Black and White

Chapter 8 Dream or Reality

Bianca was standing at the door with a packet in her hand. She handed over the packet to me and said that it was from Dan. When she left, I opened the packet. They were some balms to rub on my sprained ankle. There was a rose in the corner. I tried to hide it from the others. I did not want them to get the wrong idea but deep inside I did want them to tease me with his name. I think I might have blushed. The evening went by talking about how fun the trip was. It was almost nine when we walked out of our dorm to get dinner. We met Dan on the way. He looked worried but I assured him that I was fine. We headed to the cafeteria to check what we were getting. Dan seemed to be very worried about me. When we were heading back to our dormitories, there was a man who stopped us. He was not too old but maybe in his 30's. He asked which one of us was Jessica. I raised my hand till my shoulder, still nervous about what was going to happen next. I looked at him and said that Jessica was me. He laughed at my nervous face. Dan put his hand around his shoulder and said that he was the film director. Although the man was in his 30's he looked very handsome. I asked him why he was looking for me. When I heard his reply, my soul almost left my body. He informed me that I was gonna be the lead female role in the movie with Dan. I tried to keep a straight face but the smile took over. Soon I was smiling side to side listening to him tell me why the crew chose me. In the evening they saw Dan helping me and they loved us together. He asked if I had any objections. I of course said no. I was just so happy that I was gonna be in a movie. Suzy hugged me while jumping up and down. Natalie looked more excited than me. I laughed. It was late and the dorm gates were going to close, so we rushed back to the dorms after wishing the guys goodbye. After a long time, I was able to sleep peacefully. I woke up feeling fresh. When I headed down to breakfast, Dan was standing near the door with some men who I had seen before but was forgetting where. Dan gestured to me to come near him. I asked Natalie and the others to carry on without me. They nodded and headed on. Dan asked me if I had any classes that I needed to attend. I shook my head in agreement. He wanted to see my calendar. I showed it to him. He took it from my hand and whispered to one of the men. He handed my calendar to him. The man took it and headed to the Academic block. I asked Dan what was going on. He said that we were beginning the shooting tomorrow and I needed to know more about the movie. I was really excited. I got into his Mercedes, the one we had seen the other day. It was beautiful and it smelt awesome too. He gave me a little brief about what the movie was about. It was supposed to be about a mother and a daughter and the daughter's trustworthy boyfriend. The daughter is a little boy crazy. That did not match my personality at all but at that moment I did not say anything at that moment. He was so enthusiastic about the movie that he just went on telling the story and did not even look at me. I was not able to keep up with him and all the little things going to happen. I looked at his face and started getting butterflies in my stomach like on the first day I had seen him. He finally looked at me and saw me staring into wide space. He patted me on my shoulder and said sorry. As I was gonna ask why he was sorry, he began. It was the first time he was going to be working with a friend. All the time he used to work with the top actresses and actors. Although he enjoyed acting, he sometimes felt lonely. I understood him perfectly. After all I was going through all that too. Not knowingly, my hand slid over to his and I held him tight. I whispered in his ear that I will always be there if he ever needs a shoulder to cry. He smiled at me. I smiled back. Our stare was broken by the honking of the cars behind us. We had reached where we were going to get all the details of the movie. Before getting out of the car, Dan looked at me. He smiled and said that I didn't need to be nervous and just be myself. He put his hand on my head and fluffed my hair, then he got out of the car. The driver ran to my side of the car and opened the door for me. Now I felt like a real celebrity. There were cameras everywhere wanting to shoot even my little steps. One of the men I had seen greeting Dan before rushed to clear the way for me. I thanked him and headed to a hall where I saw everybody else heading to. As I entered the hall, all eyes were on me. An old gentleman got up and led me to one of the seats at the front. Before I was about to sit down, he started introducing me. I put my hands to the front and gave a little bow. When I was seated I saw Dan coming over to my seat. He sat beside me and said in a soft voice that I need to take it easy when they ask me to perform. I nodded. I was a very good actor at that time and had starred in one of the music videos with Donna Pincionitti. Donna was one of the most successful actresses in the whole of Russia. I was still thinking about her when I felt a stare from the back. I turned around and looked for who was staring at me. It was a guy who I had seen before but could not remember when. He waved at me and I waved back. He made a sign that we would talk later. I nodded in agreement and turned back around.