Tick-tok, tick-tok. My hands were shaking as I looked up at the clock and saw that I was still five minutes from the most nerve-wracking thing I had to do in my life. Waiting in the same room with twenty gorgeous girls auditioning for the exact same part as me was terrifying.
"Ahem," a man opened the door and came into the room. "Tom Holland will be screen testing with you today. Uh, that is all." Tom Holland? The Thomas Stanley Holland was going to screen test with me in five minutes?
After the man closed the door, everyone in the room gasped and started screaming.
I started freaking out. I had been a fan of Tom ever since Civil War came out, had made a fan page for him, bought hundreds of dollars of merch because of him, daydreamed about him, written fan fiction about him and now I had a chance to work with him? Out of all of the 'Untitled Marvel Projects' there were, I had been auditioning for Spider-Man!? Tom was the person that had inspired me to take a risk and become an actress. Before I even had to chance to contemplate the fact that I was about to meet my favourite person in the whole world, the same man from before opened the door.
"Felicity Knight?"
My ears began to ring after I heard my name. It was all a blur - I stood up, followed the man into the room, met the casting directors briefly before seeing him.
His eyes brought me back to earth. Tom smiled at me and I stared at him for a bit too long before he shook my unsteady hand.
"Hi, Felicity, I'm Tom."
His recognisable voice that I had heard hundreds of times of watching interview after interview of him made my heart melt.
"You know my name?" I whispered under my breath.
"Sorry?" He said, twitching his head, making his signature curls move slightly to the left of his face.
"Oh, sorry, I said nice to meet you." Great recovery, Felicity...
He was wearing all black.
One of the casting directors who I had seen before motioned the others to sit behind the table and Tom stayed in front of me, standing.
The silence was deafening as the casting directors pulled my folder out of a pile.
"So, Felicity, you've never been in a major film before?" One of the casting directors asked.
"Umm, no. Just small roles in television shows." I tried to keep professional but when I turned my head to Tom, he was smiling at me, and all I wanted to do was ask him to marry me.
"And wow, you're only eighteen."
I nodded. I've always been told that I look much older than I am.
"Okay, so you know your lines, right? We'll just get you to do a chemistry test with Tom and then we'll get you to perform the monologue. Got it?"
"Uh, yeah..."
We stood in silence for a moment.
"Felicity, whenever you're ready."
And then I realised, I had the first line.
"Oh, sorry!" My face flushed red, and I tried to calm myself down before I started.
"Peter, what's going on with you?"
I wanted to break character as soon as I looked up into Tom's dreamy eyes.
"I don't know what you're talking about," he switched to an American accent in a flash.
"Peter, you're always disappearing, and for no reason. You left MJ at her own birthday party!"
"I know, I know, Gwen. But Mr Stark needed me! I just got the internship back again and I don't want to mess it up-"
"I get it. You care more about someone you probably haven't met than you do about your own friends." I turned and started to walk away from him, following the script, before glancing down at the script. After Tom's next line, it read:
BOY KISSES GIRL.
Peter kisses Gwen?! I don't remember reading that! Tom is going to kiss me? I tried hard to stay in character because I was freaking out.
"Wait, Gwen!"
Tom placed his hand on my shoulder, spun me around, leaned in and the next twenty seconds were slow motion.
I nearly fainted. At this point, I knew that I was no movie star and I knew I wasn't going to get the role, so I decided to just make the most out of my first and only kiss with Tom Holland.
I couldn't describe it even if I were the best writer in the world. But, it didn't last. He pulled away, and we stared at each other for a while before I looked down and turned towards the casting directors, trying to appear confident.
"Uh, I think that's all we need. Thanks, Felicity. We'll let you know in a few days." The woman stacked my folder on top of the pile.
"Oh, yeah, thanks." I started to tear up as I turned around to the door. Suddenly, with Tom in the picture, I really wanted this role. And the fact that I had just butchered an important audition made me realise that I was not fit for the big screen.
I looked towards Tom, who was still looking at me weirdly, said "thank you," and ran out the door, wiping my tears away.
"Wait! Felici-"
Tom came rushing through the doorway, but I ran out of the building, wanting to forget about today and the fact that I had just missed out on a huge opportunity.
NARRATOR'S POINT OF VIEW:
"Leave her, Tom."
"But she's the one! Didn't you just see her?" He gestured to the door which Felicity had just run out of.
"Tom, we have twenty other actresses just like her to choose from. Don't worry about it. She obviously doesn't want the part if she left like that. She's also shy, unprofessional and clearly not fit for a role as big as this."
"No, you're wrong. she's different from the rest. You know what? Cancel all of the other auditions."
