SILENCE AND SOUND | LARRY AU

25 | OPENING NIGHT

SILENCE AND SOUND | CHAPTER 25

Louis stood off stage and saw as one person after the other walked in through those doors and took their seats. Front stage and back stage were both buzzing with people right now, but so were the director's insides. He spotted his sisters in the first row along with – surprisingly – Harry's mom and took a deep breath before turning away.

Walking into the dressing room, he shouted over the chaos and beckoned everyone to finish their touch-ups and line up soon along with a motivating push to every single one of the actors. He was about to do the same to the lead actress when Inez pulled him back with a jolt. She was panicking beyond measure right now.

"Louis, we're screwed."

"Okay, I'm sure it's alright. Take a deep breath and tell me what's wrong."

"I can't find Victor. It's only ten minutes to the curtains opening and I cannot find Victor."

Louis' mind snapped back to the day of tech rehearsals when he'd told Louis that he would quit.

He wouldn't do that, would he? There is no way the problem between us is bigger than his lead role, Louis tried to console himself internally, but he did have a bad feeling about this already. He had a feeling that Victor had intentionally bailed on the last minute to screw over Louis.

"Shit, fucking hell. Umm," he drawled out and stood up on an elevated platform nearby to get a better look at the room before raising his voice. "Everyone. Everyone look here for a minute, please. I need to know if anybody has seen Victor around."

The room broke into murmurs of 'no' and 'I don't think so' and Louis tried hard not to let his mind spiral out of control.

"I think I saw him near the back-door of the auditorium when I was returning from the washroom." A crew member said just as Harry walked in and immediately frowned at the tension in the room.

"What's going on?"

"I think Victor bailed out."

"WHAT?!"

The room once again broke into nervous chatter about their performance and Louis could do nothing but try to hold on to his calm exterior as he pulled out his phone and dialled Victor's number. The boy picked up almost immediately.

"Victor, where the fuck are you? It's 10 minutes to the curtains opening."

"Told you I'd bail if you didn't behave, didn't I, boo?"

"Look, I'm sorry okay? Can you just stop being a child and get back here?"

"Hmm," Victor hummed as if deep in thought before chuckling. "Don't think I will. Have fun getting your little play to work without the lead, Louis. Bye, now." He said and cut the call with an evil laugh.

"FUCK!"

"Babe, calm down. What is it?" Harry said, worried, now standing next to Louis and rubbed a hand up and down his back.

"He's gone, he's not coming."

"But why?!" Katie yelled from the crowd somewhere and Louis simply shook his head.

"It's – it's my fault."

"How?"

"He was, umm, at the tech rehearsals. He was coming onto me and I was telling him to back off and he basically threatened me that he'd leave the play if I didn't 'treat him right' but at that time, I didn't really think about it and I just laughed it off. I don't think I should've done that, this is all my fault and oh my god, we're so fucking screwed right now. It's literally seven minutes to curtain."