Quiet Backstage: A Series of Lippa Oneshots

The Same Thing

Pippa had been looking paler and paler as rehearsal went on. Her director had talked about sending her home early, considering how sick she was, but Pippa wouldn't let him. She had to stay. Amelie was opening in less than three months, and with Pippa playing the title role, a lot of pressure was on her shoulders.

After a long subway ride, Pippa was thankfully back to her apartment. Her boyfriend of almost a year and a half, Lin, had been staying with her for quite some time now that he had offically moved into her apartment in The City.

Pippa's bags barely hit the hardwood floor of the entrance hallway of her apartment before her entire body just seemed to shut down. She basically fell onto the sofa once she got her shoes off.

"Oh, Love, you don't look good." Lin commented as he came into the room.

Pippa chuckled dryly. "That's all I want to hear right now."

"I didn't mean it like that, Hon." Lin said, sweetly.

Pippa shifted on the couch, searching for comfort. This only lasted a moment, seeing as in the next she was standing up and heading to the kitchen. "What do you want for dinner?" She asked.

Lin came up to where she was standing and wrapped his arms around her waist, looking over her shoulder. "Don't tell me you're thinking about actually making dinner. We can just call in a pizza or something. You need to rest."

"I'll be fine." Pippa coughed gently, snaking away from Lin's hold on her waist. "Just let me go change first." She turned down the hall and disappeared into her bedroom. She returned to the kitchen mere moments later, her curled hair now morphed into a fan bun ontop of her head, and her rehearsal attire had morphed into an old white cropped hoodie and gray sweatpants.

Lin had never seen her this bad. Now with her makeup off, her dark circles and pale skin were now more visible than before. She looked ill. Simply to put it. Even from just the moment he was touching her, he could feel that her body was freezing, hence her newfound hoodie. Her whole body looked weak, and of course it did. All these twelve hour days and shows coming up of course had to wear and tear on her body. And of course, she made more work for herself. That was just Pippa.

"Pips, I'm serious about you resting. I don't want you getting too sick." Lin coaxed.

"I'll live. I'll take some Advil and then go to bed early." She shook her head as she turned the stove on, getting ready to prepare a pasta dish.

Lin frowned, seeing as Pippa had next to no intention to follow through with any of those ideas she had. "Love, what if you are too sick to perform? To open this show you've put your heart and soul into? I don't want that for you."

Pippa's eyes dropped to the pot of boiling water on the stove. She knew he was right, but she didn't want to admit it. "Lin, I'll be fine. I've done this before."

Lin folded his arms. "You've done what before?"

"Worked this hard, made myself sick, I've sucked it up for shows my whole life." Pippa paced the kitchen, working on preparing dinner.

"I don't like that you do that." Lin frowned, wrapping his arm around her waist once more.

"Well, it's how I'm living." She shrugged. "How I've always lived."

Lin grabbed her hand and turned her to face him. "Listen, you're going to kill yourself this way. You run like this? You break down. Not just emotionally, though that will happen, your body is going to break down too. What happens if you get injured and can't ever perform again? Or too sick and you can never sing again?"

Pippa pushed away. "Don't say that. I don't like those thoughts." She mumbled.

"You need to take care of yourself, Love."

She sighed. "You sound like Jasmine...she always told me stuff like this in highschool."

"Right, Jazzy would tell you the same thing, even today. And she's working on my show, so listen to her if you won't listen to me."

~~~~~

Wow, I've had this in my drafts for ever and just never published it.

It's been a wild day for me, and ignoring how clichè this one is, I hope you all still liked it!

Lots of love,
Kath x

(P.S. the lighting box staircase. put out a new album today ;) if you get the joke lol)