“I called in a few favours. It’s yours for as long as you want it. They have been looking for a new act. Now, it might not be the Anglica or O2 Arena…but it’s yours if you want it,” she offers and moves so I can see what she’s referring to.
It’s a theatre, an old one for sure, but it’s beautiful, all golden and swirling decorations on the front of the building. It looks like an old-style playhouse, with the red and gold doors and the queue barriers outside. I can see modern touches here and there, but all that matters is what the stage is like.
Our new home towers above us. The white marquee proudly displays our name, which I have no idea how Kingston’s mum pulled off so quickly. The busy street only makes more excitement grow inside of me as I stand with my family, every single one of them, including Kingston’s mother and my own.
“The Wild Boys—new show coming soon!”
We are back, we have found our home.
Now to start the rest of our lives.
Together.
As I walk into the back of the theatre with my trusty clipboard clutched to my chest, familiar music instantly reaches me. The beat of it pumps through the space until my heart speeds up to match the bass. It’s dark in the stalls, but the stage lights are on, so I can easily make my way down the center aisle to where my guys are sitting in the first couple of rows.
“Five, six, seven, eight!” Leo calls out as he moves around the stage, his eyes locked on the five guys going through the routine he created. “Good! Get those hips moving!”
Scooting into the row of seats, I sit down next to Damon, who smiles warmly at me. “How are they doing?” I whisper conspiratorially, my smile wide as Liam leans around my rocker to wink at me.
“There’s been quite a few really talented guys. Call backs are going to be interesting,” Damon replies, gesturing to a couple of the men on stage before nodding at his own clipboard on his lap, where he’s circled several numbers there. “It’s going to be hard to pick.”
Humming in agreement, I lean back in my seat and watch the guys moving on stage, marvelling at how much has changed in the six months since we got our loan and first moved into the theatre, making it the home of The Wild Boys. Since then, everything has changed. It took a while to get things sorted, hiring staff we trusted and reworking the show to how we wanted it, but now it’s perfect. We all keenly felt the loss of Emmett, not just in our family where there’s a hole now, but in our world too. The guys had to change all the choreography and completely revise all of the acts, retiring his costumes and signature dances, unable to handle his memory. Especially since we haven’t heard from him in months…
We were so nervous on opening night, but thanks to all the hard work we put in and social media exposure, it was a huge hit. The show has grown massively now, and even though it’s only been half a year, The Wild Boys are bigger and better than ever. The public can’t get enough of us.
Another change since then is that we have all moved in together. While we were on tour, we stayed in hotel rooms together, and since we quit, we’ve been lodging with family, and we were fed up with staying on our families’ sofas. So we rented a house nearby. It was a huge step for us, but having a base to be able to return to at the end of each day, a home…it just felt like the right choice. Don’t get me wrong, living with five strippers isn’t always easy, but I love being able to come home to them. It feels right, and I know we have found our forever together…even if we’re still healing from all the loss. But that’s the thing about healing, you’re never quite the same. The guys are more guarded, more angry…and me? I still have nightmares, which the guys usually wake me up from and then hold me until I can breathe normally again, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Everything we went through has been to get us to this point, and now I know we have the strength to endure anything.
“That’s a wrap!” Leo calls as the music cuts out. Clapping his hands together, he walks across the stage, his eyes on me. “Good job, guys, grab some water, and then we’ll start the solo auditions.” Leaping down from the stage, he struts over to me with a big smile on his face before leaning down and pressing a kiss to my lips. “Hey, gorgeous.”
“Hey,” I reply, beaming up at him, my heart fluttering in my chest at his public display of affection. Even though we’ve all been together for some time now, they still give me butterflies. Call me a soppy romantic, I don’t care. “How are auditions going?” I repeat my earlier question. Leo’s the one who choreographed the routine for the group audition, so he’s been teaching it to the candidates.
“There are a few strong applicants.” He looks over at the current group as they all take a quick break.
Most of them look to be in their twenties or thirties, although one of the guys at the back looks like he could be older, and from what I remember of their applications, they all come from different backgrounds. One of the things I’m most proud of is that we opened up try-outs to anyone with any dance experience. The board had a stupid rule where you had to have trained for a certain amount of time and have links to certain places, but that’s not us. If you can dance, you are welcome to audition.
Turning back to me, Leo’s eyes are alight with excitement. “I’m really excited for this, Gabby.”
One of the good things about owning your own show is that you can call the shots. With the show doing so well, we want to take it on the road again, and the world wants to see more of The Wild Boys. Except, we don’t want to travel so soon after…everything. The trial with Oliver is still ongoing and will be for some time, but it’s pretty obvious that he will be going away for a while—the evidence they found was pretty damning. We’ve just settled down as a family, and we have the theatre and the show set up how we like it, so we don’t want to risk any of that. Hence the auditions. The new team of The Wild Boys will train here and take part in some of the shows with the guys while we establish everything. Then, when it’s ready, they will go on tour, spreading our name and brand across the world until we’re prepared to do a spotlight tour for the original stars again.
One of my guys will take it in turns to go on short stints of the tour while it’s still new, but once we’ve got a tour manager that we trust and it’s up and running, they won’t need to keep doing that. Our families have been so supportive, but I think they’re pretty happy we’ve decided not to tour anymore. We see them often, and I’ve noticed Kingston’s mum keeps looking at my empty ring finger every time we see her.
“Okay, number thirty-two, Richard,” Damon calls, looking up from his clipboard as one of the guys on stage steps forward. “Are you ready for your solo audition?”
The tan auditionee on stage nods and gives a thumbs up to one of the crew members, and his music of choice fills the theatre as he starts his dance. I relax back in my seat and enjoy the performance. I don’t get the chance to simply watch anymore. The guys and I take notes as the next couple of men audition, and the last of this group is just about to start when my phone lights up in my lap. Glancing down, I smile when I see who the message is from and immediately open the text to read it.