The Crew | On Hold

Chapter 8

Hearing Mila speak to Andrew makes me uncomfortable, since she just saw us staring at each other without speaking like two weirdos, and she seems to dislike me for no apparent reason.

Quickly dropping my stare from them, I decide to try to talk to Alice, who seems to be friendlier than her cast mate. "Hey, Alice, I really like your hair!"

Alice's head shoots up from her phone that she's pulled out, and she smiles at me. "Thanks, girl. I wasn't down with dyeing it in the beginning, but now I'm glad I agreed. It looks bomb as heck." She slides one hand through her thick and straight hair, and her hand gets stuck in the middle by an invisible small knot, making me smile at her, while she rolls her eyes annoyedly and laughs out loud.

Two waiters appear and and take orders from Mila and Matilda first. Mila gets a strawberry milkshake and french fries, making me realise that that's what I would like to have, so I quickly flip through the pages of the menu until I find the french fries and their price, deciding to stick to the pancakes.

When Matilda and Alex both order a soup, I give my order to the waiter and, when he moves on to Anna, she gives me a sympathetic look. After that she orders Caesar salad, along with Davina, who also decides on some super-healthy salad.

Andrew and Alice have already ordered, while it was my turn, so the waiters quickly pick up the menus and disappear in the kitchen behind sky coloured doors with tiny stars drawn on them.

I have nobody to talk to, because Alex and Matilda are chatting with Alice, Davina and Anna are talking about the movie again, and Mila is showing a clearly bored Andrew her phone. I wonder why she keeps bugging him with some photos, that he so obviously doesn't care about. Is he really that sweet or are they a thing? Maybe their cast romance is excused.

I sigh quietly, but Andrew's eyes immediately turn to me, holding me in their power, not allowing me to look away. Sadly, this time Mila catches on, and complains loudly. "Geez, Andrew, can you stop staring at the newbie like that?"

Everyone turns to Mila and Andrew, confusion clear in everyone's eyes, but Mila just rolls her eyes and goes back to scrolling on her phone. Just as nonchalant she is about the incident, I am embarrassed. My cheeks heat up immediately and I swear to myself to avoid looking at Andrew from this point on. This is too darn embarrassing for me to endure, and I don't want Anna to think we have a fling. On the first day. How silly that sounds, right?

The waiters soon arrive with our food and the whole time I look at my pancakes that are delicious, by the way, and quench my hunger quickly.

***

Later, back at the studio, they're reshooting the same scenes from the morning and, when I see Nicole, I wonder where she was during the lunch. Turning to Alex, who seems to know everything that goes on at the recording studio, I ask him that and he tells me that she usually spends it with her childhood love interest-turned boyfriend.

Though I've seen Nicole's style before she was dressed into her character's clothing, I can't help but think that that style doesn't suit her at all. She looks better dressed like an angel princess, not as a rocker chick. I wonder how they decided to cast her, when she showed up to the audition wearing her edgy clothes. No way they could imagine her as Thalia back then.

Halfway through their shoot, Anna asks me to call the group in for the shoot, and I, desperate to do everything as fast and good as I can, swiftly disappear from the room to the trailer zone.

Mila, Alice and the boys aren't hard to spot. Outside a trailer that belongs to someone named Mike, they all stand in a circle, joking around and smoking. Usually I try to keep away from cigarette stench, even at home, where mom smokes at least a pack a day, but this time I have no choice but to enter the lung-cancer zone and take a deep breath of the nicotine-filled smoke as I say "Um, Anna asked me to call you all over for the shoot." 

The boys immediately extinguish their cigarettes and, with a wink from the tallest one, they all go through the door that I came from, taking Alice with them. Mila stays behind, smoking her cigarette thoughtfully, not even looking at me.

"Are you,... um, coming?" I ask shyly, careful what to ask, not wanting to give her reason to make her dislike me even more, since she already seems to have a hate thing for me.

Abruptly her head turns my way and her eyes narrow. "Yes, I'm coming, Miss Priss." She snaps, taking me aback and leaving me shocked at her choice of words. Miss Priss?  Since when do I act prissy? 

I am at a loss for words, when she finally extinguishes her cigarette, pays me one more narrowed glance, and then strides right past me, shaking her shapely bottom as she walks.

Confused, I decide to hang outside for a couple more seconds, despite being in the stink zone. I just can't follow her. What have I done to make her dislike me and be rude to me? How dare she? Miss Priss? Well, she's Miss Rude Bitch. That's what I think of her.

Finally I am morally ready to go back inside, but suddenly a familiar voice stops me in my tracks. "Emma, is that you?"

Hello, my dear reader! Thank you for reading this chapter! I hope you enjoyed it, that you'll vote for it, and, most importantly, that you'll continue reading the story. :)