Everything Happens At 2:04 AM
All Rights Reserved©
Started Saturday August 18, 2018
and so, it begins.
this can possibly be read as a stand-alone story but it would better if you had background information given from The Bad Boy and The Tomboy.
And The Artist and The Dancer as well because some of the characters will be mentioned but not to worry. I'll give you some background on the important characters as we come along.
however, to my readers from TBBATTB (there's a reason why I'm picking out you people who read this book), I'm just saying this: NO ONE LIKES A SPOILER. So. If there is a part of a certain person's past that isn't brought up yet, DON'T BRING IT UP IN THE COMMENTS. Don't ruin it for everyone. Don't be that person.
no one likes that person.
In addition, this story is told through Octavia's point of view. This is her story. It is, in a way, also Caleb's story. This is NOT Macy, Sam, Sydney or Lucas' story. I understand past readers would like to see them and you will I assure you, but it is Octavia and Caleb's story.
anyways, this story is NOT Teen Fiction. It's a Romance book. That means it will have romance themes. Which means there will be more sexual themes and possibly sexual content. I strain possibly here because I still haven't decided if sexual content will be written here, people. (If you've read Stephen, it would be on that scale of content) But get your hopes up if you want it.
and that beautiful cover at the top was made by the great EmSlough , go check out her stories :)
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Chapter One: "He Could Choke For All I Cared."
Pushing the door open, I was instantly hit with the refreshing AC. It was only April but today seemed to be the hottest day of what could already be the year and it wasn't helping me or anyone else. Whoever enjoyed this must indulge in the idea of burning in hell.
Despite me being out of the sun, I quickly put my sunglasses on and over my eyes. No one should be able to see the irritation behind my eyes. However, I don't think the annoyance on my face could be covered up by the biggest sunglasses in the world. I should've worn a hat instead.
But someone's going to bring it up and I'm going to hold in my scream.
Because people don't understand the meaning of minding their own business especially when they drag you into something you don't care about. We love a stupid and oblivious society.
My eyes wandered the evidently spacious room that was going to be used to film the first couple of scenes. People rushed by the left and right of me, and loud chatter filled the atmosphere. Extras walked around in groups, excited to see the other people that would be here today. It was almost endearing seeing their excitement, but I sighed, the fatigue weighing me down.
The first day on set and I'm already tired. Maybe I was tired since I was woken up earlier than I had wanted to be awakened. Maybe it was because I could foreshadow that I was going to be spoken about and not in a positive light of something that does not involve me.
Although I was annoyed, I wa glad to be back in Milan. One of my favorite cities in the world. The upside was that I was here for the next two to three months at least. When I heard that I was going to be filming in Italy, I had left the day after the news. I had called a friend, renting out their villa for my use and dragged a couple of friends with me who were more than glad to come along for the ride.
"Ms. Okonji." I heard a voice say.
I took another deep breath as I was pulled out of my happy light by the mispronunciation of my last name.
Oh-kun-gee.
That's how it was pronounced.
Not Oh-kon-gee. Not Okay-on-gee. Not insert any other way to mess it up- gee.
Not in that voice she uses, trying to make my name sound as English as possible.
That was a reason why I only went by my first name. It was so people like her could not say my last name. That and my name was iconic.
I put on my fake smile that everyone deemed to be real. The one that the tabloids seemed to love more than anything. "Hi," I said in my perkiest tone. "Please, call me Octavia."
For not just your benefit but for my ears and mind as well.
According to my sister, Naomi, my name suited my image. Consistently put in heels, my over average height was even more stretched out everywhere I went. Match it with my type 4- kinky hair my parents have so graciously blessed me with along with my dark skin and sharp features, my sister considered me to be someone no one would want to go against. That was one of the first things she told me when I was seventeen. She told me you had to make yourself seem bigger to be bigger.
But that's the thing. Especially in this industry, the bigger was always better especially with a name one would always remember.
"Alright," The girl smiled greatly and something in me told me that it was just for show and not genuine at all. There were a lot of people like her. I'm one of the people like her. I just knew how to hide it better. "I'm Kady and we'd like to-"
"O," I heard a voice call out one of my nicknames. A slight smile came to my face at the sound of the deep voice and I looked over Kady's shoulder.
Giulio Bianchi's eyes trailed over my body as I came closer. His dark brown eyes as wicked as the last time we had encountered one another. He was wearing a plain white shirt and blue jeans, designer shoes on his feet. I let my eyes linger on his shoes for a second, trying to recall where I had seen a pair of them before. Jimmy Choo? Versace? No-
My thoughts were cut off when his presence was suddenly in front of me. His thumb and index finger made their way under my chin to tilt my head up. He had a soft smile on his handsome face that matched mine. Then he leaned in, pressing a soft kiss on my lips before pulling away, that smile fading away and his eyes becoming intense.
That was how our encounters usually started and in one of our beds is how it usually ended.
"Hi, bella," He put a hand to the small of my back, his eyes glancing at Kady who was watching us with wide eyes. "I'll take Octavia with me, Kady. Don't worry about it."
He shot her a wink before moving us along and deeper within the studio. Passing a railing, I saw people trying to find the right light to make it seem fitting for an office scene. I was just here for a meeting, but it seems like part of shooting was starting first thing today for others.
Giulio's lips brushed against my ear, putting his hands on my waist from behind "I saw something very interesting this morning."
I turned around to face him fast, my eyes narrowing. "Don't start."
He put his hands up in surrender. "I wasn't going to."
"Hmm," He pushed a door open where a large conference table was in the middle and chairs surrounding. I put my bag on the table, ignored the chairs around it when I sat on the table. I was aware of Giulio's gaze on me, waiting for me to start my mini-explosion while I dug through my bag for my phone.
The said man leaned against the wall, crossing his arms when I pulled my phone out. If anything, that distracted me for a quick second, my eyes lingering on his tan arms before going back to my phone to pull up the article from Twitter that was shoved in my face this morning.
I tossed my phone in his direction and he caught it easily, nodding. "Yeah, it seems like everyone has seen something they claim to be interesting this morning."
People could see a picture of perfectly good chicken wings on social media and show their friends in a hazard. Holy.
Giulio scrolled through for a couple of seconds, an eyebrow raising. "You're really trending on Twitter- no both of your names. What the hell, even your old ship name is trending."
"Well, the world is going to react when Keith Burton gets a girlfriend after his relationship with Octavia, aren't they?" I questioned rhetorically.
Keith and I had dated for two years on and off. The only reason why it was ever off was because our careers were pulling us further and further away from each other sometimes. Keith, like me, was an actor but he didn't do movies much. He stuck to television series and for the past couple of years was a leading main character on a hit show on a high rated network. Unlike me and Giulio meeting, Keith and I had met at a party three years ago and had started off as acquaintances who ended up seeing each other over and over and over again.
Trust me, 21-year-old me was more than glad to see Keith Burton over and over and over again. At that time, he was an example of pure excellence inside and outside, especially outside. Tall men always left me weak in the knees and Keith stood at a very good height of 6'4. With his chiseled face and deep voice, he was a person that was hard to remember. But now at 24, I was so grateful that I had started to forget about his existence. That is until my friends mentioned his name that I have been tangled into. Like a spider web that I haven't managed to escape in months.
I had a good reason as to why my mentality of Keith had changed in a matter of three years since we met. When I declared our relationship officially off, it wasn't just because of our busy schedules. It wasn't even because of a fight.
It was because Keith turned out to be a no good, lying, manipulating, two-faced, cheating bitch.
That and the fact that the tabloids caught his personality before I did. If there was a magazine, Keith's lips smashed against another girl was on it. If there was a live talk show, there was a video of Keith pulling the girl in, no thought of me on his mind as if he had done this a billion times.
Maybe it wasn't a billion times, but he had cheated on me multiple times.
I figured this out from one of our mutual friends when I didn't bother to see his face when he wanted to visit me. He'd be at my door trying to get me to take him back. Like I had the mentality to take him back. To take back the person I hoped had gotten an STD at the number of times he decided to stick his lower head into someone else knowing that he was in a relationship.
The knowledge of Keith's infidelity didn't take long to fall into my close family and friend's laps.
My younger brother, Daniel, loved Keith. The had bonded when I had brought Keith to my hometown once over a year ago. I had brought that cheating, lying bastard into my house. To meet my parents, my siblings and he was probably laughing the entire time on the inside, thinking that he got this girl so deep that I invited him to my house.
I've never invited a man over to meet my whole family.
Keith was the first and that meant that I thought that despite us being off sometimes due to our jobs, I really thought that we were going to go somewhere one day.
Wrong.
Daniel had blown up. It took everyone I knew for Daniel to prevent Daniel from hopping onto a plane and knocking Keith's teeth out. As for my sister, Naomi, she was pissed but she was never one to act out on her anger. She kept herself calm and collected like she always did. She stayed with me the entire time when I returned home, and I attempted to get over it.
I glanced up at Giulio who still has his hands glued onto my phone. He was one of the main reasons I was able to partially get over it.
My parents were nonchalant. My father was like my sister. He held his own anger on the inside and rarely ever let it show. He stayed quiet because I knew a part of him liked Keith as well. I didn't bother telling my mom. She probably found out from my siblings. Our relationship was a little different. I couldn't share certain things with her. I had realized this growing up, but I loved her nevertheless.
But even though it was clear I got over it, people who had no idea who I truly was assumed I was still a heartbroken girl that seemed to have her mind played with.
I wasn't that girl. I may have been that girl for a couple of days, but it didn't take long for me to pick myself up and return to my life. I was questioned about our failed relationship months ago and I always replied with 'No, we don't talk but I wish him happiness'.
When I would have really said: 'He could choke for all I cared'.
"Who told you?" Giulio asked, tossing my phone back to me. I caught it with one hand. There was a reason why Giulio tossed my phone back to me. I wasn't really a fan of technology. I loved taking pictures but social media? I never found a true point to it. I only had accounts because my agent said it was a good way to keep up with fans and interact with them.
And I did love the people who supported me, but I only used my phone to keep in contact with my close friends and family.
"Sydney," I answered.
"The dancer?" I nodded. My eyes went down to my home screen which was a picture of me and the girl I considered one of my very best friends. It was a strip of pictures of us in a photo booth after I invited her to a party I had thrown last year. My eyes went down to the thread of photos that I had held in my manicured pink nails at the time through the picture. We were smiling in the first one, making funny faces in the next, throwing up the middle finger in the third and I kissed her on the cheek in the third.
I sighed, rocking my legs back and forth. I haven't seen Sydney in at least six months. She was a professional dancer- one who could possibly dance everything and anything but preferred ballet. It was ironic that she danced ballet because the Sydney I know didn't ever seem like the type to do it.
She was in New York majority of the time but her work like mine kept us on planes, in cars, sometimes in three different cities a day. She'll call me whenever she was available, and she made sure that she was available to me. It was like we needed to talk to one another at least three times a week over the phone or video chat or else it didn't feel right.
Initially, we had met in our final year of high school. Sydney had this shy, little stuttering personality I knew could not have been the real her and I found out that it truly wasn't the real her. However, as Sydney was just entering our old school, I was leaving shortly for my big break. We managed to get closer through texting and phone calls and whenever I came back to visit. She was easy to connect to and had never stabbed me in the back. She was one of those people I'm happy I get to be friends with and she knew me better than anyone else.
So, when she called me this morning, telling me to check Instagram, knowing that I hate social media, I knew something was up.
"See, Sydney only had to tell me to see the picture of my ex-boyfriend on vacation with his new girlfriend. She only told me to see it because it was the same girl that the tabloids had said he cheated on me with."
"Let me guess, Krystal and Angie didn't just tell you that."
Krystal was wild and caring. She was a short girl, with dyed platinum grey hair and heart-shaped lips one would kill for. As an only child, she grew up surrounded by her wealthy parents' money. With the opportunities given to her, she worked hard, using some of that money to create a makeup brand. And makeup was something she loved more than anything and anyone.
Angela, or Angie because she'd kill anyone who would call her Angela, was someone I adored wholeheartedly. Maybe because she was one of the kindest people I knew, and her smile could easily light up an entire room with her dimples. She worked as a fashion stylist, not just for me but for many others and was the best shopping buddy I could ask for. She was also the biggest hopeless romantic I knew.
"I love them with all my heart but those two barged into my room just to tell me that everyone is talking about it and people want to get my views on it. My name is being added everywhere and I, for one, am tired of being associated with his every movement. I don't want to be attached to a lowlife like him." That's why I was irritated.
Keith goes to a club? Talk show: 'Maybe Octavia is going too and they're getting back together'.
Keith has his arm around a woman? Talk show: 'Maybe Keith is dating someone new? What does Octavia think?'
They should all ask themselves why they feel the need to include me in the Keith show when it is clear I am one of those characters who is always mentioned but never seen.
"Maybe you need a new flame for everyone to stop," Giulio suggested, shrugging his broad shoulders. He said that sentence like he was just stating the weather outside but there was more to his words, I could feel it.
I pursed my lips, blinking once before catching his gaze. "What are you saying?"
"You know what I'm saying." Giulio pushed himself off the wall and made his way towards me.
He pushed my legs open, stepping between them, his hands finding themselves on my neck. The impulse inside me welcomed his touch reluctantly even when he kissed me. My hands reached for his narrow waist to pull him closer, our bodies pressing closer together. But when he took one hand off my neck, to pull my right leg around his waist, he pushed himself against me and I could feel him, that part of him against me. A sound escaped me from the back of my throat as his kiss got deeper, eager and the sundress I was wearing suddenly started rising.
If anything, I felt like he would've taken me on this conference table even though someone could walk in that door any second now. A part of me would've been thrilled by that, not giving a single care in the world about what could have happened.
But I put my hands on his chest, letting myself kiss him back for a couple seconds more before pushing him back with a force. The force was necessary, and he understood that as he sighed, running a finger across his bottom lip that I had the pleasure of nipping at, "Baby."
"What?" I asked and his hands reached to mine my own on his chest, taking them in his hands.
"You know that I have feelings for you, right?"
Well, this was news, I stared at him frozen by his words on the inside.
Um.
It wasn't helping that he was staring at me so hard. I had no choice but to tear my eyes from his heavy gaze.
I hung my head for a second, to fix my dress and settle my body from our moment. "Lio."
Giulio and I became friends five years ago. We met on the set of this TV show where I was a guest and he was one of the lead actors. After only knowing each other for a couple of hours, we went out with others, got drinks, one thing led to another and we had drunkenly slept with one another. It was a truly classic story I would never tell my non-existent children.
My mind had an idea that over the years Giulio has felt something for me, but I always pushed it back. I loved Giulio, but he was my friend. He could be more than my friend, more than a comfort, more than the kisses and the smiles but I couldn't handle that. I couldn't handle the idea of losing him alone.
It wasn't even just that. I couldn't will myself to love him romantically. I was attracted to him, yes. Who wouldn't be? He was everything someone could want physically and even mentally. But for some reason, I didn't want that.
He bit his lip and if there was any hurt in his expression even in his eyes, he didn't show it. He didn't show it one bit. He looked as if he had been expecting my answer. Then he gave me a soft smile, moving back closer to me. "You're not ready?"
I was stunned by his question. That's what he thought this was? He thought that it was me not being over Keith? Not being able to get into another relationship? Keith and I broke up months ago. "Maybe, but you and I have a complicated and weird relationship. I don't want to mess it up even further."
"Mess it up? We've been together almost every time we see each other. We've messed it up the second we met." He let out a soft laugh, coming closer to me once more.
I couldn't help but laugh as well. "I know, but you're also one of my closest friends. I don't want to mess that up. Just try to understand where I'm going with this."
Giulio pressed a kiss to my lips once more, "Fine. Are we still having dinner tonight?"
It's amazing how he can admit he had feelings for me one second, be okay with rejection, and then move on like it didn't just happen.
"Uh, yeah."
"But seriously, O. A new person to have an interest in for the paps could really make them forget about Keith and focus on you two."
"Or it can add fuel to the fire if I suddenly have a new significant other right after Keith has one. Everyone will know something is up. This is Hollywood, not high school."
"We're in Milan, not Los Angeles." He pointed out, putting his hands in the pockets of his jeans.
"Does it really matter where we really are, though?"
Giulio rolled his eyes, taking his one hand out of his pockets to hold mine and I feel the comfort radiating from his body. "Don't remind me."
The door opened suddenly, and a thread of people came through, sending their hellos, giving both Giulio and I big smiles as we all settled down into chairs. There were several faces I didn't particularly recognize but when I saw one of my co-stars and my love interest in the movie, I tackled him with a hug. "Hey, Tavi."
"Hi, Jake." I grinned at him. At his dark hair and his bright smile, Jake was the definition of someone who could be a light in your life. And he was definitely one of mine. When I heard he was cast in this movie, I was ecstatic. Working with some like him who was joyous and fun would make work feel less like work.
"Angie told me about dinner tonight. Your place?"
"That's the memo."
He stared at me for a second longer, like he wanted to say something but instead cleared his throat and asked, "What's new?"
I frowned. "You've been looking at Twitter too, haven't you?"
"To be honest, it's all over my timeline I just had to ask if you're okay."
"I don't care, Jake," I assured him. "I swear on my life, I don't care."
Jake smiled at me, dragging me to sit next to him. "That's good. There would be no need for you to get all fussed over the chode that is Keith." I laughed at his insult, putting my bag on the empty chair on the other side of me. But it wasn't just us talking, the conference room was buzzing with excitement over the filming and the Keith news was suddenly forced out of my head and my mood was immediately lifted at the reminder of where I was.
When I had been offered to take this movie, I didn't think I would initially like it. Over the past years, I've been in numerous things. Commercials, talk shows, a couple of infomercials that I highly regret. I've been an extra, a co-star, a guest star, a movie star the list goes on. I've made sure to do things I could get into. And to do things that were completely out of my comfort zone.
There were dramas, action, historical, comedy but the one genre I haven't truly explored was, in fact, a main category of genres: Romance.
When my agent offered it to me I made a face. I wasn't particularly into the whole boy meets girl, they go through some shit and then they end up together story. I was never a fan of it.
I wasn't even that big a fan of love during high school. My high school boyfriend at the time, Jack had cheated on me with my then best friend, Lydia. And now my ex-boyfriend had cheated on me with someone I didn't know.
Love and I weren't exactly an emotion I was on good terms with. I'm convinced that love hates me. Ironic.
We flipped through the scripts that were handed out. I had received my own copy through the mail two weeks ago. I loved the story but there was one thing about it that bothered me. Okay, there were many things but those could be overlooked if this one thing was addressed.
After much discussion, I had kept my mouth shut right until the end of the meeting. Being polite like my parents had raised me to me, I put my hand up slightly and all eyes turned to me. "I have a question." I glanced down at the script before letting out a sigh. "Why is Addison crying half the time?"
"What?" AJ, the director, asked.
I flicked through the pages. "She's crying at the beginning of the movie, she's crying on page 23, she's on the verge of tears on page 34, she's crying again on page 47- if she's supposedly going to turn out to become this badass girl eventually, you might want to make sure that she stops crying at some point."
Plus, Addison was the character I was embodying. I had to become her and honestly, it didn't feel right that she would keep crying the majority of the time. It didn't suit her in her character development.
"But the end-" One of the producers, Garrett spoke up, but I twisted my head to him, shutting him up with my gaze.
"The end is the only place that makes sense for her to cry. She lost her love. Of course, she's going to cry over it especially after their whole love story."
I would cry over it if I were in her own shoes.
AJ opened his mouth to speak when suddenly the door burst open.
My sunglasses slipped off the bridge of my nose and I looked at the person over them.
The man closed the door behind him with his foot and in his hands were a box of donuts. There was a shit-eating grin plastered on his face as he put the box on the table. "Sorry, I'm late. I had a matter of issues to deal with before I arrived here."
He ran a hand through his brown wavy hair, making sure to smile at everyone, shaking hands with AJ before his eyes scanned for a seat.
The last seat available was the one with a bag on it. Next to me. My bag.
The man moved on over in my direction, glancing down at the bag. He didn't say anything, but removed my bag, yes, he touched my bag. The proceeded to put it in front of me, on the script before taking the seat and letting out a dramatic exhale.
What the hell.
I glared at him behind my glasses, happy that he hasn't seen my eyes and I could conceal my annoyance. Now that I had a closer look at him, I sucked in a deep breath. I wasn't stupid enough to tell that he was attractive.
Very actually. Behind the sunglasses, I could already tell of his Hispanic traits in his features and peeking through the black shirt and the jeans he was wearing, I could see the various tattoos. I looked at his right arm, where there was a sleeve tattoo, multiple images all over his skin that looked as if they were creating a story.
He linked his fingers, straightening his posture in a mocking way. "So, what are we talking about?" Almost everyone here had an Italian accent besides AJ, Jake and me. However, the man sounded more like AJ and me mixed with everyone else. I couldn't describe it, but his voice was unique.
"Octavia had a suggestion for the script." AJ gestured over to me and I could feel the man's' eyes on me.
He scoffed, raising his eyebrows in slight disbelief. He got rid of the straight posture, leaning back in the chair as if he was ready to challenge me. "Really? What did she say?"
Who exactly is this guy? Is he an actor? A producer? I know that even if he was fucking president of the United States or the king of a big ass island, he was not about to address me indirectly.
"She," I started off, a little pissed off. "said that Addison, the main character-"
"I know she's the main character." He cut me off with a wave of his hand.
I raised both my eyebrows before continuing. "Addison cries way too often. It's annoying and she comes off as whiny."
The guy looked at me and I could feel his eyes scanning me right down to my sundress I had on to the heels on my feet. I pursed my lips, waiting for him to say something. He put his chin on his hand, his elbow leaning on the surface of the table. "You're one of those people that think that crying means weakness."
I twisted to fully face him. "Where would you get that impression?"
"Because you say that her crying makes her seem annoying," He moved his index finger as if his gestures were metaphorically connecting each word of his sentence to the other. "As if weakness is annoying. It's irritating. You would push aside weak people and don't give them a chance to be stronger, don't you?"
"No, no I don't."
He scoffed and he grinned mockingly. "You probably would. That seems like a you thing to do. The beautiful ones usually only want powerful people around them, don't they?"
My lips parted in shock at his words, my heart suddenly in a frenzy. Forget the fact that he said that I was beautiful, I was not about to be put in a category.
I controlled my sudden irritation, turning to AJ. I pointed at the man with my index finger "Who is this idiot beside me?"
The man beside me laughed. "Idiot. Love it when someone calls me that. I prefer Caleb, though. Caleb Henderson."