Hate You More

2

"You?" "You!" You both spoke.

"You're the girl who spilt their drink on me."

"You're the guy who thinks everyone is fan just because they recognized you."

Both of your voices sounded accusatory. Your faces close together with piercing stares.

Anthony Russo approached the two of you. Both of his hands on yours and Tom's shoulder. He had a great smile of excitement. "Are you two ready? It's time to get things started."

"Yeah." "Yeah." Both of you again spoke at the same time, not breaking the ice cold looks.

You took your seat, and just to add more delight, Tom of course sat next to you. The two main leads had to sit next to each other, you were just wishing it wasn't him.

"I think everyone is here, so let's get started." Joe started speaking into his mic. "I want to thank everyone for coming today, it's an honor to be with you all. We are here for the table read of All Things Are Black and White, the first movie adaptation of the amazing book series. Thank you Rosalina for trusting us with your baby."

The crowd clapped as Rosalina blew a kiss to him. Going into this you've read her books to understand what's going on in your character's mind. It was a dystopian romance book. Highly anticipated amongst her readers waiting to see it on the big screen.

Anthony started reading out the stage directions and the scene. As he read, you pictured what it was all going to look like. A world run by a strict new government all because a war broke out years ago making life go into chaos.

You followed along, nerves already coming back as you waited to speak your lines. You started to shake your right leg, which Tom couldn't seem to ignore. He couldn't speak or it would disrupt the reading, so instead he rolled his eyes. You didn't stop though, an eye roll meant nothing to you from him. It was a child's act. Plus, it was the only thing calming you down. No one could see it underneath the cloth.

Tom was the first to speak from his lines. If you weren't annoyed by him, you think you would admire how he was already diving into his character. His accent being replaced with an American one.

Your characters were separated at the moment, not knowing each other. Your lines would come up soon after Tom finished all of his.

Anthony told everyone how the scenes were switching, setting up for your characters entrance into the film.

Your leg doubled the speed. Your foot wasn't tapping, it was silent. It was just a shake. You were about to speak when a hand was placed on your thigh forcing the movement to stop. You knew it had to be Tom's because Davis was on your left, and he wasn't leaning over you to stop your leg.

You almost choked out your first words, but you regained your composure. You wanted to grab his hand and throw it off of you, but eyes were on you. The ones who weren't reading but just watching didn't know Tom had his hand on your thigh. They wouldn't understand why you would jerk away. You couldn't make a bad impression, not today.

You read the entirety of you scene along with the other people who were in this part with you. When Anthony started reading the next scene change, the watchful eyes got switched giving you time to finally move Tom's hand away.

Near the middle of the script, the brothers called for a break. It was time for a stretch or some refreshments. People started talking and comparing notes. Davis offered to grab you something, but you gratefully declined.

Tom looked at you when Davis got up. "Get your nerves under control. Could barely read my lines without being distracted."

"My leg is distracting?"

"Yes."

"Have a thing for legs do ya?"

Tom looked confused. "What, no?"

"Hey, no judgment. You're in to what you're in to. Just keep your hand off my leg next time. Thanks."

You turned your attention away from him to ignore his unpalatable presence. Instead, you focused on the notes you have been taking. Different things you wanted to go over or things you needed to remember about a character.

Davis returned to his seat and gave you and Tom a quizzical look. He could sense the tension between the two of you.

When everyone returned to their seats, the break ended and everyone looked at their scripts. There were no more breaks or incidents with Tom. Everyone just did their job of finishing off the script. At the end, different people gave suggestions or insights on what should be done. Everyone clapped and cheered knowing that it was finally over but also that after this, the next step was shooting it all.

You grabbed all your belongings without another word to Tom. You made your rounds of telling everyone goodbye and that it was nice to meet them. They all shared their thoughts of how excited they were or how awesome you were going to be.

A smile never left your face as you headed for the door, but before you left, Joe stopped you. "Amazing. I knew you'd be perfect for Amber."

You let out of a breath of relief. "Thank you. That relieves a lot of uneasiness."

"However, your chemistry with Tom is not there. I understand it's the first day, but this a romance movie. You can't have your two main love interests not interested in each other." You froze up ready to be told they were releasing you from the film. Instead, Joe gave you a warm smile. "But I think it's just the nerves. Tom is great, you two will get along in no time."

He walked away leaving you with a fake smile that was dropping more and more. You looked at Tom who was laughing with the other actors. He looked at you with a wink before giving his attention back to the group.

You exited out of the building and drove home. You grabbed a bottle of wine, ignoring the glasses, and hid underneath your bed. It was a thing you always did as a child, without the alcohol. It was a way to hide from anything that you didn't want to deal with.

Hannah knew today was your table read for you've been canceling all your plans with her for the past couple of days. It didn't stop her from coming over.

You heard the front door unlock and you knew it had to be her. She was the only one with a key to your house, or it could be robber who could pick a lock. You didn't care to look though. You just stayed under the bed occasionally turning your head to take a swig out of the bottle.

Hannah called out for you, but when you didn't respond she knew you were either in two places; not home or under your bed.

She walked over to you and bent down. She sighed then got down to lie beside you. "Didn't go good?"

"No it did."

"Then why are you hiding? You only hide when you're stressed or upset."

You turned you head to face hers. "Because of my co-star."

"Ugly? Fat? Bald?"

"No. No. No."

"Then what's the problem?"

"It's Tom Holland."

Hannah looked shocked. She took a second to calculate this. Then she took the bottle out of your hand and took a swig herself. "Oh."

"Yeah. Oh."

"Well it can't be that bad. So you had one bad encounter with him, what's to stop you from laughing about it now?"

"Trust me, it's going to take a miracle for us to like each other. He's not all nice and sweet as everyone makes him out to be."

Hannah pouted her lips. "That's depressing. People talk so highly about him."

You took the bottle back not wanting to comment on her statement. You knew you were going to have to spend three months with this man pretending to be in love with him.