The Love I Left Behind

Scene One

Elsie nervously fiddled with the strap on her backpack as her eyes darted to the stage door. Any minute now, the stars of the show she had just been to see, 'Singing and Winning' would be walking out of that door, ready to meet fans and sign autographs. This was her fourth visit to the show, she just couldn't seem to stay away.

She had always been a theatre fan. She couldn't pin point the exact moment in her childhood where she vowed to spend as much time as she could seeing shows when she was an adult earning her own money. She had spoken about the stage since she was around three years old. And she had stuck true to her childhood dreams. Any time she had a spare bit of money from her job as a florist, she would take off on the train to London and see a show.

There was nothing as magical for Elsie than walking into a grand and beautiful theatre that was hundreds of years old. That rush that came as you shuffled in to the dark auditorium to find your seat among the other hundreds of people there was unbeatable. The smell, the lights and the sound of the show starting up was incredible. She would never get tired of it.

She hadn't expected to see 'Singing and Winning' so many times, but she had fallen for it, hard. The show was predominantly a male cast, about a group of five young men who struggle to make it as a successful boy band. They get rejected at every turn for being too cheesy and old fashioned, too outdated for the modern world. The songs were catchy, the dancing energetic and the storyline slightly unrealistic as eventually the group find fame and success. But that was what she liked about it, the fact that it was so far removed from real life. Reality could be a chore and she liked nothing better than to immerse herself into a feel good show.

Although this was her fourth time seeing the show, she had never actually met the cast. She hadn't been to the stage door of any of the shows she had been to. It was her friend, Jess, that convinced her to do it this time. Jess had certainly opened Elsie's eyes to many things.

After becoming a fan of 'Singing and Winning', she found the cast on Twitter. She followed both them and the show page, tweeting about how good the show had been and how it had made her feel after each visit.
She was very excited to receive a tweet or two from cast members to say thanks. Jess had found Elsie's Twitter page because she too, was a massive fan of the show. Jess reached out to her because of the interactions with the show and a new friendship was born.

Soon, they were talking every day online and had agreed to meet up and see the show together. Since meeting in person just six hours ago, they had spoken non stop (apart from when the show was actually on of course) and they had gotten on like a house on fire. And now here the two of them were at the stage door, anxiously awaiting the cast to come out.

Elsie was way more nervous than Jess appeared to be, but that was to be expected. Jess had seen the show twelve times now and had met the cast on several occasions. She was the complete fangirl, with a 'Singing and Winning' t-shirt worn to every show and a whole collection of Instagram pictures with the cast. Elsie felt like it was her first day of primary school and she was being shown around by the head prefect.

Jess was a larger than life character. She towered over Elsie's short five foot two. She had bright orange hair that she often wore in space bun bunches and almost grey eyes like a foggy sea. She was confident and outgoing and quite honestly made it seem her like her job was professional fangirling. Elsie had never asked if she had a real job, she just followed Jess's cue of mostly talking about the show.

Elsie buttoned and unbuttoned the clasp on her backpack now, feeling more and more nervous as the seconds ticked by. She wasn't sure how to do this. Did she have to throw herself into a deep and intellectual conversation or just ask for a picture?! She wasn't even sure she wanted a picture. She usually hated pictures of herself.
She had one photo that she used for all of her social media accounts that had been taken two years ago at her cousin's wedding. She didn't know it was being taken at the time and she was staring far off into the distance, laughing at the best man speech. Her red, halterneck dress was very slimming and made her glossy brunette hair stand out. The rest of her Instagram posts were littered with pretty flowers from the shop she worked at or beautiful sunsets from solitary evening strolls.