Strawberries & Cigarettes

The World's a Stage

Song(s):

"Lost Boy" - Ruth B.

The world was a hustle; a blur; a connected thread of excitement and nerves.

James was bouncing around like a rubber ball, giving last advice there, wiping a bit of nervous sweat from his brow here. Everyone was half dressed, in a weird in-between of eyepatches and denim trousers, sabers and leather purses. Out of the corner of his eye, Louis spotted a head of golden hair sprinting past him, white nightgown blowing in the wind behind him. Months of hard work, all culminating in this one night, these two hours.

Ernie was sitting on a big black box, calmly eating a sandwich, unbothered by the antsiness around him. Louis still needed to get dressed and then pay Eleanor the dreaded visit at the make-up chair, exposing his vulnerable skin to her torture instruments.

On his way to the changing room, he stopped at the heavy red curtain, peeking around the corner into the slowly filling auditorium. There were Zayn's parents and sisters (all dapperly dressed and so unlike their neon-wearing son), polite smiles on their faces as rows of people tried maneuvering their way past them.

One of them was the thrift shop owner and his wife which made Louis' lips quirk into a smile.

In the back was Calvin, flirting with a blond girl beside him who Louis recognized as the girl Niall had danced with at Zayn's party before not going home with her after all.

James's wife and kids; Adam's family; the owner of the café.

The girl that had thrown a milkshake at her cheating boyfriend, leaving a proud Louis to clean up the mess.

That had been the day he met Harry. Felt like a few decades ago.

In the very first row, Louis spotted Harry's cousin Jack who looked up, face lighting up when he saw Louis and giving him a little wave. Louis returned the wave. So the people next to him were Harry's family then. Of course Louis had seen them before on pictures (and his stalker internet endeavors at the very beginning of his tedious relationship with Harry Edward Styles), but even if he hadn't, it would still have been abundantly clear that these people were related to Harry.

His sister didn't have the purple hair anymore Louis had seen her with on the framed photo in Harry's room, but was back to her childhood dark blonde. His stepfather, and then the woman with long dark hair and a kind smile, flipping through the program Zayn had designed, pointing out the drawings to her family.

Suddenly it occurred to Louis that all three of them had come here from their village, Holmes Chapel, just for this one night; to see Harry fulfill his dream and cheer him on. Something stung deep inside Louis' chest and his mind turned to his sisters, wondering what they might be doing now. He hadn't told them about the play, so of course he didn't expect them to come, but he still felt as if something was missing. And that something was someone cheering for him in the audience. But those people were no longer here.

He remembered opening nights still so vividly -all of them- with his whole family there in the front row, the large black ocean of seats and expectant people, so many you couldn't even discern single faces in the crowd. This was so different. Louis could see every single face, and none of them were his family.

But enough with the self-pity. He was about to turn around and finally get dressed, when suddenly, something else caught his eye in the crowd. Someone else.

For a second, he thought he might be hallucinating, and blinked, dumbstruck.

He had fainted. He had fainted and gone into a hallucinating coma. That was the only explanation.