After the Play: Paxton and OPEN
They were applauding.
Paxton had been nervous as hell, meandering about backstage, trying to keep everything under control while also trying to keep everyone calm and poised for the performance. He succeeded in doing the opposite, so Ms. Edouard eventually gently sent him away to watch the show from the audience. She got him shortly before the ending song.
In the clearing stands a boxer and a fighter by his trade, and he carries the reminders of every glove that laid him down or cut him til he cried out, in his anger and his shame 'I am leaving, I am leaving', but the fighter still remains
Curtain call. The actors, they all got their applause. Light, décor, music. And finally, they got him, and he got to stand between his actors, and the audience applauded for him.
Paxton had always learned that you don't do something for fun. You do things because they are necessary. Because they must. In theory, Paxton had done this thing to promote himself, to become more popular. But, he had also done it because he thought it would be fun, a word his father was allergic to. And now he had. And it hadn't sucked.
When Paxton followed everyone off the stage, he had a dazed smile on his face.