Behind the Silk Curtain

Before he could respond to my question that sent a tooth barring smile that sent another wave of happiness over me, Craw ushered us out of the theatre. It was clear in how he was already treating me that our "student-teacher relationship" got off on the wrong foot and I clearly wasn't up for mending that anytime soon.

I pulled my hoodie further around me as we walked out into a courtyard encircled by various classrooms and an arch leading out into the world outside of university. We stood close together amongst the other students whom hurried about the courtyard to get out of the cold and to the next class.

"So, when am I free, you asked," he said to me, dragging me away from the frozen fountain in the middle of the courtyard. "Tomorrow afternoon okay with you?"

"Can we do tomorrow night?" I asked him. "It's just that I'm working all day until about six."

"Where do you work?" he asked me.

"Manufacturing company by day and a pub by night," I replied. "I have the night off tomorrow. Boss said I needed a break or something."

"I can see what you boss means," he said to me, moving a fraction closer as he motioned the darkening circles underneath my eyes. "You look really tired."

"You're reading me like an open book," I said self-consciously as I moved away from him, my feet slipping slightly on the snow around us. "I'm not sure if I like that."

"I apologise," he said, a apologetic yet hurt looking crossing his friendly features. "I didn't mean to offend you."

"I'm free at six," I said, hovering closer and closer to the arch that lead to the outside world. "Yours or mine?"

"My roommates having a few of her friends over to night so it would be good to get out of the house," he said to me as he watched me move towards the arch. "Where do you live?"

"Somewhere you don't really want to be but with the clothes you're wearing, I think you should be okay," I said.

When I said that, he hurried after me and joined me out of the university where he commented, "Let me walk you home, then."

"I've managed all this time so I think I'll be fine," I said, hurrying further ahead of him in attempts to escape but It wasn't that easy.

"It will help me find my way to your house so at least let me walk you to yours," he said, catching up with me in a matter of strides.

My small steps were practically one or two long steps for him. Damn my height. I had put up with it all this time but it wasn't until now that I felt as small as I did. He just seemed like a looming figure mixed with a playfulness that I couldn't see myself removing myself from. As much as I wanted to leave him behind and find another audition partner, I couldn't because somewhere deep inside me could not bare to see him saddened so.

I nodded curtly as we walked the streets of London to the nearest train station where we caught the nearest tube to the outskirts of London where I lived. There was a dramatic change in surroundings as we left the shaky train into a station with graffiti everywhere and individuals that looked like they were about to jump you at any moment.

When those at the station saw the man I was with, they instantly narrowed their eyes, suspicious of the man that they saw. The moment that they saw me, their features relaxed slightly but were still hesitant of the man that I was with. It was a sense of community, as such. It was good to know that they were looking out for me but to know how he was feeling right now, being a newbie to this area, I could only feel sorry for him.

I hurriedly lead him out of the station because of the uneasy feel that I was getting off him. Around the corner from the train station, through an alleyway and another backstreet, we finally reached the building that I lived in. It was one of many housing commissions that were in the area and didn't look to pleasant on the outside.

It wasn't like it changed on the inside either because by the time that we had reached the fifth level of the building, the splotched walls and the mould that was starting to grow along the edges of the carpet by the walls, he was starting to regret coming with me to my flat.

I lived in a flat not far from the fire escape at the end of the hallway. Number nine, to be exact, but the bolt the held the number there had come loose so it looked like I lived in number six. I reminded myself to get that fixed because I was wondering were all my mail was going and now I knew why.

Shoving my keys into the door, I jiggled it around for a second before I could managed to unlock it. With a shove from my shoulder against the door, I managed to let us into a very bare flat with barely the necessities that someone was required to live with.

I watched him enter and look about as I locked the door behind me, surprised at the dirt and grime that seeped its way into the apartment. He hovered to one of the couches that the previous owners had left behind and pocked it. It made a squelching sound when he applied more pressure and he cringed at the sound.

"How do you live here?" he said as I moved off into my bedroom, leaving the door slightly ajar so that we could still talk to each other without him fully seeing me change.

"It's all I can afford," I said as I stripped myself of my theatre blacks and changed into something a little more attractive for work. My boss would've killed me if I turned up in what I would usually wear.

"You work two jobs!" he exclaimed. "How can this be all that you can afford?"

"I only got a half scholarship to the Academy so most of my money goes there," I said as I slipped on a pair of converse sneakers and a dark tank top to go with my very ominous looking set of clothing. "The rest of my money barely pays my rent, let alone feeding me."

Through the gap in the door, from when I was glancing around my room in search of my faux leather jacket that would keep me warm until I got to work, I saw him peak through. I picked up a random piece of clothing from the floor and threw it at the door. He immediately fled the gap and continued to search the rest of the apartment.

"And I thought my living conditions were bad," he commented.

"I'll try to take that as a complement," I replied as I found my jacket and slipped it on.

I found my headphones necklace and slipped it around my neck before slipping on a studded belt. When I left my room, he turned to me with a look of a surprise. I moved to the adjacent bathroom where I would apply some light make-up. I had to step up onto a stool so that I could see myself in the mirror because I was just that short.

His look of surprise soon turned to bemusement as he leaned himself with crossed arms against the doorframe to the bathroom. The sparkle in his eye flickered me as he watched me apply a light shade of green before lining it with black that would bring out my dark hazel eyes.

Feeling the heat of his eyes burning into my skin, I looked over to him when I finished my eye make-up. I blinked a few times, unsure of why he would be staring at me as he did and instantly turned away from him, flushing red. I put away my make-up and tried to leave the bathroom.

He stepped out in front of me, blocking my entrance so I said to him, "Can you please move?"

In return, he extended his hand towards me, his fingers clamped together and ready for a handshake when he said, "I don't think we've really met properly. I'm Thomas. Who are you?"

I smiled briefly smiled at him as I took his hand, feeling his long and toughened fingers lock around mine. We shook hands, unable to take my eyes off my trapped fingers.

"I'm surprised you don't know who I am," I said, finally removing my fingers from his and feeling a touch naked with them. "You've managed to figure me out so far." Thomas finally let me back into the lounge room/kitchen. "Can you turn off the light?"

I heard him click the light switch with the lounge room darkening slightly as I opened the fridge to find it almost empty. There was a cold, uneaten apple in the back corner of the fridge and a half eaten pizza from the previous night. Always managing to steal something from work, I took the apple and turned back to Thomas, watching him lean against the kitchen bench.

I was about to warn him not to do so but it was too late. There was a resounding crack as Thomas almost fell into the bench as it crumbled underneath his fingers. He jumped backwards and looked at the deteriorated bench in front of him. Glancing up to me, he was about to utter an apology when I held my hand to stop him from doing so.

"It was bound to break, anyway," I said. "Just another thing I have to get fixed."

"What else should I be weary about around here?" he said, looking around him.

"Shower doesn't work," I said. "I have to shower at the local pool when no one's there and I can manage to sneak in. Power cuts out sometime between seven and nine every night and the window in my bedroom doesn't close all the way so it leaves me with broken sleep and constant head colds."

"How did you get here? Don't your family want to help you?" Thomas questioned, clearly avoiding anything that he could ruin as he moved into the kitchen.

"I don't have a family," I said, finishing off my apple as I pulled open a cupboard underneath the sink and threw it in a plastic bag hanging off the hook of the cupboard door.

"Everyone has a family," he said as I turned back to him.

"Do we have to talk about this now?" I said to him, moving towards the door and pulling it open with a large amount of my strength. "I have to go to work."

"But its only ten in the morning!" he cried.

"I lied about only having two jobs," I said, ushering him out of my flat and down the emergency stairs. Our footsteps echoed around us and when I spoke next, my voice bounced off the walls around us. "The pub I work in has a club next door that I work in at night."

"When do you work at the manufacturing company, then?" he asked me as we walked to the ground floor.

"I work there three days a week," I said as we escaped out into the street I lived on. "I work at the pub other days and club at night."

"Do you even sleep?" he queried.

I turned to him, stopping him in the middle of the alley way that I lived in and motioned to the still visible bags under my eyes. Getting the point of my actions, we continued down the street towards the train station. As we walked there, I saw him retreating into himself.

My living conditions had obviously shocked him so. I had no idea how he lived but it was obviously in a better state then my surroundings. As far as I knew, he could have been living on the expensive side of London and I wouldn't have known.

By the time we reached the train station, he was so far within himself that I actually had to nudge him harder then I would have liked to. Thomas looked to me, eyes distant and glassy as he thought about something that I could not pick.

"Shit, are you okay?" I said, placing a comforting hand upon his arm.

Thomas' eyes looked down to where my hand was placed, watching for a while before he said, "I just…never been to this part of town before and seeing how you live, its a total perspective changer."

"We don't have to rehearse at mine if you don't feel comfortable doing so," I said, rubbing his arm slightly. "I know I would be scare of coming through here to see a girl you hardly even know to rehearse for some stupid play."

"Romeo and Juliet is not stupid," he said, taking my hand that I had placed on his arm and squeezed it. "It's a love story that set the standard for all love stories to come. It's inspiring, you could say."

"Inspiring?" I questioned. "I wouldn't say killing yourself because you don't get to be with the one that you want is inspiring."

"I think that if two people loved each other that much and would do anything for them, they wouldn't even hesitate to commit such a thing," he replied. "Love till death to us part."

"Wow, okay," I said, disconnecting myself from him. "You really love this Shakespeare guy, don't you?"

"He says a lot more in his stories then you realise," Thomas said as our train arrived.

"You have to tell me about it some time," I replied. "Because if its one thing I don't understand, its what he's trying to get across. And the language he uses makes it worse."

"Words are powerful things, Lizzie," he said. "They can build you up and break you down so don't ever doubt their complexity."