Without You (James Franco Fanfiction)

Chapter VII

James’ POV

Sunlight trickled its way through the cracks of the venetian blinds, eventually causing my eyes to flutter open. Looking around the room, it took me a few seconds to process why my hotel suite had a sudden interior makeover whilst I slept. It wasn’t until the heat of another body pressed against mine alerted my attention to who my arms were wrapped around. Scarlett and I were lying on a couch in a naked entanglement of limbs and a thin cotton blanket. Reaching my arm over the side, I grabbed my jeans in order to check the time on my phone.

Cursing under my breath, the time read 7:03am. I had just under an hour to get from here to the university in the middle of rush hour traffic in order to get to my students in time. On top of that, I also badly needed to freshen up considering I smelt like sex.

“Scarlett. Wake up,” I whispered harshly, nudging her as best I could.

“Go away Franco,” She groaned, burying her face into the couch.

“I’m running late, and I need you to get up, you’re lying on my clothes…” I sighed, shaking her again, “Come on Scarlett.”

“Okay okay, I’m up,” She nods groggily, clambering about on top of me and passing me my briefs all the while managing to get dressed quicker than me. As I was about to pull on my shirt, I caught Scarlett staring at me wide-eyed, almost looking mortified by something.

“What?” I asked, tugging my shirt down once I got it over my head.

“Don’t worry,” Scarlett says. 

Unsure of how to leave, I gave her a small nod as I raced out of the door.

Remarkably, I managed to show up before the lesson was over. It’s not like I was never on time, but I always told my students that if for whatever reason I don’t show up they were to continue on with their own work so they wouldn’t be wasting their time or their parents money, for that matter. Thankfully, they didn’t disappoint me. Once I entered the classroom, I was relieved to see that they had kept themselves busy, working on rehearsing for the short film I was directing them in.

I allowed them to carry on as they were doing just fine on their own, whilst I sat up the front of the room reading through their essays. During the small break they took from rehearsing, one of my students approached me and asked me if I’d just finished filming a fight scene. 

Confused, I told them I hadn’t.

Their surprised expression at my answer didn’t faze me at all, and she apologised in case she offended me before returning to her classmates. I was aware that I looked incredibly ruffled up, having missed the time to properly groom myself but by now they should know that I wasn’t always neatly presented as though I’d just come from a photo shoot.

I didn’t think much of what my student said until I got back to my hotel suite and stripped down for a shower. The red incisions on the skin of my back that I saw in the reflection of the glass panel stung as the water ran down my body, and a bruised area on my lower neck were both very clear indicators that last night really happened.

Scarlett’s POV

“Alright,” Dana says, “What’s going on with you?”

“Nothing’s going on with me,” I replied nonchalantly, filling my plate with pieces of fruit from the buffet. As we sat down at a table, Dana took a seat across from me and stared me down whilst I ate. At first, I focused my attention on my surroundings, watching people coming and going with plates of food. There were couples sitting together, holding hands, sharing food or laughing with each other which left a bitter taste in my mouth. Other people’s love makes me jealous. It’s an ugly trait, I know, but I can’t help it. Even on tour with my three best-friends in the world, there seemed to be a loneliness that followed me around wherever I went.