I WANT IT ALL [ rami malek ]

XVI. MIXED

laylahall; over today. over it.

342 retweets / 1.5k likes

Somedays, Layla fucking hated her job. Hated it with a burning, fiery passion.

Somedays, all Layla wanted to do was quit her job, go back home, and live an easy simple life.

Today, was that kind of day.

Hollywood was never a kind place to be, regardless of what you did. People strived to be number one no matter where they were, people would stab you in the back, pretend to be your friend. She felt absolutely miserable. What was to blame? One single audition, that brought back residual feelings she had held back long, long ago from her childhood.

A casting agent, who was watching an audition tape Layla had sent in, had given her a reply that morning. They had loved her audition, but they said that they would have to pass on giving her a callback because she was a little too overweight for the role.

When she was a child, while she wasn't the biggest kid in the playground, she also wasn't the smallest. It all had started when she used to do ballet as a child. She was 8, and her instructor had told her she would have to be in another routine because she wasn't as small and petite as the other girls. She was already much taller, and with all the sport she had done, she had more meat to her bones then the others. This, began the spiral.

Her teen years got worse and worse. Especially when she got her first acting job. She began to eat less, focused more on working out and keeping herself in shape. The weight kept dropping off her, and the more compliments she got about it, the better she felt about herself.

Once she got a little older, she had gotten her mind more in order, and stuck with a better personality to how she ate food. She felt healthy. She was trim, fit. In her perfect weight range.

But this, it brought back all those feelings. She had spent hours that morning standing in the mirror in a bikini, looking all over her body just hating herself.

She had had her friends call her and text like normal, but she didn't reply to anyone. No one had expected anything, maybe just that she was having a rough day, until Rami had seen her tweet she had posted earlier. Her boyfriend, knew something else was up.

MESSAGES

rami 💖 (17)

what's with that tweet? tell me what's going on

lay, i'm worried.

what's come up? something must've happened?

why aren't you responding?

i'm sorry if i sound excessive, but shit lay - you always have your phone on you.

please, please tell me you're okay.

i don't like seeing you like this.

is there something i can do?

look, i'm gonna be busy for a couple hours, but when i'm free, i'm going to swing by your place, okay?

please message me back and tell me you're okay by then.

okay, i'm free now. and now i'm seriously worried that you still haven't responded.

is it that audition you had? did something come up with that?

i know you were worried about it.

okay wtf is happening? you're never this absent.

that's it, i'm coming over now and i'm bringing food.

i'm getting your favourites.

lay, open up the door, i'm outside.

For LA weather, it was pretty damn cold, surprisingly. So, somewhat unwillingly, Layla draped a light dressing gown around her body, tying it at the waist as she came down stairs of her townhouse to meet her boyfriend waiting for her. Her eyes were sullen and sunken in, blood shot with the amount of crying she had done for the last few hours.

He didn't have to say anything when he saw the sight of his girlfriend looking so hideously miserable after the day she had had. He quickly moved to place the bags of food to the coffee table before he wrapped his arms around her, her quiet sobs filling the empty space of her home.

"Talk to me, Lay. I've been shit scared about you all day. What happened?" Large eyes gazed over her in concern.

"Well, apparently I'm too fat, and need to drop 20 pounds. So whatever junk food you've brought, might as well put it away somewhere else cause this tub of fat doesn't need anymore to add to her body..." Her shoulders pulled into her body as she wrapped her arms around herself, moving to take a seat on her couch.

"What the fuck? Who would say that about you? Layla, you're absolutely stunning. Anyone else who says otherwise is clearly, blind." He wasn't just playing the nice boyfriend role, everything he said he meant. "Every little bit of your body is perfect."

"What? This?" She stood up, untying her dressing gown as she let it drop to the floor, leaving her in just a bikini. "These chunky love handles are perfect? The stretch marks on the inside of my legs look fabulous?" She went and pulled a bit, a tiny bit, of loose skin on her arm to try and 'make a point'. "Ooh, what about these chicken wings? They cert---"

"Enough Layla! Listen to me now, okay? You are more then every word they have said to you. I wish you could see yourself in my eyes. See yourself how I see you..." He moved to stand up across from her. faces inches away from each other. "When I see you, I see these beautiful hazel eyes that just shimmer when the light hits them the right way, and these plump lips that I just love, to kiss..." He left a few small kisses down from her forehead to her lips. "I love the feeling of those arms around me when you run up to hug me, and the way my hands can sit perfectly on your hips...."

The two of them still hadn't said that magic word yet. It had only been a few months now at this point. But right now, it was all Rami wanted to say

"Layla, I love you..." The look on her face said enough for her surprise. "I love every bit of you. Please, don't ever see yourself that way. If you in any measure care for me the way I do for you, you won't."

There was one thing she still felt like she had to say. And hearing him say it, just made it easier for her, knowing everything she felt was reciprocated.

"I love you too...." Her voice was weak, but she had never meant anything more then that.

Taking his hand, she didn't say a word.

She lead him upstairs, into her bedroom. Hands on his cheeks, she pulled him into a deep and lingering kiss. And for the rest of that night, they spent every minute tangled up in each other in a beautiful web of pure ecstasy in everything that they had felt for each other.