It's Just Business (COMPLETED)

Chapter 39

"God, I hate dress rehearsals." Virgil muttered.

"Why?" He hadn't expected Roman to hear him but he had.

"Well, they always go wrong and people are always missing. Not to mention the copious amounts of 'I'll do it on the night' and the fact that I suddenly can never say my lines with the accent I'm meant to and-"

"Hey, calm down. You need to remember to breathe, Sunshine." Virgil nodded and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. "And that's kinda the point of dress rehearsals. They go wrong so we can get it right on the night."

"But I just get really worried and then I forget my lines or my accent on the night and it all goes wrong and it's just all my fault!"

Roman reached out to put a hand on Virgil's shoulder but hesitated at the last second. "You're gonna do fine, Sunshine." He said. "You got this part because you were good at it. And you're gonna be good at it. Besides, everyone will be too busy looking at the main character to notice if you slip up."

"Jee, thanks." Virgil said, dead-pan. "You just can't let that go, can you, Princey?"

"No."

Virgil sighed. "I'm the main character, Princey, you're the love interest."

"Whatever you want to believe." Roman said, laughing. Virgil rolled his eyes and ran his hand through his hair. "Careful, you'll dislodge your mic."

Virgil looked at Roman, horror-stricken. "We have mics? We have mics. Shit, my mic!"

"What is your problem, Green?"

"I think I'd have a lot of problems with you, El,-"

"My name is Elliot."

"El, my problem with you is that you stole my school out-"

Virgil laughed. "You're school?" He laughed again. "Oh give it a rest, Green. You may have been king of the castle but there's new royalty in town."

Roman glared at the smirking Virgil.

"Stop!" Ace said through their megaphone. "Roman, a word."

"Uh, sure."

Ace turned to yell through the megaphone at the sound booth. "Can we turn Roman's mic off, quickly?"

"Why do they need to talk to you?" Virgil whispered. "I mean, we're nearly at the end."

"Roman, just a word please. Everyone else, let's just take a little break, yeah?" Ace asked. They walked off-stage and Roman followed them, looking around sceptically.

"Roman, you need to kiss him." Ace said. "This fake-out 'I forgot' or whatever seriously needs to stop."

"What?"

Ace sighed. "In the scene that we've just run, you need to kiss Virgil. But you don't and I need a reason. Because otherwise we'll both be out of a job."

Roman scratched the back of his head. "I just... I thought that if we did it in rehearsal, it'd not feel as real and sudden as it would if I just did it on the night."

Ace raised an eyebrow. "So you're refusing to do a stage direction that you specifically need to do to move the story forward... because you think it'd feel weird to the audience on the night?"

"Yeah. I know it's a stupid reason-"

"Yeah, it is."

"And I'm sorry, okay? I just... it just feels weird, okay?"

"Roman, you're an actor. If a stage direction feels weird purely because of something in your own mind, you still do it." Ace sighed. "But whatever. We're on a tight schedule with the show tomorrow so, fine. I'll let you off. Let's hope this idea or whatever of yours pays off."

"Yeah, let's hope." Roman muttered. "I'm also too scared to kiss him." He thought. "Too scared I'm gonna fall in love again."

*giggles in knows what comes in the next chapter*
You're all going to want to kill me at the end of Chapter 40 and I don't care and I can't wait.
Bye,
Blaize