Mateo

5

I bounced my knee up and down in nervousness. The movie Rainy forced me to audition for was about this fake family made up of people who were really detectives for the FBI trying to solve the case of who's been selling this drug that was killing people. But there's also romance, drama, you know, the average movie plot.

My character's name is Roxy. She is the aggressive, badass chick who ended up falling for the person she was assigned to get close to just for information purposes. At the same time, La'Mar, her "older brother" ended up falling for her, but doesn't want to ruin their friendship or let his feelings get in the way of them trying to solve the case. Anyway, Roxy's attitude gets her in a load of trouble during the movie and almost sabotages their mission.

I thought that she acted like me most of the time, so I decided to audition to be her. I didn't have an agent, so there's a slim chance that I would get the role, but I couldn't help but wonder if I would get it or not. I just wished this was over already.

"Cleo Brown." A man with ivory skin, black glasses, and a black beanie called, sticking his head out of the door.

I walked over and shook his hand. "Hello."

"Right this way." He motioned for me to follow him and I did.

One. Two. Three. Four. Five.

You'll do great. No worries.

I breathed in and out again, this time to get into character. When we entered the small room, there was another muscular dark-skinned guy with two diamond studs in his ears, waves, and chocolate brown eyes, standing there waiting. My mouth was watering just looking at his fine ass.

"Brown, this is Booker Elliot, he will be Roxy's love interest, Axel, in the movie. Y'all will do this scene," he pointed to a page on the script that I already memorized, "together."

I looked at Booker hesitantly, then focused on something behind him in the room as I walked closer.

"And. . . action."

Here goes nothing.

"What the fuck, Roxy? You can't keep sending me these mixed signals and expecting me to understand every single thing you do! I'm human too, you know." Booker scrunched his eyebrows together, staring into my eyes as if he could see straight through me.

"Since when did we make it a problem that I was a teenage girl?" I crossed my arms, shifting my weight to rest on my right hip. "Are you not a teenager yourself, Axel?!" I threw my hands up in the air. "Teenagers have mood swings, dumbass!"

Booker sighed in frustration. "See! That's the shit I'm talking about, Roxy. You like to generalize things. We're talking about you," he pointed his index finger out at me, "and me," he pointed his thumb at himself, "not every damn teenager in the whole world. If you're going to act like this, then. . . I'm not really sure if we can stay together."

"Fuck you, Axel." I flipped him off as I turned my back to walk away.

Booker grabbed my arm. "Rox, wait."

"Aannddd cut!" The director ran around the table he was sitting at. "That was. . . perfect!" He clapped his hands, practically jumping with excitement. "I loved it! Booker, I think we've found our Roxy. Do you like her?"

Booker looked at me once more. "I think she's great."

"Amazing!" The director grabbed a clipboard off of the table. "Now, I will need you to sign these papers while I go tell these other nobodies to go home."

Once the door shut, Booker spoke, "I know Brown is your last name, what's your first name?"

"Cleo." I clicked the pen as I focused on the papers in front of me.

"Cleo. Pretty name."

"You have my mom to thank." I scribbled down an answer.

"Still in character, I see." He sat in the chair beside me.

"Mmm no, that's just how I am."

"Ah, so your character is great for you. Is this your first time in a movie?"

"Yep." I put my signature at the bottom of the page. "Well, I have to get going, my baby boy might be a little worried about me."

"Baby boy," Booker questioned, opening the door for me.

"Yes. My son." I handed the director my signed papers.

"We'll start once the rest of the roles are already cast. I'm Ricky, by the way." He pushed up his glasses.

"Nice to meet you." I smiled, all giddy inside that this wasn't just some dream.

"You have a son?" Booker held open yet another door for me. "Aren't you like twenty-three?"

"Twenty-four," I corrected. "and I adopted him."

I thought back to the moment I met Mateo. I would never change what happened that day for anything in the world.

"Ohhh, okay." Booker unlocked an all-black Lamborghini with red LED lights on the bottom. "See you around."

"Aight." I waved as I headed towards my white 2011 Hyundai Sonata.

•

"Oh my God!" Rainy squeezed me in a hug until I couldn't breathe. "I knew you could do it!"

I wiggled out of her grip. "Take a chill pill."

Rainy let go of me, gasping loudly. "Do you not know how exciting this is? You get to work with famous actors, you get fame, money, and maybe even your own biography book or something."

I laughed and walked to the kitchen to start fixing some food for Mateo. "Oh, and Booker Elliot is my character's love interest."

"The Booker Elliot?" Rainy crossed her arms, not the least bit as excited as I assumed.

"Yeah. Want me to introduce—"

"I'm going home to get some rest." Rainy grabbed her red coat off of the back of the kitchen chair.

"Why? What's wrong?" I placed the beef into the sizzling pan.

"Nothing." Rainy stuck her head into Mateo's room. "Goodnight, bub."

"Night!" I heard him yell.

Rainy said nothing to me and walked out of the door. I wondered what I did if I even did anything, to begin with.

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