Landslide// Aaron Tveit

t h r e e

C h a p t e r T h r e e: Rehearsals Begin
bruises - reneé rapp
"the truth is i bruise easily"

Emma walked into the rehearsal building with a coffee in hand and a smile on her face. She was practically giddy at the fact that today was the first official rehearsal for Moulin Rouge.

Although she had already met everybody at the party, she was so excited to be able to fully imagine everyone in character.

Today was just a read through and schedule building.

She walking into the rehearsal room to find most of the cast members there. Although the ensemble members rarely had solo lines, they were still welcome.

She took a seat next to Ricky, smiling brightly at him.

"Hey Em! How ya doin?" Ricky asked with a funny expression.

"I'm great Ricky! I love the nickname, keep it." Emma replied.

"Noted" he said before turning to Robyn to continue a conversation. They were still missing a few people. Not that they were late, they still had about seven minutes to arrive. Emma took note of the fact that Aaron was one of the stragglers.

As if on cue, the man entered, similarly to Emma. A smile on his face and an ice coffee in his hand.

"Morning everybody!" he spoke

Emma smiled at him, meeting his eyes. His face slightly faltered from the smile that he was originally wearing when entering. As if Emma through him off. That's weird, Emma thought.

She still had an empty seat next to her. With her eyes she asked him if he would like to sit there. He looked away and took a seat a few people down from Emma. Okay that's even weirder... did I do something wrong? Oh god it's the first day of rehearsal and I've already pissed off the lead man, Emma though, mentally face palming.

Once everybody finally settled in, the read through began.

———

"All you need is love"

"Your being ridiculous"

"All you need is love!"

The lyrics to Elephant Love Melody began and Emma couldn't be more excited. She thought this song was so clever, all the song shifts and the romantic lyrics between Satine and Christian.

The song continued with Aaron and Emma singing. Every few moments she would look at him with a smile, because she adored his voice. She loved how their voices blended so perfectly, as if they were meant to sing together. However, every time she went to look at him, their eyes would never meet. Almost like he was forcing himself to never catch her eye.

"And I will always love you!" they sung in harmony.

The song came to an end and they took a break before reading through act two.

Emma was confused. She didn't understand why Aaron was acting so cold towards her. She couldn't t think of something she had done.

Emma's thoughts were interrupted after hearing a groan coming from a corner in the room. She turned to find where the noise came from, and saw Aaron standing there. His script was open, and looked much more used than hers. His free hand, that wasn't holding the script, was pinching the bridge of his nose. He looked stressed.

Is this what Ricky meant?

Without even realizing, Emma's feet had began carrying her over to the stressed co worker.

"Everything alright? You look a bit stressed." Emma asked Aaron. She was concerned. Did he have a problem with her, or was he just in a bad mood. All of this just kept bringing her back to the conversation she had with Ricky at the party.

"I'm fine." Aaron deadpanned.

"You don't seem fine." Emma pushed.

Aaron's eyes left his script and met Emma's eyes finally. She got a better look at him. Up close he looked even more stressed and exhausted. However, Emma couldn't help but stare in awe at his face. Something about his deep smile lines made her wonder how much he's laughed and smiled in his life. Could she ever make him laugh and smile as she hoped she could? His blue eyes were beautiful as always but sunken. His skin was paler than normal and the dark circles under his eyes did not go unnoticed.

"Listen, Emma, can you just leave me alone?" Aaron snapped.

Emma's eyes widened in shock at his sudden anger. Her mouth fell open, about to say something back, but no words came out. She felt a stinging in her eyes. She just whispered a small "sorry" and walked away.

———

For the rest of rehearsal Emma couldn't focus. She was still doing great but every time her mind had even one second to wander, she would think about Aaron and what he said. She hoped he didn't mean it. She hoped that he was just taking some of his stress out on her. Nevertheless, he hurt her. Being yelled at is not something the girl was used to. Her kind heart always brought out the kindness in others.

She didn't know what she had done to Aaron, but she wanted to find out.

A/N: sorry this chapter is short! I'm currently on my way home from vacation so i had like half of this chapter just sitting in my drafts for a week lol. I wanted to continue with more in the chapter but i kinda liked the ending sentence so i will just keep going into another chapter! here's a small chapter tho! LMK what you think plzzzzz🙏