Stage Fright

Chapter 46 ~ Opening Night

Josh

"On in twenty minutes people! Get dressed, get warmed up!" Miss Young calls walking back and forth through the hall behind the stage. This was our first real show, after weeks of practice and rehearsing......this was our opening show. I was excited, I could feel the energy in the air. Everyone was rushing around, I could hear the crowd finding their seats. I was watching stage-hands talking to each other over their headsets, I was dressed, make-up and hair taken care of.

I quickly go to my cubby on the wall and get the last thing ready for tonight. I had a rose for Heather, I knew she was scared to do this. It's one thing to run the show in a rehearsal, but it's another thing to run it in front of a live audience. She'd never done this before and she didn't know what to expect, I wanted to calm her nerves as best as I could.

I quickly leave the dressing room and walk to the one next door. I was surprised to see Heather in there alone, I was guessing the other girls were already dressed and gone. Heather was ready, she was just sitting in her chair, looking at her reflection. My guess was that she was trying to calm down before the show and centre herself.

I quietly reach out and knock on the doorframe, she jumps a bit and turns to see me standing there. She then gives me a small smile and I feel my own spread over my face.

"Hey baby." I whisper and she gets out of the chair and jumps into my arms. Quite literally jumped, then her legs wrapped around my waist and I chuckled, holding her tightly.

"Hey." She whispers back giving me a quick kiss.

"I just wanted to come and tell you to break a leg." I tell her and she giggles. 

"Thanks." She says, pressing her lips together. "God I'm so nervous." She mumbles, shaking her head. "A-and I know I shouldn't be after all of the practices and everything-"

"Hey." I say softly, hearing the speed of her speech picking up and the panic that was starting to come out. "It's alright to be nervous, this isn't easy. I know how scary it was the first night I did this, and I understand how you feel." I tell her and she nods. "But everyone wants to see you succeed, including me. You go out there and you show everyone how amazing you are, don't look at the people just look at the back wall and when we do a scene together......think of it like any other night we spend together." She then leans in and wraps her arms around me.

"Thanks Josh." She says quietly and I kiss her bare shoulder. "You really help me." I nod a bit over her shoulder and run one of my hands over her back.

"Let's take a few minutes, get centred and take some deep breaths, yeah?" I ask and she nods. 

"Okay." She whispers.

For two minutes she takes nice deep breaths with me, I run my hand over her back and I feel my eyes close, lost in the moment. I was even a little nervous for the first show, but this was really relaxing me. Heather had this calming effect on me, we felt totally in tune when we were like this together.

"Feel better?" I ask and she nods, pulling back to look at me. She gives me a final kiss that I draw out as long as she'll let me. Eventually she pulls back and rests her forehead on mine.

"I do now." She breathes. 

"Then let's go warm up." I whisper and she nods. "I almost forgot....." I say and reach under my jacket, pulling out the rose. "For you." I say lifting it up. Immediately this look of sheer joy comes up over her face.

"Thank you." She whispers. "I love you." She tells me. "So, so much."

"I love you too." I tell her and she nods. I set her down and she lays the flower on her make-up table.