Camouflaged

Chapter 24

"Hey, Raven. Wanna hang out later?" Bella asks me.

It's the morning and I'm sitting with Bella. Alex had to do some errands and Sophie is with her parents.

"Yeah, sure. What time?" I ask.

"It depends on when we stop acting," Bella answers. "But maybe like, around 7 or so?"

"Okay. Great," I reply. "What should we do?"

"Maybe we can go out for dinner?" Bella suggests.

"Good idea. Yeah, sure. We can do that," I agree.

Bella looks at me for a second, then quickly looks away.

"I have a confession to make," she mutters quickly, then runs out of the bar without finishing her food.

I stare at my sausages. What does Bella have to confess?

Later, we start to act. Today, we're doing a very hot scene when Lena and Ethan are in bed. Not naked, but they're talking and kissing and that stuff.

"Okay, ready?" the director asks.

"No!" I exclaim. "Elle! Elle!"

Elle, my hair stylist, runs over.

"Yes, Raven?" she asks.

I point at my hair.

"I need more hairspray. It's gonna come out too easily," I explain.

Elle examines my hair carefully.

"I think it doesn't need that much more. It's supposed to be kinda messed up but I get what you mean. Pass me some hairspray," Elle tells her team.

A young man passes her a can of hairspray. Elle starts to spray it on, but it doesn't really work well.

"Hair gel," she orders, handing the can of hairspray back to the man.

"Hurry up!" the director shouts.

I roll my eyes.

"Do you want me to look like a mess?" I snap.

Elle starts to do my hair with the hair gel and it eventually works miracles.

"Done," Elle says, quickly putting the cap back on the bottle of hair gel. "Now get on that set and do your thing."

"Thank you so much," I respond gratefully.

Elle smiles and I run to take my spot.

"Ready now?" the director asks, making it clear in his voice that if we weren't, he would start the cameras anyway.

Alex and I both nod.

Alex (Ethan) is lying down on his bed. He rolls over and tries to fall asleep but doesn't.

"I can't fall asleep," Ethan murmurs.

The door swings open and I (Lena) appears.

"Me neither," I say, smiling.

My hair's down, in which the book says that Ethan liked it best. When I thought it was messy, but he thought it was perfect.

Ethan smiles. I walk up to him and climb into bed beside him.

"We'll never be together," I murmur. "My sixteenth birthday's coming up. I'll hurt you if I go Dark, Ethan. I can't do that."

I know Ethan wants to say that I should just go Light then but I know that he knows that we both know that if I go Light, Ridley dies and I can't live with that.