YouTube ➸ Larry Stylinson

43 - Starting Now

"Louis! It's a pleasure to finally be meeting you." the film director, Mr. Ruben, enthuses, while taking Louis' hand and shaking it vigorously. 

"I could say the same for you." Louis forces a smile, already slightly disliking the man in front of him. 

"Oh! I'm so sorry about that casting thing with the main role, you know, when we said Harry Styles would be a good lead?" Mr. Ruben speaks with oomph. 

Louis nods in response. That was hard news to take. 

"Yeah, well, my daughter is a huge fan of Harry and she nearly convinced me to change the casting." he chuckles. 

"She did." Louis responds. "Convince you, that is." and, while Louis' talking, he's trying to restrain from asking for a new director. Seriously, letting your kid sway your decision just because she has crush?

"Well, I suppose. But my assistant, Ms. Presper, got me back on track." Mr. Ruben smiles. "Kids, you know?"

"I don't." Louis replies, walking away. 

He strides towards Harry, whom is at the snack bar. 

"That man is a piece of work." Louis sighs loudly as he comes up behind Harry. 

Harry turns around, his mouth full of food, "Oh?" he asks, covering his mouth so food doesn't go flying. 

"Yeah. Don't be surprised if you get ambushed by fangirls while you're here." 

Harry raises an eyebrow, and as Louis opens his mouth to explain, he hears someone call "Mr. Tomlinson!" from the other side of the room. 

A young woman is walking towards him, with her hair pinned all the the right side, falling loosely. 

"Auditions are starting now." she says, and flicks her wrist, as to tell Louis to follow her. 

As they walk, Louis asks, "What's your name?"

"Lauren," she answers, then pauses for dramatic effect. "Lauren Presper." she laughs, then continues. "I was going for a bit of a James Bond effect there. Did it work?"

"A little, yeah. But you did it backwards." Louis chuckles. Ms. Presper - or Lauren - is Mr. Ruben's assistant. Louis wonders how she can stand him. 

"Damn. That's right, last name first. Anyway. Okay, so they'll be four of us in the audition room, and a camera." Lauren starts, still leading Louis through hallways to the room. "Don't make noise unless it's asked of you, because we will need to re-watch some of the tapes later." she opens a white door, and sits down behind a table, next to Mr. Ruben. 

Louis sits next to her, and she continues. "Auditionees have brought their own monologue to read, so everything will be different. Each monologue will be about 30 seconds to a minute long. If you see someone who really fits what you visualize a character as, strike up a conversation when they first walk in. Ask them about family or something." she pauses. "And lastly, no offense or anything, but your film is low-budget so don't expect to see any big stars trying out. We'll have to weed through lots of people to find real talent." 

"Thank you, Lauren." Louis replies, actually grateful that the process is cleared up a bit. 

"No problem." she smiles, then turns to Mr. Ruben and starts a conversation with him. 

After a few moments, another woman walks in. She nods at Louis when she sees him looking at her, so he smiles back. Then, he taps Lauren's shoulder and whispers, "Who's that?"

"That's the casting official. You won't see her around much anywhere other than here. And, after auditions, she won't be around. Really, there's no use in getting to know her. I've tried, and I don't think she likes socialization." Lauren snorts. 

"Oh, okay." Louis shrugs, facing forward again and playing with the straw that sits in the cup of water in front of him. He doesn't know why there's a straw. Maybe people here are too lazy to lift up the glass. 

A few seconds pass, and a man opens a door on the other side of the room. "Here's the first." the man says, and a young man enters the room. 

"Slate yourself." the casting official says, deadbeat. 

The man walks towards the little taped "x" on the floor, then faces the camera. 

"Gary Dalgarno." he says, directly into the camera. 

Then, the casting official tells him to start his monologue. He's much too shaky from nerves, Louis thinks, and he's only in front of four people.

Auditions proceed for another two hours, until they have a lunch break. There were only about four people whom stuck out to Louis, out of practically a hundred. Lauren was right, they were going to have to do some serious yard work to get to the talent. 

Louis walks to the break room, and sees Harry chatting to some old guy along the way. "Harry!" he calls when he sees his boyfriend, and he starts to walk towards him. 

"Hey, Lou. This is Vernor." he introduces the man he was talking to. 

Louis nods at him, before saying. "Haz, I only have a few minutes to eat lunch, and I'd love if you'd join me."

"Yeah, yeah! Of course." Harry smiles. "Bye, Vernor!" Harry shakes his hand, then starts to walk with Louis towards the break room. "That man was very interesting." 

"Really?" Louis replies, because he knows Harry is aching to tell Louis what was so interesting. 

Harry then does tell, and it turns out the guy was war veteran with some cool stories. Louis wonders how long they had been talking. 

When they arrive in the break room, Louis realizes that he didn't bring anything to eat. "Shit. Harry, do you have a few bucks I could use?" he asks. It was kind of a painful process to transfer the pounds to US dollars, and all Louis had was twenties. 

Harry nods and pulls out a few ones for Louis, whom then makes his way to the vending machine. 

"So, how're auditions going?" Harry smiles at Louis, happy to see him. 

"Not so well. There were only a few people who were good. And, the director, Mr. Ruben, was cracking jokes the whole time."

"Like me!" Harry laughs. 

"Kind of. But, we're not supposed to make noise while someone's auditioning. So I can't tell him to shut up. Also, he has a really big ego." Louis sighs. 

"Sounds like you've made an enemy." Harry snorts. 

"Nah, not really. He doesn't know I don't like him. Plus, I've only known him for, like, three hours." Louis shrugs. "I should probably give him more of a chance." 

As Harry goes to reply, a teenage girl walks into the room, and her eyes grow wide as she sees Harry. "Oh my god." she whimpers, before running up to Harry and jumping on him. 

Harry is sitting in a chair, so the chair falls backwards when the girl jumps on. 

"I love you so much!" she tells Harry, while she's on top of him. 

Louis pulls her off, then helps Harry up. Harry shakes his head, trying to comprehend what just happened. 

"I want to have your babies." the girl speaks up, then slaps her hand over her mouth. 

"Sorry, hun, but he's taken." Louis sighs, as Harry stares at his attacker. "Plus, you look to be, like, twelve."

"I'm thirteen!" she humphs, crossing her arms. 

"And what's your name?" Harry asks, still slightly frightened. 

"Morgan Ruben." she responds.

"Figures." Louis rolls his eyes. 

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soo, a lot happened here. some new characters. so, there are additions to the cast...

lauren presper - jennifer lawrence
mr. ruben - steve carell (btw i love him so much, even if the character he plays is portrayed badly)

okay and also

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR 1M READS LIKE HOLY BUFFALO NUGGETS THAT'S A LOT 

i love you all so os ososos so much here are some kisses x x x x x x x x x x