one of them - j.flatters

vii. putting on a face

NOVEMBER 2022 - LOS ANGELES
After the main visit at the Pandora themed park, the cast also did a few slightly shorter interviews and promos for Disney on site which took the rest of the day. Jack, Trinity and Bailey leading the conversations like the professionals they were while Jamie and Eliana mostly stayed silent, sometimes exchanging amused looks. Eliana didn't have an agent, she wasn't as prepared as her co-stars and soon realized that it might became a problem during the press tour. If she wanted to make her mother proud, she needed to speak her mind, be articulate and charismatic, only being elegant wouldn't cut it. For Jamie, it was for completely other reasons, he had been prepped, he had an agent, he just always felt awkward, sometimes it felt irrelevant sharing his thoughts and feelings, scared of maybe saying the wrong thing. Yet, as they both got kept awaken by their thoughts through all of their night flight back to Los Angeles, they promised to themselves to make more of an effort, be more talkative and extroverted in front of the cameras. Now that Eliana find herself, once again, critically staring at her reflection in some fancy hotel room's bathroom, she regretted that promise. The makeup and hair team had did miracles hiding the dark circles under her eyes and fixing her semi-straight, semi-curly hair into a beautiful ponytail, sealing the look with a matching sleeveless vest and tailored trousers. She stressfully replaced the collar of her white blouse a few times before a knock on the door interrupted her anxious vicious circle.

"Eliana? We need to get you to the car." Avery, the press manager's—Christopher's—assistant, said waiting by the door, anxiously checking the time on her phone when the Martin girl didn't seemed to get out of the bathroom. "We don't have much loose time, you have a big day."

Eliana repeatedly sighed at her reflection, both of her hands resting on the counter, keeping her body lifted as she struggled to gather the courage that would allow her to move her feet and pass through that door. She closed her eyes, thinking it would help with fading out the annoying instructions from the assistant but it didn't, instead she opened the faucet and water hitting the ceramic sink filled her ears. Eliana shifted her glare to her phone, contemplating on calling that one friend who could actually cheer her up, hearing his words as if he had said them yesterday. Just know that I'm always going to be here. Yet, Britain wasn't with the girl nor with any of the young cast and she knew it was selfish of her to wish he had chosen otherwise, that he had decided to join them for the press tour but if someone could understand his reasons, it was Eliana. After everything she had been through these past two years, she wished her mother hadn't pushed so hard for her to do the press  tour, like Britain's parents who had been fully understanding of their son's choice. To calm her nerves, the girl unthinkingly splashed water in her face, a trick that Britain had shared with her a few years back for when he would sense the overwhelming feelings taking over his body. After opening her eyes, the girl looked at her reflection only to notice Avery standing by the now opened door, a pocket knife in her hand as she had used it to unlock the bathroom. The woman glaring at the young actress when realizing the makeup running down her face and onto her clothes, staining them with water droplets.

"We're heading downstairs, right now. Tell the girls we might have some touch-ups to do on the way there." Avery said into her phone before angrily hanging up, Eliana awkwardly smiling to the assistant and apologizing several times on the way to the car.

"Oh my god, what happened?" Bailey exclaimed, her brows knitted together in confusion when Eliana entered the black van, taking the seat in the front row. The young cast had been waiting for a few minutes, Bailey and Trinity sat in the middle row as Jamie and Jack were at the back, all of their attention redirected to the girl when she had entered. Before closing the door, Avery waved to one of the makeup artist to get in the car to fix what Eliana had previously ruined.

"Stay away from water." Avery warned the Martin girl, pointing her index at her in a threatening way as Eliana nodded, finding it hard to take the woman serious when they were practically the same age. The driver hastily drove the cast to where they needed to be as they had departed later than it had been planned. While the makeup artist scrutinized Eliana's face, trying to figure out how she could fix it without having to start everything over, the Martin girl twirled on her seat and faced her friends, all of their mouths opened and expressions laced with mixed confusion and amusement.

"Is it that bad?" The girl chuckled to her friends' reaction, thinking they were clearly overexaggerating it only to soon find out they weren't. Trinity slowly lifted her cellphone, snapping a picture before turning it to show to Eliana, a warm and sudden wave of shyness flustering her cheeks into a shade darker. Laughter echoed in the car as Trinity passed her cellphone around the rows, each of them chuckling at the picture of Eliana while the girl mocked their teasing reaction.

"Definitely the new picture of the group chat!" Jack snickered, the others agreeing with the boy. Eliana forcedly continued to laugh as her friends proceeded with the joking comments, if this was at any other moment, the girl would have find it funny too, but not right before an important interview. There was nothing funny in being less than perfect in front of the world. At least, that was how Eliana felt it, her expectations getting the best of her.       

"Can you fixed me?" The young actress whispered, now turned to the woman at her side with begging eyes and scrunched eyebrows. The girl's every traits screaming desperation which Jamie immediately picked on even from the back of the car as she had once looked at him with those same eyes, glimpses of their last encounter flashing before his own. Jamie turned toward the boy next to him, nudging him with his elbow as he gestured his hand sideways under his jaw.

"Cut it." Jamie mouthed to Jack, the curly haired boy frowning before shrugging his shoulders, in utter confusion but still doing as he had been instructed. Jamie rarely spoke his mind so Jack knew that it must had been important if he did. The jokes slowly dying down as Jack was usually the one provoking them, Trinity regaining the games on her phone and Bailey moving forward on her seat to get closer to Eliana.

"How do I look?" The brunette asked her friend who sat diagonally from her, a makeup brush going over her lips and applying the final touches to her second makeover of the day.

"Perfect." Bailey smiled, locking eyes with Eliana as she scrunched her nose to accentuate her dimples, causing the Martin girl to roll her eyes and lightly shaking her head but still feeling reassured by Bailey's choice of words. The makeup artist glared at Eliana for moving as product went on her chin which she quickly apologized for, not wanting to look less than perfect. "You can take a picture now." Eliana joked to Trinity as her face had been fixed, her watery mistake completely covered up by the miracles of makeup. Jack chuckled to the girl's happy gestures, wiggling in her seat like a child before a confused feeling resurfaced, slowly turning to Jamie who's gaze was focused on the view outside the car's window.

"You wanna tell me what was that about?" Jack approached his head toward the boy, hoping to get him out of his daze for the answers he wanted. The group had always joked around with each other, there was a familiar easiness they had gained over the years of growing up together. There wasn't any awkwardness left when it came to teasing one another so the curly haired boy didn't understood why the sudden shift in Jamie's attitude. "J?"

"What?" The British boy disorientedly exclaimed, his head quickly swinging toward the other boy's direction, his eyes laced with surprise to find a staring Jack as if he had truly never heard his words. His mind slowly catching up with reality, recording what had previously happened. "Oh, um... she just seemed like she had a rough morning."

"And?" Jack snorted, rising an eyebrow as his young mind had been unable to grasp the distressed hints that Eliana had subtly expressed. Jack's only intention was to make the incident lighter for the girl. If he joked about it then maybe she would realized it wasn't as big of a deal as she thought, the boy's motive being the most genuine which Jamie knew, but he also knew that the boy can have a hard time stopping himself from going too far, not realizing that his jokes could have the opposite effects on Eliana. Which it did.

"What do you mean and?" Jamie angrily whispered, his eyes laced with annoyance from the response of his friend he thought was mere heartless as he quickly realized that Jack was clueless to the girl's situation, the same way all of them were except for Jamie. The twenty two year old added, his voice much softer now that he put himself in Jack's shoes. "Just because we're like family doesn't mean we have to treat each other like shit. We just got her back, let's try to not make her want to leave again."

Jamie sighed, his eyes leaving Jack's side to find its way back to the window, fleeing any possible reaction or reply from the younger boy. Jamie slightly shook his head to himself, regretting the words that had escaped his lips despite his fear of saying the wrong thing, he had let his heart talk instead of his mind and by the same token, he had let his walls faintly come down for a brief instant. The boy hated how unpredictable he acted when it came to Eliana. Jamie would never admit it, but it seemed like no one would ever truly measure up to his first love. She was always at the back of his mind and he would always care for her.