by April Fire
I glanced at Julia in the hopes that she might have something to say about it, so that I wouldn’t have to, but she simply nodded and continued to look at Fred as though I didn’t exist as she smiled, “Sure.”
With that, she turned and headed onto the set where the props and backdrop had been arranged to mimic a picnic blanket beneath an oak tree. Of course the real scene would be shot outside in an actual park but I knew as well as any actor that we weren’t ready for that freak show just yet.
“You alright, Hollywood?” Fred asked, and I realized that I had been staring at the script in my hands for far too long.
“Urgh, yeah, I’m fine,” I nodded and wandered over to take my place on set.
“Alright, let’s have a quick run through before we think of taking this thing outside,” Fred said and I groaned inwardly as I remembered the trauma of the day before. For a moment I closed my eyes and prayed that things would go better, but the moment we began the scene I knew there would be no luck for me.
“May I join you, Miss Vale?” I used the deepest voice possible, as I always did for all my characters. My voice was deep usually but being a sexy, dark desirable character came with certain responsibilities, and my voice was one of them.
“Henry!” Julia looked up from the book she had been pretending to read. She sat, draped in a blanket, resting against a prop tree trunk., “I mean Mr. Iverson. I’m sorry, you startled me.”
When she placed her hand against her chest, as though I really had startled her, I couldn’t help but remember how it had been wrapped around the back of my neck the night before. A shiver ran through me, and for a moment, I forgot my line.
“Umm… I apologize. I didn’t mean to frighten you,” I dropped down onto my knees on the edge of the blanket, “Might I join you?”
“I’m not sure that would be very professional of me, sir,” Julia shook her head and placed the book on the blanket beside her, “I don’t usually spend time in the company of my students’ parents. I mean what would your wife think?”
“I… I…”
“Cut!” Fred suddenly yelled and I cursed myself under my breath. The way Julia gazed at me with blazing blue eyes had caused the line to fly right out of my head and I knew instantly that I was the reason he’d called cut, “Hollywood!”
I flinched at the way he screeched my name and when I turned to look at him he was glaring back at me with anger evident on his face, “What the hell is going on with you?” he demanded. “You never forget your lines!”
“I’m sorry. Let’s go again?” I asked. There was nothing I could say to defend myself and I noticed the way several of the team gaped at me in amazement. It wasn’t often that I apologized and yet I had found myself saying it a lot that morning. What the hell is this woman doing to me? I thought to myself as I turned my attention back to Julia. Pushing myself to my feet again, I readied to begin the scene over.
***
The rest of the day went by in a mess of forgotten lines, missed ques, and by the end of it all I had the mother of all stress headaches. I couldn’t wait to get back to my trailer and shut out the world, but it appeared that Julia wasn’t going to let me do that. I was half way across the lot when I felt a hand grab hold of my elbow and whip me around to face her.
The shock that rushed through me at the sight of her beautiful face made me tremble and I struggled to control myself as the urge to take her in my arms boiled in my gut.
“Still so sure this is all my fault?” she scowled at me. She crossed her arms over her chest I wanted to rip them away and pull her into my own. Although she was beautiful when she was angry, I wanted nothing more than to take that negative emotion away from her.
Since when do I care what others think and feel? I asked myself as I stumbled over what to say. There wasn’t much I could say. I’d never had such a bad day on set. She really had fucked me up.
I turned to the only thing that I could. I became that ass that she hated, the one that most women hated.“Don’t look at me like that! I’ve had enough of your shit!”
“My shit?” she gaped at me in amazement.
“Don’t give me that crap! How can I do my job when you aren’t giving me any signals? When you aren’t flowing and following the script? I mean where the hell did it say in the script for you to…” I suddenly stopped mid-sentence.
What the hell am I doing? I couldn’t stand yelling at her. It made my gut twist painfully. I’d never had a problem with turning things around on people before. Why was she any different? She came at me. I had every right to defend myself. Yet I couldn’t defend myself against her angry gaze. I couldn’t stand the thought that she was angry with me.
“Julia, can we please go to my trailer and talk about this?” I asked in a calmer tone but she didn’t seem to be having any of it.
“Your trailer? So you can get me into bed again? I don’t think so!” I flinched at the harshness of her tone and I found myself glancing around in the hopes that nobody would have heard her. It seemed that I really didn’t have any luck today. More than one person had heard, and their heads all whipped around to stare at us.
“Julia, you’re causing a scene!” I pointed out, in the hopes that she might cool it a little.
“Well at least somebody can cause a scene, because yours have been absolutely terrible today!” she continued in on me. She took a step forward and the scent of her enveloped me.
God help me! I closed my eyes and sucked in a deep breath but, her scent continued to fill in my nostrils and my head spun with dizziness. There was no way I could concentrate with her so close, knowing that everybody was watching us. All I wanted to do was grab her.
And that’s exactly what I did. I dipped down, grabbed hold of her, and threw her over my shoulder into a fireman’s lift. If she wanted to cause a scene I was going to end it.
“What the hell are you doing?” she demanded, “Put me down!”
When she began to pound on my back with her fists I simply turned and began to stalk to my trailer. My grip tightened on her the more she wriggled. There was no way she was getting away from me now. My blood was boiling.
***
Chapter Eleven
Julia
“Who the hell do you think you are?” I screamed at Dean as soon as he threw me down on the couch in his trailer, “I’m not one of your dumb model arm pieces that you can boss around and make a fool of! Everybody just saw that!”
“Look, I’m sorry, okay,” Dean threw his hands up in surrender and took a step away from me as though he thought I was a rabid animal ready to attack him, “I’m not used to women telling me no.”
“Well maybe you should get used to it because I am not going to change my mind.” I crossed my arms over my chest although I wasn’t really sure what there was to change my mind over.
“Look, Julia, I really need your help on this one,” Dean protested, “I’m not sure what’s going on between us but we need to figure it out if we are going to save both of our acting careers. Will you please just run some lines with me?”
I couldn’t help but feel sorry for Dean right then. The way he looked at me like a little lost puppy was heart-warming and his good looks did more than a little to help his case. Still I kept silent, glaring at him with my arms crossed over my chest, determined not to give into him that easily.
“Please, Julia, I’m begging you,” he dropped down into a crouch in front of me, but continued to keep his distance, “I’m sorry for walking out on you this morning. It’s a habit.”
“And that makes it alright?” I gaped at him, unable to believe what I was hearing. “You made me feel like some cheap slut you’d picked up off the streets for a good time, and then dumped to the curb after you were finished.”
“It wasn’t like that at all,” Dean protested with a shake of his head, “I ran away and that was wrong of me...”
“It doesn’t matter anyway,” I told him as I pushed myself to my feet. I could already feel myself forgiving hi
m, letting him worm his way back into my head. “It’s never going to happen again. Unless we’re working together on set I want you to stay away from me, is that understood?”
It was the hardest thing I’d ever had to say, but I knew that I needed to say it. I needed to stay away from Dean Hollywood and he needed to stay away from me. The last thing I needed was gossip going around about how I’d slept with a co-star.
“You don’t really mean that… do you?” Dean flinched at my words and I could see the hurt shining in his eyes. I steeled myself against that look and readied myself for the best performance of my life, hoping that my acting skills did me justice.
“I mean it Dean,” I nodded to prove my point and stepped around him. Dean pushed himself to his feet and I was forced to skirt around him, knowing that if he touched me like he had last night I might not be able to control myself, “I’ll stay out of your way and you’ll stay out of mine, okay?”
“Okay,” Dean simply nodded and allowed me to go. A part of me hoped that he would call me back, that he would grab hold of me and pin me to the wall and not let me go until I’d kissed him and told him that I’d not meant any of it, but he simply allowed me to walk away and that hurt more than anything he could have ever said to me. I had no idea why, but it did.
I slammed the door shut on his trailer and stood for a moment to compose myself. Closing my eyes, I took a long, deep breath and then began to walk across the lot to my own trailer and the safety it provided from all the eyes that were now watching me, wondering what had just transpired in Dean’s trailer.
I had just slammed my own door shut and flopped down onto the couch when a loud knocking came from the flimsy aluminum door. The noise made me jump, and pain began to burn at my temples with the beginnings of a headache.
“Go away, Dean!” I yelled loudly as I covered my face with my hand in an attempt to block out the light that was beginning to hurt my tired eyes.
When the knock came again I pushed myself to my feet and stormed over to the door, ready to give Dean a piece of my mind.
“I said go a…” I began as I shoved the door open and quickly bit my lip as I realized that it wasn’t Dean at all.
“Fred!”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to disturb you,” Fred smiled. He was a man old enough to be my father, but he was definitely a lot better looking. He was what you would call a silver fox, with signature good looks and facial hair to rival that of a younger man, “I just came to give you this.”
I reached down from the trailer and took the envelope that he offered to me, “What is it?”
“Open it and you’ll see,” Fred replied and he watched as I undid the envelope and pulled out the card.“It’s a ticket to the premiere of another film.”
“Why would I go to this?”
“Because in this business it’s good to show support for the competition,” Fred explained, “It’s also good to get your face in front of people who might want to hire you one day, and a chance to talk to other actors who were once in your position.”
“So you got me a ticket?”
“No, we were all invited,” Fred explained, “I just wanted to stop by with yours personally and see if you might allow me to escort you, show you the ropes sort of thing.”
“That’s real sweet Fred, but I’m not sure I am feeling up to it,” I told him with a sigh. It was the truth. I’d had a hard week and all I wanted to do with my weekend was curl up in bed and watch reruns of a show nobody had ever heard of.
“It would really further your career, especially being seen with me,” Fred shrugged, “but if you aren’t up to it then I guess I could give the ticket to somebody else.”
Fred reached up and began to take the ticket from my hand, but I held onto it just a little tighter and shook my head, “Can I think about it?”
“Don’t think on it too long, its tomorrow night,” Fred pointed out and I glanced at the ticket again to see that he was right.
***
Chapter Twelve
Dean
Oh, how I hated these things. The parade of actors and actresses, celebrities and other famous people was mind numbing at these kinds of events, but I had to be there. It was important to be seen with all the right people and that was why I had Marie on my arm as I walked down the red carpet of the premiere, that and I couldn’t face going alone after hearing the news that Julia was going with Fred.
Of all the people she could have had escort her, I couldn’t help but think to myself as I saw them both getting their photo taken against the movie backdrop, It had to be a guy old enough to be her dad.
The thought of it made my skin crawl and what made it worse was the way that Fred lowered his hand to the small of her back, traveling lower still until I saw her flinch at the way he cupped her buttocks. I gritted my teeth and steeled myself. The guy had always been a slime-ball but he had never been a slime-ball towards Julia before now.
When Fred glanced in my direction I quickly looked away and continued to lead Marie into the theater. My cheeks were heated and I knew that if I stayed outside too long I might have something to say to the director.
“Are you alright?” Marie asked as she held on to my arm a little tighter, and I realized that I had been clutching her hand a little too hard against my arm.
“Yes, umm… I’m fine,” I replied. There was no way I was going to tell my date that I’d let another woman get under my skin - that I couldn’t get her off my mind. Even now that I couldn’t see her and her beautiful face, or the way that her long red hair cascaded down her shoulder, or the way that her silk lingerie had hugged her in all the right places, I still couldn’t get her off my mind.
She was there, at the forefront of my mind, every time I blinked. I couldn’t get her words and the sound of her voice out of my head. The way she had told me to stay away from her was sickening - and it made me want her all the more. I had never wanted a woman like I wanted her.
Get over it, I tried to tell myself, You aren’t supposed to sleep with co-stars anyway.
I busied myself with talking to the people who stopped for quick conversations, asking me how the filming was going or simply shooting the shit. It was even more mind-numbing than all the false smiles I could see flying around the room. All the while, Marie clutched hold of my arm until I couldn’t stand it any longer.
“Excuse me a moment,” I told her as I removed her hand from my arm and headed for the nearest restroom. She began to look as though she was going to call me back before she realized where I was headed and turned her attention to the next person closest to her. I was relieved to be alone and slipped into the restroom quickly and quietly.
Standing over the sink, I splashed some water over my face and took a deep breath as the liquid eased my feverish skin, “Get a hold of yourself.”
I looked at myself in the mirror and saw the disheveled expression, the longing in my eyes and the twitch at the corner of my mouth as I struggled to control my emotions. I had always been one for struggling to control my emotions, especially when I was angry and Fred certainly made me angry with the way he had been all over Julia.
“Five minutes until show time!” an announcer called from the hallway and I gritted my teeth against the urge to run. The thought of being trapped in a theater for two-hours, so close. Yet so far away from Julia was agonizing. The thought that even afterwards I couldn’t go near her made me feel even worse.
What the hell have I gotten myself into? I thought to myself as I straightened my black tie and smoothed back my hair from where it had come down over my face.
After taking another glance at myself in the mirror and deeming myself presentable, I slipped back out into the hallway and found Marie and led her into the screening room.
It was there, as I sat down in my seat, that I found myself watching Julia and Fred slip into their seats ahead of us. They sat just a few seats down, leaving Julia’s red hair constantly in my view as I tried my best to turn my attention to the screen a
nd simply watch.
I barely watched the film, with one eye constantly on Fred and Julia. I watched the way that Fred leaned in to her every so often to whisper something and the way she nodded back. I watched how her shoulders shivered as though she was giggling and it made my skin boil.
She shouldn’t affect me this way, I thought to myself as my hands tightened into fists. When I felt Marie’s hand slip onto my knee I almost jumped right out of my skin. She leaned over towards me and whispered, “Are you sure you’re alright? You’re shaking.”
“I’m fine,” I replied as I reached down and pulled her hand away from my leg, “I’m just getting a headache.”
“I have some painkillers in my purse,” she offered and I quickly shook my head.
“I’ll be fine,” I insisted, “Let’s just watch the movie.”
But I couldn’t watch the movie. I couldn’t stop watching her, watching them. It was like an obsession. Every time I tried to turn my attention back to the screen my heart would begin to race and I would find myself watching them all over again.
My entire body tensed as I watched Julia lean over to Fred and whisper something in his ear. A moment later she pushed herself to her feet and calmly slipped past the other people on the row, obviously on her way to the restroom. I gritted my teeth and glared at Fred as he watched her go, waiting a moment before he pushed himself to his feet and began to follow.
“Oh hell no, that is not happening,” I hissed under my breath.
“What?” Marie, who had been watching the film intently for some time, glanced at me out of the corner of her eye, “Did you say something?”
“No, nothing, just watch the film,” I told her as I pushed myself to my feet, my eyes never leaving Fred as he wandered from the room, “I just need to use the restroom.”