Chapter 8
"No. No way. I'm not doing it," I said.
I knew it. I knew Nora and that casting director were going to try to rope me into doing this movie. I never truly bought the whole "oh, you're only reading these lines with Sophia because it's convenient." No, I was reading those lines with her because they were using her audition as my audition, too.
"I know this isn't the kind of movie you're interested in doing anymore, Chris, but you're perfect for this role," the casting director said. Rachel. That was her name. I wasn't the best with names. "We've offered the role of Eric Knight to Blake and he's already accepted. We need a William Knight."
I looked over at Blake accusingly, moving the phone away from my mouth. "You took the role of Eric and didn't tell me? Why didn't you tell me? We always tell each other this shit."
"I was gonna tell you. I was gonna tell you after Rachel broke the news to you that they want you to be Will," Blake said. When I glared at him, he just grinned like he was proud of his betrayal.
"No," I whispered, moving the phone farther away. "No, I already said I'm not doing this. There's no way."
"Come on, dude, it'll be fun," he said. "It'll be just like old times. Remember? It's how we met, doing one of these cheesy rom-coms." When he saw the look on my face – which I'm sure was less than enthused – he added, "Come on, Chris, don't leave me alone. I wanna expand my portfolio too. I wanna be seen as someone who can take on more serious roles. But I also have a movie quota to keep up, and this one should bring in a nice amount of cash."
"Chris?" Rachel said over the phone.
"Yeah." I put the phone back over my ear. "Yeah, I'm here."
"What do you say? Has Blake convinced you?"
Blake looked over at me with pleading eyes. "Don't leave me alone with those girls. Come on, man. What have you got to lose?"
I moved the phone away from my mouth again so Rachel couldn't hear me. Well, she could probably still hear me, but she would at least know the question wasn't directed towards her. "What girls?"
Blake shrugged, but it wasn't a convincing shrug. It was a suspicious shrug.
"You'll have the highest salary, the biggest trailer, an intern to cater to your every need, and anything you need that can be done within reason will be given to you," Rachel said. "We just need you to say yes."
"If you say yes I'll buy you a pizza," Blake said, loud enough that Rachel could hear him.
She chuckled at his comment before speaking again. "So what do you say?"
I sighed. I had a feeling I was going to regret this sooner than later. Actually, I had a feeling I was going to regret this multiple times. "Alright. Alright, fine, I'll do it. I'll take the role."
***
I should not have taken that role. I had been right to say no at first. Why had I given in? I should have asked more questions before saying yes. I mean, I asked questions before signing the contract, specifically about who else I'd be working with, but they only said that "nothing was official yet" and that they'd "keep me posted."
Maybe no one else had signed a contract yet, but I was sure they had an idea about who they wanted and who they were calling next. I was sure leaving out the fact that they had given the role of Emma van der Bilt – the lead role – to Sophia Hastings wasn't an accident.
"Who gives a leading role to a newbie? To someone who's never worked in Hollywood a day of her life? Who does that?" I shook my head.
"Whoever gave you your first role," Blake said without looking up from his phone. "Your first role was a lead. So who gave you that role? There's your answer."
"Dude. You're supposed to agree with me on this one."
"Oh. Right. Those bastards. How dare they give a newbie this role?"
"That's better." I ran a hand through my hair. "Well, I said I wanted something different. Something tells me this isn't going to be like my other rom coms."
Blake and I both looked up when the door opened. The entire cast – or most of it – was meeting up for the first time to do a read through of the script, and we were just waiting on Sophia, as far as I knew.
Sophia walked through the door and I found myself speaking without really meaning to. It just kind of came out automatically. "Is this a sign of how working with you is gonna be?" I asked.
She looked like she was trying to catch her breath or gather her composure or both. "Your fans nearly trampled me out there. Is that a sign of how working with you is going to be?"
"They just get a little excited," I said in their defense. It wasn't my fault they loved me so much and were excited for my new movie.
She ignored me and spoke to Nora instead. "Sorry I'm late, Nora. I had some trouble leaving my hotel."
I would've called her out on her bullshit if it had been bullshit, but the date of the read-through had been leaked and even I'd had some trouble getting here, and I was used to these things.
"We haven't been waiting long. You're fine," Nora said. "Go ahead and take your seat so we can start."
The only seat open was the one right next to me. She looked like she wanted to sit anywhere but next to me, but there was a tabletop sign with her name and her character that she couldn't really ignore even if she wanted to. As my leading lady, she had to take her seat next to me. Blake, as my on-screen brother, was on my left side.
I watched her sit next to me from the corner of my eye. I was trying not to overtly stare at her so I wouldn't get called out on it. I had a feeling she would do exactly that if given the chance. She was looking around the table, probably overwhelmed by all of the familiar faces. She was easily the lowest-ranked actor here since she didn't even have a rank yet.
"How about we start with some introductions?" Nora said. "We're going to be stuck with each other for a few months, so we may as well get this over with."
Nods and words of agreement filled the room and so it was decided. Introductions it was. I didn't really think I needed to introduce myself, but maybe I would remember everyone else's names for once.
Nora pulled an orange baton out of her bag. "This is the Thespian Stick. If it's handed to you, you say a few words about yourself and then pass it on. I'll start. I'm Nora Harding, and I'm your director. I'm very easy to get along with, and I'm excited to work with all of you. I want this to be an enjoyable experience for everyone. Personally, I think shooting this movie is going to be a blast. We've got a great cast and a great script to work with. But I digress. A fun fact about me is that I love seafood." She handed the stick to Blake. "You're up next, Blake."
"Sweet." Blake flipped the stick around in his hands.
"Please don't break that," Nora said, looking at him with a worried expression.
"Right. Sorry. Alright, well, my name is Blake Grey and I'm playing Eric Knight. I've been in the business for a few years but I always end up back here. Probably because Nora promised to stock my trailer with as much pizza and Skittles as I could ever want. A fun fact about me is that my buddy Chris here and I co-parent a dog." He slapped me on the back and grinned. "He likes to shit on his bed."
"Thanks for that. Really. Thanks." I took the stick from him and shook my head. I glanced around the room and realized everyone was staring at me expectantly. "Do I really have to introduce myself? I think everyone knows who I am."
There was a mutter from right next to me. "So modest."
"What? It's true."
"It's true," a girl interjected. I forgot her name, but I'd seen her around before. "I mean, he's Christian Ryder."
I smiled smugly. Thank you, random citizen.
I didn't say anything else, figuring I didn't actually need to introduce myself. Everyone else was silent until Sophia spoke up.
"Are you going to introduce yourself or not?" she finally asked.
"You want to hear my introduction, huh? Maybe you are a Ry-Hard after all."
"Not exactly," Sophia said. "I've come to realize that every time you open your mouth, you give me an opportunity to make you look bad."
"You introduce yourself, then." I threw the baton at her without warning. She barely caught it even though she was sitting right next to me.
"Fine. Well, my name is Sophia Hastings. I'm playing Emma van der Bilt. I'm new in town, and new to this business, which is probably really obvious by now." She made a face.
"Give us a fun fact," Blake said.
She paused to think about it. "This is pretty random, but I can make a good chipmunk voice."
"... Like on a computer?" Blake asked.
"No, like... with my mouth."
Blake's lips quirked upwards in amusement. "Really? Let's hear it."
She shrugged and looked over at me. When she spoke, she literally did sound like a chipmunk. "Hey, Christian, why did the chicken cross the road?"
I tried to stop my lips from twitching upwards, but the voice got to me. I couldn't help it. "I don't know."
"To get away from you," she said in that same voice.
I rolled my eyes. "Very mature."
"I'm known for it. Your turn." She threw the stick back at me and almost hit me in the face.
"Hey, watch it," I said. "Not the face."
She just shrugged.
I tried to get out of my introduction again, but the other girls at the table started urging me to do it. How could I say no to that? My adoring fans were requesting it of me.
I smiled at the girls who had insisted on my introduction. "Alright, I'll go. My name's Christian Ryder. I'm playing William Knight. Unlike Nora, I'm not that easy to get along with, especially if you're a newbie who doesn't know her place."
To my surprise, Sophia didn't say anything even though it was painfully obvious that I was shading her.
One of the girls who had urged me to say my introduction asked me what my fun fact was.
I paused for a moment before speaking. "I hate it when girls play hard to get," I said, again without thinking. What was with me speaking without thinking when I was around Sophia? I added a pointed look at Sophia to seal the deal. And by seal the deal I meant guarantee that an argument would break out. Why was I like this?
"Why are you looking at me?" She looked taken aback. "We've been over this."
"I knew you were just playing around," the girl who was playing Taylor Williamson said. I looked at her tabletop sign to figure out what her name was and saw it was Savannah. She was the one who'd asked me what my fun fact was, too. "You're secretly just as crazy about Chris as every other girl in the room, aren't you?"
"Of course," Sophia said. "You can tell by the way I stare longingly into his eyes, hang onto his every word, and find every excuse I can to join his conversations. Oh, wait. That's you."
Savannah was about to say something but I cut her off. As much as I loved catfights, now wasn't the time or the place. I didn't want this read through to take up my entire day. "Ladies, ladies, please. No need to fight over me. There's plenty of me to go around."
"And we all know you get around," Sophia mumbled, mostly to herself but I was close enough to hear her sardonic comments every time. Maybe she secretly wanted me to hear what she had to say about me. She hadn't hesitated to make her thoughts known before now.
"Would you stop already? This is exactly what I was talking about, Nora," I said, standing up. "She turns everything I say against me. I don't know if I'm going to be able to work with her."
"Don't act like you're the victim here, Christian, because that role doesn't suit you." Sophia crossed her arms over the chest but refused to make eye contact with me.
"I'm not the problem here," I said. "You are. You've been the problem from the start."
"An argument takes two. You're no better than I am." She shook her head at me, still refusing to look over. "If you wanted to be the bigger person, you could have just as easily walked away."
"What am I supposed to do? What did you expect? I'm not gonna just take your degrading comments and walk away." Both of our voices were slowly rising as we got more and more irritated with how this conversation was going.
"Then why should I take your condescending comments?" she asked. She finally looked up at me. Looking up at me didn't suit her, apparently, because all of a sudden she was also on her feet. She was still looking up at me, of course, thanks to our height difference, but it was less dramatic.
"Out of respect for your superiors. You're the newbie here, not me."
She laughed, but it was clear she didn't find any of this funny. "Have you already forgotten? Three years ago you were the newbie."
I came closer to her, half-expecting her to back down since she for some reason hated the idea of being close to me, but she didn't. "I was nothing like you when I was new here," I said, which was true. I only turned into a dick when I realized I was successful enough to get away with it. "You know what you are? You're an inconsiderate and ungrateful brat who doesn't know the meaning of respect."
"You know when I'll show you respect? When you earn it, and so far you've done nothing to deserve anything from me."
Nora finally interceded and stood between us, using her arms to push us apart and keep us at arm's length from her and most importantly, from each other. "Why don't we go outside for a minute?" she suggested.
I started to protest, while Sophia kept quiet the minute Nora interceded, but it was useless. Nora insisted on it and I ended up giving in.
I know I said it before, but I'd say it again. This was a fucking mistake and I regretted everything already.