Outer space

Chapter 23

(Ashton's pov)

If I'm being completely honest, before today I had no clue what pantomime was. Though, Layla seems to take some pride in it, it obviously has a lot of importance to her.

We were already at the venue. It was kind of cliche how nice the place was, it was a real theatre. In the lobby they were selling wine and appetizers, I was starting to wonder where Layla went to high school at.

She was already far gone, in fact, she'd been gone since the beginning of the afternoon. Her old acting teacher wanted to run through the play a couple times before they set things up for the real performance.

I guessed that pantomime was a play, though Layla told me it was more of a skit. Brief, and extremely silent. That's all I really knew walking inside. I started to wonder if I should of dressed a little nicer as everyone, including Jasmine and Luke, pushed our way through the crowd and found some seats in the back. Who knew that this many people would show up for such a 'small event' Layla had put it.

"She told me she's playing as the school bully" Josie explained to me in a soft whisper before turning back to Calum, probably to tell him the same thing. Michael was sitting beside me, looking a little glum.

"A little ironic isn't it" He said sighing. "Layla in a skit as a school bully, we know full well that she couldn't harm a fly."

"Yeah" I answered staring at the empty stage. "That is ironic"

"Who knows, maybe it isn't ironic" Michael joked. "Maybe this whole time she's really a bitch and hiding it from us"

"Yeah, I'm sure" I sarcastically added leaning against the chair. They had some significantly comfortable chairs in the theatre.

Before we knew it the lights dimmed. A slim women with clicking heels walked across the stage and smiled with a microphone in one hand. She came to a stop mid stage and pulled the microphone to her lips. "Wow" She muttered. "Can I just say I'm so proud to see that this many people showed up to see these wonderful productions" Tears of joy reached the women's eyes. "We've been practicing for this for a while, and let me just say how nice it has been to reconnect with the wonderful and beautiful girls that I used to teach 5 years ago. It has been an incredible experience to see how successful these young ladies have turned out to be. Without further or do, I present to you "Cheshire chats" With this in mind I would hope you know the rules for pantomime. As a crowd we will need you guys to be incredibly silent, and there's absolutely no video or pictures. The girls will have a fifteen by fifteen space to work with, they have zero props, but a limited number of chairs. Thank you all for coming!" She then turned on her heels and slowly started to prance of stage. Wiping under her eyes,

"Talk about being passionate over a skit"

Almost instantly the whole room went extremely silent, like if I were to drop a penny on the ground everyone would turn back and stare. There must of been 10 or so rows ahead of us, and there's still remained a good 7 behind us. We were about in the middle of the audience. The spotlights directed into a specific spot, as several figures merged as the curtain opened. All of their backs were turned from the crowd, their heads bowed.

A small figure held up a sign and walked the 15 by 15 perimeter. It stated the play and authors of the play. Then she set the sign down in the corner. 2 figures then turned around and moved two chairs completely silently into the middle of the room, and went right back into position.

Finally, 2 people turned around. One was Layla, another was a blonde. They sat down in the middle of the room and pretended to discuss something. A couple more of the actors turned around, and it became a scene of multiple cliques discussing different topics. But with one actress left she sadly turned around and looked around the room almost misplaced.