For fourteen long minutes, the old rehearsal room echoed with raised voices, scattered footsteps, and a tension thick enough to fold into. Dolly stood near the cracked window, arms crossed, chin lifted but trembling. Dee Dee paced in tight circles, her sneakers scraping the floor in restless arcs. Daniela stood between them, not out of choice but because neither sister would allow her to stand on the other’s side.
The trio had grown up harmonizing more than arguing, but somewhere along the way, dissonance had crept into their melody. Today, it burst open.
“It wasn’t your decision to make!” Dolly snapped, finally breaking the silence. Her hair swung as she turned sharply, her frustration flickering like sparks from a frayed cable.
Dee Dee whirled around. “Someone had to make a choice! You were frozen, Dolly. Frozen! You think that’s leadership?”
Daniela flinched. The sound of their words felt like invisible hands tugging her from both sides, pulling her into their conflict whether she wanted it or not.
“I wasn’t frozen,” Dolly said quietly. “I was thinking. You should try it sometime before acting like a storm with legs.”
Dee Dee scoffed, but her bravado dimmed. Daniela watched them, the way their anger was really fear wearing a louder mask.
She finally stepped forward. “Stop.” Her voice wasn’t loud, but it carried enough weight to still the air. Dee Dee stopped pacing. Dolly stopped clenching her fists.
Daniela took a slow breath. “We can’t keep dragging each other down like this. We’re not enemies.”
“We might as well be,” Dee Dee muttered, arms falling to her sides.
Dolly’s expression softened for the first time in days. “We’re not,” she said. “You know we’re not.”
The silence that followed wasn’t empty—it was full, like a room waiting to be rearranged after an argument upends everything.
“What are you really angry about?” Daniela asked.
Dolly swallowed hard. “You both made plans for the new show without me. Without even asking how I felt. I’m not decoration—you two can’t just pull me around like some puppet in your ideas.”
Dee Dee exhaled slowly, guilt settling over her like a heavy coat. “I didn’t mean to shut you out. I just… I panic when things change. I push forward so fast that I forget who I’m stepping past.”
Daniela smiled sadly. “And I just follow Dee Dee because it’s easier than standing in the middle like a referee.”
All three women looked at each other—finally seeing instead of defending.
Dolly stepped closer. “I don’t want to fight. I want us to work together… like we used to.”
Dee Dee nodded. “Then let’s start again. No dragging. No tugging each other in different directions. No shouting over fear.”
Daniela clasped both their hands. “Fourteen minutes of argument is enough for a lifetime.”
Their laughter—shaky but genuine—filled the room, sealing the truce. The storm had passed, leaving clarity in its wake.
Whatever came next, they would face it together, not as rivals but as a trio who had finally learned that strength didn’t come from pulling each other apart, but from standing firmly side by side.
