Scott found himself in an alley and leaned against a dumpster. What time was it? It seemed that he was supposed to be somewhere...
What had he done? He felt awful... so dirty. A snatch of music continuously ran through his mind... something from a show he had been in once... the words slowly came to him.
I shattered Kim... now Ellen too.
Kim? Ellen? He couldn't remember who they were... the image of an Asian girl hanging on the arm of a stranger crossed his mind... another girl with long brown hair and deep blue eyes...
The man at the bar had insisted that a drink would help him... Yet it hadn't, of course.
It had created more problems.
That had been the first time Scott had ever had alcohol, although he had turned twenty-one a long time ago. He had sworn that he would never drink... He was afraid he could turn out like her.
After all, Scott had seen what alcohol could do.
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Again he was by that stage door, the applause still ringing in his ears. Older people were standing around with programs, talking excitedly.
"Look! That's Gavroche! Oh, he's so adorable!"
Playbills were everywhere, and a forest of arms held out pens for him to sign his name. Scott beamed at them and reached for the nearest program.
He was interrupted by a car horn blaring and a coarse voice.
"Come on, boy! Get in here!"
"Mama? Can I sign their playbills first?"
A door slammed. "I said get in this car right now!"
"But Mama..."
The older people with programs scattered nervously, and a strong hand grabbed Scott's arms and lifted him off the sidewalk... it hurt, but she wouldn't let him go... shoved him into the car and slammed the door. The smell of alcohol made his eyes water.
She started the car and pulled jerkily out into the traffic. Scott stayed quiet for a moment, but couldn't bear to suppress his pride.
"I did good, Mama! They said-"
"Shut up! You're a good-for-nothing little brat."
Scott waited for her to finish cursing the traffic light that was keeping the car from moving forward.
"Mama, I did really good! They told me-"
She smacked him, and he tasted blood.
"They said-"
"Shut up, boy! I don't want to hear from you! That idiot behind me leaning on his horn is bad enough!"
"But Mama..."
"I – said – I – don't – want – to – hear – from – you!"
With each word came a slap. Tears stung his eyes.
"Mama..."
She hit him again.
"Stop it, Mama! I just wanted to tell you-"
This time her fist hit his jaw. Scott pulled the door open and collapsed onto the street, his only thought to get away. He heard a squeal of tires and the car was gone.
There was nowhere to go but back to the stage door... to the theater... the other actors had seen little Gavroche bruised, bloody, and in tears... called the police... foster home after foster home... the theatre his only escape...
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Shivering, Scott pulled his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them. The theater! That was where he was supposed to be!
But which theater? Where? What show?
He rested his chin on his knees and closed his eyes, trying to organize his thoughts.
It was cold...
A/N- Yay I'm back from camp! And I've been mentally writing the threquel all week... When I realized that this was the next chapter to post I go "YAY CRAZY SCOTT!" And my mom says, "Who's Scott? Is this someone from camp I should know about?" Hehehe...
Elyse3- Somehow "gar" summed that up for me. Hehe... many a people in this series have issues. Duh to me.
Danica Enjolras- Do you feel even worse for him now? This is another one of my random 'explaining the root of his problems' chapters.
Forseti- Uh-oh... you'll know why I had to say that later... please don't hate me at the end of this story...
nebulia- That's exactly what happened. And yeah, you really should, but some people are just... well, crazy.
Lola Pennington- No! Scott isn't Capital R! -beats head against table to clear bad images- He's definitely got clothes on.
TaRe-ChiBi- Aw... ickle fat Tam! I liked JJB lots... of course; he's the only Engineer I've seen live. I do have the "Hey Mr. Producer!" DVD, and that has Jonathan Pryce on it... he's not bad, just a little creepy.
RoseMisre- Hehehe... I like the last two chapters, this one, and the next one. I was on a roll when I was writing these...