CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
searching
it took walker a minute to respond to jordyn. "really? that's not something i'm skilled in," he said, his words hesitant and choppy like they were downloading into his brain. everyone in that room knew about the predetermined casting of aurora: me.
i, too, forgot about the ending scene, too focused on assigning other roles to think about mine and the awfully exciting things she was written in to do. a jitter shot through my veins just thinking about what was inevitable. i was going to kiss walker.
"honestly, me too. i haven't kissed someone since the one time in sixth grade," i said, trying to be relatable to walker.
"no, i mean, i haven't had my first kiss." that surprised me. it wasn't like he'd had a role that had a kiss scene in it before this, but that fact that he was that attractive and hadn't even pecked someone was shocking.
"that's normal, dude," said jordyn. "i didn't have my first kiss until this year."
"yeah, and maeve hasn't kissed anyone, either," i added. she was writing something down in the notepad and pretending she was busy, but i definitely heard her chuckle under her breath. odd.
"i'm just saying, hopefully it's not a problem for this role," said walker, leaning against the wall. he made the drab room more appealing.
maeve finally spoke, "i'm sure it'll be fine."
she approached the door and stood on her tippy-toes, scanning what lied outside. i joined her, curious after she spent multiple moments taking in the view. a parade of waiting people lined the walls, some talking, some fiddling their fingers, and some just on their phones. there was at least thirty people in total, which was better than thirty potential emily's, but there was so many people. i took a deep breath, the reality that so many contenders were waiting to be cut down to only a few sinking in.
maeve checked the electronic watch on her wrist. "we can let someone in now."
my heart began to race. how was i supposed to go about this? i felt like i was leading a herd of sheep to their deaths. "can you ask them?"
maeve nodded, opening the door. the chatter that was revealed when she did began to fade away. "alright, everyone listen up. i have no clue how this works so you're gonna have to bare with me. get in a single file line," she directed, motioning like an aircraft marshaller. the crowd did as she said, creating a caterpillar along the parallel wall. once the rustle of shifting shoes and pants subsided, they awaited further direction.
from my cramped view over maeve's shoulder, i saw violet rush in and join the trail of people. she appeared slightly discombobulated and short of breath, but engaged in her surroundings once maeve continued talking. "okay, uhm, the first person in line will just come in, tell us who they're trying out for, do the reading, and be on their merry way. then, once we're ready, the next person in line will come in, and so on." she noticed violet's dreadful face at the caboose. "sorry violet, you're going to be last, but you" — the person right in front of maeve was a boy i had never seen before, one with a bowl cut snipped so precisely it looked like a helmet that could slice through metal — "will have the least time to prepare."
the boy gave her the a sure nod and walked in with her. the air seemed to thicken as he shut the door behind him. next, he strutted over to walker and introduced himself. "i'm connor briggs, nice to meet you," he said, shaking walker's hand. walker gave him a friendly smile but connor missed it when he turned to face the other three of us and said, "i will be auditioning for the role of peter."
"amazing, we're ready whenever you are," i fibbed all professionally. i was not ready, but sometimes the acting must be mutual. i wrote down his name under the peter heading of the notepad as maeve handed him the excerpt from hats. it was actually most of screen time that peter had. he was a less prominent character in the grand scheme, one of caleb's friends whose purpose was to be the voice of his internal conflict.
walker now stood by connor's side, poorly simulating the setting of this conversation, which was "ext. street - day," where they are strolling through the town. connor skimmed through the script before doing that thing where actors look to their feet like they held the answers of existence.
then, he shot his head up and began reading. "alright, i don't think i can wait any longer to watch the season finale."
"oh yeah! doesn't it come out next week," caleb asked.
"no, dude, it's tonight," peter responded, sounding a little hurt. i jotted down that connor had good inflections and tone.
"oh, uh," hesitated caleb. "something kinda came up for tonight..."
peter halted on the imaginary sidewalk. "what? we've been planning to watch for like weeks!"
"peter, emily said there's a party tonight—"
"a party? that you're going to?"
"if you'd let me finish, yeah. i talked to her earlier... she's going to be there."
"you're going there, instead of coming over to mine?" connor sounded genuinely baffled. i was impressed — it was the sheerness i was looking for in peter.
"yeah? pete, this is great! i can finally get my chance with her. she'll see me there and realize i'm—"
"remember when we had sleepovers in middle school, thinking we were so cool for staying up past midnight? and we would make fun of the way your brother would come back home after sneaking out with absolutely no recollection of the past few hours?" peter paused, letting the thought get into his friend's head. "is that gonna be you?"
"would you stop interrupting me?" caleb laughed irritably.
"i'm not interrupting you, i'm expressing my concern," he settled. connor read off the pages, "you're going to make a fool out of yourself. i thought we were, like, anti-party people. the caleb i know would never go to one just to get some girl."
"she's not just some girl."
"i know you're infatuated with her, but you're gonna have to pick eventually. you can either go to the party and be a dumbass. or, you could do what you know is better." his hand was placed on walker's shoulder, a little detail that connor had conceived without the script. "it's up to you, man."
"the caleb you still know doesn't miss out on a chance like this." he removed peter's hand and shrugged. "i gotta do this. i can always watch the finale later."
"sure, you can postpone that ending. but you're just fast tracking to the end of your chance with emily." it was written in for peter to start walking away. "see you later, man."
"come on," scoffed caleb. "seriously?"
"yep." connor said, completing his set of lines in the perfect combination of peter's hurt and disappointment with caleb.
he bowed extravagantly as we clapped. walker gave him a fist bump. "wow," i said. "nice job." this time i didn't fib. i was very happy with our first contestant. it almost felt too promising.
"thank you."
"thank you. that was awesome," added jordyn. he was there.
"great, we'll be posting the cast by monday, so stay tuned," said maeve.
connor waved goodbye and him and the bowl on his head exited the room with exuberance. as the four of us discussed our thoughts on connor's performance, i scribbled them onto the notepad. it was filling up like quicksand with positive feedback. "at least we don't have to worry about a shortage of good peters."
next, maeve opened the door for the second person to come in. i was dreading how many times she was going to have to do that, how many times i would have to hear "next!" but connor had only taken around five minutes. this was going to work.
the person who walked into the room looked familiar. she had a nose piercing and a red lowlights streaming through her hair. from the way she dressed i would take her more as a rocker than an actress.
my suspicion that i've talked to her once were confirmed when jordyn ran in for a hug. "harley! you saw the fliers!"
"i almost didn't though," she whispered. "can't believe you managed to get your phone taken away for the rest of the year."
"what?" i yelled, overhearing her.
"come on, seriously," maeve said, repeating caleb's line.
"did i not tell you that?" jordyn scratched his head gawkily.
"no!" i cried.
"good thing i live down the block from you."
"was is from when you didn't do your chores?" asked walker.
"mhm," said jordyn nonchalantly. "harley, who are you auditioning for?"
i rolled my eyes. how could he fail to mention that i would be lacking any way of contacting him other than pigeon post when i don't see him in person? and be so cool about it?
harley got into the stance of a knight and cleared her throat. "i'm gonna audition to be an extra."
my temper shrinking, i stopped her right there. "you don't need to do that." i forced a smile. "extras sign up in a separate google form, linked on the flier, and'll be notified when the filming schedule is."
"oh... okay," she said, disappointed. "do i go now?"
"yeah," i said. "and tell the next person in line to come right in."
harley fluttered her fingers at jordyn before opening the door, where she motioned for people to follow her out of the hallway. five others proceeded to leave behind her. they must have been jordyn's other friends who were about to audition to have zero lines.
✦•······················•✦•······················•✦
thank you for reading chapter 23!