somewhere || George Russell

twenty-eight

December 5, 2019
New York City, New York

Laurel was still on mode Zen, sitting down on a sofa on the headquarters of Broadway.com, waiting for someone to do questions. The camera was pointing at her, and behind it, Richard was doing a story for Instagram, taking a picture of Laurel's distracted face. 

Who would've thought that they had chemistry not only on stage, but also off? They turned out into almost-best-friends without even wanting, and so fast.

"Hi, Laurel," a girl said. Laurel blinked a few times to come back to reality and smiled. She nodded and saw Richard laughing behind the camera.

"Am I a joke to you?" she asked, tilting her head.

"I'm sorry, your face was so funny," he replied.

"I just popped out of a fifteen-hour flight, I'm tired," she rolled her eyes.

"If you prefer, we can reschedule," the girl from Broadway.com said, gently.

"There's no way on Earth, I am already here," Laurel blurted out. Zen Laurel is out officially.

"Fine," the girl nodded, and Richard laughed again. "The first thing you have to say is your name, age, where are you from, the character you play and then I will continue making the questions."

"Sure," Laurel nodded.

"And..." the camera guy started to fix the camera, "action!"

"Hi, my name is Laurel Blanhir, I am twenty-one years old, I was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, but grew up in Miami," she smiled proudly after saying her hometown. She is a proud Floridan . "And I'm playing Maria in West Side Story."

"How did you know you wanted to do theatre?"

"I have an aunt that does musical theatre in Mexico, and she inspired me. She played Maria in the West Side Story Revival in 2004," she smiled, remembering her. Richard's face was priceless. That was a fact about Laurel that he had no idea about, despite being her best friend or so. Laurel actually doesn't really talk about her aunt, because it's been so long since she last saw her. "In nineth grade I joined the Glee Club of my school, Miami Country Day School, and I started to do research about Broadway, I began to come to New York to see musicals and the first I saw on Broadway was Wicked, and then I was part of the school musicals for the next four years."

"Which ones, for example?"

"Anything Goes, Assassins, Mamma Mia and Grease. I was Rizzo, of course," Laure chuckled. "And then I was part of the ensemble of Promises, Promises and Moulin Rouge in College." Ah, that is why she knows Come What May.

The girl nodded and read her notebook again. "What's your favorite song?"

"I'll never fall in love again, written by Burt Bacharach," Laurel chuckled and put a serious face to explain the reason. "I find hilarious that line where it says what do you do when you kiss a guy? You get enough germs to catch pneumonia."

Her serious face busted Richard in laughter. His contagious laugh made Laurel and everyone else in the room laugh as well.

"Laurel, what are your hobbies?"

"I like sports. I try to attend to my swimming classes, and I like watching football. Not American football, because I don't understand a thing," she said seriously again. "I enjoy watching the real English football, the one that everybody badly calls soccer here in USA," she nodded repeatedly. "I watch the German Bundesliga, and my favorite team is Bayern Munich, but that is way too much information..." she chuckled, a little embarrassed for being so talkative. "I also started to watch Formula One like three weeks ago, but the season is already over..." she found hilarious to say that she started to like Formula One right when the season was about to finish, and she busted into laughter, making Richard laugh again.

"Laurel, this is going so well," he said, clearly amused.

"Great," she said, still laughing. "I'm sorry, I just came from vacations and I am still in Zen mode, but I promise to focus from now on. Can I answer that question again?"

"Sure," the girl nodded, giggling. "We'll just cut that part."

"Okay," Laurel nodded. "I practice swimming, I like watching TV, specially sports and Telenovelas."

"Who is your Broadway inspiration?"

"Idina Menzel, without a doubt."

"And your off-Broadway inspiration?"

Laurel chewed on her lip. "I like Gloria Estefan very much. My parents love the Miami Sound Machine and her and Emilio Estefan's musical is great. But currently I knew another inspiring woman, Claire Williams. She is the deputy director of a Formula One team, and I find her inspiring because she is a total leader."

"Great," the interviewer smiled. Seems like this is going fine again. "What do you think we should teach young girls so that they can be like Gloria Estefan and Claire Williams?"

"I don't know, music and motorsport?" Laurel answered, but it was more of a question.

The interviewer just stared at her. "No," she chuckled, trying to not lose her patience. "I mean, what should we teach to empower women?"

"Oh," Laurel nodded. "I don't believe in empowering women."

"Excuse me?" the interviewer almost yelled. In her mind she was of course thinking that Laurel is crackpot, a complete train wreck and a full-time wanker.

"Women were already born powerful," Laurel said, ignoring the fact that she made the nice Broadway.com girl lose her mind. "We just have to unleash that power and use It to positively impact the world."

"Okay, but answer again," the girl said, with her anger levels lowering down. "So, what should we teach young girls today?"

"Leadership. That we don't need to be empowered. We were already born powerful; we just have to take up space and show or true value to those who don't believe in us."

"Perfect," the interviewer smiled. "Final question..." she looked down on her notebook and read the last question. She sighed, scared to say it and that Laurel comes up with a dumb answer. Dumb for her, because in her mind, Laurel is being the cleverest human being on Earth. "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

Laurel thought about it for a second. She has never asked herself that question before. She has always been busy being the best and the know-it-all. "What did you say?" she asked Richard.

He looked at her with outrage, unable to believe that Laurel didn't pay attention to his interview. "I said that I want to be what every grown-up wants to be," he repeated. Laurel raised an eyebrow, waiting for the resolution of that. "A kid."

She chuckled and started to look back at her life. Her memory took her back to that Saturday in LA where she met George, when she didn't even bother to look at him, and if it weren't because he talked to her, all of the things that had happened in the past month would have never happened. How much have I missed for being so stuck on my own thoughts? And then she had her answer on what she wants to be when she grows up. "I want to be someone who never stops looking."