Aura In LaLaLand

by Skye Grace

  “Aura?”

  It takes her a moment to snap back and realize the room is clearing and there are two voices asking for her awareness, two hands outstretched to get her up and moving. She finally looks up and is thankful that Wes and Jacksen are grinning, eyes crinkling a little at the corners even, until she realizes why. Jacksen’s listening in on my fangirling! Does that mean Wes is too? God I need answers…

  Jacksen looks over each shoulder then replies, “And you’ll get some, too, if you’ll just take our hands. We’re standing here like idiots, not that that’s new for us, but come on now!”

  Jacksen helps Aura into his loaded Jeep Wrangler, only slightly less conspicuous than the Jag, and closes the door softly after her. She can’t help but laugh and roll her eyes. This is just… beyond chivalry, and people wonder why girls date older guys. Could you be more of Liam’s polar opposite? She tries to stop the thought but it’s already done, and she eyes Jacksen tentatively as he opens his door and hops in. He smiles at her, blasts some Aerosmith, and pulls out of the lot like he didn’t hear anything or is graciously pretending not to. She sighs, Just when I get good at not bringing up exes, this is gonna be slightly more impossible.

  She turns down the stereo, “You’re not going to explain what happened back there?”

  “You and Wes hitting it off? I don’t know, you tell me. Maybe I should be worried?” He smirks.

  “Jacksen! I’m serious, I’ve reached my weird quota for today.”

  “Oh god, already? You’ve gotta work up that tolerance, girl. You’re saying you noticed something similarly nuts about Wes and me? Like our energies felt similar?”

  “Well yeah DUH. Spill!”

  “Maybe this is Wes’ story to tell…” Messing with her like this makes Jacksen positively beam. “What are you like a level 3 Reiki healer or something?”

  “Stop! I’ve never been able to feel chi or whatever! Not till you. And now him. Do you know how long I tried to not be into all this metaphysical crap? You’ve totally done me in.”

  “GPS says me have one minute until we’re at Wes’ hotel, Aura. I’ll explain the best I can in 60 seconds.”

  “Can Wes read my thoughts too?” she asks, but is quite sure she already knows the answer.

  Jacksen sighs but goes on to explain like it’s no big deal, “Yeah. We’re both the only ones we’ve ever met that can. No one on the cast knows, not even Jameson.”

  “Seriously? Why? I mean how? And how has nobody found out? What? Everyone just thinks you two are super perceptive in the exact same way?”

  “Maybe you’re more perceptive than everyone else, huh?” He shrugs, his eyes still holding that mischievous glint. She wants to ask so much more, but the valet is already smiling through the car window and the one of opportunity is now slammed shut.

  Aura, standing nearly naked in the bathroom of Wes’ hotel suite, barely has her strapless bra hooked when she hears Wes pop a bottle in the other room, and is struggling to get her dress halfway zipped when she hears rapping at the door.

  “I’m ready to toast to you, little girl. Want to come out and play?”

  “Ugh,” she groans, kicking the door open, “If you can zip me up.” Her frustration can’t find a leg to stand on after seeing Wes, bottle and glasses in hand, in his white dress shirt half buttoned, a gold scarf untied, and the brightest purple skinny ‘slacks’ she’d ever seen. “I was going to ask you ‘Where’s Jacksen?’ but now I kinda want to ask, ‘that’s what you’re wearing’?”

  “Yes. Oh. And other room,” Wes grins. “He said something about wanting to actually get dressed. I think he’s trying to impress you.” She takes her glass and he pours. They toast, and after a sip he hands her his glass and zips up her dress. “Not that he’s not usually an impeccable dresser, he always is, I’ve just never seen him like this.”

  “Oh stop,” she eye rolls.

  “Really, Aura, I won’t ever lie to you. I mean I don’t lie. I have to omit truths, obviously, to most people. But not to you.”

  The sincerity in his voice, in his dark hazel eyes, makes her face flush.

  “He wasn’t like this with Yvonne. I mean they were friends first, so there wasn’t this like, insane chemistry. I’ve never seen a mutual crush come together like this, it’s really cool to witness, actually.”

  She has a few more sips and sets her glass down, reaching out to fasten Wes’ cufflinks. She’s never felt this close to someone she’s just met before, other than Jacksen, but supposes it’s because it doesn’t feel like that at all. It’s as if she’s known him her whole life. Kind of like how I feel around Jacksen.

  “Speaking of chemistry,” she subject changes, “I heard you have a significant other?”

  “Yeah,” he smiles sheepishly. “We got married last summer.”

  “And where is he tonight?”

  “Chris? Oh, he’s not really into LA, if he can avoid it in any way. He’s at home tending to the ranch.”

  “A ranch? Seriously?” she asks, not comprehending how an actor lifestyle and a country rancher one can mesh.

  “Yeah, it’s beautiful. Northern Cal, practically Oregon and yeah, I know it’s odd. He’s a bit of an introvert. And it means I have to be constantly flying home and back but it keeps us both sane...ish.”

  Doesn’t he feel like he’s missing out? she asks boldly in her head. His eyebrows spike.

  “I mean he misses me, but otherwise no, not really.”

  Huh, must be nice. Maybe I wish I could see in your slurking head.

  “Trust me, you don’t,” he laughs.

  How are you and Jacksen reading my mind? Can you read everyone’s? Can you see pictures or just hear words and when am I going to get some damn answers about you and Jacksen?

  Just as Wes opens his mouth to answer, Jacksen walks in with his empty glass and Wes sighs, filling it and outstretching his. “Cheers to the most beautiful co-star I’ve ever had,” he gestures to her with that perma-grin.

  Aura shakes her head and Jacksen smiles, “I’ll cheers to that.”

  Soon after, there’s a lot of hugging and more toasting when they all meet up in the private dining room of Urasawa. Jameson and Gabby sit at the end of the table near them, then Sharon and a few other cast members, like charming British gentleman Sterling, come over to barrage them with questions regarding what Wes’ big mouth had let slip earlier.

  “New relationship?” “Didn’t you just meet a few days ago?” “Weren’t you on that gossip site with what’s his name not that long ago?” They literally didn’t know his name and that comforts Aura somehow.

  She answers as many questions as she can before Gabby graciously begs a server to bring their first course ASAP so everyone can go back to their seats and leave her alone.

  “Thank you,” Aura whispers to her before stuffing her face full of fish eggs.

  “I can’t believe you guys are going to be on set in like, what, a week?” Gabby asks, incredulous.

  “I know, it’s actually insane,” Aura shakes her head. “You gonna be on set, too?”

  “I’m sure I will be, off and on. But I’m gonna be running all over the place for the next week or two. My best friend since I was a kid is flying in and I know she’ll want to visit the set at least once! She’s never been to LA so we’re going to be doing a lot of sightseeing too.”

  The irony is not lost on Aura, and the more Gabby shares about her childhood bestie, the tighter her throat gets. Her chest aches, not feeling it until now; she misses Rowan so badly it hurts. She can only take so much before she excuses herself and bolts toward the bathroom.

  Jacksen rises to follow her and Wes pulls him back into his seat. “No, let me go. I think I have a little more expertise in this area.”

  Aura runs down the hallway and stops at a mirror in front of the women’s restroom. She stares at it a second too long and the surface seems to become liquid in an instant. She gasps and then takes in a long, shaky breath. She reaches her hand out tentativel
y and jumps as a hand lands softly on her shoulder before she can touch it. She meets eyes with Wes in the mirror but the reflection remains unsteady.

  “Have I mentioned that when I first came through, it was like mirrors were following me everywhere? They would always shimmer like this too, for a while, anyway.”

  She whips around and stares at Wes with an unabashedly dropped jaw.

  You’ve got Jacksen’s ability and you also…

  “Fell down the rabbit hole? Yeah, I actually referred to it like that with Jacksen when I first told him… That’s what you call it, too?”

  Only to myself. The only person I’d told before Jacksen was Jameson. My friends don’t even know. Other than Lacie, but… Wait, the same thing that happened to me really happened to you, too? How is that possible? How is any of this?”

  “You told Jameson? Aura, this probably isn’t something to-”

  “No, I mean, I didn’t tell him, tell him. I just told him I had an accident and now have something amnesia-like, very daytime soapy and vague, don’t worry. Wes, you have to tell me. You jumped in time?”

  “Jacksen really didn’t tell you, did he? I couldn’t read that from you earlier. I’m sorry, I- I can only hear what someone is thinking about at that time, I can’t hear everything, just the immediate thoughts. I hear them so clearly. I thought I heard them because of my, uh, travels, but when I realized Jacksen heard them too, I didn’t know what to believe any more.”

  So you don’t really have that many answers.

  “All I have is that I think I got here like you did, I have theories on it, but mine was in reverse. I was older, married to a woman I was only pretending to love, mainly for appearances. I never did what I really wanted to do, but I don’t know, I must have found a flaw somewhere in physics, Aura. It was like chaos theory in action, I mean, if Higgs theory proved correct. Things happening that can’t be explained. I mean it’s kind of like that, not entirely but, you know, butterfly effect and everything. Whatever we do here will affect everything back when we came from. I think, you know, in theory.”

  Her brain hurts just trying to follow Wes’ thought process “And the mirrors are moving because?” she asks, aloud this time.

  “It must be something that was wrong before, something wrong with who we were before we fell and landed here with no recollection, and this is a signal to us. Like if we don’t make things right it’ll keep calling us back. Do you wanna go back, Aura?”

  She doesn't have to say anything, the answer couldn’t be anything but no. She had made her decision to stay but wasn’t sure how to make this stop. There was definitely something wrong with the Aura she landed in those few weeks ago, including how badly she’d hurt Rowan with so little remorse. “Like unfinished business? Once you clear the air, the mirrors stop beckoning you back?”

  “Exactly!” Wes responds. “I had to-”

  “Wes baby! You keeping Aura from the bathroom?” Sharon huffs out of nowhere, interrupting.

  “What? Oh, no, I’m just-”

  She doesn’t let him explain for a second. “You two must have worked together before? It doesn’t really seem like you-”

  “Just met! Yeah, just met him today, Sharon. I guess that fangirling has its perks. K see you back at the table,” Aura jogs back and sits next to Jacksen, leaving Wes to deal with his, and now their, nosey co-star. Jacksen’s hoarded the courses she’d missed for her, and after handing her extra ginger, he leans over, lips practically against her ear.

  “I’m sorry, this is a lot huh? We can get out of here if it’s too much.”

  It’s a lot to process, she thinks at him while digging into loaded rolls with her chopsticks, and I still don’t know how you’re reading my damn mind, Jacksen. Wes gave me a few answers but if you have any for me…

  His voice is so low and hushed she knows she’s the only one who can hear. “I know, I wish I had more to tell you. I’ve always been able to hear what people around me were thinking. Honestly, you and Wes are about the only people I’ve told and that’s not a coincidence, Aura, none of this is. You and Wes, being able to jump in time like you did, Wes being able to hear people too, and that crazy energy I feel when I touch you,” he adds, putting his hand over hers on the table. “I don’t know how we’re connected, how we all ended up here on this show of all things.”

  She sighs and squeezes his hand gently, the electricity trailing through her fingers. “A TV show that’s all things magick and the actors are the ones with real powers. Again, irony’s not lost here.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  “I’m not ready to go home!” Gabby pouts when dinner is wrapping up.

  “No more clubs!” Jameson protests, laughing and hiccupping from his distinct sake buzz.

  “We could all go back to my hotel and hang out,” Wes suggests.

  “What? You’re staying at a hotel?” Gabby and Jameson ask, shocked.

  Wes clears his throat dramatically, “Trying to give the new couple a little privacy.”

  Jameson laughs, “Sorry, never heard of you staying anywhere but Jacksen’s. Surprised me a little, that’s all.”

  I’m sorry, is there a term for when bromance goes to the next level? Because this is a little above and beyond.

  Wes laughs at Aura’s brash thoughts and Jacksen coughs.

  “What would you like to do?” Jacksen asks Aura.

  “Well, I’ve only spent about ten minutes at Jacksen’s place so I think I’ve got a lot of catching up to do, right Wes?”

  Wes gives her a goofy grin and puts a hand on her shoulder. Aura locks her knees lock preemptively and adds, “Plus my place is on the way so I can stop and get pajamas. PJ party, yeah?”

  They all agree and Jacksen sneaks off to make a call before driving the three of them back to Malibu where the Peters will soon be meeting them. He pulls in to Aura’s driveway and she runs in to get pajamas, insisting they don’t need to follow her inside. She jumps when she sees Taylor and Alexis sitting in their own jammies, laughing at their phones with their hair in ridiculous topknots. She did not expect them to be staying in on a Saturday night, it was quite unlike them.

  “What are you dorks laughing at?”

  “You’re not gonna like it,” Taylor says.

  “Well, she might,” Alexis giggles. Aura walks over to them, intrigued by what could be on their screens. “That cute picture you posted of a sweaty you and Jacksen at the gym today?”

  “Yeah, I took him down and I was really proud, I felt a selfie was appropriate. What? All I said was #newworkoutbuddy! You told me I had to start posting on Twitter!”

  “Yeah, true,” Alexis responds, but now you’ve got a lot of girls dying to be you-”

  “But most of them just want you to die,” Taylor laughs, “Figuratively, I’m sure.”

  “Give me that,” she yanks the phone from his hands and reads a few of the hundreds of comments underneath the decidedly adorable photo. Taylor and Alexis pull her down so she’s squeezed in between them on the couch and start tickling her. The phone shakes as she giggles but she manages to scan a multitude of snarky comments. They make her laugh even harder. These girls online are teeming with jealousy and she can’t really blame them, she could have been, and probably was, like this at any point in the past.

  “God, was I like this too? Before I met Jacksen? Was I really this obsessed?” she gasps in between laughs.

  “Pretty much,” Alexis replies honestly. “Speaking of Jacksen, I thought you two were permanently attached.”

  “Well he is only about 50 feet away.” She manages to escape their grasp and crawl off the couch, “Wes and Jacksen are in the car waiting, slumber party at Jacksen’s.”

  “I wanna come,” Alexis whines. “Can we?”

  “You wanna? I thought you were going out,” Aura asks Taylor and he nods a little too enthusiastically.

  “No, not going out anymore and now he’s bored.” Alexis adds, “I told him we’d go out but I had that big audition today and I�
�m just too anxious to club or whatever. Getting too old for that crap anyway.”

  Preaching to the choir, sister, Aura agrees in her head before remembering Alexis can’t hear her thoughts like the other company she’s getting so used to keeping.

  “The big movie audition! I’m sorry I didn’t ask you about it, Lex! Tell me at Jacksen’s? Oh, and if you aren’t bored enough and need more incentive, both halves of the Jacksen-Jameson bromance will be there, the best friend duo of which I’ve now slept with both parties.” She groans, “Should be highly entertaining for everyone except me.”

  “Hashtag awkward, I can’t wait,” Taylor laughs.

  “We wouldn’t miss it, Aur,” Alexis tosses her blonde locks over her shoulder casually. “I’m already in my pajamas anyway and I need to burn a few more calories today. His house is in jogging distance, right?”

  Aura, Jacksen, and Wes arrive at the waterfront house, which really is just blocks away, right as a delivery guy and girl in their early 20’s come up hauling boxes and bags of something. They greet them before Wes pokes around in the bags and asks, “Who delivers designer donuts and bottles of champagne?”

  “We do!” The young guy grins confidently as they come into the house, while the girl is eyeing Jacksen like she might pass out at any minute. I know the feeling, Aura thinks, wondering if a fangirl vs. fangirl battle will begin at any second, but Wes and Jacksen just chuckle at her thought, pay the bill, and Wes runs off to his room to change into pajamas.