here's a picture of what Caleb and Octavia are discussing in case you get confused.
Chapter Twenty-Two: "You're On Thin Ice."
I HAVEN'T SEEN Angie in days. Turns out, according to Krystal, Angie's been working in a fashion show held in Rome that was very last minute. Of course, it was very last minute, I couldn't help myself but think after Krystal told me, Angie was here one second and then I find out she rushed out the next.
Naomi left yesterday and whenever my sister left I always in a solemn mood. It didn't matter that she was my sister, we were close, and it was a good thing I was stuck with a sister like her. And a brother like Daniel too, I thought. I would see her the second filming was over, along with him.
All three of us together in one room again? I was ready for chaos if our mother wasn't involved.
Work was going well, and it was almost over. No one said anything because the schedule was hectic, but the time was going to be very close. We'd have to do the interviews, the campaigning, the premieres, the criticism, the list went on. I couldn't wait.
The criticism part was sarcastic, but everyone had to deal with that whether they liked it or not.
Then there was taking the entire cast and flying us out to New York to complete the final stages of filming as our characters returned home. I originally thought we would be heading over to Toronto or another city where they could portray 'New York' like it commonly was used but we were heading to New York for the end. That meant I could see my friends and my second home.
It all started in Italy and would end in America.
A lot of media had started to show up on set take clips of scenes we were filming. That was normal and I was used to it, but it didn't help when the media was there when Caleb handed me a bottle of vodka one day to spite me of our drunk night and the caught the encounter.
Imagine the tabloids then. My agent, Erika, sent links to me and I didn't even bother looking at them. I already knew what they were going to say, what even the point?
I stood under the shower, shaking my head and letting my hair shrink itself as I remembered the bruise I had left on Caleb's arm. What the hell was I thinking?
"That's the problem, idiot," I muttered to myself. "You weren't thinking."
It didn't even matter. Caleb never brought it up again from that day. He shows up at work ready for business. Telling AJ what would be better, what would fit for their vision to come together. As well as talking to every single person possible. No. Flirting with whoever possible.
I couldn't even call him out on that when I did the exact same thing without knowing. Nathan, cute, French painter-but-I'm-only-being-an-extra-for-extra-money and I have a little banter going on. But it only went on for fun never for anything more.
Squirting the contents of the shampoo bottle into my hands, I put the bottle down. Sydney's advice rang out through my head the past few days, but I held myself back. There was no need to do anything yet to fully show my interest. I think my flirting after I spent the night gave the hint.
As I applied shampoo to my hair, I heard a knock on the bathroom door and jumped because last I checked Krystal had left an hour ago.
There was nothing to defend me in here--wait a second. The person knocked.
A murderer wouldn't fücking knock.
Slowly moving the curtain over in the shower, I stuck my head out to see the person.
To my dismay, my anger flared up as Caleb stood there with a grin in the threshold of the open door, a hand over his eyes. My anger quickly faded, realizing the grin that was stuck on his face. "Caleb, what the fück are you doing here?"
He rocked on his socks with a design of clouds on them. Along with the socks, he wore a jean jacket over a black hoodie looking very comfortable with that grin on his face. "Next time make sure your door is locked. Krystal told me you were home, and I thought I'd drop by. Nice hair, make sure to lather properly."
Caleb could bother me anywhere at any time and I'd be fine with it. But the bathroom? That was my time. "What do you want?"
"How long are you going to be in the shower for?" He asked.
He's already in the house, it's clear he's not going to leave anyway. "I'm doing my hair so give me another hour before I come out of the bathroom."
He was peaking behind his hands. I kissed my teeth when he pulled his hand away completely. "An hour?"
I narrowed my eyes at him. "Some people in this universe have 4c type hair. It's more to manage than the normalized type 1 hair, Caleb Henderson."
"Type 1?" He looked confused. "What type am I?"
"Go figure that out before I'm out of the shower." I pulled the shower curtain back and heard the door close. "Also, lock my front door!" I yelled.
"Got it!" He yelled back.
About an hour later, I came down with some of my products in my hand, putting them on the table in the dining room. I kept my hair in its towel when I spotted Caleb raiding my kitchen.
He shot me a smile, a slice of turkey in his mouth. "Want some?"
I was suddenly hyper-aware that Caleb was going to witness my hair wet and in twists but I didn't really care when I would have been embarrassed when I was younger. And I don't embarrass easily. "Get out of my kitchen."
"Not your kitchen." He decided to say in a snarky tone.
"Caleb."
"But I'm making pasta. With my own pasta sauce creation." He gestured to the stove.
"With my stuff."
"Just sit down in the dining room, it's almost done." He closed the fridge with his foot and put his hands on my shoulders, pushing me towards the dining room. His eyes widened at the bottles on the table and I took in the backpack on the other side as well as the laptop and notebook that must have been his. I grabbed a comb, ready to retwist my hair and Caleb stared at me with wide eyes. He pointed at one. "What's all this?"
"It goes in my hair to make sure it doesn't break in this weather."
"All of it?"
"Give or take, yeah."
He picked a bottle up, curiosity spreading all over his face. "What's this?"
"Argan oil."
"Hmm," He picked up a tiny tub as I removed the towel from my head. "What's in this one?"
"Curling cream," I answered, propping up my table mirror to face me.
He picked up the bottle, holding it in his hand before setting it down. He looked at me and no this was probably one of the first times his eyes weren't directly on mine. They were fixed on my hair. "This is the first movie I've seen you use your natural hair in, to be honest."
"That's because before I never really had time to use my natural hair. It's a lot of work and protective styles are better with the places I've filmed."
"Protective?" He asked, confused.
"Yeah," I took a seat at the table, noticing that he already had his laptop set up on the opposite side. "Braids, you know the extensions? Box braids, cornrows, weave, the list goes on."
He sat across from me, nodding in understanding. "Cool."
"And before you ask, I highly suggest you don't go around wearing any of that stuff. Does nothing for your hair type. It probably damages it mostly."
"I'm not one for cultural appropriation," Caleb commented as I untwisted one of my braids. "Are you getting any protective styles soon?"
"Yeah, for the ending of the movie when we film it. It's stated that I should be in braids." I couldn't wait until that day. It was already tiring taking care of my natural hair as it was for a couple of months, but I still had more time to go.
I started smelling something burning and I didn't flinch as I turned my head to Caleb who was still inspecting the supplies on the table. "Caleb?"
"Yeah?"
"The pasta."
"What about it?" He questioned, confusion all over his face.
"The pasta, Romero," I stressed out and his eyes widened as he scrambled up and ran to the kitchen.
Idiot.
Big time idiot.
Ten minutes later, Caleb placed pasta in front of me as he sat next to me, his own plate in front of me. I was still doing my hair as he plopped down next to me, a huge grin on his face as he succeeded in not burning down my kitchen.
"So, besides you almost burning down my kitchen, did you figure out your hair type?" I asked him,
"One," Caleb reached over the table to bring his laptop close to him as well as his notebook and supplies. "Not your kitchen."
"I live here."
"Doesn't mean it's yours, we've been over this. And two? Yes, I am type 2b."
"Could be 2c if you didn't run your hands through it so often," I muttered, glancing at myself in the mirror as I fixed a parting.
"The twists are cool," He pointed out, a smile on his face. "Do you leave them like that?"
"Until it's dry then I do a twist out."
"Like you unwind them basically."
"Yeah." I stared at myself in the mirror, trying to make my twist an equal length on both sides and Caleb practically shoved himself beside me, grinning as he took a mirror picture with me making the worst face ever. I tried snatching his phone from his hand but he leapt away, cackling. "Delete that."
"It's cute."
"I look gross."
"You look good to me," He grinned before hopping back in to take another and another and I let him because it was too much energy to stay annoyed anyways while doing my hair. He took a bite of his pasta. I unlocked my phone for him to find music to play. I watched him scroll through, picking a song before he eyed my plate.
Caleb grabbed my fork, stabbing a ravioli and holding it towards my mouth. "And it's coming in for the landing! Plane Double O is coming in for the landing if the landing strip could just function and open up--"
"Caleb."
"Say ah." He smiled and I opened my mouth, allowing him to put it in my mouth. "Good. She cooperates."
I chewed as he stabbed another piece, eyeing him. "She also isn't a child."
He fed me another piece, his eyes looking over the walls of the villa. He pointed to a frame. "Is that a puzzle?"
"Yeah," I said while twisting my hair. "Angie and I do them when we get bored."
"You like puzzles?" He sounded very surprised and that didn't leave me in shock. I didn't exactly come off as a patient person and by now he probably knew that.
"Yeah, puzzles are my thing."
"What about board games?"
"Board games are my shit," I exclaimed and he laughed at my excitement.
"Competitive, I see."
"No, no, I used to host these little game nights with some of my friends back in LA. We wouldn't even drink or anything we'd just play a whole bunch of board games or do puzzles. I'm lowkey obsessed," I glanced over to him. "You have to come one day."
"I'll take you up on your offer," He smiled. "Have you always been so into them?"
And just like that, my mood went down and I stopped twisting. Taking the fork from his hand, I started to eat the food myself, shrugging to his answer. I was never a board game type of person but it wasn't until Keith was in one of his moods and found a puzzle to occupy himself with that I took an interest.
Kind of sucks when something you've come to like is associated with such heartbreak.
I could feel Caleb's eyes on me as I hummed in delight. "This is good."
"You think so?"
"Yeah, stay here Romero. I'll make you my personal chef."
Caleb chuckled. "Don't think you'd want to be around me for that long, Oct."
I didn't like the way he said that. Caleb and I moved way past when I disliked him but this was weird. That comment was weird. The way he said it in a low mutter as if he's experienced that before left me confused more than anything. He was a great guy, people loved being around him, why would he think that of himself?
"Why would you say that?" I questioned.
Caleb shook his head, waving a hand and instantly dismissing the topic. "It's redundant."
How so? I wanted to pry but didn't bother.
There was a sudden mood change, one I wasn't familiar with whenever it came to Caleb Romero Henderson. It faded as fast as it came. He tapped the notebook under his palm. That nice blue notebook looked very different in comparison to the one I would see him holding whenever we spoke about the story. "New notebook?"
Caleb handed it over to me and I flicked through it, not even surprised to see the amount of writing already in it. That brain of us racked up so many ideas it was almost admirable. It was. "So, did you make a decision?" I questioned, referring to his story.
Caleb rolled his eyes, leaning back and eating his food. "About the stupid thing?"
"It's not stupid," I swatted him lightly, turning back to my mirror as he took his notebook back. "It's smart. A time jump is necessary."
"It's super dumb if you ask me." He commented, fishing through the backpack near him I assumed was his as he brought out a pen.
"So, it's a no."
"No, I didn't say that. I decided to put it in." Caleb shrugged like it was no big deal but that made me grin. He was so stubborn when it came to his story. He rarely ever took my ideas, so this was big.
"Because it was a good idea?" I pried, smiling very wide.
"Because I couldn't think of anything else." He mocked, making me narrow my eyes at him.
"You're on thin ice, Romero."
"I'll be sure to call the fish underwater and tell them I'm about on stomp on their territory."
"Shut up." I laughed and he joined me, waving a hand.
"No, it was a good idea. But time jumps are risky in some stories. The characters can change too much, readers don't recognize them, get too confused with who they got to know in the beginning."
"Then the time jump shouldn't be that long." I told him.
Caleb continued writing. "I didn't want to make it that long. Olivia's very impatient, she couldn't be without her one true love for that long, hmm?"
"She could do it." I insisted, referring to myself.
Caleb tapped his pen against his notebook before tapping it against his pink lips. He looked at me warily. "You think so?"
"If she loves him, then she'd wait forever if it was guaranteed that he was going to come back." I propped my leg up on the chair I was sitting on.
Caleb stayed writing in his notebook the two of us in silence as we continued doing what each of us was doing. I was going to take another bite of the pasta when he asked another question. "Where do you want them to meet?"
"You're letting me pick?" I narrowed my eyes at him, confused.
"Not exactly. I want to know where you'd think the best place for the two to be reacquainted should be."
"Then Malibu."
"Why Malibu? There's thousands of different places in the world. Why there?"
"Because that's where they fell in love. That's where they met. That's where she feels most at home, no? She shouldn't have to move."
"So Ashton finds Olivia." He says, referring to his character's love interest.
"He's the one who leaves in the end-"
"Spoiler!" Caleb dramatized.
"You're the writer of the damn book, fuck off with your 'spoiler'." I laughed and he returned it. "It just makes sense. She's moving on and he comes back and they're at the right place at the right time. There they'll meet again and," I made a show of my hands as I said, "Magic. Fate some would say."
"Do you believe in that whole fate idea?" Caleb suddenly asked while scribbling in his book.
"Like, everything is planned out for you?"
"Yeah."
"Not really. I think I control my own life. What about you?"
"I don't really think about things like that," He admitted, looking up at me.
"You're always asking the questions, you know?" I pointed out without thinking.
"It's always nice to know people's opinions on things." He said quietly, his head moving side to side with the music playing in the background.
"So Malibu?" I suggested, raising my eyebrows up and down.
"Malibu it is." Caleb had a soft smile on his face, taking the pen and putting the pen behind his ear. "Thanks for doing this."
"What? The little ideas?" He would constantly pop by my trailer or appear next to me to talk about his story like this. I promised I was going to give him advice about this and I was going to stick with that promise.
We didn't even have to talk about his story for a very long time. It could be a five-minute conversation about the story and Caleb's eyes would light up in that way they do when he gets an idea. I've been around him so often that I could recognize that look from a mile away. You could say one word and he'd get an idea, linking it to something else fast and every time he did that, writing it down, it blew my mind at his talent.
"Yeah and the discussions. It doesn't even matter how long it's for whenever you take time out of your day to talk, every single one helps pull the entire story together. Thank you." He said sincerely and his words made me bite my lip, restraining the soft smile coming to my face.
"No problem," I said to him as he leaned back, closing his notebook. He put a movie on for us to watch on his laptop. He quickly fell into the routine of me finishing up my twists for my hair, handing me the containers and products I needed each time, watching me the entire time.
And while I loved knowing that I had his full attention, my breathing became uneven when I realized that I really did have his full attention. "Say, Romero?" I asked and he hummed in response, putting his plate on the table. "What made you decide to make your main characters black?"
Caleb clearly was not expecting that question to come from my mouth. "What do you mean?"
"Addison. She's played by me. A black woman. Olivia. A character based on me is a black woman."
He was writing it all in the third person limited omniscient. Some of the chapters focused on the love interest, Ashton but overall it was Olivia's story. While the character was based on me, there were striking differences that Caleb made. He made her have very short hair that was closely cropped to her head, unlike mine that was just past my shoulders when I didn't stretch out the curl with my fingers. She a scar on her lip that the character, Ashton, liked to run his finger along, and she was way more indecisive than I would ever consider myself. But I liked her.
"Yes, and?"
"I'm merely questioning."
Caleb shrugged. "I don't know. I never really think about it. I'll imagine a character and it'll be so easy to know what they'd look like. Who they act like. It helps too that everyone on Earth doesn't look the same so I can throw in diversity. Representation matters, don't you think?"
"Yeah, but--"
Caleb shifted on his chair, confusion written all over his face. "Why are you questioning this, Octavia?"
"I don't know," I admitted, finished with my hair. "I'm curious."
Caleb held his breath, looking down at the ground for a moment before looking at me. "Is it hard?"
"What is?"
"Being a famous black actress? Or was it hard when you were starting out?"
"It's hard for anyone."
"I'd figure in this society, in this lifetime, that it would be even harder for a black woman to be taken seriously, Oct."
I wiggled my foot, not making eye contact with him as I kept it on the screen of his laptop as the movie played. "Sometimes it still is."
"Are you going to elaborate on that?"
"I had a friend," I said in a monotone voice. "Her name was Stef. Nice girl, kind, crazy rich due to old money. She and Giulio even had a thing for a while, that's how she got into my friend ground. We went to parties together, shopping together, did a lot of things together. I used to think 'Stef's a really good person'. But Stef loves drama. I didn't care much for that when we met but she started to constantly love being involved in drama or anything to be on the front cover of a magazine. It was crazy. I remember she called the paparazzi once to appear at one of my parties and to gain their attention, she flashed them her boobs."
Caleb's eyebrows went up and I shrugged. "I honestly wouldn't have cared. Like, I'm all for 'you do you'. It was when she turned to me after doing it and said, 'I'm totally going to be the on every news channel tomorrow' that made me see her for who she was."
"Damn."
"Yeah," I licked my lips. "Then I started getting into bigger movies- I was getting more interest. Stef decided to take that to her advantage and at a public event, she was trying to pick a fight with me to fuel her attention-seeking desires. I think she figured me angry would give me a negative impression and she would be the victim or whatever. She was trying to make me seem stereotypical because of course that's how a lot of us people are viewed in the media. Angry, impulsive, I don't know what else to tell you. Then not even a couple of months ago, this girl that's friends with Krystal named Dani. She tried to make me angry like that too when she kept bringing up Keith."
"Jesus," He muttered. "I'm so sorry."
"That's barely anything. I only gave you two examples for what happened to me because I'm black now imagine me being a woman," I straightened up, pressing a hand to my temple before starting to put my products back in the caddy I originally placed them in. "A couple years ago. I was a lead in a movie."
"Which one?"
"Eagle, you know the one you always talk about?'
"Oh yeah," Caleb grinned, making me smile. "Love that movie."
I chuckled. "Um, well, I was the lead actress, as you know. But I wasn't getting paid enough. Someone, whose role was secondary had a higher paycheck then me. Back then I was still new to everything, but I knew when I was being cheated. When I spoke up about it at a meeting, the producer, who got fired eventually, said 'you're a woman. Know your place'."
"What the fuck?"
"I know, he said that to me in private. He said a lot of things to women in private on the set of that movie." I muttered out the last part and I literally could feel Caleb tense up beside me.
"What?"
"That's a story for another time," I said quietly, wanting to focus on one topic over another.
"Okay." He said quietly, silently fuming.
"But yeah, I have it hard in the Hollywood environment and there are others who have it worse, but it'll get better. One day."
Caleb was about to say something to that but was interrupted by the sound of the front door opening. "I'M HOME!" I heard a familiar voice yell and Caleb and I stood at the same time. A smile came to my face at Angie's voice. "Is anyone here?"
"Dining room!" I yelled and she rushed through the threshold a bright smile on her face.
Her eyes widened at Caleb who reached out as she dropped her bag on the table, giving her a hug. "Hey, Angel."
"Hey." She let out a deep breath, pointing at my hair. "Twist out?"
"Yeah."
"Sexy." She teased.
"I know." I teased back, loving her happy attitude.
Caleb glanced down at his watch. "I have to get going. I'll see you guys," He gave Angie another hug. She patted him on the chest, grabbing her huge bag that she had dropped on the couch.
"I'm going to get unsettled. Caleb, lunch tomorrow?"
"Can we do breakfast instead?"
"Of course." She pressed a kiss to his cheek before making her way up the stairs. Caleb got his stuff together as she disappeared, tucking his notebook and laptop in a backpack he had brought with him.
With an expected arm out, he gave me a hug and I returned it, about to let go when my phone rang out. I glanced over at it, tensing at the number on the screen. He must have noticed because he turned, staring at the phone too. "Who has you frozen like that?"
"Um," I cleared my throat. "Keith."
"Your ex?"
"Yeah."
"You're talking?"
"No, no. I just..." I trailed off, feeling my mood get heavier at this topic and he must've noticed because he gave me the face I didn't want to see.
Pity.
Fuck no.
Caleb let go, hiking his backpack upon his shoulders. He put a hand on my own shoulder and said, "2:04."
"What?" What about that time made it so significant right now?
"Roof. 2:04."
"Caleb."
"Come over tonight." He squeezed my shoulder.
"I could have plans," I said to him, not liking how intrigued I was by the fact that he didn't ask. That he knew I would show up later.
"At 2 AM in the morning?" He scoffed. "Not likely. Don't lie to me, October. Ciao."
He left as fast as quickly as he said goodbye, shutting the door behind him. I bit my lip, staring at the door he exited from. "Don't lie to me." I mocked him under my breath as I made my way up the stairs. "So annoying," I muttered, not helping myself but smile at his tone of making me go all the way over to his place.
"Ang?" I yelled.
"Yeah?" She yelled back through her closed door.
I opened the door to Angie's room just as she let her hair down from her ponytail, her long black hair tumbled down behind her. She moved her fingers through it a couple of times, staring at herself in the mirror.
"Hey."
"Hey." She said skeptically, taking her earrings off. "What's up?"
"How was it?"
She sighed dramatically. "You know the usual, hectic, yelling, screaming. I'm making it sound like I oversaw a daycare instead of dressing up models and having conversations with designers."
"So, you were in your element."
She flashed me a smile. "Of course." There was a pause and she noticed, raising her eyebrows at me as she leaned against the counter. "What do you want to ask? You're not even hiding the fact that you want to ask me a question, girl, you might as well have burst into my room and just ask me like you usually would. Therefore, this is highly important."
"Therefore?" I mocked. "Are we writing essays?"
"I'll have you know my vocabulary is up there." She put her arm up pointing to the sky.
I raised an eyebrow, walking over to her and pointing her hand down. "Your IQ can't say the same thing."
"Bitch, "She rolled her eyes, taking off her top to walk over to the dresser to find another one. As she pulled on a t-shirt, turning towards me once again. "Again, what's up?"
"Why aren't you and Caleb together?"
Angie's eyes quickly went off me and she turned around, facing the mirror as she started taking off the bracelet and watch from her wrists. "Was not the question I was expecting."
"Really?"
"I thought you were going to question the mark on my collarbone when I took my shirt off, but you completely missed that."
"Who did that?" My eyes widened. "It wasn't my sister, was it?"
"No!" Angie exclaimed. "Ni and I are just friends. Jesus, what is it with straight people and thinking every LGBT person should just automatically be together?"
"I'm sorry," I apologized and then cringed. "If you and my sister ever happened-"
"No, no, no, never. Don't worry," Angie laughed. "Just a girl I met the other day."
Angie smile faded as she changed into mom jeans. "As for me and Caleb. You know he's the definition of a one-night stand and yet I've never had sex with him."
"Yeah but it doesn't make sense, you know? Like you were attracted to him so why didn't the opportunity come up?"
"You've been around Caleb a lot. You know how he has that thing to him where you just tell him everything. There's something about him where you know you can just talk to him about anything and he'd listen, you know?"
It was his brown eyes and how he listened to everything a person said. You were almost willed to tell him everything. "Yeah."
"And one of the first days we were hanging out, I told him something I was struggling with deep down. I've never really given myself a label with my sexuality."
"I know."
"I thought I was straight. No. Not even close when I came to the realization when was 13. So, I think, I'm bi. Then here I am at 24 and I'm questioning if I really am bisexual if I realize I'm solely and only attracted to women. That's what I told him."
Angie wouldn't keep her eyes on me indicating that what she revealed to me made her nervous. I watched her raise her eyes to glance at me before casting them back down on the ground. I let out a little laugh to dissipate the nervousness radiating off her. There was no reason whatsoever for her to be nervous. "You're meaning to tell me you're gay?"
She cleared her throat, finally focusing her eyes on me. "It's like coming out of the closet but again."
"Shit, I really hope I didn't force you to tell me this in any way," I said honestly. The last thing I would want is for her to tell me something she wasn't ready to say.
"No, you didn't," She smiled. "I was going to tell you anyway."
"Then, I'm happy that you've realized," I told her. "That's all that matters."
"Thanks."
"I love you, Angie."
"Love you too."
"Well, you're home. Finally," She grinned at my words and I really did miss her over the past couple of days. "Want to stay in-"
"Let's go shopping," Angie said, already grabbing her earrings to put them back on and I stared at her in shock. "I'll do something with those twists you have like those little golden cuffs we can attach to them."
There's the Angie I knew. The one excited about life and bounces back fast from anything. No matter the conversation. No matter the situation. "You just came from outside and you want to go back outside?"
"Shopping is my fun time," She smiled, grabbing my hand and pulling me out of the room. "Come on."