The Theatre & Him

Fight For Me

We walked through the doors of The Skylark to be greeted by the sounds of civilised conversations and the hum of laughter resonating through the establishment. We made our way into the foyer and it wasn't long before Lin had run into people he knew. While Lin made small talk with a few acquaintances, Vanessa and I looked for the servers podium so we could be seated. I spotted it and lead the group over to tall blonde waiter standing behind a servers station waiting to direct patrons to their respective areas.

Lin gave the server the name he had used to reserve a table, Alex Sexyman, I'm completely unsurprised that's that what he booked it under, if I'm being honest. The server raised her eyebrows as she scanned her book of reservations, finally landing on ours. "Right this way Mr. Se- Sir" the frazzled server said as she guided us to a booth in the far corner of the Skylark.

As we were taken to our booth Lin gave the fake name for the drinks tab we were going under. A drinks tab? Why do I feel like this is not just going to be a 'couple of drinks and go' kinda night? Lin was the first to wander up to the bar and order scotch for himself and the rest of the group. Not to sound rude and don't get me wrong I'm very grateful that Lin went up and got us a drink, but wow scotch is most certainly not my thing.

The first and last time I had scotch, was at my family's Christmas party two years ago. I was smashed by 7pm. It started at 6:30pm, hence to say my mother took it upon herself to ban me from drinking scotch in her presence. I don't blame her whatsoever. 

The next time, Alex was more than willing to collect the next round, he wandered up to the bar with a spring in his step from the anticipation as to what the night could hold.

3 hours later...

In my current position, hiding under a table with my eyes glued to to the fights breaking out all around me, I could hear the shouting of various insults and violent promises being hurled through the room. How did we manage this? That's the only real question I had, but the more I thought about it the more sense it made. You can't rehearse/perform eight shows a week and still remain sane and out of trouble. Lin was a glowing example of this.

"By now it's usually over" Lin nonchalantly. I turned to him with an incredulous look on my face "You've done this before?" I asked. Concerned? Yes. Surprised? No.

"Well I mean I'd definitely be lying if I said this was a first" he replied sheepishly as another bottle of beer was smashed on the table we were hiding under. Alex was quite content as he sipped his mojito and watch the chaos he caused unravel around the room, anyone would think he was a child with the fits of giggles he would get himself into when one patron broke a bottle over another's head.

"Um guys, I think things are about to go even further downhill for us" I sighed as a man directed a police officer in our direction. It must have been quite the sight for the officer as he walked towards 4 fully grown adults sitting under a small, square table like a bunch of children hiding from their parents. Once the officer got to us another one joined him from seemingly nowhere, both had two pairs of handcuffs in their hands.

One officer had Alex and I by one arm each. I looked over to see Alex trying to lick some unknown liquid off his shoulder and I let my head drop back as I rolled my eyes.

"It's all good baby, I put this show on for Lin's kids all the time" Alex said calmly as he struggled to stand. We all, including the officers turned to look at him with equally confused looks on our faces, "What?" I asked, trying to decipher what show he could possibly be referring to. Maybe Cops? Lucifer? "Although, I haven't seen Chase yet" Alex continued with a pout directed at the policemen. "Sir, this isn't Paw Patrol" one of the officers said with a good natured laugh, which somehow put me at ease. "Well that's a bit fucking upsetting" Alex answered looking at the ground.

The officer holding onto Alex's arm took this as an opportunity to cuff him, but Alex still not sober, thought now was a good time to try and be charismatic. "You know" he glanced at the officers name badge "Jordyn, as much as I know this is your job and everything, that one right there is the only allowed to put cuffs on me" he pointed directly at me and I could've shot him on the spot. I wanted to scream and crawl up into a ball out of embarrassment, my cheeks went bright red and I just glared at him. There was no point trying to reason with him when he's drunk. The other officer just rolled his eyes as he put the cold cuffs around my hands, much to Alex's disappointment.

None of us even bothered resisting arrest and all obliged by the officers instructions and sat silently in the back of the van as we were driven to the watch house. That was until Alex burst out laughing and wouldn't stop. I tried calming him down but it just got worse and it wasn't long before Lin was joining him. One would stop and then the other would start again, consequently setting them both off again.

After what felt like hours, we arrived at the station. As Vanessa and I prepared ourselves to stay in the watch house for the night, the boys couldn't seem any less phased by our current predicament.

Vanessa and I just sat there sharing looks as our partners, who still hadn't sobered up, put on various different performances.

"I emigrated from the single greatest place in the Caribbean! Dominican Republic, I love it"

"I'm a little bit gayyyyyyyyyyy, just tiny bit gay and I've always been that way and I don't think it's gonna change"

"Pop"
"Six"
"Squish"
"Uh uh"
"Cicero"
"Lipshitz"

Good god. That's all I have to say. Usually seeing Alex shirtless would make me blush, but not when he and Lin were doing a strip tease for the uninterested officers to the Chicago soundtrack they had playing in their heads.

Officer Jordyn made her way over to our cell and I assumed he was going to tell the boys to zip it, but he asked if there was anyone I could call to come pick us up and that they wouldn't be pressing any charges.

After a about half an hour of this the boys began to sober up and realise what had happened.

Another half an hour later, Officer Jordyn came in and opened the cell door to release us "Congratulations, your ride has arrived and as riveting as those performances were I don't want to see you guys back here" he laughed as we all left and walked through the hall to check out.

Although, what we saw at the end of the hall was enough to make us all want back into the cell. A very unhappy Kerry and Leslie were waiting for us, Lin tried to let Alex go first, but there was no way he was gonna let that happen and insisted on Lin going first. In the end, Vanessa and I built up the courage and lead the headache-ridden group towards the unamused pair.

"Heh, thanks Mum" Alex said sheepishly, not making eye contact with Kerry. "Yeah we really owe you one Kerry" Lin said equally as embarrassed as Alex. Kerry looked at all four of us with an unamused look on her face. "I honestly have nothing to say to any of you right now. I just. Wow. How did you manage to start a bar fight with over 100 people?" She asked with an extremely puzzled look on her face. "That's a great question Kerry, I'd love to know too" I added glaring at Alex and Lin.

"Well, you see, there was this man. Kinda looked like Adam if I'm being honest"

"Huge guy, like a gorilla" added Lin

"Anyways, there was this bartender, she'd only just turned 18 and only got the job a few days ago, we got pretty acquainted considering Lin drinks like a fish-" "ME?!?!" Lin asked with a bewildered look on his face. "Yes, you. As I was saying, she was trying her hardest to serve everyone and got a little stressed and dropped a bottle. Well something must've really clicked in the gorilla's head because he flipped his shit at this poor girl."

"And all I could think of was 'what if that was my kid', because really that's all she was, just a kid. So I walked up to this guy and had a bit of a go at him and all was going well until he raised his hand to me and Alex threw his bourbon at him" by the end of the explanation both boys seemed quite pleased with themselves.

A/N:

Hey guys,
Oh my lordddddd it's been a while! With the announcement yesterday about Beetlejuice's return I realised that I needed to finish this and I may or may not have refallen in love with the musical and it's actors again. I can't wait finish this and welcome you all back!!

- Coco xx

5k reads 5/02/2021