Ulterior Motives II

Why Are You Here?

'You ready babe?' Toni asked Cheryl as they sped away from Ivana's preschool.

'Can't wait,' Cheryl replied.

They were both in their work clothes. Cheryl was wearing a red, tight dress while Toni was wearing a black blazer with a white shirt underneath.

After arriving at the small venue, the girls got out of the car. They looked up to see the red and black sign that read 'Topaz Circus' in pretty, swirly letters.

Cheryl grabbed her girlfriend's hand and headed inside and past the grand entrance, into the backstage area where the performers were preparing.

Around twenty people who were backstage ran towards the girls engulfing them in a hug, shouting things like 'we missed you' and 'welcome back!' As nice as it all was, Cheryl couldn't help but feel as though their break had been wasted, since the incident with Toni's father hadn't worked out as they had hoped.

Cheryl walked up the steps and onto the stage to have a look around.

There was no one in the audience yet, so the velvet red silk of the seats sparkled from the theatre's bright lights, creating a sea of glitter.

Cheryl reminisced about when her and Toni had first looked around the property, which had been a small night club venue at the time. It was worn down and had certainly seen better days, but the thing that drew them to it was the stage.

It had steps up either side, so shows could be interactive, and had the most beautiful red curtains tied to the side of the stage. Both girls know that that would be where the rest of their lives would happen.

'Whatcha thinking about?' Toni asked, wearing her magician's hat.

'You,' Cheryl replied simply, giving her girlfriend a side hug as they stared at the theatre.

A few hours later...

'It's showtime!' Cheryl heard Toni call into the audience, that was her queue to go onto the stage.

She walked up to Toni, who was in the centre of the stage, and faced the audience.

'This is my assistant, who will now lie down on this table,' she said, gesturing to a table covered in a black velvet cloth.

Cheryl walked up to it and carefully lowered herself on to it, not breaking eye contact with the audience once.

Toni walked over to her and placed a black box over her body, but not before whispering something into Cheryl's ear when no one could see.

'My dad is in the audience,' she said.

Cheryl's eyes widened, but thankfully she was already covered by the box, so no one in the audience could see the change in her expression.

Quickly, she jumped into action, doing her part of the magic trick. She pulled the latch on the base of the table that opened the bottom of it, allowing her to sit beneath it, being covered by the velvet cloth that draped over the edges as Toni placed knives through the box.

The audience gasped in amazement when the trick was finished and Cheryl lay unharmed on the table.

After the show was over, Cheryl and Toni stood in front of the stage with the rest of the cast crew, meeting people from the audience.

Unsurprisingly, Toni's dad was there.

The younger girl grabbed Cheryl's hand as well as her father's and brought them both backstage to speak privately.

'Why are you here?' She asked him, confused.

'Look,' he began, 'I'm sorry for the things that I said to you. I was upset about your mom's funeral and I wasn't expecting you to be there, so I just lashed out at you. I know I shouldn't have done that, so I'm here to apologise.'

~~~

Author's Notes:

I'm so sorry for the infrequency in posting, being back at school is taking its toll but since corona numbers are going back up, tomorrow is going to be my last day there for a few weeks, so I should have more time to write doing school from home.
Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed!! 💛💛