The Acting Project

Paris or Bust

Camille is on the right------->



3


Paris or Bust


"A walk about Paris will provide lessons in history, beauty, and in the point of life."
-Thomas Jefferson.



"Where are we going?" Camille says putting her sweater on.

"I don't know yet." I tug on my jacket and look at my surroundings.

"Well we can go to a club?" Brian suggests. I don't want to be in a sweat infested environment with couples doing the nasty in plain sight.

"No." I say without hesitation. I am not going to a club where drunk men can grab my butt. Not going to happen.

"We can see a movie?" Camille says.

"No."

"We can go to your apartment?" Brian suggests.

"No."

"Stop. Then what are we doing?" Camille says, she stops walking and looks at me walk past her.

"Just follow me," I say.

We walk for maybe 15 blocks, before we get to a big house and I ring the door bell. I look through the window at an asleep Professor Jones. I ring the door bell again and he wakes up. He walks to the door and when he realizes its me he looks surprised.

Kinda like a scratch-your-head moment.

"What can I do for you?" He yawns.

"I wanna go." I say.

"Go where?" He furrows his eyebrows together.

"I wanna go to Paris." I confirm. Fight or flight moment, ladies and gentlemen.

"Pardon?" he coughs out.

I can feel Camille's grin getting bigger and bigger.

"I want to do an acting project in Paris." I say to myself more then I say to him.

"You said yes. She said yes! Ha ha!" He yells. He runs into his living room and jumps up and down on his couch. He is laughing and having a good time.

While Camille, Brian, and Myself are still standing on the front porch. We over hear him yell, "Come in, come in. Please have a seat all of you. Would you like something to drink?"

"No, we are ok. Thank you though. So when do I leave?" I get to the point.

"Oh not for a couple of weeks." Jones says and leans back in his recliner.

"What? Why so long?" I ask.

"My dear you have to prepare. Practice the language, your character, passport, living. Everything." He laughs.

"I won't know anyone there." I say. Oh crap, I won't know anyone. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea.

"An old friend of mine's niece lives there, in Paris. She can get you job and has offered to let you live in her spare room. She would be your guide to the city. Like a big sister." Professor Jones smiles and pats my hand. "Since we are on a break at the university. We need to discuss your character these coming weeks." He stands up, grabs a pen and paper and starts writing notes.

"Everyday. Have a meeting?" I ask.

"We have to make this as real as possible." Professor Jones adds.

"This sounds exhausting." I breathe out. I lean back in my chair. Maybe I should have taken that drink.

"Well this is only the beginning." He laughs.

"Oh! This is gonna be so much fun," Camille interrupts. "Oh sorry, I'll be quiet." She even places her hand over her mouth for good measure.

"This is boring. And I'm drunk. I think. I'm going home. I so love you two." Brian stands and sways over to the door and struggles to open it.

"Hey Brian." I yell.

"What!" He hiccups.

"Just don't fall asleep in Central Park, like you did last time." I say. He turns and winks.

"Her names needs to be something cool, interesting. I like Lucille or Justine or, oh, Ariella." Camille suggests.

"I like Ariella it's pretty. Ariella Damita." I say. I'm surprisingly happy. I like that name. I say it a few times to get used to it.

"That's good. Good start. Well we can finish up tomorrow how about noon? Here?" Jones asks me.

"Sounds good." I agree.

"Oh! Can I come along please? I'm so smart and I have really good advice." Camille pleads with puppy dog eyes. I take a quick glance at Professor Jones and he is about to fall asleep. His eyes are getting heavy and he slumps even farther in his chair.

"Ok I guess. Goodnight you hooligans and get the hell out of my house!" He yawns.

"Ok. Then!" Camille shouts. We excuse ourselves from his house. He curled up on his couch with a blanket, so I think that was our time to leave.


The two of us take a stroll through Central Park. The tress, the New York air, not all that great, and you can see the lights from the city through the trees.

This has been my home for almost four years. Camille is my best friend, who has been here every step of the way.
From lousy dates with lousy guys, then Luke Carson and now with Charlie Colper. I don't know what I will do without her.

I start to think about this heavily and I find myself getting upset. I start to tear up. The tears keep coming and coming till I'm so tired of my wiping my tears with my jacket sleeve that I take a seat on the nearest bench.

"What's wrong?" Camille says.

"I'm-going-miss you." I choke out.

"Aw don't cry." She says then takes a seat next to me. Camille wraps her arms around me and pulls out a tissue out of her purse and hands it to me. "Girl, I'm going to miss you too."

"No, you won't, not as much as I will miss you."

"Oh really? When you move out, I will have to find some loser roommate." She grumbles.

"That's not so bad." I sob.

"You have really cute clothes. Clothes that I wont be able to borrow anymore." She says to me.

"We can go shopping to find you some new-"

"And you know.... What really sucks?" She says with some sort of whimper. Now she had started to cry.

People in the park had started to stare at us. A couple people asked if we were ok, she was so upset. Two crazy girls, late at night in the park crying and our makeup running all down our faces, we were a mess. We still are a mess.

"What sucks?" I finally ask.

"You won't be able to find me anymore dates." We are pathetic. Her crying had turned to full out bawling.

Our makeup was running and we had been wiping our noses on our sleeves. Like I said complete messes!

"Dates?"

"Yeah hot guys." She sobs.

"Ok you're crazy. Come on let's get home and talk this out with some Ben& Jerry." I say; I stand and take her hand.

"Rocky road?" She sniffles.

"Yes, Rocky Road." I nod my head.

"I guess I can pull myself together. Sniffle-sniffle."


My friend and I walk arm-in-arm through the city. We get to our apartment and walk the exhausting flight of stairs. I will not miss these stairs ever.

When we finally get to our floor and I see a figure sitting on the ground down by the door. At first it looks like Brian, passed out waiting for us, but as I watched him stand up I realized it was Charlie.

Crap.

"Hi. Can we talk?" He smiles.

"Um no." I answer avoiding eye contact.

"She can't talk. We are going to have a chat with our good friends, Ben& Jerry." Camille interrupts.


"Ben and Jerry? You have guys in your apartment already?" Charlie asks baffled.

"Totally!" She winks at him. "Come on Lucy. You don't need to waste your time with this tool."

Excuse me while I laugh.

HA!

"Please let me talk." Charlie says, he hands me a bouquet flowers.

"Thank you for the flowers, but I can't and will not accept these. Why should I let you say anything either? Obviously you only care about your future and dreams. I just don't have time for a person like that in my life." I stand up straight.

I have been waiting so long to say that I even let out a big laugh right in his face.

"Ha! And you know you're not that great looking. Oh and your jokes are mediocre and stale. Very stale! Good bye, Charlie Colper. I honestly hope to never see you again." I finish strong and confident.

I walk right into my apartment and slam the door right in his face. But I open the door back open and yell, " and your a horrible kisser too!"

SLAM! I run, jump on the couch, and let out a big sigh of relief. Camille is waiting right at the door looking out of the peep hole.

I add, "Did he pick his jaw off the floor?"

We get a good laugh out of that. Camille and I stare at the TV watching celebrity garbage and eating Ben& Jerry's.

Now let me explain something I didn't just break up with Charlie because he was a bad kisser. Or that he was or wasn't cheating on me. Camille and Brian have seen him out being lovey-dovey with other girls when I'm not around. Really this was the last straw.

Us girls stayed up that entire night watching TV movies and gaining five pounds from all of the junk we ate. I told her everything I wanted to say to before I leave and she did the same.

It's not like we won't see each other again, just not for a while. And we have been through everything together. Its gonna be hard not seeing her everyday. Who knows if she will visit, but I think she will.