My Leading Man | Timothée Chalamet

chapter fourteen

"Hey Violet," Max pulled up in a silver Acura Ilx, a pretty one that looked clean and new. He stepped out of the car in the park's parking lot and smiled at me lazily. Goodness. I had forgotten how cute he was. He had perfect, straight white teeth, full lips, and big brown eyes lined with dark lashes. His skin had a nice tan, and his curly hair was going every which way. It worked for him.

He stepped up to me. "Hey," I smiled shyly.

"Ready to go?" He asked me.

Joy. "Uh- here's the thing." I rubbed my arm and looked around anxiously, anywhere but his eyes. "I was kinda sorta hoping a couple of my friends could join us?"

His smile faltered for a moment before he pasted it on again. "No- yeah. That's totally fine. The more the merrier." He gave me a lopsided grin, and I felt a little twinge in my heart. I really did feel bad for putting him through this, but I already agreed to Timothée and Ava coming, and it really would be safer this way.

"Thank you so much," I said truthfully. "Let me go get them. Give me one sec," I called as I ran off to find Timothée and Ava, where they agreed to wait by a tree for me. When they saw my go-ahead, they came out and headed towards Max's car.

"Remind me again why I'm doing this?" Ava whispered to me through her teeth.

"I wish I knew," I answered with a shake of my head and followed Timothée, who had taken the lead.

"What's up man," he said, walking up to Max and patting him on the back good-naturedly.

Max's mouth dropped open. "I-" He looked over to me in confusion. "You never said-"

"Ah sorry dude, I'm Timothée Chalamet." He grinned at Max. I grimaced at him and turned my attention to Max.

"Yeah, uh, sorry. He was with us at In-N-Out the other day," I trailed off.

"Really. Yeah, didn't recognize you," he said flatly, watching Timothée.

"Thanks, man. That was the goal." He smiled at him and hopped into the back seat.

Ava stepped forward then. "Well I'm Ava," she grinned warmly at him. I felt instantly grateful to her for being easy on him, especially since Timothée was behaving so obnoxiously. "And thanks for letting us come along. I loved the idea of getting to go with you guys to show Violet the Hollywood sign for the first time." She smiled at me and I smiled back, hopefully conveying my appreciation for her.

"Yeah. I'm pumped!" I pumped my fist awkwardly, trying to lighten the mood. I looked at him and he smiled again.

"Great! Well let's go then."

"Sounds good," Timothée announced from the back seat's open window.

I rolled my eyes and took the front passenger's seat.

-

We hiked in darkness, apart from the light of the moon, city lights, and flashlights Max brought for us. Unfortunately, though, he only brought two, so him and I shared one while Timothée and Ava took the other behind us.

We were hiking to the top of Mount Lee, to view the backside of the Hollywood sign and city. We didn't speak much on the way up - we were all pretty out of breath from hiking anyway. Once we reached the top, we made ourselves comfortable sitting on a few rocks. Max pulled out a blanket (again, he was only planning for two so there was just one), so we just splayed it over our legs the best we could. Now that we were sitting, I caught my breath and took in the view before me.

The valley stretched out for miles. I could see tall skyscrapers, dark spots where there weren't any buildings, and grids upon grids of streets, homes, schools, and the like. I breathed in the fresh air and smiled. I imagined all the things happening in the land before me: friendships, people in love, movies being made. This is my future, I realized. My heart beat happily in agreement.