"Virgil... Virgil- VIRGIL!"
Virgil's head shot up from its place resting on his arms, before promptly slamming on the cinder block wall behind him. "OW- shit-" He looked up at the person in front of him. His best friend JD was standing over him with her arms crossed. Her straight black hair, despite covering her round hazel eyes almost entirely, couldn't hide her look of annoyance. "what do you want?" He muttered, running his fingers through his hair.
"Dude, you're on in 15 minutes!" She said, holding out her hand to help him up from his spot curled up against the wall, "You need to stop falling asleep before shows" Virgil rolled his eyes, mumbling a whatever, before sighing
"Thanks for waking me up, i guess... I should probably finish getting ready" he yawned, earning a laugh from JD
"Ya think?" She said, ruffling Virgil's hair "I'll see you after the show, good luck dude" she gave him a small smile before leaving Virgil alone in his room. He frowned slightly as the door closed, feeling the usual stomach ache he gets before every show set in. Despite having done performances since high school, his anxiety over going on stage never got any better. He looked over to the clock on the wall, 10 minutes.
Rubbing his face, he stood in front of the lit vanity mirror placed on the right wall of his dressing room. His dark curly hair fell artfully over his forehead, framing his face. His freckled, pale alabaster skin starkly contrasted his charcoal eyes. Virgil was never exactly fond of his appearance, but according to thousands of 16 year old girls on twitter he looked like a godsend.... well that doesn't exactly mean much but thats not the point.
He fiddled with his earrings. They were his favorite pair, small black swords that were put on in such a way that they appeared to stab right through his ear. Virgil backed up from the mirror to view his clothes. Expecting himself to lose track of time, he had changed into them just after the mic check. He was dressed in a black crew neck with the collar of a white button up peaking over the top. They were both tucked into a a pair of ash grey pants with a silver chain hanging off two of the belt loops. The outfit was topped off with a pair of black doc martins and his lucky black and purple jacket. Virgil wore that jacket every time he performed, no exceptions. It was a black zip up hoodie with purple plaid patches sewn onto it with thick white yarn, he made it himself in Junior year of high school.
Virgil was pulled from his thoughts from a shout outside his door.
"PLACES! SHOW STARTS IN 2!"
Virgil scrunched his eyes closed tightly, taking a deep breath, before walking out of the room. People weaved around him, some holding wires, some talking into headsets, and some who were just generally stressed looking, however they all knew to not block his path. As he got closer to the stage wing, he bit down harder on his cheek. He loved doing concerts but Jesus Christ were they terrifying.
Virgil stood just out of view of the audience, when the fixtures lighting up the stadium cut out- His queue to walk on. His legs shaking slightly, Virgil took a deep breath before stepping out from behind the curtains, plastering on a smile.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"You did great tonight, hun!" Roman said nudging his castmate Rose. She tucked a lock of her curly red hair behind her ear.
"Aw thank you," She smiled "You did amazing too! I'm convinced you were born to play Jack"
"Ugh i know im the best" Roman said sarcastically. Although he didn't say is seriously, he definitely agreed with her. Roman had wanted to be in a production of Newsies since he was 8, hell- he had the show practically memorized.
"But you are, dude!" she said, crossing her arms. "You are so talented its not even funny"
"I could say the same for you, Rose," he responded, smiling back at her "You are killing it as Katherine! I don't get how you haven't played this role bef-" he cut himself off as his eyes stopped on the clock hanging on the wall above Rose's head. 8:34 pm. "Shit-" He said, rushing towards the doorway- "I am so sorry to cut this conversation short, I forgot I have plans at 9 i have to like go-BYE-" As he turned the corner, speed walking to his dressing room, he heard a giggle and a faint 'bye' from rose.
Closing the door behind him, Roman rushed around his room, changing out of his costume and into his regular clothes. Once all his costume pieces were hung up, he took a deep breath and sat down in his vanity chair, wiping off the stage makeup quickly. As he did, he began to look more and more like himself. His shining basil green eyes matching his glowing tanned skin. His thick golden brown hair sat pushed out of his face, framing his face perfectly. He stood up, pulling his white and gold jacket over his red shirt. He grabbed his sunglasses off his vanity, sliding them on his face, before rushing down the hall towards the stage door.
He swung the door open, only to be met with bright flashes of cameras and microphones being shoved in his face. Roman's hand flew up to shield his eyes from the light as he pushed his way through the crowd. He knew this was going to happen sooner rather than later, but right now was really not the best time for it.
See, a few days ago, Roman publicly came out as gay. Despite many being totally fine with it, lots of unaccepting people caused an inevitable uptick in media coverage on him. Roman was expecting to be flooded by people shooting for tabloids, but that didn't make it any easier to deal with.
When Roman finally managed to get away from the crowd and into his car, he checked his watch- 8:50. Perfect, it was only about a 7 minute drive to the stadium.
