ALL NOVEL Chapter 75.1
“Yes! Exactly like that, Troy!” Evan commanded excitedly as he ran around the room with the camera in his hands, and pointed at me. “Loki! Come here.” He commanded the puppy with confidence, and surprisingly, the husky listened to him. Over the last few weeks, he had gotten used to his new name, and the two of us had taught him some basic commands like ‘come here,’ ‘sit,’ ‘shake hand,’ and the like. He didn’t always follow the commands, but sometimes he would, and luckily that moment was one such time.
“Cut!” Evan shouted. “Let’s do it once more.”
I was surprised by the tenacity with which Evan assumed the director's role. It had only been ten or so days since we started shooting scenes from popular films. We started with the scene from [Singin’ in the Rain], with me copying Gene Kelly’s iconic dance moves. Then we moved on to some performance-heavy scenes like Tom Hanks in [Cast Away] or Tim Robbins in [The Shawshank Redemption]. And when we were done with that, Evan came to me with a bright idea.
“I have written a short screenplay of my own,” he had said with a hint of pride in his voice. “Steve helped me with smoothing out some details, but the overall idea is mine, and I want to make this film. It will require three actors. You, Loki, and one other that we’ll decide on later.”
It goes without saying that I accepted the role of ‘Dog Owner’ in the short film we were making. Surprisingly, I was playing the supporting role in the film, and the lead role went to our dear Loki. If it was anyone else, I wouldn’t even consider doing it, but since it’s Evan, I couldn’t say no to him. Then there was the fact that the story of the film he had written was excellent for a short film.
“Boys,” Mum interrupted our filming session. “Didn’t we talk about this? You need to be at the Broadway Theater in an hour, Troy. And Evan, you have your tutoring session scheduled. You can’t dedicate all your time to this…project.”
“But Mom!” Evan whined petulantly before freezing in his steps. My parents had never asked Evan to call them Mom or Dad for obvious reasons. Hell, they hadn’t even asked me to do it. I did it on my own because I wanted to show them how much I appreciated everything they were doing for me, and I could separate the two sets of parents in my head without being overcome with guilt.
“It’s alright, love,” Mum smiled at Evan before coming over and hugging him gently. “Now get ready for your tutoring session. Ms. Anderson will be here anytime.”
“Y-yes,” Evan nodded while not looking at Mum.
“Troy,” Mum turned to me. “Need I remind you again about your show today?”
“I’ll go,” I raised my hands in surrender before noticing that Mum was wearing a very nice cocktail dress. “Are you going somewhere as well?” I asked suspiciously.
“I am,” she confirmed my suspicions. “There is this charity luncheon in the Upper East Side that a new friend of mine has invited me to. If you weren’t busy with your show, or Evan didn’t have his lessons, I would love to take you two. Most of them bring their kids along to meet other kids and socialize.”
“No, thanks,” I declined her invitation immediately. And from the looks Evan was giving me, he didn’t want to go to such a luncheon either. It was a little strange for me to know that the woman who didn’t even want to move to New York just last month had assimilated so seamlessly into the elite circle of the area in just two weeks that she was being invited to their parties. It was only a matter of time before we would have to host one such event. I shivered mentally at the thought alone.
“How’s Eli?” She changed topics suddenly. “I hope he’s better than the incompetent fool from last week?”
I frowned slightly at the reminder of last week when a few overenthusiastic fans had almost caused a stampede when I came out of the theater after the night’s show. It was such a great show where Jack Nicholson of all people came in person to see me and told me how much he liked my performance, and then that happened. My parents had promptly replaced the people who were handling my security that day and a new team, led by Eli Brown had been contracted for the job. It’s such a pity that Roger can’t stay with me in America because of his family. He is a very competent guy.
“He’s good,” I replied to Mum’s question. “Have fun at your luncheon,” I smiled deceptively at her, and she nodded in thanks before exiting the apartment.
I turned to Evan, “If you ever feel that I have turned snobbish, or like one of those entitled rich brats that would be present at that luncheon feel free to hit me.”
Without wasting even a single second, Evan rushed forward and hit me on the back of my head.
“Oww!” I cried out in pain before turning to the grinning boy with murder in my eyes. “You’re dead, Spader,” I announced before running after him. “Today I’ll show you what I learned in my martial arts classes.”
(Break)
Benji Cooper was beyond excited, and the reason was simple: he and his family were going to see [Billy Elliot: The Musical] at the Broadway Theater, with Troy Armitage himself performing as Billy. As soon as it was announced that Troy would perform as Billy Elliot in a limited run on Broadway, there was a frenzy amongst the audience to get tickets for the show. The ticketing window had opened on December 15, 2001, and all the tickets on offer (three months in advance) had been sold out within a week.
Benji’s father was one of the extremely lucky ones to grab three front-row tickets to the show. It was a little late in the middle of February 2002, but it was better than not watching the show at all, or worse, watching someone else play Billy. The best part about the show was seeing Troy live, or even a rarer chance to talk to him when the show was over. The latter was highly unlikely because, as his mother told him, these superstar types are very stuck-up and very rude in general. So it’s better to not get your hopes high. Still, Benji would love to get a photo with Troy so he could get bragging rights for the rest of his life. And maybe, just maybe, Troy is different from other celebrities and is actually nice.
So it was with these expectations that he went to watch the Broadway show, and it was better than anything he could have expected. Troy Armitage and the entire cast performed so well that Benji had almost forgotten for a moment that he was watching a play. Everything was so perfect that he felt as if he was watching some documentary with some dancing and singing mixed in between. When Troy started flying in the air during the dream ballet, or when he performed ‘Electricity’ for his dad and the selectors at the Royal Ballet School, Benji couldn’t help but feel light as if he could fly and dance just like Troy. When the audience erupted in applause after seeing Troy’s performance, Benji was one of the first ones to stand up and clap with all his might.
And then, the show was over. A sense of sadness filled Benji because he could not witness more of the performance. The worst part was that Troy would perform only for a limited time before the show would be overtaken by other actors, and all the tickets for Troy's performances had been sold out.
Benji was about to get up from his seat like some of the others had already begun doing when a man walked to the center of the stage with a mic.