Lovers

On The Barricade

Hello hello hello! Only three chapters and an epilogue left in this book, counting this one. That's craaazzzyy. It's def making me a little emo- I have such mixed feeling about this series being over. I'm so excited to share the last few with you all though- enjoy/comment/vote, love love love!
-ab

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December 28, 2028

Harper

With just a few days of shows left, the girls and I decide to come into the theatre to all clean out our dressing room early. We met up at a little cafe in the West End for lunch before walking to the Palace Theatre. Since Patrick works in the afternoon, I have Millie with me, and she has been loving all of the attention that she has gotten from Laura, Ella, and Brittney.

"She's grown so much," Laura comments. "She was so little when we started the whole reherasal process."

"It's crazy," I nod in agreement, as I begin to take pictures down from the walls of the dressing room. Every plain surface, throughout the course of our run, has been covered with fan art, Polaroids of the cast, and pictures of us with our friends and family from outside of the theatre world.

I'm wearing my little girl in a carrying pack on my front, and she's loving the ride that she's getting, as I'm moving about to pack everything up from the dressing room, short of the absolute essentials that I'm going to need for the final few shows.

"I want to take her out and get a few pictures of this little one on the barricade," I tell my friends, as we are all taking a break from cleaning our room. "Does anybody want to come with?"

They all tell me that they absolutely do, and I chuckle at their enthusiasm before we all walk to the stage, with my camera in my hand.

"Alright Mills, you got all dressed up in a cute onesie today for this, so you're going to need to cooperate with Mummy, okay?"

She looks at me and offers a smile, so I chuckle as I set her down on the barricade. She has just recently started to get pretty good at sitting up on her own, without help. I start snapping away as she explores the various elements to our barricade, which is rather small, as we aren't a fully staged production. Our creative team still wanted to give the effect of the barricade, so we do have one, though. It would hardly be Les Mis without one, in all honesty.

"Oh, Harper, she's so curious and sweet," Ella gushes, watching the little one.

"She is," I nod. "I think she's going to be a smart one."

"Millie," I say, trying to get my daughter's attention. It works, and she looks at me, so I'm able to snap a few pictures with her looking right at the camera.

After quickly scrolling through and being satisfied with the results, I pick her up and plunk her down on the flat stage, looking into the audience. I get a few sweet shots from behind, of her looking out into the empty auditorium.

"Harper, let us get a few of you and Millie," Brittney tells me, holding her hand out to take my camera.

"Oh, that's such a good idea. Thank you so much," I say, handing it to her. "Do you know how to work it?"

"Yep," Brit replies, so I turn my attention to Millie, and start playing with her, making silly faces, and singing as my best friend snaps away.

"Some of these are so sweet," Ella comments, peering over Brittney's shoulder. "You're going to love them."

We take a few more shots on the barricade, then I hold Millie up to my microphone and let her touch it, which also makes a cute picture.

After a sufficient amount of photos have been taken, which is probably at least a hundred in all honesty, we head back to the dressing room.

By the time that we are finished packing everything up, it is nearly time to start getting ready for the show. Luckily, I had anticipated this and told Patrick to come and grab Millie on his way home from work.

"Patrick will be coming by in about 10 minutes to pick up Millie," I tell the girls, reading a text that he sent with his status. "Let's go and grab dinner in Chinatown after that."

"That sounds perfect," Laura nods. We sit around and chat for a bit, until I'm called to the stage door, where my husband is waiting for me.

I hand him Millie, who is now napping in her carrier, and her nappy bag. "She's going to want dinner just about the time that you get home," I tell him. I place a kiss to my daughter's forehead.

"Madeline Cosette, be good for Daddy," I tell her. "Oh, I got some absolutely adorable pictures of her on the stage. I'll send them to you later."

"I can't wait to see them," Patrick tells me. "Can I take any of the things that you packed up this afternoon?"

"Oh my god, would you mind?" I ask him. "I have two suitcases full of things that I'll have to sort through at home. It would be amazing if you could take one."

"My pleasure," he replies.

"Wait here."

I run back upstairs to my dressing room and bring a suitcase back to Patrick.

"You're the best, and I love you."

"I love you too," he says. "What are your dinner plans?"

"The girls and I are going into Chinatown to grab something."

"Perfect," Patrick replies. "Enjoy, love. I'll see you after the show."

My husband and I share a quick kiss, then I walk back up to the dressing room.

I'm suddenly hit with a wave of emotion. I'm going to miss these girls so much. I can't believe that we only have four shows left together.

"You okay, Harper?" Ella asks me.

"Yeah," I reply, giving a sad smile. "I'm just going to miss this."

"We are going to have to meet up every now and then, after we close," Laura tells me. "Go for tea or something every few months."

"Yeah, of course," I nod. "It just won't quite be the same."

"It won't," Ella nods, "but think on the bright side. At least Brit isn't leaving the country."

I laugh, smiling at my friends. Ella has a point. With how close the the two of us have grown over the last few months, I don't know what I would do if Brittney were moving back to New York.

I'm so lucky to have these amazing, life-long friends that I've made from this experience. I know that I should be happy about that, instead of sad about it coming to a close.