'm gonna beg her to take me to the Florida previews with her. I just hope she didn't find out that I found her and my dad's wedding pictures. She left 'em out the other day – don't know why she was looking at them in the first place – and guess what?"

"What?"

"My parents totally got married because my mom got knocked up!" He laughed. "Seriously, in their wedding pictures she looks like she swallowed a balloon." By this time they reached Karen's apartment, and it was time for them to part ways. "So, if my mom says yes, I'll be gone for a few weeks…"

"Call me every night and tell me how the show's going."

"I will."

"Promise?" She asked.

"Promise." He pledged.

Then they did part ways, with Karen walking into her apartment building and then into the elevator. When she reached her apartment, the girl found her father sitting at their kitchen table, furiously answering an email.

"Is Uncle Tom getting under your skin again?" Karen asked with a giggle.

"It's your Aunt Julia this time, actually," her father answered, then looking up to face his daughter. "Where have you been?"

"With a friend."

"Please tell me you weren't with the Collins boy," Derek grumbled.

"I could," said Karen. "I'd be lying, but I could – "

" – Karen Julia Wills," he interrupted. "I've told you specifically that I do not want you around him."

"Why not?" She asked honestly. "You work with Kyle's mom all the time, and you've worked with his dad before, too. How come you don't want me hanging out with him? Kyle's been my best friend since kindergarten!"

"Because I said so, sweetheart," Derek reprimanded. "As long as you live under my roof, you will follow my rules."

"Your rules make no sense!" Karen sputtered. "You don't want me to hang out with Kyle, you won't let me audition for any professional work…" she didn't think about the consequences of her words before adding: "And you won't tell me anything about my mother! I know she isn't dead!"

"What are talking about, young lady?"

"I know my mother isn't dead! Why would you imply all these years that she was? Did…did she even ever love me? Is that it? Did she not love me?"

"Don't you ever say something like that again," Derek was so angry and hurt that his usually loud voice was reduced to almost a whisper. "Your mother loves you more than anything on this earth. She loves you more than the theatre, more than me, more than herself. Don't you ever say something like that again, Karen! Do you understand me? Your mother loves you so much that she completely altered her own life to benefit yours! Do you think she wants to stay out of your life?"

"I have no idea, Dad!" Karen yelled. "You won't tell me anything about her! I thought she was dead my whole life! For all I know, she wanted nothing to do with me!"

Karen had never seen her father look so devastated in her entire life.

"That's the opposite of what she wanted," he said softly. Derek slid something across the table to his daughter – a plain ticket. "This is what your Uncle Tom and Aunt Julia got you for your birthday," he said, his voice still shaken. "Pack a bag. You're on a flight to Florida tomorrow."