Send help I'm already tired of university and I haven't started classes yet.
Dedicated to @Kenniiey for the cover at the top. Thank you!
Chapter Five:" Let's Not Spread STDs, Buddy."
"BECAUSE I CAN'T-"
"You just don't- shit, bleh." Jake froze in the middle of his sentence and I held in my laughter at his face. He clearly could see my struggle because his character was suddenly forgotten, and he made a noise, looking directly into the camera. "Oops."
"Jake!" AJ exclaimed but he was laughing too.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, can we do that again, bleh," he made sounds with his mouth. "I can't English today. Fuck. Can we do that again?"
I hit him lightly on the chest, smiling and wiping the tears I had produced. "You're so annoying." He flashed me a bright smile at my face in return.
"Take a break," AJ said and turned towards other actors who were waiting for us. "Giulio, Isabella!" Everyone started fixing the scene so that the filming could take place inside the house this time instead of on the porch where Jake and I were standing.
"I'm going to get some water," Jake said, moving his tongue as if he was trying to loosen the muscle or something. The action only made it seem like he was suggesting something crude in a vulgar way. I made a face at him when he pretended to get close to me and laughed. "Want a bottle?"
"Yeah and uh, keep your tongue in your mouth." I laughed, patting his cheek as my eye caught a group of people not too far away. I headed over in their direction seeing a long board one of the guys were holding. When I was standing near the group, almost all their eyes turned towards me and I heard a jumble of hello's, hey's, and hi's towards me. I gave them each a smile back, my eyes still zoomed in on the board.
I gestured over to it and the guy that was holding it raised an eyebrow in surprise. "You ride?"
"Yeah," I assessed him. He looked around mid-twenties with sapphire eyes and dark brown hair. I had seen him a couple of times. He was one of the extras that played university students along with my character. "Can I ride for a bit?"
He handed it to me. "Go ahead. Just give it back when you're done."
I smiled at him. "Thanks." I put the board down and immediately put my right foot on it and started pushing with my left. Heading farther and farther away from the group and making my way down the closed street, I felt good. With the night sky, my favorite time of the day, above me and the cool breeze of spring hitting me in the face, I was at peace. Almost content. I almost pushed myself faster, wanting to feel as if the houses around me turned into blurred shapes and there was nothing in front of me to hit.
As I got caught up in my fantasy of escape, I had done a U-turn and made my way towards back towards everybody on the road. Right then I was struck by the suddenness of reality when the biggest idiot of all idiots was standing in the middle of the road, hands on his dumb hips.
Here I am thinking: He's going to move.
He has to move.
What kind of idiot just stands in the middle of the road knowing that someone was occupying it?
Oh, wait, Caleb was that idiot.
He didn't move. He just stared at me with that smile on his face despite me being three seconds from crashing into him. "Caleb!" I exclaimed.
"Wh-" he cut himself off, as I tried forcing my body weight to the right trying to swerve around him and ended up falling off the board almost planting my face in the ground. I recollected my balance, stopping the board with my foot before it could go further down the street. My heart beat fast in my chest but I wasn't sure if it was because of my sudden fear that I almost hurt myself and was thrown off or it beat that fast because of my sudden anger and irritation at this man.
"Holy fuck, Caleb," I stopped, picking up the board and walked over to him. "Did you want to get hit or something?"
"I thought you would swerve around me, don't blame me! You could've easily moved out of the way."
"I could have?" I rhetorically asked. "You clearly saw me coming. Why did you even enter the damn road?"
"Because I was already on it. I just saw you and wanted to say hello."
"You wanted to say hello like a friggin' statue," I questioned. "You're so stupid."
Caleb scoffed. "You almost hit me and I'm the stupid one?"
"Because you don't common sense to get the fuck out of the way." My slight anger faded away at the thought that we were arguing for no reason now. It's not like any of us got hurt.
Caleb stared at me for a second and I think he realized that too because he visibly relaxed. He took a deep breath, putting his hands on his hips again. "So, what did Angie say about me?"
"Are you-" I let out a breath. "How about you ask her?"
"I want confirmation from her house buddy."
Great, so they've been talking to the point where he now knows that Angie lives with me. "You could just ask her."
"And you could just tell me." He dragged on, his brown eyes twinkling at me.
"I will put the board back down and run you over with it." I lied.
He raised his eyebrows and pointed at the longboard with his index finger. "You got insurance for the board?"
I shook my head, amused by his words as I looked up at the sky.
He laughed. "No, seriously what did she say?"
"Well," I decided to state the obvious. "She likes you."
"We know that. What else?"
I ignored the slight cockiness of his tone. "Do you like her?"
"She's a nice girl. We're going out tomorrow."
"Okay." I put the board back down, thinking this was the end of a nowhere conversation but Caleb put his foot on it as well. "Caleb!"
"We're not done talking."
"Me saying okay means the conversation is over if you couldn't tell."
"Me, putting my foot on here means you're still going to talk to me." He imitated me and I scowled, crossing my arms.
"About what?"
"About anything," he waved a hand, grinning. "It's called conversation."
"With you? It's called unbearable."
Jake trotted over. "Are you guys going to ride the board together or?" He trailed off, eyes down at where our feet were planted.
Caleb ran a hand through his hair. "She's being annoying."
"I'm being annoying? You're such a little shit-"
"I'm a shit? You're the one snapping at me. I'm innocent here. I'm always innocent."
Jake scoffed. "I find that hard to believe."
Caleb patted Jake on the back. "Jake, my good man. Let's not spread lies here."
"And let's not spread STDs buddy." Jake retorted pretending to wipe himself of Caleb's touch and I burst out laughing, raising my hand and he high fived me.
"It's 'attack Caleb day', isn't it?"
"You set yourself up for that one."
"What time do we end today?" I asked, not really wanting to go home, though. "It's eleven."
"This is what we get for trying to film night scenes," Jake looked over at Caleb. "Bro, why did you put so many night scenes in this movie?"
"Don't complain," Caleb exclaimed. "Everything's better at night. That's when the fun happens."
I snorted. "Jake can't talk. He's a morning person."
"While Octavia is basically your favorite night owl." He slung an arm around me, looking at my hair. "You know, braids suit you." My hair was braided into two French braids but the beanie on my head covered the top.
"That's why I suggested it, thank you." I glanced over at Caleb who was texting on his phone before he slipped it into his pocket.
"You like doing things at night?" He asked.
"Yeah," I replied.
"Extending to parties." Jake pointed out.
Caleb looked a little surprised. "You're a party girl?"
"Not really-"
"Liar," Jake said. "She's wild. One of the first times I met her, I don't know what the hell she drank but she kissed me and all I said was hi."
"You kissed me back," I said defensively.
"Because I didn't want to seem rude!" Jake exclaimed before looking back at Caleb with a huge grin. "And we've been Hollywood friends ever since."
"Hollywood friends?" Caleb asked confused and I noticed him take the silver chain he was wearing and play with it in his mouth. It was a nice chain.
"Random term we use. Right now, you're the Italian friend."
"I'm not friends with him." I interrupted but the two ignored me.
"I'm not Italian, though." He amused.
"You're not," Jake asked. "I assumed because of Romero."
"Nah," Caleb said. "Central America and Europe."
"You're lying," Jake exclaimed, and Caleb laughed. "I'm Eurasian."
"Which places?" And that was the beginning of Jake and Caleb's friendship from what I could tell.
"Malta and Korea."
Caleb's eyes narrowed in interest. "Cool."
"You?"
"El Salvador and Scotland." There confirms my half Hispanic half European theory on the man.
Caleb's eyes slid over to me. I was listening to their conversation, but I wasn't looking at them. My eyes were upon the night sky where I could see the stars from here. There was less pollution then my hometown and LA so I loved being able to see the stars from wherever I was.
"Tavi, make to reality." Jake snapped his fingers in my face and I swatted his hand away, shrugging out from under his hold.
"What's yours?" Caleb asked.
I slid my eyes over him. "My what?"
"Your ethnicity."
"One hundred percent Nigerian blood." I had managed to take the board from under his feet and Caleb almost fell back, a yelp coming out of his mouth.
"Fuck." I held a hand to my mouth to stifle my laughing and he shot me a glare, regaining his balance.
"One hundred percent?" He said as he steadied himself.
"One hundred percent," I repeated. "Can't tell?"
"Someone told me not to assume things about you." I rolled my eyes at that. Angie of course. "And Tavi?"
I crossed my arms. "You don't have a nickname?"
"I have many."
Jake stared at him while asking me, "Why do I feel like he's going to say something gross?"
"Because he's going to say something gross," I confirmed staring at Caleb too.
"There's C," He started, and I braced myself. "C-bomb. There's Charming. There's that 'hot dude'. I get called obviously Romero since it's my middle name and the name I went by when I started out as an author."
"Do you get called idiot too?" I asked.
"That's just your nickname for me, Tavi." He said, winking at me and I rolled my eyes and couldn't help the small smile that came to my face. "I get called Jesus Christ sometimes but sometimes you just got to let a girl know that that I am not holy.
"Take a step back," Jake said to me and we both did. "Whatever he just spread into the air we won't catch it now."
Caleb made a face, lightly shoving Jake. "And to think I was your Italian friend."
"You are," Jake laughed, putting an arm around Caleb. "I like you, Caleb."
"I like you too," Caleb looked at me. "Even you, Tavi."
I already started going back to the set on the board. "Don't call me Tavi, idiot."
I knew they were filming inside the house, so I didn't expect to see that many people outside of the house we were using. When AJ wanted me to come in he would send an assistant, probably Kady, to get me. What I didn't expect, sitting in the front of the house was Giulio, his arms braced back against the top step and his legs stretched out in front of him. He was staring intensely at a spot of grass on the lawn that was lit up by the lights in front of the house and the walkway. He was lost in thought.
I found the group from earlier, handing the guy the board back before making my way over to Giulio. That guilt I had felt before came back, making it's way back to that spot in my stomach. I thought of that day in my dressing room after making Caleb leave and after we had used our time to-
Giulio, my friend, feels something for me and I took advantage of that in a way. Fuck. That guilt spread through my entire body.
I sat down next to Giulio, trying to relax and succeeded by pulling on a smile when I saw something in his hand. I frowned, "What's up with you?"
He glanced at me. "What do you mean?"
I pointed to the e-cigarette in his hand. Giulio used to smoke when he was younger and now used this as an alternative. "Nothing." He offered it to me and I shook my head as I watched him do it, blowing the vapor in my face. A scent of strawberry hit me. When it cleared away, I pursed my lips to show my annoyance and he laughed, "Sorry."
"You're not sorry."
He grinned, leaning forward to rest his arms on his black jeans. He was wearing a white shirt where I could see his abs through it. "What's new with you?"
"Nothing, actually." I leaned back on my hands. "Everything's pretty good."
"No Keith nonsense?"
"None. I even forgot he existed."
"Ex-lovers tend to do that to you."
Speaking of ex-lovers. "Have you heard from Marabella?" I asked him.
Giulio made a face as if he had eaten something sour. "I have a convention thing to go to this weekend. I'll probably see her there." Marabella was the last girl Giulio was involved with. They didn't end on good terms.
"I'm convinced we just suck at relationships," Giulio muttered and he let out a laugh.
I forced myself to let out a laugh too. Relationships were a topic I rarely ever touched upon. I was twenty-four, almost turning twenty-five and that word left me feeling queasy. My first relationship, back in high school where my teenage heart fell for a popular boy to the world through his stupid Youtube channels, consisted of lies and cheating. After that, I had focused on myself before I met Keith. Keith, who my adult heart fell for, which also ended in lies and cheating.
If it wasn't obvious, I wasn't fond of the topic of relationships.
From a distance away, my eyes caught Jake and Caleb talking. Caleb was explaining something to Jake and Jake nodded before laughing at something else Caleb said. I watched as some people joined their conversation and soon enough everyone crowded around Caleb as he told some story making each of them intrigued by his words. I figured he was used to that, as an author. The art of storytelling was something he was good at no matter how much he exaggerated the story. From what I could tell by the smile on Caleb's face, he liked it when people listened.
Giulio's eyes followed where I was looking. "Everyone seems to like him, hmm?"
I shrugged, looking at Giulio as he exhaled vapor, the strawberry scent hitting me once again. "I guess."
Giulio turned his head to face me, a knowing smile on his face. "What are you doing later?"
I narrowed my eyes at him, the corners of my lips twitching upward. "Why?"
"Angie and Krystal home?" He asked, struggling to bit down the smug smile that was creeping onto his face.
"Do they ever stop you from wanting to come over?" I honestly questioned.
"You know me so well," Giulio grinned, pocketing the e-cigarette and leaning in to kiss me.
"Uh," I put my hands on his chest, stopping him from pressing his lips against my own. "Giulio."
He looked puzzled, backing away, leaning his head against the railing of the stairs. "What's the problem?"
What was the problem? I asked myself. Giulio and I were attracted to each other. That shouldn't be the problem. It never was. But he had feelings for me and I was taking advantage of him. Practically pulling him along.
The guilt that had previously been in my stomach started to force its way out. "I can't."
"You can't..." He trailed off, waiting for me to continue.
"I can't do this anymore. The whole, uh, us." Jheeze, I suck at communicating when it came to shit like this. Way to go, Octavia.
"Why?" He looked confused and I struggled to find the right words. Why did I feel like I was breaking up with Giulio without actually dating Giulio. Jesus Christ.
I looked down at the ground and sucked in a deep breath. "I'm not good at this. Fuck," I composed myself then looked at him. "It's just not right for you to have feelings for me while this is still happening."
He licked his lips, crossing one ankle over the other. "I just thought you weren't ready."
"No, it's not that. It's just-"
Holy shit, Octavia do not use the 'it's not you, it's me' line.
I'm about to throw myself off a metaphorical cliff. How is it I was naturally confident but when it came to something this, I sucked? Horribly.
"I don't have feelings for you." I rushed out. I felt sixteen sitting here, feeling guilty. I got second-hand embarrassment for myself. Or was it firsthand? It didn't matter. I got embarrassment overall.
I tried making it sound less harsh. "I don't know. I just can't see you as more than a friend."
I'm a demon. That sounded worse out loud than it did in my head. Shit.
I recollected myself. "I'm sorry-"
"It's okay," He took the e-cigarette back out and I held my hands in my lap, waiting for him to say something. He inhaled from it, his jaw clenching and exhaled before he looked at me again. "It's okay, Octavia. It really is."
It really didn't sound like it was okay.