The Moon, The Sun, and Everything Else

Off Broadway - Kavi - Episode 2

Third Person P.O.V.

"I woke up early this morning, ready to talk to Kirstie, and when I got there...she, she didn't look too good." Esther said to the camera.

~~~~~

"What is going on with you?" Esther approached the blonde, who couldn't keep her binder steady in her shaking hands.

"Nothing." Kirstie struggled even to make eye contact with her.

"Okay, that's the biggest lie I've ever heard, and number two--" Esther stopped when she saw Jeremy pass by. She shot him a death glare, but then turned her focus back to her friend. "Number two, I can tell something's off. Did you eat this morning?" Kirstie nodded. "Okay, that's good, now--" She was interrupted once more by Jeremy coming up beside her.

"You okay?" Esther cringed as he wrapped his arm around Kirstie's shoulders. Kirstie dodged his arm ever touching her, though, not liking to be touched when she was this stressed.

"Fine. Just tired. Up late changing blocks." Esther could see her forcing a yawn to sell her point.

"Well, just tell me if you're hungry or something. I can get you food, or convince Avi to let you go home and sleep."

"I'm fine. Thank you, though." Kirstie replied, quietly, avoiding all eye contact with anyone. Esther so desperately wanted to expose Jeremy for all he'd done right then and there, but she didn't want to tamper with Kirstie if she was already this shaken up about something. But then again, letting it last would be worse.

"Kirstie, Jeremy’s been cheating on you!" Esther exclaimed, forgetting how she felt about twenty seconds earlier. And in that very moment, the whole room went silent. You could hear a pin drop, but everyone actually heard Kirstie's binder hitting the ground, and her heart cracking, just a little bit. In a split second, she was taking off down the hallway, and slamming the door to a vacant room shut. Esther tried to call after her, but it was no use. Her eyes went to Jeremy’s for a moment, before telling him a few words of her own choice (ones she knew Kirstie would scold her for using otherwise), before running down the same hall. Esther got down to the room where she assumed her friend was, considering she could hear sobs and shallow breaths from the opposite side of the door. "Kirst, open up. Please? It's Esther." Nothing. She sighed, and figured she'd need some time alone. Esther crossed back to where the conversation had begun, cleaned up Kirstie's fallen binder and scattered papers, grabbed her a bottle of water, and sat both items outside of the door.

Dry runs of Act One started ten minutes later, and Kirstie walked in, looking just as rough as she did earlier that morning, but it was nothing she couldn't play off as exhaustion. She walked right to her designated chair in the front of the studio and opened her binder to the blocking references she would need for Act One. "Are you okay?" Avi asked, with genuine concern written across his face. His voice was low enough so that the conversation wouldn't distract rehearsal, as well as so that the conversation would stay between the two of them.

"Yes, of course I am, why wouldn't I be?" She glanced over to Esther for a moment, then back to Avi.

"You just...look a little shaken."

"No, I'm fine, promise." She forced a smile.

"Okay, good." Avi smiled, and both him and Kirstie turned their attentions back to the proceeding rehearsal.

~~~~~

"No, no, I don't think she's actually okay." Avi said, answering a question from the interviewer, in a separate room.

~~~~~

"We have show tonight, yeah?" Kirstie asked, packing her things up.

"No, matinee and evening show tomorrow." Avi told her.

"Right, sorry. I'll see you then." She threw her bag over her shoulder and started out the door with Esther. Their apartments were a decent walking distance from the rehearsal building, so they usually walked to and from together.

"You don't have to hide it around me." Esther said, breaking the silence.

"I'm not hiding anything."

"Can you quit lying today? What else is bothering you besides...y'know? What was up this morning?" She tried to get the conversation somewhere else.

"Just still nervous about the show closing. It's really all or nothing now.”

“Hey, stop that. Congrats on the lead by the way!”

“Thanks.” It was the first real smile Kirstie had put on all day.

Esther smiled as well, and soon after, they both went to their apartments. "Just call me if you need anything."

"You got it." Kirstie entered her apartment and set her belongings down, not caring where they landed. She fell into her bed with a sigh.

There had to have been a reason he did this. She was nothing but loyal to him, and then this happens. Was it because she was as broke as they come, and borderline homeless? I mean, everyone was but still. Was it because she had gotten so stressed recently and shut everyone out? There had to have been a reason.

She soon found breathing to be difficult, and the room spinning. Tears came running down her face as she shakily picked up her phone. Kirstie clicked Esther’s contact, and within two monotone rings, she heard the techie's voice on the other line.

"Hey, you good?"

"N-No." She stuttered.”C-Can I come over?”

"Of course. Are you down for watching a movie?" Esther asked.

"S-Sure."

"Okay, I'll see you in ten minutes. Breathe for me, okay?"

"Okay." Kirstie said quietly as she made her way over to Esther’s apartment.

~~~~~

Within fifteen minutes, Mean Girls was playing, and the two girls were sitting on a small sofa in Esther's apartment. Throughout the movie, they talked a little about Kirstie being the lead, because Esther knew Kirstie was excited to be the lead in the show. "I'm scared that we'll get taken off, now that you're the lead, you won't get to experience it." Esther sighed.

"We'll keep it on. It's a good show." Kirstie told her.

"I hope." Esther chuckled.

About an hour into the movie, Kirstie had fallen asleep, and Esther’s focus was brought back into reality by her phone ringing.

Why was Avi calling her this late?

"Hey, Avi, you good?" Esther asked, slipping behind the door of the bathroom in the apartment.

“No, where's Kirstie? She’s not answering my calls.” Avi snapped.

“Her phone died, and she's asleep on my couch, why?” Esther asked, concerned.

"Why'd she lie?" He sounded really mad.

"Who? About what?”

“Kirstin! About her singing!” He yelled.

“I know Kirstie better than I know myself, and she’d never lie to you about anything!"

"I was told that that wasn't Kirstie singing. Why. Did. She. Lie. To. Me?" Avi punctuated the words of his final sentence.

"She didn't lie to you!" She responded. "Avi, I--"

"No. I don't want to hear it. I'll decide what to do about her tomorrow." With that, he hung up, and Esther's back slid down the door until she was sitting on the ground.

I can't believe he did that. Esther said to the camera.

~~~~~

A/N: Ooh, comment what you thought happened! Hope you enjoyed! Xoxo! ❤