in which you, an aspiring filmmaker,
find the perfect actor for your breakout short film.
casting is difficult for the main love interest,
but once a certain blue-eyed boy comes into your life, you know he's the one...
maybe in more ways than yo...
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CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
unseen
showing up unannounced to walker's house and asking him a hefty question would be plain rude. so once i was on the ground (and once i confirmed that i was alive and breathing after the jump down from the roof), i texted him.
you hey, could i come over?
it wasn't until i was on his block that he responded positively. it almost felt more rude to sound so calm and collected over text tone, when in reality i was giving my phone screen a shower with the tears i could finally let out.
walker of course. what's up?
i composed myself, taking deep breaths and such, preparing for my silk response to his text, a knock on the door. and his response to that was opening it immediately. "long time no see," he said, leaning in the doorway with a grin.
he'd already changed into pajamas, looking all cozy, which was only one of the reasons i went up and hugged him tight. once he'd connected the dots -- the email to my sudden arrival -- he reciprocated the embrace.
"didn't go well, huh?" he said cautiously.
i pulled away and shook my head. the lights from inside his house allowed the unwiped tears to glisten below my eyes. walker took my hand, leading me into the brighter, much warmer shelter.
we went into his bedroom, the only place in the house where we could have guaranteed privacy, since that night wasn't the same case as the one with the storm. even if his family was there, i appreciated that the feeling of needing to stay under the radar wasn't.
i sat on the edge of his bed, staring at the floor as walker spun lazily in his desk chair. he was waiting for me to speak, but i couldn't seem to pull the words from the tangled mess in my head. i, too, waited -- hoping something would come, anything that could explain how i felt. the dim light from the desk lamp cast a soft, golden glow over the room, creating a tranquility that seemed easier to focus on than my own thoughts. the silence in the room was not uncomfortable, but heavy in a way that felt safe.
but before the quiet stretched on too long, walker let out a soft sigh, giving up on waiting. he plucked a tissue from the box on his desk and crossed the room to me, his movements gentle. without a word, he reached up and wiped away the tears that had clung to my face.
"thank you," i said, giving him a grateful smile.
he sat down next to me now, his knee brushing against mine. "there it is, that face i love to see."
"you should thank yourself for bringing it out."
"thank you, walker. now, you," he said. "do you wanna talk about it?"
"well, it went as you'd expect it would," i sighed. "apparently, you're a distraction, and the film's a distraction."
he let out a bitter laugh. "damn. you're not gonna listen to them, are you?"
that wasn't even a question. "no, of course not," i denied straight away. "walker, i think we should just go for it. let's make it official. there's nothing holding us back now."
he beamed. "wait, seriously? i can be your boyfriend?"
"only if i can be your girlfriend," i giggled.
then walker leaned in and kissed me like he'd been waiting forever. i kissed back, and now, it seemed that it had all gone wrong, but for the right reasons.
˚ʚ♡ɞ˚
i ended up sneaking back in later that night. it was a great workout trying to recreate how i got onto jordyn's roof. many times i almost slipped on the fence which i had converted to a tightrope. no texts from mom or dad had been sent, so i assumed that my journey had gone unnoticed. to my parents, i was holing myself up in my bedroom.
holing up in my bedroom was the preferable way to go when i woke up to my alarm the next morning. mom always drove me to school, and the ride was at least four minutes. as i got ready, i struggled to think of what words would be exchanged during that duration.
it turned out to be very little. every now and then, a simple question was returned with a simple answer. the road had been paved a few days prior, but we still had a bumpy ride.
first period, maeve and i managed to run into each other in the bathroom, which was when i told her of what happened the night prior. she went from hugging me apologetically to hugging me with excitement over the course of the story.
"can i at least take some credit with all my matchmaking?" she asked.
"yeah, i guess." i rolled my eyes and flipped my hair sarcastically. "but i get most of the credit being this pretty."
"true. not everyone gets to be their celebrity crush's girlfriend. at least not outside of their delusions."
the person in the only stall that was functioning (i wouldn't have minded the school investing in plumbing before the arts) came out. she gave me a suspicious glance, appearing to be skeptical if i was pulling an olive penderghast. i supposed it did all sound quite unbelievable.
since the filming process was happening over the next week or so, i tried to focus on that. of course, thoughts about how i was to go about that with the real distractions being my parents in the way. sorry, maeve, but my bedroom window was about to be my best friend.
