HATEFUL LOVE | ej caswell

the great war

After catching EJ seemingly talking to Val privately about something, Nadia and the former headed back to The Barn together so they could continue rehearsal.

Nadia had been a little suspicious at EJ's reaction to her finding him with Val, but she didn't want to question him or anything to make her seem skeptical of his loyalty in the relationship. She decided to keep her cool and wait to see if anything were to change between the two of them.

"Okay. We'll make this quick, team," Corbin spoke as Channing got ready to start filming them.

"Yeah. EJ and Nadia, just give them a generic goodbye so that we can help the audience with timeline, alright? It doesn't matter what you guys say," Channing instructed the both of them to do.

"To the camera or...?" EJ trailed off, pointing in different directions.

"To them," Channing clarified. "That's it. All right. We're rollin'."

EJ and Nadia turned towards the stage, where Ricky, Carlos, Marcus, Gina, and Kourtney had been standing. EJ then cleared his throat as he tried to think of something to say. "Um..." he tried to think, looking at Nadia for help.

Nadia's eyes widened a bit before she opened her mouth and said, "Uh, than—"

"That was our day. And now it is over. Thank you," EJ immediately cut her off right after that, earning an annoyed look to form on her face.

Some people began to clap awkwardly as Channing moved the camera over to Corbin. "Till next time, Shallow Lake," he smiled before he pointed at the camera and repeated the same words. "Till next time, Shallow Lake."

"All right, and...cut," Channing turned the camera off.

"Well, how did we do?" EJ asked Corbin excitedly.

"You guys were...perfect," Corbin answered, although Nadia wasn't too sure if he was being genuine or not by the hesitation.

Ricky then stepped down from the stage. "Thank you so much for everything, Mr. Bleu. I...I think we're both feeling this, so..." Ricky said before he hugged Corbin, causing everyone's eyebrows to raise. "Check," he mouthed to the camera.

"All right..." Corbin said awkwardly once Ricky pulled away.

"8 pm! Don't be late, we're watching High School Musical 3 tonight!" Val announced to everyone.

Carlos began to sing a song from the movie to Corbin, trying to show how well-versed he was in the movie's songs. "Fun fact, I weirdly never saw that one, so..." Corbin told him, making Carlos's smile fade.

"Corbin Bleu is just a character in a documentary. He can't hurt me," Carlos commentated and Ricky patted him on the back as everyone began to exit The  Barn.

Marcus walked up to Nadia, wanting to get the scoop on anything Corbin may have said privately to her and EJ. "Is it just me or did Corbin look like he was lying when he said we were perfect?" Nadia said to her brother, raising a brow.

"Uh...maybe. He looked more uncomfortable," Marcus replied with a shrug. "Why? Do you think he wasn't happy with the read-through?"

"I couldn't tell. I mean, I'm not even lying when I say this, but everyone literally did amazing. Gina and Kourtney were on their game, you and Carlos did great, and Ricky is...well, he's Ricky. He somehow manages to pull something from nothing," Nadia described and Marcus nodded at that. "I just feel like he seems...bored. I don't know, I don't wanna get too hung up over it."

"He's probably bored because he's not at his mansion or something," Marcus joked, causing his sister to chuckle lightly. "Anyway, are you and EJ good?"

"Yeah, why do you ask?"