MY LOVE, MY DARLING | SAM OBISANYA

06: IRL, IN THE DRESSING ROOM!

[A/N: CAST LIST UPDATE:
Mason Alexander Park as Alex Tate]

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It wasn't often that Anwen was nervous to perform. Performing had been her life, having been in amateur drama groups since she was old enough to sing and dance. All of her education had been concerned with theatre, of the musical variety especially, and the few ensemble roles she had taken on had taken away any anxiety she might've had about performing.

Anwen couldn't deny, though, that during her run as Sally Bowles at Cabaret, she had been violently nervous a total of three times.

The first was opening night, because who wasn't nervous on opening night? No matter how much you rehearsed and how well you knew your role, you could never predict how an audience was going to receive you. The show in itself was a masterpiece, and it would be sacrilege to perform it poorly. Both to Anwen as a theatre enjoyer herself and to the crowd who'd paid far too much money to see the show.

The second was Gala Night. All the celebrities who wanted to be there could be there, and that was utterly terrifying to Anwen. No matter how many lovely celebrities she had met in the past, she knew that a lot of theatre-going celebrities were absolute snobs, and she always dreaded talking to them after her performance. Not only that, but the thought of slipping up in front of the few nice celebrities there frightened Anwen. I mean, who wanted to stumble over their lyrics or have a wardrobe malfunction in front of Miriam Margolyes?

And, the third, was tonight. The night that AFC Richmond would come and watch her perform. Of course, they'd be watching the show in general, and witnessing the brilliance and radiance of all Anwen's beloved fellow cast members. But, they'd specifically be keeping an eye out for her, which would not be hard to do as she was one of the main stars.

"I don't get why you're nervous," quipped Alex, sat on Anwen's spare chair in her dressing room.

Alex leaned against the table, looking in the mirror as they applied a thick layer of blue eyeshadow, a white towel draped over their front to save any specks falling onto their costume. Alex was chaotic. That was the perfect word to describe them, and likely what anyone would say if you asked them to describe Alex in one word. But, they'd be damned if they gave the costume department a hard time.

"Because my brother and literally all of his friends are coming to watch me tonight," said Anwen blankly, engaged in a fight with her wig cap. Pin-curls did not agree with her. It was the bane of her existence and her career.

"Darling, maybe they're here for me and their comments are just a facade," teased Alex, reaching to tuck a strand of hair behind their ear and completely forgetting that their hair was gelled back for the show already. They huffed, eyes wandering over to Anwen in the reflection of the mirror. "Really, though, you'll be fine. It's not like they're gonna throw rotten tomatoes at you. We're past that as a society."

"They'll just talk shit on Twitter instead," grimaced Anwen. A small smile graced her lips as she finally got her wig cap on, and then she began to rummage through her makeup bag for some spare bobby pins.

"They're grown men with fancy jobs that they can't afford to lose and likely won't risk losing just because they don't like your performance," said Alex, smirk dropping when Anwen glared at them. "Not like that will happen, because you fucking rock."

"I fucking rock," repeated Anwen, like it was a little mantra to keep her going. She applied a line of lash glue just under her eye, then setting thick, long false lashes in place. She'd never quite get used to how ridiculous they looked, but that was part of the Cabaret charm. "I fucking rock!"

"Now you're getting it," grinned Alex, now dusting glitter atop the blue eye shadow and getting it all over the table.

A buzz sounded, letting them know they had fifteen minutes until the show began. Anwen felt her heart drop, growing even more nervous as she realised they were more than likely in the building now. She turned to Alex, grabbing their arm and squeezing tight as if it would somehow alleviate her nerves.

"Demon!" barked Alex, yanking their arm away and pointing an Anwen. "You are a demon! You will be absolutely fine!"

Anwen whined, throwing her head back and not even wanting to look at her wig and her white sunglasses and the ridiculously lavish turquoise faux fur coat she'd have to put on. Alex moved from their chair, standing behind Anwen and giving her shoulder a gentle squeeze.

"You're bound to mess up if you let it get to you, darling," frowned Alex, their tone as sweet and caring as always. Anwen had never had a better friend than Alex, in all honesty. "You've performed for weeks. You've done brilliantly every single time. No one has ever said a bad word about you. Why would this be any different?"

"I don't know," replied Anwen, voice small and timid. She lifted her head, looking at hers and Alex's reflections in the mirror. Alex smiled, warm and bright, and Anwen flashed a small smile back. It didn't quite reach her eyes, but she could never suppress a smile when Alex was around.

"And we are certainly not going to let men get to us. Not judge us, or anything, hm?"

"No way," stated Anwen with a definitive nod, grabbing her wig a little rougher than she should have from its stand. "Absolutely not!"

"That's what I like to hear," replied Alex. They leaned down and pressed a featherlight kiss to her temple, conscious to not ruin her makeup. "I best go get my shoes on. See you out there, my sweet."

Anwen nodded, and Alex left, leaving Anwen alone with her slightly subdued panic and a few costume pieces to put on. She had a few more minutes to get ready than everyone else, not appearing until the last three minutes of their ten minute long opening number. Even then, she popped out of the orchestra's box, high above where all the footballers would be sat at the overly expensive tables.

Just as Anwen was shrugging on her coat with five minutes to spare, her phone pinged, and a series of messages popped up.

—

A/N: I promise I am not abandoning this story! I love it dearly, I am just a lot more focused on my Dani fic 'Golden' right now. I'll be trying my best to update this more than I have been, but I promise that when 'Golden' reaches its end (I'm not crying you are), I'll be writing this a LOT more frequently!

Hope you're enjoying it so far regardless of my inconsistency! :)