A Flight's Desire

Chapter 13: The Truth

"So," Robin clapped her hands together. "Where do we start?"

Ben thought about what he usually did when it came to studying actors and asked her one question. It had been bugging him for a while because not everyone had seen that movie. "What do you think made you cry when you watched The Language?"

"Oh." She bit her lip as she thought about the correct choice of words to tell him. She narrowed her eyes at him, imagining his character in that movie. She remembered how she cried for half an hour after finishing the movie because of how powerfully his character had impacted her. "I think it was your eye-acting."

His eyebrows furrowed as he was taken aback by that phrase. "My what?"

"Your eye-acting! You know, the thing that you do when you are looking at someone and...." Her voice trailed out when she saw the perplexed look on his face. "You do know what I'm talking about, right?"

He shook his head in candour. "Not really, no."

A sudden gasp came out of her mouth. "You're kidding!" She slammed the table softly. "Please tell me that you're kidding. Has no one ever told you about this?" She asked, being the more confused one among them.

"No, this is the first time I'm hearing about this. So what is my 'eye-acting'?" He thought that she was going to talk about his crying scenes but whatever she was referring to, Ben had no clue about it.

Robin leaned back on her chair, her face still in a confused state. "Oh my God, I don't know whether to be angry because no one had mentioned to you before or proud that I am the first to."

He shrugged modestly. It was nice to talk to someone about this because he really needed an honest opinion, and he was beginning to trust Robin. "Be both."

"Hold that thought." She held up her index finger and indicated for him to wait. She pulled her backpack from the floor where it was resting against her chair, and pulled out her laptop. "You need to see this. I can't really explain it with actor terms," she mumbled as she typed in the password and opened the downloaded movie of one of Ben's movies. She turned the laptop to face him and then dragged her chair such that she was sitting next to him.

"Oh, Connections." He smiled at his memories on the wonderful set. The director had a very unique idea for the story but unfortunately, it hadn't been taken well by the audience. He had always felt upset about their lack of interest in it because that was one of his favourite movies to act in.

"This is my favourite movie of yours and believe me, it was very very hard to choose because all your movies are amazing!" She turned to face him and forgot what she wanted to say because of the expression that he had on his face. "See?" She smiled widely. "You are doing it again!"

"Doing what?"

She narrowed her eyes at him again. Was he really oblivious about what she was talking about or was he doing it without realising it? "Anyway," she turned away and hit play because he just had to see what she was talking about, fast forwarding to the scene where she cried the most, and that was when Ben's character, Graham, was left heartbroken in his apartment in the war-stricken Paris. The female protagonist was accusing Graham for something that wasn't his fault and just by seeing his eyes, you could see that his heart was broken and that he wanted to right the wrong.

Robin paused the movie when the next scene started. "See?"

"Are you talking about the hurt in my eyes?" He asked, putting her thoughts in words.

"If that's what you call it, then yeah. That's what I am talking about. Your eye-acting." She turned back to the laptop to type something. "Okay, do not judge me for this because it was for research." She opened the gallery on her phone and pulled out the album with the fancast for her story.

"You have pictures of me on your phone," he said, looking at her scroll through the pictures. "Why am I not surprised?"

She frowned at him and emphasised the word 'research'. "It was for my book," she said and flinched suddenly, her head looking at the front door.

"What?" He asked, noticing her sudden rigidness.

She could smell the salt in the air. "It is going to rain tonight," she said, looking around her for the usual signs. Robin had a past with predicting when it was going to rain and flinching was one of them. She had shivers run down her spine and she stood straighter to physically not shiver.

"Wait," he pulled his phone out and looked at the weather report. "It says otherwise here." He showed her the report about a sunny day.

She shook her head. "No, it is going to rain. I'm positive about it."

"Is this like Laura?" He asked, referring to another TV Show that they had in common. It was about a teenager named Laura Grant who knew everytime that a murder was going to take place in her town.

"Sort of," she answered. "She can smell it and I can....sense it, I guess."

"No offense, but I am going to trust the weather report," he gestured to the perfect sunny day outside.

"Wanna bet?" She asked, raising her eyebrows at him.

"Alright" he straightened himself and leaned forward unconsciously. "If I win, you have to be my friend." When she opened her mouth to say that she was his friend, he explained, "A friend more than a fan."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Done," she smiled. "I will do it even when you lose."

He frowned at her. "You are so sure that I am going to lose?"

"You'll see," she said, keeping her face expressionless so that he wouldn't blame her for being confident later on.

"If you win....." He started to find out what it was that would complete the bet.

"If I win," she started. "Will you audition for Caleb?" She sipped her drink before he could pounce on her with questions.

"Wait," his eyes opened wide. "They are making it into a movie?"

"Nothing has been confirmed yet and it is confidential! Well it is not like anyone is going to care but I have been asked to keep it a secret. Netflix can and will sue me....I think."

"I hope they do make it into a movie because I am waiting to see the final scene with whoever is going to play Caleb and Sophie." It was a beautifully heartbreaking scene where Caleb finally finds out who he is and Sophie brings him back to reality. She, an ordinary human being, saves him from his life's fate. That scene moved Ben to tears because of how it was written.

"Will you? Want to act as Caleb?"

He took a deep breath. It was so important for her and it was even more important to him, which seemed foolish. It was as though a dream was coming true, but that was true for Robin. He had only had her characters for a day or so but she had been living with them for so long. But at that moment, he was more excited than ever.

"I will do it even if you lose."

She smirked. "Don't quote me."

"Which is unlike what your favourite character in the series says," he said, pointing to the half-moon necklace that she was wearing, which was to represent the character that he was actually going to be playing.

"How did you find out!" She exclaimed, pulling the dollar out and showing it to him.

"I know that you are wearing a Shadowverse shirt," he pursed his lips together, seeing her cheeks grow red.

She scoffed. "Smart ass."

"Okay, coming back to the tips for improvement." He clapped his hand together to bring them back to the topic in hand.