Sequel (Advent Calendar 2016)

THE 1ST OF DECEMBER

The 1st of December

...

First day on set. Rob walks through the invisible gate and enters the property of the film studio, a red, luke-warm Starbucks cup in one hand and a bag in the other.

He's had plenty of first days on sets. All filled with nerves and anxiety and anticipation and excitement. Some more than others. However, this first day on set, has something more to it.

It's a bloody good script, with some wonderfully written characters. Especially Chloe has a special place in his heart. But that's not all, and he kinda knows that. Kristen Stewart is the actress who'll be playing Chloe. Kristen Stewart who, besides being the best actress of her generation, is his former co-star, ex-best friend, ex-girlfriend, ex-lover, ex-nearly-fiancée, ex-love, ex-everything. Kristen Stewart is his ex. In every way one can be someone's ex.

And now he's doing a film with her, and he wants to throw up and scream euphorically at the same time.

He's always loved working with Kristen, he's always wanted to work with her again. It's not that. It's that she's seductively intelligent, incredibly sexy and has these fucking green eyes, and he has to resist all that for twenty-one days. He's not afraid, he's resisted her for more than four years now, but he's not naïve either. Him and Kristen stuck on a movie set for three weeks? It could go so many ways.

But he only wants it to go one way; they're gonna film the movie, and that's it. He once loved Kristen, but they're over, a finished chapter – a finished book, that is amazing, but a sequel would ruin it.

Letting a bad Christmas song get stuck in his head and replace the thoughts of him and Kristen and their finished book, he goes to the place he was told to meet with the person who'll give him more information on shoots, costumes, trailer, etc., hoping that he doesn't spot Kristen on the way.

"Do you have any questions?" Jane, an assistant on the set asks Rob as they stand in front of the trailer he's just been assigned. He thinks for a minute, tries to come up with a question he can ask before he asks the only question he really wants the answer to, but when he realises he's thought for longer than what's normal, he gives up.

"Uh, when will I see Kristen?"

Jane suppresses a smile.

"She's in make-up right now. You'll go after her, and when you're done, you and her are gonna film your first scene in Studio 3."

"Okay, thanks, Jane."

"No problem, Rob."

...

As the makeup artist starts to work on her face, Kristen closes her eyes, leaning back in the chair and letting her mind wander.

For the first time in a long time, she feels nervous about being on set. Well, she always feels nervous on the first day, but this is not the good kind of nervous. She tries to think of a good reason why, but she knows it's because her ex-boyfriend (ex-a lot) has probably arrived on set by now, and she doesn't know how to cope.

She opens her eyes suddenly, causing the make-up artist to jump and the black eyeliner to continue across her cheek instead of stopping at the corner of her eye.

"Fuck, I'm so sorry", Kristen whispers, sitting up and staring at the black line on her cheek.

"Don't worry about it," the make-up artist assures her smiling. "It's the first day for me too. Nervous?"

"You could say that," Kristen says, taking in a jacked breath.

"Excited too, hopefully?"

Kristen smiles at the woman in the mirror, who's almost already done removing the black line from her cheek.

"Of course," the actress replies wistfully, reminding herself of who she is. She's Kristen, and she's professional as fuck. Rob is her ex, but he's also a co-star, just another actor. And she's going to see him as that. There's no chance that they can be anything but just co-stars. Friends, maybe. But it stops there. No old feelings are gonna resurface, they belong to the past.

Feeling a lot calmer all of a sudden, Kristen leans back again, closes her eyes and enjoys the gentle swipes the make-up brushes make against her skin.

Just as she's so relaxed she thinks she might fall asleep, the door opens.

"Just wanted you to know that Rob's here, Kristen," the voice of a male assistant says from the door frame.

She instantly starts bouncing her leg, fidgeting with the rings on her fingers, and biting her lip, all her nervous habits happening at once, just because somebody said his name. She wants to roll her eyes.

She decides she has to pull herself together if she's gonna make a movie with him, and stops biting her lip before she needs to have her lips done.

As the make-up artist gives her the perfect look for Chloe, the sentence, he's just a co-star, runs on repeat in her mind. But deep down, she knows that is not even gonna convince her.

It's going to be a very long three weeks.

...

The walk from make-up to Studio 3 is so long and too short at the same time. Rob's going to film a scene with Kristen for the first time in five years. He kinda can't wait. She's crazily talented and she's one of the best co-stars he's ever had. That's not why he feels like he's got a headache. He's scared, in a way. He's scared that it won't be the same, that it won't work, that they won't work.

But he tries to push those thoughts away, remembering how impressed by their chemistry Stephanie had been during pre-production. "It's like Twilight, but stronger," she'd said, and Rob and Kristen had both chuckled awkwardly.

Stephanie believes in them, and that's all that matters.

He reaches the black door with the big '3' on it, and takes a deep breath before he enters.

He tries his best not to look at her, but doesn't succeed. At all. His eyes find her like they're the only thing they want to see. Apparently, she still has that effect on him.

He looks her over and thinks she looks exactly like he's imagined Chloe, but better, cuter, sexier...

A finished book, he reminds himself, it's just a movie.

She sees him, and smiles, and he can see it's real. He smiles back at her and walks over to greet her.

As Kristen watches Rob approach her, she starts to think of how she should greet him. A simple "hi"? A handshake? A hug? A kiss and a "hey honey, I've missed you"?

Kristen snorts internally.

Fortunately for her, Stephanie announces that they'll begin now and that Rob and Kristen should get on their marks.

Kristen moves Chloe's one ring up and down her finger to occupy her shaking hands and Rob studies his, or Daniel's, shoes, as they both wait for that familiar word.

"Action!"

And just like that, they slip into a second world, where they don't exist, only Daniel and Chloe.

It's not costumes they're wearing, it's clothes. The room they're in is not Studio 3, it's a café in Soho, New York. It's not lines that pass between them, it's words, bits of a conversation. They're not acting, they're being.

As soon as "cut" is called, they go back to Studio 3, to Rob and Kristen.

They look at each other, knowing that they're both thinking the same thing.

Exes or not, they work together, and they work well. They are not gonna regret this.

...

Maybe it's because her normally green eyes are masked by brown contacts, but as soon as Catherine calls "action", he feels like he's looking at Bella. Correction, he feels like Edward is looking at Bella. Kristen's way of playing Bella is the only reason he can so easily slip into Edward's personality. And if he didn't become Edward the way he does, Kristen couldn't become Bella. They compliment each other, but more than that, they create each other.

Whether they're meant to be in real life, he doesn't know, but they are certainly meant to be on-screen.