INTUITIVE, austin butler

3

"Good morning, good morning!" I hear the strong New York accent boom into the room, just in time before I ripped Austin a new one. "Great! You two are meeting each other? Becoming friends?" Tayler asks as he sets down his laptop and a few of his bags.

I peak over my shoulder at Austin, still sitting there with his arms crossed, and an annoying smirk on his face.

"Best friends." Austin mutters, and I send him a sour look.

"Marvelous." Tayler says excitedly, not picking up on Austin sarcasm. "Well, let's get straight to the point!" Tayler motions for Austin to stand up, taking his chair from underneath him, and leads us both to the middle of the room, but Austin of course has to step back because god forbid he breaths the same air as me.

"Alright," Tayler claps, "Riley, you are an up and coming journalist, who has fallen for Mr. Controversial." I nod at Tayler, and he turns towards Austin. "Austin, you are a famous actor, with a huge ego, who's head over heels for Jennifer."

He doesn't even need to act!

I scoff under my breath thinking no one will hear it, but Austin's raised eyebrows tell me different. I clear my throat, "Ok, I'm ready."

"Great!" Tayler picks up his clapperboard from the seat, "Chemistry test, scene ten... Action!"

Austin begins reading his line, his character yelling at mine because he found the article she wrote about him.

"So this was all a career boost for you?" Austin yells as he shakes his head. "Every day we've spent together where I told you everything was just a detail for your fucking article?"

I look around the room and up at the ceiling, beginning to fake cry, "No, Tyler!" I yell back at him. "My boss made me do it o-or I would've gotten fired!" I grab his hand as I plead, and he rips it out of my hand, turning his back to me.

He stands with his back to me, and now comes the part I really didn't want to do. I walk up behind Austin and place my hands on his back, rubbing up and down.

"T, you have to believe me." I whisper from behind him. "This job is my dream... I couldn't-"

Austin turns around sharply, "So you'd rather disappoint me, than disappoint your boss?" He cocks his head at me, a true look of anger on his face. Maybe our little feud is coming in handy. Fake fighting with him is extremely easy. "I should've known it was all fake." Austin starts to walk away, and I quickly follow him.

"I promise it was never fake, you're the realest thing I've ever had, T!" I yell as I chase him around the room, and I don't know how Tayler isn't laughing considering we look like two kids playing duck duck goose.  "You-" I begin my line, but then my biggest fear happens.

Blank. My mind is completely blank.

The lines I practiced for several hours have all escaped my mind.

I look down at the script in my hand, but I can't find my line since this script isn't highlighted.

"Page 4, Riley." Tayler nods at me.

"Yeah, yeah," The script shaking in my heads as I flip through the pages. I know it's just a chemistry reading, but I feel a heavy weight to do my best at all times. Especially around Austin.

"That's page 5, Albert Einstein." Austin mutters at me.

An unhealthy amount of rage flows through my blood as I look up at him to see a smart ass look on his face.

"Who peed in your fucking cereal?" I snap at him without thinking.

Austin cocks his head back, and huffs out a laugh, "Was just trying to help since you apparently can't count." He crosses his arms and pokes his head forward at me.

"No, you weren't. You were trying to bring more attention to a simple error I made." I now cock my head up at him, and step closer towards him.

"It's not my fault you can't remember your lines." Austin shrugs so casually. I think the thing I hate most about him is how casual, and cool he thinks he has to act. He isn't cool, or a relaxed person, so I don't know why he walks around like the wind exists to blow in his hair.

"My bad for making a mistake during a chemistry read, Mr. Perfect!" I'm now yelling in Austin's face, and as much as I want to relax, I just can't. I can't relax around him. His presence irks me.

"Well, thank you." He tilts his head, and places a hand over his heart. Of course he only pays attention tot he fact that I called him 'Mr. Perfect'.

"You..." I point at his face and my eyes roam around his disgustingly beautiful face. "You make my skin itch!"

Ok, wow. That came out a lot weaker than I planned.

Austin continues to look at my face, his lips rolling into his mouth, and his stupid grin coming back to haunt me.

"Ok, ok," Tayler cuts us off before Austin can say anything else to piss me off. "As cute as this little feud between the two of you is... it's stopping here." Tayler points his pen at the both of us as he looks at us sternly.

I suddenly feel embarrassed, this whole situation being childish.

"I'm not recasting—I'm doin' none of that!" Tayler continues, "I don't give two shits what vendetta you have against each other."

I look at Austin who I can tell is already mentally blaming this whole thing on me. I can't wait for Tayler to leave the room and Austin to tell me how unprofessional this makes me.

"Now, quite frankly, I need to take a smoke break after that," Tayler huffs at us. "You two just made me age five years." He grabs a cigarette out of his pocket, lighting it inside the warehouse without a worry. "I want you two to exchange numbers, and practice scene one and two together." He says as he hands us both the script.

I sigh under my breath and flip through the script. Just from skimming my eyes through the packet, I can tell our characters are fighting.

"Now, you two got lucky, your characters fight for a majority of the film. But eventually you're gonna have to act like you can tolerate each other." Tayler takes a long inhale of his cigarette, letting out a cloud of smoke. "I don't care where or how you rehearse, but just fucking do it, alright?"

I'm to exhausted to argue or try to convince Tayler otherwise, so I just nod. Tayler takes one more puff from his cigarette, and leaves the room, leaving silence between Austin and I.

"Ok," I release a breath of air, "Come to my place at 7, and we can run through it and then you can go home and brush your hair for hours."

"Who said I was free?" He gives me a look of disgust.

I roll my eyes, "Are you free, Austin?"

"Yes, I actually am." He smirks at me.

"I'm glad," I snicker at him, and hand him my phone to put his number in. Austin types in his number, gives me a fake smile, and leaves the room. The moment he's gone I can finally breathe.

I stand in the room for a few seconds, soaking in the day I've had. What I did to deserve an awful costar.... I don't know. It doesn't help that at first glance, Austin is deathly attractive. With his stupid blue eyes, and chiseled biceps... At first glance; eye candy. But when he opens his mouth I feel immediate nausea.

He's so full of himself— like he's the fucking king of Hollywood!

What Id do to rip him a new one.

What I'd do to tell him I've never even heard of him until this production, so maybe he isn't so 'professional'.