by Skye Grace
“The Aura you were and the one you’ve become are both a part of you. I don’t think she’s that bad, the one you’ve become. She felt like she had to get hard to survive this place,” his sweeping gesture with his hand meaning LA in general. “And that thing is clearly helping. Is that a crystal in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?”
“No, it’s actually up here,” she laughs, fishing the crystal out of her bra and letting it absorb some moonlight, “I’m feeling a lot more, I guess whole. I’m just a little worried.”
“Well old Wes and new one weren’t different enough to cause an all out brawl. But I think the mirrors, the conflicting emotions, it will all resolve itself in time. I can help you with all of it, I’m not going anywhere.”
“Except to bed, maybe,” she yawns. He turns off the music and follows her inside.
Chapter Seventeen
The breeze rolling off the ocean shakes the billowing curtains and for a second she doesn’t recall whose house she’s in, hers or Jacksen’s, until she remembers stumbling to his bed the night before. Her eyes flutter, assuming the cool air is what’s waking her until she feels the soft kisses on the nape of her neck. The mixture of the two send a shiver up her spine and the big spoon behind her sighs contently.
Someone happy to wake up to me? she questions dreamily in her head.
“Who’s reading whose mind now?” his honey coated voice rasps, just a hint of his old Texan boy accent coming out when drowsy. “I keep waking up thinking you’re gonna be on a different astral plane so yeah, when I open my eyes and see you,” he runs his fingers down her waist, over the curve of her hip and back up her side, “You could say I’m pretty happy, yeah.”
She shifts back into him, tingling elation coating her body like a blanket of shining stars. She falls headlong back into the dreams she was having and nearly drifts back to sleep until she suddenly jolts back to reality.
“You alright?” Jacksen asks after feeling her flinch, fingers carding through her hair gently, knowing not to disturb any hairspray that may be left over from last night.
How are you so perf… Aura stops the thought. No one’s perfect, she reminds herself, I know. I was having this dream, you and I were being chased in a graveyard. The old crone found the ultimate necromancy spell, she’d brought everyone there back from the dead and we were fighting to break the spell and kill the undead relics, but there were so many-
“You mean Blaise and Bianca were being chased by zombies? The scene where they fight together, then start falling for each other?”
Aura flips around to face Jacksen and he slips an arm around to her lower back, pulling her into him. But it was US, she thinks to him with a smile. You and I made as good a team as they do, I almost fell back to sleep just to see how we got out of that mess.
“I was excited to film this movie, I really was, but I can’t explain how much more I want to get on set now, now that you’re gonna be there too. How do I say this without sounding cheesy?”
“I do really love cheese, if that helps,” she offers and Jacksen laughs.
“You bring life to everything, Aura. To this town, to the Protectors.” He stops to kiss her softly.
“And to you?” she finishes his thought with a snarky eyebrow.
“Well yeah,” he replies. “Cheesy?”
“Yeah,” she laughs, before her lips are covered by his. He slips a leg over her hip, pulling closer still, and parts her lips with his tongue. A contented sigh, more like a ‘how could things possibly be this good?’ breath escapes from her mouth to his, and she then stops to briefly bite the beautiful pink lips she’d spent so many years admiring from the wrong side of the screen.
Everything about the real Jacksen was so, so much better than what she’d imagined, she begins to doubt her own brain’s creative abilities. Jacksen chuckles softly against her mouth and then Aura’s phone rings, breaking the moment entirely.
She rolls toward the nightstand and makes a little squeak when she sees the caller. “Constellation?”
“Well answer it!” Jacksen’s head falls back on the pillow. “He kinda owns you now, too.”
She rolls her eyes and answers with a bright hello and it is indeed her new director. “Ron!”
“Dollface! Or should I say my ass kicking leading lady to be respected yet feared?”
“You saw my fight video?” She beams, referring to the clip Mark had filmed of her and Jacksen the day prior and sent to Ron to prove her worthy of doing her own on-screen fight scenes and stunts.
“Color me impressed,” he replies. “Getting to watch Jacksen get his ass handed to him was an added bonus.”
“So yes, I’ll be doing my own fight scenes and most of my own stunts like Jacksen and Jay?” she asks quickly before hitting the speaker button and holding her breath. Jacksen is sitting up in bed now and his green eyes are glinting, matching hers in excitement.
“Yes, I’ll okay that,” their director finalizes but then adds, “As long as you go tomorrow morning and meet with the coordinators. Prove to them you can screen fight and that you aren’t going to actually kick everyone’s ass. Got it?”
“Got it,” Aura squeaks, doing a little happy dance on the bed. Jacksen can’t help but laugh and consequently hears a throat clear on the other line.
“I’m sure our Mr. Andrews would be happy to join you over there, and speaking of him, you wouldn’t happen to know of his whereabouts, would you?”
“I may,” she giggles.
“Since you’re clearly both there, I have something else to mention,” Ron clears his throat.
“Shoot!” Jacksen exclaims towards the phone, wrapping his arms around Aura and pulling her into him. He can’t help it, there’s just something about sparring with her that makes him feel so alive, he would have fought Ron hard if he told him he’d have to opposite a stunt double and not Aura on screen.
“A little birdie told me you were appearing on the Late Show in two days, Miss Aura? Darren Darling’s been wanting to chat with you, I hear.”
“Yes,” she grins into the phone. “Mainly Girl Gang talk, I’m sure. The new season is doing really well. Our ratings are killer,” she gloats.
“You don’t think they’ll be asking about your next project? Especially after your recent sharing of training photos with Mr. Andrews there?”
“Perhaps,” she smirks, a little surprised that the seasoned director actually checks his Twitter.
“Well, just in case you cared, I’m giving you the OK to announce your role in the movie. You can say filming has started early. You can even say you’re seeing each other because it looks pretty obvious at this point. It’s all good, kids.”
“Thank you Ron!” they croon in dutiful unison, which actually makes the cranky old man snort.
“Yeah, yeah,” he laughs. “Look forward to seeing you both this week, can’t wait to get this coven together one last time.”
Jacksen and Aura smell coffee and bacon coming from the kitchen and come out giddy like kids on Christmas morning to see the enormous brunch spread that Wes has created for the three of them. Everyone else had snuck out early.
After the enormous amount of food, Wes does exactly as Aura instructs, whisking Jacksen off for a day of MMA and stunt work training so she can focus on today’s mission: finding Rowan. She’s pacing the beach below her house that afternoon when the investigator she talked with just a few hours before calls her. Aura’s pulse pounds as she sucks in a breath, pressing answer and staring out at the crashing waves nervously.
“Okay I’m not used to my job being quite this easy,” he starts, “Turns out, this girl wants to find you just as badly as you want to find her.” He gives her Rowan’s number and her hands shake as she prepares to call. This would be a hell of a lot easier to explain if Rowan could just read my thoughts, too. Why is she looking for me now? She clearly wants nothing to do with me and hasn’t for…
“Hello? Aur?” Rowan answers in a rush.
“Rowa
n?”
“Who else would it be? Didn’t you just have a creepy private eye track me down to get my number?”
“Yeah, you know subtly, not really my thing. It’s just... thank you for picking up. I’m sure you didn’t want to, I just had to talk to you-”
“What? Of course I wanted to talk to you! Did you forget that you’re like super famous now and it’s more than a little difficult to find your number? Maybe I was trying to track you down too?”
“Well, yeah, but why? I thought you hated me for what went down in New York. Don’t you?”
“You mean you remember that? Because I have to tell you… I really don’t, Aura.” Dead silence follows, though you can almost hear the nerves of the two women zinging back and forth.
“What do you mean you don’t remember?” Aura asks after picking her jaw up off the sand. The possibility of what happened to her also happening to Rowan had not even crossed her mind. Why didn’t I think of that at all?
“I don’t know if I can explain how but I don’t really remember anything from the past ten years... and I’m assuming you don’t either. I had to play dumb with my husband for him to tell me the story, I still haven’t admitted to him that-”
“Husband?” Aura asks, incredulous.
Rowan mumbles an mmm-hmm.
“You don’t remember anything either? Tell me you remember your husband?”
“Of course I remember him, Aur, I mean, it’s Ethan. I’m married to Ethan and I couldn’t even remember falling for him, our wedding, anything. And after all that shit… I went down the rabbit hole after you and couldn’t even find you. Tell me you know what I mean?”
Rowan followed me down the rabbit hole? Her head spins but she breathes a sigh of relief. Rowan married her school crush, at least that evens the playing field a little. She still feels guilty, just not as guilty.
“Of course I do! I’ve been wanting to find you since that first day, Rowan, I eventually had to admit to a friend what happened just so she would explain why you didn’t want to see me. I’m so sorry about what happened. You don’t remember, I don’t remember, I don’t know why I would ever do anything to hurt you.”
“We were dumb and stupid, I’m sure I did a lot of stupid shit too, and I’m glad I don’t remember most of it. I just want you in my life, Aur, it’s more amazing than I ever thought and I have a feeling you’d say the same.”
Aura quickly sends Rowan a picture she took this morning, a selfie of her and Jacksen kissing, wearing nothing but a white sheet, with the morning sun streaming over them. The caption reads ‘life on the other end of the rabbit hole does not suck.’
“God damnit, Aur! I thought I had it good,” Rowan laughs.
“You do! I mean, I’m sure Ethan is head over heels for you, too.”
“I think so,” her old friend gushes, “and my job is amazing, kinda wish I could recall more of how I became the 5th Avenue theater’s youngest musical director ever.”
“Seriously? I’m so proud of you, Rowan! Are you in the middle of a show right now?”
“Nope, just closed last weekend, finally getting a little break and was able to start trying to find you.”
“Well you found me.” Aura holds her breath for a second and then sighs, “I don’t suppose you’d let me fly you down then? I’ve got an appearance on the Late Show this week, I’d love for you to come with, check out the house, maybe meet some almost-as-amazing-as-you people I’ve met during all this craziness? Please?”
Rowan laughs, “Fly me first class and I’m there, baby.”
Aura runs up to the house and immediately books Rowan a flight for the following day and sends her the details. She huffs excitedly into Alexis’ room to explain everything that just happened but is cut short when she sees sparkling tears flowing down her best friend’s cheeks.
“Aww babe, what’s wrong?” Aura coos, hopping up on the bed and wrapping her arms around Alexis’ shoulders.
“If I say it out loud, I’m going sad to mad in 0 to 60,” Alexis whines.
“Then get mad if you need to be mad. What happened? Is it about your audition?” she asks. Alexis cries harder for a minute and then she stops, her hands curl into angry little fists and Aura grabs a large pillow and holds it up in front of her. “Tell me, then get mad, beat the crap out of this pillow if you need to, but just tell me.”
Alexis picks up her phone and begins texting her instead. Aura rolls her eyes and then reluctantly pulls her phone from her jean shorts pocket to read the message. ‘I didn’t get the part… obviously,’ the first text reads. Aura looks up at her friend and makes the ‘please slagging elaborate’ gesture impatiently and Alexis obliges.
‘They basically said I was too fat,’ she types before tossing her phone to the other side of the bed.
“Val called you and told you this?” Aura demands. Alexis nods before smooshing her face back into the bed. Aura grabs the phone and storms off to her room, tucking herself in her walk-in closet, slamming the door after her so Alexis won’t overhear.
“This has got to be some of your bullshit, Val. They couldn’t have possibly said that about Lex.”
“Lovely to hear your voice, Miss Lidell,” the agent answers snidely, “But to answer your comment, yes, they had a different vision for their leading lady and there wasn’t anything we could do about it.”
"This isn't something they or any other asshole casting agents, directors, whatever, can continue to do. It's perpetuating eating disorders not just for us but for all the girls forced to watch us be forced into this ridiculous, bony ideal. Not to mention I've got a beautiful, crying friend in the next room who really wanted this part. Now please, give me their number or I'll find another way to get my point across."
"I understand what you're saying Lidell but the decision has been made and it would be extremely unprofessional for me to give you their number."
"Okay, fine," Aura smiles a sickeningly vengeful smile she wishes Val had the pleasure, or rather, horror of witnessing. She has no idea what she just unleashed.
She pulls her laptop and phone into her lap and voraciously enters every social media network she's learned about. Aura stabs at the keys on her computer as she scathes the director, producers, casting people, anyone and everyone, naming the studio and project title, fueled with angry passion. She also manages to find the email addresses of a couple people at the company and a few editors of gossip dailies to be sure to give them the scoop too.
She closes her laptop and her self-satisfied smile morphs into a giant Cheshire grin as she imagines the allegations of promoting eating disorders falling heavy on the shoulders of all the asses that thought it'd be okay to turn Alexis down for such a sick, stupid reason. She clicks her phone off to give Val a few hours to stew and settles in under her covers. Her slow drift into a contented nap is interrupted when she hears the padding of feet coming into her room and feels Lex crawling into her bed. She wraps her arms around Aura and thanks her.
"For what?" Aura mumbles, realizing she actually had been asleep.
"A lot of people are rallying around me, Aur, you did that." Aura turns and sees that her friend is smiling at her now, no traces of tears left.
"I literally just did that, what? Five, 10 minutes ago?"
"Try two hours ago, you know how fast stuff spreads. People are sharing your rant like crazy, sharing my picture, saying how horrible those people were to me and how amazing my best friend is. I kind of agree," she says, squeezing her tightly.
"How deep of shit did I get myself into? Has Val called you?"
`"Val's pissed, the production company I'm sure is pissed, but this is important, isn't it?"
"Of course, I'm so sick and tired of hating myself, degrading my body because it's not what some guy in a suit likes. Aren't you tired?"
"Very," Alexis nods. “This Body Positive thing is important for all of us Aur. You know you’re in the middle of it now, right?”
"I’m cool with that,” she smiles softly. “Y
ou know I would do this for you anytime, right? I mean, any woman, but especially you?"
"Of course, thank you Aur." She yawns and turns over on her side, Aura drapes an arm over her and they share a pillow, taking another official and obscenely lazy afternoon nap, just because they can.
Chapter Eighteen
The girls are awoken after an hour by the buzzing of Aura’s phone, an unknown number.
“Don’t answer it,” Alexis whines. Aura’s spidey sense is tingling and she ignores her friend, answering hesitantly.
“Hello?”
“Aura! How’s it going? This is Gabby, by the way.”
“Hi Gabby, is everything alright?”
“Better than alright! I’m calling because I realized I forgot to invite you last night.”
Aura rubs her eyes, trying to wake up and recall if she knew what Gabby was referring to.
“Oh yeah, you’re having an um, girl’s night?”
“Old school girl’s sleepover, yeah, and I know Alexis said she was busy but I think you said you were free and I think it’ll be a really good chance for us to hang out.”
“Well, I uh-”
“Don’t worry Aura, it’ll just be us, my best friend Amanda and her sister, too. I’ve already got Jameson calling Jacksen so they can go do something together so we can hang.”
She gets another call and it’s Jacksen, “He’s actually calling me right now, Gabby. Can I text you right back?”
“Of course!”
Alexis’ head is buried under a pillow but manages to groan, “Don’t go, she’ll steal you from me.”
She slaps her friend on the comforter where her butt likely is, and then answers Jacksen’s call, “Hey there.”
“Aura, I’m sorry about this whole sleepover thing. Did Gabby just call you? By the way, Hi.”
“Hi,” she laughs softly. “Why are you sorry?”
“I told Jay this thing is too soon, I said you and I have plans with Wes tonight and-”