old friends • tom holland

nineteen

It had been almost three months since I had first run into Tom. The time had flown by with all of the business of soccer and the rest of life. I still managed to see Tom and Harrison a fair amount, but nothing was easy with all of our schedules. This morning, I was just arriving back at my apartment after practice.

"Dude, I am so tired." I complained to Lucy as she shuffled through the contents of our kitchen drawers.

"Always a good time to take a post-practice nap!"

I thought about her advice while laying on the couch, scrolling through my phone. It started buzzing in my hand just as I was about to watch a replay of last night's La Liga final. Initially I was upset, but then I realized that it was Harrison and I smiled.

"Hey, what's up?" I asked quickly.

"The real question is, what's up with you?" He sounded excited, and I hoped that my day might get a little more interesting.

"Nothing much, I just got back from practice but now I'm just chilling."

"Well, how would you like to come to set today? In approximately 20 minutes?"

I gasped, expressing my excitement once I comprehended the offer. After quickly agreeing, I ran to take a shower, leaving a slightly confused looking Lucy in the kitchen.

When I finally reached the set in my taxi, I could already tell that there was a lot going on. After sending a quick text to Harrison, I stepped out of the taxi and looked for some sort of signage, before realizing that sets of world famous movies probably wouldn't be labeled.

"Yo, Noelle! Over here!"

I glanced down the street to see Haz waving at me from behind a door. I grinned at him, jogging over to the entrance. I walked into the large room behind him, already amazed. There was so much going on. People with headsets barked orders into their microphones, extras stood around the set, cast members talked to directors, assistant brought food and drinks left and right.

"This is insane."

Harrison turned to me with a smile on his face. "It's really amazing. I'm so glad Tom brought me along. Speaking of the devil, where is..."

He was interrupted as Tom jumped on him from behind, leaving the boy groaning under his weight. "Ah yes, there he is."

I laughed at them, wondering how this could ever be a productive work relationship.

"Hey, I'm glad that you could make it, Noelle. I'm sorry that I can't hang around more, but I was already supposed to be filming this scene five minutes ago. But you're welcome to watch!"

I nodded as he turned and ran off, seemingly to get into position for the scene. I sat and watched for almost an hour. Tom was so talented— he had clearly grown up a lot since I last saw him perform in Billy Elliot. Harrison buzzed around set, managing Tom's schedule and life. I was sitting quietly off to the side, watching the magic play out in front of me.

They were filming a scene where Tom was all dressed up in his Spidey suit, working on saving a group of his friends. I knew that they were all good friends in real life, but they managed to play completely different people on set. In the scene, Tom was attempting to pull the group up from a falling elevator, and he had to time one of the stunts perfectly so that he could save a falling girl, who I had learned was his love interest.

They worked really well together, and I the second take he successfully caught her and lifted her up to him, holding her closely. They managed to arrange themselves in a way that allowed her to exit the elevator, and the scene ended shortly. After "cut" was yelled, Tom quickly worked himself out of the stunt apparatus and enveloped the girl in a hug, celebrating their success. I looked on, watching the chemistry that the two shared, and wishing I was her. Immediately after having the thought I shook my head, wondering what had gotten into me. After all of these years, I could not get interested in Tom now. It just wasn't us.