As She Falls to the Ground

"Innocence is Gone"

Seven a.m. My alarm goes off. Rushing downstairs I grab my phone, purse, and script then try and juggle a banana for breakfast. I stayed up late last night memorizing the rest of my part so I think I'm good to go now.

In the car I start driving down to LA, but I feel my phone buzz in my pocket. Now I'm not one to text and drive, but with my busy schedule I better check it. It's just Camille replying to my text from Sunday.

I shrug it off my shoulder and go back to driving.

About 45 minutes later I end up at the studio and go in for hair and makeup. Most of the time we do our own and the artists just fix us up, but I was too tired to put any on this morning.

Camille plops down next to me minutes later and recites all of her lines to herself out loud by memory. She always practices so much, but all I do is memorize and then just go with the flow.

"Your brother drop you off?" I ask.

She smirks at me, "wouldn't you like to know?"

I purse my lips in response. "Hey, don't judge my story by the chapter you walked in on!"

She laughs a little, she's so cute. Camille is fourteen while I am seventeen, but she is so mature that I always forget we aren't the same age.

One of the staff brings me a flannel and skinny jeans to wear. My character is kind of this cool country girl, while Camille gets brought a dress because her character is the star. The show is about this family from Southern Missouri who wins the lottery and decides to move to Hollywood and try and help Camille's character live her dream of being famous. It's a comedy, but my part has some pretty intense scenes.

And now we wait. And wait and wait and wait and wait until they are ready to do one of my scenes.

I go outside to call Derek, because what else am I going to do, but his car is already parked out there. I skip over and hop in the passenger seat. "Are you seriously waiting here all day to take Camille home?" I ask.

"Yeah, sadly I have nothing better to do. So here I wait... all day."

The side of my lips curves up. "You really love your sister huh?"

"Well yeah... I would do anything for her"

My brother is the same way, he's always protecting me. Or at least trying to. "Our willingness to wait reveals the value we place on what we're waiting for."

He looks down and smiles, "Melanie where do you get these things to say? Your still just such a mystery to me."

"Mostly they're quotes I like that I've  remembered over the years, but I can never remember who they're by or where I heard them."

"Hmm, you know every time I think I have you figured out you surprise me with something new."

"Well, what fun is life without a couple surprises mixed in?"

My phone buzzes, they need you in about ten, from Camille.

"I have to get back in there, but I can take her home if you want. That way you don't have to wait"

He thinks for a moment before continuing, "yeah that would be great actually! Thank you. So will I see you later?" He says placing his hand lightly on my leg.

"Maybe if your lucky!" I say trying to hold in a laugh.

"Lucky?" He asks.

"Yeah, if your lucky, the 'L' in tonight's 'luck' will change to an 'F'!" Without another word I leave the car and walk back to the set for him to think about it alone.