It was six forty-five in the evening. Christina was peeking through the thick curtains, overlooking the crowd. She could see Arthur sitting only three rows from the stage. He met her eyes and waved, smiling encouragingly. His jacket was draped over the back of the empty seat next to him. She’s not here yet… Christina thought, frowning. All because of those stupid guys! What’s taking so long?
She closed the curtain, with a sinking feeling in her stomach. She didn’t like the thought of her best friend not being there to see her first ever Broadway performance, Romeo and Juliet. She had gotten the starring role as Juliet. Ever since she got the part, she worked hard every night memorizing her lines, sometimes alone and sometimes with Ivan.
Ivan, who was playing as Romeo.
He was from a poor Russian family. His mother and father sent him and his sisters, Natalie and Katyusha, to America with the only money they had left. He was her first friend out of the cast, mainly because he was the one that stood out the most, with his snowy blonde hair and violet eyes. He also seemed to always dress in warm clothes. It’s amazing how he never even sweats, Christina always thought, chuckling to herself. Most people thought of him as scary and creepy but Christina only saw loneliness. Misunderstood, much like all of us, she had always said to him.
As they grew closer, the Russian grew very fond of her. He vowed to himself to kill anyone who even joked about hurting her. That didn’t help people’s impression of him, but he didn’t care. She meant that much to him. She was his polar opposite, always so cheery and bright. Katyusha loved her, and even Natalie was comfortable around her. It was perfect, besides the fact that he knew Christina didn’t feel the same.
Ivan sat alone on a couple of stacked up crates, backstage, running over his lines in his head. Honestly, he was feeling nervous, or as nervous as his brain would let him be. He was supposed to kiss Christina and keep his cool in front of 2,500 people. A faint blush spread across his cheeks. This will be fun; he chuckled to himself as he watched the stage directors running around like loons. He looked at the clock above the double doors that led to outside. 10 minutes ‘til showtime. The butterflies in his stomach had turned into a nest of furious wasps.
“You nervous?” A voice asked, suddenly, as if out of nowhere. He looked up and saw Christina standing in front of him. She was smiling down at him. Oh, how he loved that smile. He managed a small smile back, and nodded. “Well don’t be!”
Christina sat down next to him, while the stage directors, crew and fellow actors rushed around more panicked than before. 5 minutes ‘til showtime. She leaned on his arm with her chin on his shoulder and whispered, “You’re going to do fine. Your sisters are out there supporting you, too. You know you want to make them proud.”
He turned to look at her with a start. My sisters are here?! He thought. She has to be kidding. His sisters were always busy, Katyusha with work and Natalie with her studies. It was rare that they ever got time off, and they were always out of the house or locked in their rooms. They never had time to even blink in his direction. Almost always was he alone. He knew they loved him, and he knew they tried, but that didn’t help his loneliness. They were never around, so to hear that they had come to the performance, it was just too unreal. Ivan got up from the crate and walked eagerly to the curtain. He poked his head out from behind it to see an ocean of people, all waiting for the performance to start. Christina joined him. Sure enough, there were his sisters, sitting three rows from the stage. When they saw him, they both stood up and waved excitedly, smiling.
“Удачи!!” The two girls shouted in Russian. A huge smile played on Ivan’s lips. Christina cocked her head and raised an eyebrow at him.
“It’s Russian for ‘good luck’,” He explained. Before Christina could respond, the chief stage director called out for everyone’s attention.
