Television Romance

S1 E06: Panic

Vian Li was responsible. For the most part, anyway. She had been for as long as she could remember. She was the middle child and as neither the oldest nor the baby she had faded into the background of her house almost immediately. Not that she minded much; the forgotten child can get away with pretty much anything as long as it doesn't take too much noise. She made good grades, brought home glowing reports from her teachers, and enjoyed tame but curfew-less nights with her friends. No harm, no foul, and so she carried on in her ways throughout school and past college.

Vian Li was responsible and also terrified of failure, which was why she arrived in New York three weeks before LTV's new season started. She'd dragged her finance back home from London, though it didn't take much. They were both workaholics and Rich was more than happy to be back in the office. Vian spent those three weeks primarily in a nearby coffee shop. She watched people go by and occasionally scribbled a half baked idea in her notebook with an NYU branded pen.

Bill and Jerry were seasoned veterans. They were heading into their fourth year on LTV and felt very much in the swing of things. Both of them arrived back in New York, coincidentally, nine days before the show's workweek began. Bill had been in L.A. He had a supporting role in one of the summer's big comedies and was riding an adrenaline high that hadn't worn off since the movie came out. He was used to being recognized sporadically, but now it felt like every time he stepped out onto a busy street someone was calling his name. Jerry had spent most of his summer in NYC but had made a brief away with Sadie to see her parents. They lived in Vermont. Jerry had texted Bill as soon as he touched back down and they had spent almost an hour commiserating the horrors of LaGuardia Airport. Jerry had made no mention of an incident that had occurred in Vermont. He hoped wistfully that no one would notice the change in his appearance that first Monday, but he knew it wasn't likely. Hell, Juliet gave him shit every time he got his haircut. There was no way he was living this down.

Juliet was, frankly, a mess, and feeling a touch manic, so she arrived in the Big Apple exactly fourteen hours before she had to report for work, also known as ten pm Sunday night. Her suitcases were stuffed haphazardly with dirty laundry, so she grabbed a few handfuls of clothes into a supermarket tote bag and slipped down to the laundromat on the corner of her block. She stayed there until half past midnight, then hightailed it back to her apartment, got halfway through a sparkling lemon water (the only thing in her fridge), and collapsed on her couch until ten o'clock the next morning. After dreaming of birds that produced a song quite similar to that of her alarm, Juliet sat up straight in her bed, chugged a cup of stale coffee, pulled on her clean clothes, and went to work.

At eleven twenty-three she stepped into the elevator to find Eli, smiley as ever.

"First day back! Any ideas? You think of anything over the summer? Creative juices flowing?" Juliet asked.

"I got nothing," Eli smiled.

"Me neither."

An outsider would never quite grasp how the show managed to come together before it aired on Saturday. It seemed like everything was done at the last minute, forgotten until the last possible moment. That was sort of the truth, except nothing was forgotten. Usually. Writers' brains were constantly stewing, trundling away so the mouth attached could at some later point, maybe hours later, maybe days, exclaim, "Got it!" The interim, however, was horrible.

Eli and Juliet parted ways when she slipped into Four for the first time since May. No one else was there. Juliet decided to take this time to check her phone. It had been on airplane mode since she'd stepped onto the boarding ramp at LAX.

Four messages. One from her friend in L.A. (you back in NY? i miss you already!!)

One from her dad. (Good luck, bunny! Call us when you can.)

Two from Bill, ten minutes ago. (We're in my dressing room) (You've got to see this)

Juliet sighed. Despite her chipper interaction with Eli, she wasn't quite steeled for a dive back into the frenzied world of her work. So instead she stood in Four, watching the clock tick. She caught a faint reflection of herself in the window and examined her outfit with far more attention then she'd given it when she had that morning. Tattered blue jeans, sea green converse, and a dark brown t-shirt embossed with the words "TUNNEL vision." An ironic memo, given that she felt like she had anything but tunnel vision. If only she could focus on one thing, on anything. Coming back from L.A. was like coming down from one high just to dive into another. After a full minute of silence, she stepped backward, almost hitting the door. Then she walked back to the elevator, nodding hello to the intern with the purple hair. Except that hair wasn't purple anymore, it was blue.