the next step au's

cut (trittany)

brittany had tears stream down her face, smudging the makeup that took about an hour to apply. she never was a crier, that was what her mother always said. at the age of nine she broke her ankle, and even had to get surgery on it, yet not a single tear fell. not even a silent sob took place. when she was fifteen and her first real boyfriend broke up with her, the girl didn't cry either. she was sad, and hurt, sure, but why would she cry after someone who didn't want anything to do with her anymore? it just seemed illogical to her. she was always a rather strong and positive person.

these tears weren't unintentional though, and the smudged make up was part of the whole thing too. the tears were for a scene they just filmed on the next step. in which james and riley have an emotional talk, after the whole thing with alfie got sorted out.

neither one of them really knew what exactly happened, trevor nor brittany have read the other scripts for the season, as this was the first scene they filmed together, and they filmed the show out of order; like always. it would be too expensive to do it in order, as you'd have to switch between sets too often. and it would take them too long to do so.

all they knew was that riley apparently found a liking to a new member of a-troupe, and even went past these feelings and acted on them. which didn't seem like something riley would do, to brittany, but the writers said that she was going through a weird phase of refunding herself now, so it seemed to britt like it would maybe be something a confused teenager would do.

despite of it only being a scene of a fictional show, brittany somehow took the whole thing too much to heart. she was standing in the hallway, cameras all around her, trevor in front of her, and the director staring at their face expressions to get just the right ones. trevor even had tears in his eyes as well, which was a first for him on the show. at least in a scene with her, it was.

brittany has seen him cry though, quite a few times. once was while he was watching fury for the sixth time in the theater, and he forced her to go with him. once was while he cut his leg on something while they were filming in miami. and the other time was when his long time girlfriend broke up with him. brittany and lamar were the only ones whom he let talk to him at that time because they were his best and closest friends. and it happened while they were in england for some tv show, so he took it pretty rough. that was years ago and he was pretty much over it now, but brittany still felt bad seeing him like that. more than bad.

while in the scene, she had to ask him something, the lines of it only barely audible because she was crying so hard. "i-- thought-- you.." she sobbed, and immediately got cut off by the director.

"okay, okay, lets recollect ourselves for a few minutes. you gotta calm a little down britt. i know it's hard and emotional but just take a breath okay? we need those lines. you have to control your voice." the director said.

brittany just nodded, looking down at the ground as he spoke. and as soon as he stopped she turned around to storm off the set. she needed to be alone. at least for one minute. she had no idea what was going on with her right now, this was just a scene. and she has had loads of emotional scenes while acting on this show so it shouldn't be something that was too hard. of course, emotional scenes were always a hard thing, but she never acted like this while they filmed.

she walked into one of the dressing rooms, sitting down on one of the couches, and rubbing her temples, closing her eyes. she took a slight breath, leaning back in the couch.

"are you alright?" she heard trevor's voice all of a sudden, filled with concern. she opened her eyes to search for him in the room, and spotted him in the doorway, leaning against the doors frame. he had a slight smile on his face, tears still in his eyes, and his face was slightly red.

brittany just shrugged, a smile appeared on her face as well as she looked up at him. a moment later he was sitting next to her on the couch. "what's wrong, hm?" he asked, turned around to face her, one of his arms on the back of the couch, and his other one on her thigh.

"just feels weird. you know, to be back here and to already get thrown into a scene like this." she said, wiping the tears out of her eyes, as she looked at him. a slight laugh followed her words. she knew that it was stupid to get that worked up over it, but something inside of her just took over her body.

all of a sudden, trevor leaned closer, his lips only grazing the skin on her cheek. brittany froze and felt her face burn bright red. her breath got stuck in her throat as she froze. trevor leaned back to look at her again. "why-why did you do that?" brittany asked, her voice was quiet, but there was a small smile on her face.

"thought it might make you feel better." trevor shrugged, all of a sudden the smile on his face was gone and he had a weird look on his face. his eyes were slightly widened.

all of a sudden they heard the director call them back onto the set through the speakers that were spread in the whole building. each room had one. so no matter where you were at right now, he could always order you back to the set, and was sure that you heard. it was way easier than phones, as some parts didn't have any reception, or people forget taking their phones with themselves, or charge them.

brittany was the first one to get up, trevor soon towering over her. it was only now that she realized how much he had changed ever since they met each other a few years back. he was quite the jokester back then, his buzz cut made him look like one too, and he was a little less taller than now. brittany however always had to look up while both of them were standing, and nothing besides her hair or her braces changed about her. now he looked different. more mature, more like a man.

he put an arm around her, normally a casual thing between the two of them, but now it gave brittany a weird feeling in the pit of her stomach. a feeling she last experienced when she realized she was in love with her last boyfriend. now ex boyfriend. her eyes turned a little wide, her gaze automatically turned towards him. trevor noticed that. "you alright?" he asked her for the second time today. brittany just nodded.

it just couldn't be; she thought.