Chapter 3: Childhood Crush

Some days went by. Stephen was reluctant to leave the area. He was psyched to try and see if he could reconnect with the girl of his childhood. However, he didn't want his finding of her to be that of a stalker like nature. Stephen did, in the end, take the trip back up to Boston to gather his belongings. He figured that taking the time to do so, could give him the time to figure out a plan.

Stephen got back to his college campus. Demetri was at his desk within their dorm room. He shook within his chair upon Stephen's entrance. His roommate went straight over to his bed side's nightstand. Demetri got up and tapped Stephen's shoulder from behind.

"Hey, where have you been? Been worried about you man."

"Hey, I appreciate that. My dad passed and went to his funeral over the weekend. Discovered a brother that I never knew about and he's taken me in."

Demetri lifted his hands up. "Whoah, dude that sounds questionable as hell. Don't be trusting a random person like that."

Stephen took a moment to snicker to himself. "Heh, well what's ironic is you lifting your hands up as if you're under arrest. My brother, or I should say half-brother, is a police officer actually. And hey, I'd say him getting partial rights to my father's home does show him to be the brother that he says that he is."

"So, what? You still don't truly know him now do you?"

Stephen sighed. "Perhaps not. But I'll take the time to get to know him. Living with him gives me the opportunity to finally achieve my life's true goals. In more ways than one."

Demetri shook his head in disagreement. However, did not say another word and returned to his desk. Stephen gathered his belongings. He got back to his car and made his return to his new home. His return, while another hectic drive, had at least ended with a much closer parking spot to the elevator, than last time.

It became the evening hours, upon Stephen's return. He had been distracted by both the long drives and the former roommate. The apartment was empty. Drew must have gone out for his nightly police officer work. He did, however, leave something behind for Stephen.

Stephen entered his room. A note, with something below it, was on his bed. He thought, “What? He didn't want to text me?” He grabbed the note. Didn't even bother to look at what laid under it.

The message said: “Heh, I think I recall that old love interest of yours to be named Charlotte, is that correct? Well, I did some digging and saw that tonight's pre-showing of Broadway's latest iteration of Dracula The Musical, had a lady named Charlotte Ohanson starring in it. We officers get tickets to these pre-showings for free. Left you mine for yah.”

Excitement filled Stephen's mind. He luckily still had a few hours to get to the theater that night. Stephen exited the apartment building as fast as he could. He got over to the closest of the subway stations and hopped on. It was very crowded but well worth it to him.

Stephen thought to himself, “Alright, does my crap memory remember her last name? No, but I should easily be able to recognize her. Shoot, perhaps it depends on how detailed her character costume is going to be.”

Time went by mid travel. As he got closer, Stephen thought to check to see if he had the ticket in his pocket. He didn't find it at first and got concerned. Thankfully, he came to realize that he was sitting on it with it being in his back pocket. Stephen pulled it out.

The ticket had good seating and was for a central view only three rows back from the stage in opera seating. Stephen flipped it and discovered the unexpected bonus. The ticket included a behind the curtain meet and greet after the show. His excitement grew more and more. An emotion that could get him very distracted.

The subway stopped at the closest destination to the theater. Stephen got up and made his way to it. Operators of the theater stood at the entranceway. They scanned his ticket and let him in. The next liaison was there to assist viewers to their seats and to provide a small playbill about the show and its performers.

Stephen was too full of excitement. He stormed his way through and did not think to take one of the playbills. The show was about to begin. Stephen made his way, past the nearly full row of seats, to his own. The theater was full of people of all ages and cultures.

The show began. You'd imagine a show about this character would start with a very dark premise. It was the exact opposite. The show began with a very compelling and heartfelt origin to the character Dracula. He was a very attractive African American. You could tell that he had many natural attractions and not just through stage performance materials.

The show continued on. It showed how the character had been with plenty of attractive women. This caused great confusion for Stephen. He wasn't sure if Charlotte was just one of the many girls shown during this fast timeline of the show's story. It did, of course, continue on to having one main love interest for Dracula. This was not any of the previous actresses and the most attractive one of them all.

Stephen thought, “Hmm, is that Charlotte? Too hard to tell with all these costumed women and the distance from the stage. Even from this close up to it. And that actress has black hair. I remember Charlotte as being a lovely blonde girl.”

The show continued on and inevitably, came to an end. Stephen did enjoy this new version of the classic tale. However, he enjoyed it for more than one reason. He got up, with the rest of the crowd, to clap and cheer for the performers. His reason being, for the event afterwards.

The “Behind the Curtain Meet and Greet” was exclusive to the first three rows. They brought the people backstage, one row at a time. Stephen was frustrated with the wait, but knew it was well worth it. He got behind the stage. The actresses and actors had removed facial makeup and masks. Only the main character lead was recognizable and was chatting alongside one of the actresses.

Stephen got over to the first blonde actress. "Hey there, great performance. Are you Charlotte Ohanson?"

The actress gave him a frustrated look. "Umm no, the name's Denice. Respect the individual actresses and bother to read what was handed to you."

Stephen awkwardly walked off. He thought, “Shoot, am I remembering her incorrectly? There was one other blonde. Let me try her.” He went over to the one other actress with a similar hair color but that wasn't her as well.

Stephen continued his search of communicating with each individual actress. As he walked from one to the next, the actress beside the Dracula actor, spotted him. Stephen got over to one of the remaining four women. At least, the ones remaining that were standing solo. The actress that spotted him came up from behind him and tapped his shoulder. He turned around and his eyes went wide with shock.

"Hey there. Looks like you're trying to get with the ladies here Stephen. If I recognize my old classmate correctly," the actress smirked.

"Woah, is that you, Charlotte?"

"Hehe yep. Funny how I recognize you, but you couldn't recognize me."

"Well, I thought I remembered you as having blonde hair. Besides, you were up with your costar over there. Which, congrats on this major role by the way."

Charlotte took a dramatic pause. "Thanks, they wanted me to dye my hair for the role. And yep, that's my man both on and off the stage." Charlotte rubbed her palm against Stephen's cheek. "Nice seeing you, but assume we still can't get together as real friends, like how we haven't been able to in the past. Bye now."

Charlotte returned to the Dracula actor and Stephen couldn't believe her words.

He thought to himself, “Dammit. My childhood crush is already taken. Man, I still want to connect with her somehow and build some sort of relationship with her.”