Quiet Backstage: A Series of Lippa Oneshots

Narcissist // Helpless

Dying inside as you wine and dine
-Hamilton: An American Musical

"What is wrong with you?" Lin muttered as he followed Pippa back into their apartment.

"Nothing!" She exhaled loudly, sloppily throwing her high heels to a corner, sighing at the sight of the skin the shoes had rubbed clean off of her heels.

"Pip, something is wrong." Lin put a hand on either one of her shoulders.

"Don't touch me." Pippa whispered, slipping out from under his hands. "Please."

Lin frowned. "Did something happen at the company?"

"No." She grumbled before heading up the stairs.

"Then why are you so upset?"

Pippa sighed, setting the earrings she had taken out of her ears down on the vanity before turning around. "I'm upset because you're taking me to these events, all dressed up, just to show me off!" She exclaimed.

Lin's jaw dropped. "I am not taking you with me to show you off. I'm taking you along with me so that maybe you could rub some elbows with these people, and actually get a job and a name for yourself some day!" Lin yelled.

"What are you implying?" Pippa whispered, folding her arms over her chest. "Just because you direct shows and create shows doesn't mean you're better than someone who actually does shows!" Pippa fired right back.

"That's not what I'm saying!" Lin shouted, following Pippa to the add on bathroom as she started taking down her bun.

"It sure sounds like it!" She yelled, her voice muffling from the fact she was holding a few bobby pins between her teeth.

"Phillipa, that's not what I'm saying at all!"

"Then what are you saying?!" Pippa retorted, locking eyes with her boyfriend through the mirror.

"I'm saying that..." His voice trailed off.

"Exactly." Pippa snapped. She left the bathroom and went back to their shared bedroom to change. She was about to unzip her dress, and put something more comfortable on, until Lin grabbed her wrist. "Don't touch me!" She repeated.

"What are you trying to get out of this?" Lin said in a tone that demanded an answer.

"Get out of what?!" Pippa shouted. Lin dropped her wrist, and Pippa dropped her hands from the gold zipper on her dress.

"Starting this argument!"

Pippa gasped. "I'm not trying to get anything out of it! You asked me what's wrong, and I told you that I feel like an object when you make me dress up, and you bring me to these "work dinners" where everyone within five inches of you is drunk off of some cheap whiskey or whatever it is your work people drink!"

"I don't drink, Pippa!" Lin responded.

"I'm not saying you do! I'm saying that everyone you work with does, and sitting at a table of drunk people, when you're all dressed up is a bit scary. But then, you go and turn this around and say some egotistical crap, like the narcissistic person Jonathan told me you were!" Tears filled Pippa's eyes.

"Who said I was narcissistic?!" Lin shouted.

"It doesn't matter who did, what matters is that I didn't believe her and went and started dating you anyways, but look where we've ended up!" Pippa yelled.

"What are you even saying?" Lin crossed his arms.

Pippa sighed, looking down at her blistered heels. "I'm saying that maybe we should sleep apart tonight." Her voice lowered.

"Fine." Lin snapped, making Pippa look straight up.

"Fine." Pippa mimicked his snappy tone as she grabbed her keys and ran out of the door.

~~~~~

Meanwhile, Renèe was rudely awakened by a harsh knocking on her apartment door. She sleepily stumbled her way over and opened the door, revealing a rainsoaked, barefooted, dress wearing, crying Pippa. She couldn't tell if the droplets on her cheeks were tears or rain, but her makeup was smeared under her eyes, and her heels seemed to have been all blistered, Renèe assumed from a pair of heels. "May I sleep here tonight?"