Quiet Backstage: A Series of Lippa Oneshots

The Man Behind The Curtain

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain
-Todrick Hall

Warnings: just be very gentle on this one. I love you all, my inbox is always open if you need anything ever. I can't promise perfect help, but I can promise to listen 🥰

"Pippa...Pippa...calm down. Calm down. What's happened?" Anthony yanked Pippa into a hug, rubbing her back to ease her hyperventilations.

They couldn't have been in a worse place. They were stuck in a pinned up, eerily white, painfully clean, hospital waiting room.

And Lin hadn't woken up yet.

"I came as soon as I heard." Jasmine dashed to where the two were, pushing an iced coffee towards Pippa.

Jasmine shook her head as Pippa started downing her coffee through the green straw.

"Woah, Honey, drink slower. Breathe. We don't need you getting sick." Jasmine coaxed.

"He...he...I found him...in, in, in the bathroom, and it was late, and I didn't know what to do, and--" Pippa rambled, still continuing to hyperventilate, though she cut her sentence off as she broke down into a fit of coughing.

"Baby, you need to breathe." Jasmine rubbed Pippa's forearm.

"C'mere." Anthony grabbed Pippa's hand, gently leading her to the family sized bathroom just down the hall. Jasmine followed suit. "Love, what happened? What happened to Lin? Take it slow."

Neither Anthony nor Jasmine had seen their classmate and friend like this. Pippa and Lin attended New York Film Academy with the couple that had playfully come to be known as "Janthony".

"So I got home from tech with Jonathan, and..."

"Hey, Lin! I'm home." Pippa called, throwing her bags just down by the door.

Lin didn't give a response, though Pippa figured he could've been asleep or something.

The junior class' film projects were in full swing, and all of the students were under an immense amount of pressure.

Pippa turned the corner, heading towards the bathroom in their shared apartment to remove her makeup from the day.

In the following seconds, a shrill scream was heard throughout the apartment complex, and it came from apartment 2B.

"Lin!" Pippa shouted, not meaning to, but aggressively shaking Lin's body.

He didn't wake up, he didn't move. He remained limp and almost lifeless on the hardwood floor.

Pippa anxiously fumbled around in her jacket pockets, then running off back down the hall. She dumped out all of the contents of her purse, grabbing her phone as soon as it hit the tile. She didn't care if it cracked.

"Nine, one, one, what is your emergency?" A calm, male voice filled Pippa's phone speaker immediately.

"My...my...my...boyfriend! He...he's on the bathroom floor, and he won't respond or wake up, and there's...there are cuts all over his chest and stomach, and I don't know what to do!" She rambled off over the phone, tears running down her cheeks.

"Ma'am, we're going to send emergency response services. Do you just need an ambulance? Is there a fire or anything?" Somehow, the man remained so calm.

"No, no, no fire, just come fast, please. I'm scared." Pippa's voice quivered, and she took a breath before giving the man her address.

"Thank you, Ma'am. Could you stay on the phone until services arrive? I need to ask you some questions about your boyfriend's state."

"Okay." Pippa nodded, dashing back to the bathroom where Lin still laid.

She tried to shake him once more, but he still didn't respond.

"Ma'am, are you still there?"

"Yes, Sir." Pippa nodded.

"Take a deep breath, help is on the way. Could I ask you a few questions about the cuts you talked about?" He asked.

"I...I don't think I know where they came from." Pippa shook her head.

She heard the operator take a deep breath. "Alright. Look around the room. Is there any chance that the cuts are self-inflicted?"

Pippa thought that was an insane question. Lin would never do anything like that, never.

"Ma'am?" The operator asked when he heard a panicked gasp over her side of the phone. "Ma'am, I have just been alerted, help has arrived."

Pippa thanked the man and hung up, yet she flinched when she heard a loud knock on the door.

Pippa let the paramedics in her home, and she watched in complete terror as they lifted her boyfriend onto a stretcher.

"He cut...there was a broken hand mirror right by him, he--" Pippa broke into tears against Anthony's shoulder.

Jasmine audibly gasped, leading to Anthony gripping his girlfriend's hand.

The trio stood up and left the bathroom once Pippa caught her breath a bit.

They stepped out just in time for a nurse to call for her back to Lin's room.

Pippa followed, leaving Jasmine and Anthony waiting in fear in the waiting room. They knew Pippa needed his space.

"Lin!" Pippa gasped, seeing her boyfriend partially sitting up in bed. She dashed over to her boyfriend, halting dead in her tracks, her plan to hug her boy immediately stopping.

"Pippa..." Lin spoke slowly. He was short of breath.

"Lin, what the hell are those?!" Pippa pointed to the bandaged cuts on his chest and abdomen. "When...why...the mirror!" Fresh tears resurfaced in her eyes.

Pippa looked over as the nurse who led her here, left for a moment to give the couple some space.

"Pippa, you have to let me explain."

Pippa's head dropped, here gaze now falling onto the hospital blankets. "We're you trying to kill yourself?"

"Baby..." Lin started, tears pricking the corners of his eyes too.

"Were you?!" Pippa shouted, making some loose tools on the nurse's tray rattle.

"I-I don't know." Lin admitted. "I don't."

Pippa let her tears fall. "I'm going to throw up." She mumbled, not looking at her boyfriend.

"It wasn't supposed to happen like this." Lin whispered.

"What do you mean?" Pippa looked up at Lin, who was also crying. She swallowed hard, trying to breathe through the angry butterflies in her stomach.

"This. This is me, and nobody was supposed to see this." Lin admitted.

Pippa sighed a shaky exhale. She knew he'd say something like that. In fact, his final project was about not paying attention to the person he was off stage, off camera.

But this was who he was off stage and off camera. And Pippa couldn't believe she didn't notice anything earlier.

They were going to fix this. Together. Off camera. Off stage. Behind the curtain.

~~~~~

I love you all ❤