Forever Misunderstood [Hailee Steinfeld]

II

"Well, you must not have seen your ex. Last time you talked about Niall, you said he stabbed you in the back six times."

That was entirely uncalled for, leaving me slightly rattled. Despite Niall being history and in my rear-view mirror, his name still hurt and bringing up his adultery was a low blow. I tried retaliating but didn't know enough about Y/N to do anything.

Instead, I took the higher road and turned away to face the table and the script. 

Seconds later, I saw Y/N attempt to reach out to me when Tom announced from across the room. "Guys, welcome to the table-read of 'IMF: Future Calls'. Our lead actors are Y/N Y/L/N and Hailee Steinfeld."

Wait, Y/N was the lead. With me? All I knew about him was he had just graduated from Julliard, and this was his first official movie role. That sort of resume doesn't land you the lead role in a Tom Cruise movie. My gut feeling at that moment was that he had secrets. Nepo-baby perhaps. 

Fortunately, my eye caught Leonard Osborn. A recent Julliard graduate, most definitely from Y/N's year, and an acquaintance of my elder brother Griffin. It would be him if anyone could provide me with any information about Y/N, maybe even some juicy gossip. I would have to wait for the scheduled lunch break to catch and question him.

"So you need me to climb up and across the face of a cliff, then jump off and paraglide onto the field over another cliff?" Y/N stood up straight and asked, dumbfounded. "Yes, simply put," Tom answered. "Sure, can't wait," Y/N replied, chuckling while retaking his seat. "Lovely," Tom replied before continuing his brief about the movie. 

Moments later, we started going through the script. Y/N started again. "Simon?! SIMON?! Did you say jump?" he panted exasperatedly. His sudden change in his voice from ordinary to stressed, short of breath and annoyed was impressive.

"Uhmm, yes." someone whispered from across the room. "WHAT?!" Y/N exclaimed. "YES." the voice yelled from across the room. "That's when I jump," Y/N said, looking straight at Tom, who nodded. "Cool," "We will run through the exact planning of all stunts next week before filming. You are invited to come and pitch ideas and personalise them to your liking." Tom addressed Y/N.

We skipped the read-through of the following few action scenes, instead letting Tom guide Y/N on how his tone and demeanour should come across. Which he replicated with nothing short of perfection, immediately getting a grasp of Tom's vision. It impressed the entire cast and crew present, Tom especially.

"Hailee, this is your first scene, introducing you to the audience," Tom said, focusing on me now. "Perfect. It's just me and Y/N in this scene, right?" I asked, getting a nod from the writers sitting next to Tom. 

I started. "Alex, we can't do this. It's too dangerous. Half the national governments and their intelligence agencies aren't risking taking on this mission. It's impossible, especially with no backup or reinforcements." 

"It's what the IMF was created for Rebecca. We do what governments can't or can't be trusted to do. I would be lying if I said this isn't dangerous and reckless, but us sitting by and doing nothing is worse. They need us because we play outside the rulebook. We colour outside the boundaries, Rebecca. And they trust us because it's what I, no we, do best." he continued. His voice was intense, and his tone convincing.

"No, they don't trust us to do it. They don't trust us at all. They leave it to us because god knows they screwed up, and now things are out of their hands. We may be good, even great, at this, but eventually, we will mess up. What then? Who has our back then? We have theirs, but who has ours?" I retaliated, trying to match Y/N's intensity.

"I am doing this because someone needs to step up and do it. And there is no one I trust more than me to do this. They may not trust us, but they desperately need us. We got each other's back, it may not be enough to save us from the wrath of failure, but we don't do this worrying about failure. We can't worry about failing. There is too much riding on us for us to think negatively." He stood his ground calmly, his voice now louder and more profound.