Lights! Camera - ; Tyrus

Scene 21

Cyrus

"We will be the kings of Hollywood!" Nick shouts from atop a barroom table. We're all here, the cast, the crew, everyone to celebrate the finishing of the film, or the actors at least, I know a few editors will be having they're own party in a bit. It's all alcohol and games and a few tears throughout the night, only now are we getting to the drunk speeches.

"And none of us would be here if I wasn't for that man over there." Nick smiles and points at me, "who quite honestly nearly screwed this up at least six times. But at least we're done now! We did it! And we're getting paid!" Others laugh and clap as Nick bows.

"That was a beautiful tribute to you, Baby." TJ says, sitting down beside me at the counter, "I don't think anyone can top that."

"We'll see." I lean towards him and steal a kiss, "although I think I've used up all of my own inspirational pep talks. Why don't you try and make one?"

"Cause If I did then I wouldn't be able to sit here and laugh at how terrible they are." TJ shrugs.

"Excuses, excuses Kippen." I grab my glass of soda off the table and take another sip. "Guess I'm just going to have to wait for a legendary speech."

TJ tilts his head, "You're not drinking tonight?" He asks, changing the subject.

"No, I have to stay sober or else some tall handsome blond man might steal me away from you. You all look the same after a few shots." I tease, "That and I'm suppose to be driving us home tonight."

"We can catch a cab, and we probably won't be leaving until the morning anyway. I just want to make sure you have fun and stop worrying tonight." TJ finishes his glass and tries to grab another from the counter top.

I laugh, "Are you trying to get me to drink so I'll relax or so I'll kiss you more? We're not sixteen years old and this is not a high school party."

"It's a shame, I would have loved to see sixteen year old Cyrus. I bet he was fun." TJ says, nodding his head along to a song that just came on the speakers.

"Sixteen year old Cyrus was not fun. He hid in his room and wrote trashy screen plays. Most of them were just gay fantasies now that I think about it.." I reply.

"Did they have happy endings?"

"Most of them, some of them ended with either a zombie apocalypse or a dragon coming out of nowhere." I start laughing again, "It was stupid, but I didn't have anything else to do."

"Well you were very creative." TJ stands up and tugs on my jacket, (It's actually his but there's no way I'm giving it back) "Dance with me?"

"It's better than talking about my past screenplays." I join our fingers together and we stumble onto an empty spot on the floor. Our dancing is terrible and I think it's more of a drunk waltz then anything, but TJ doesn't let me go and neither do I. The song ends and we just spin into the next one, smiling and kissing and laughing and loving and being humans.

"I don't know why I ever broke your heart." TJ says, looking at me intently, "I think I'll regret that for the rest of my life."

"We broke each others hearts." I press myself as close to him as I can. "And none of that matters anymore. Because I love you."

TJ gives a lopsided smile, "You know sixteen year old TJ dreamed of this." And he leans down and kisses me, again and again and again. We don't stop or say anything except exit the dance floor as gracefully as we came, and I'm holding TJ, against myself, against the wall against all odds that we wouldn't survive, against all odds that we will and we did.

"You know this is stupid right? We should have done this ten years ago." I pull away and say to him.

TJ nods, "Of course. I guess we have to make up for lost time." I don't reply back, I just press my lips to mine again. TJ opens the door to the bathroom, hands still on the small of my back. You can still hear the music, but it's quieter, and not a single drunk speaker in sight.

We kiss better than we dance.

🎬

Nick finds me an hour later. His eyes are brighter then the lighting in this place. "Cyrus. Where the hell have you been? Where the hell is your phone?"

"Why does my phone matter in this instance?" I still can't fully concentrate on his words as he drags me out the front of the pub, I can't really think about anything else than blond hair and green eyes.

Nick continues to drag me outside until we're a decent amount of space from TJ, I mean the pub. "Dude, they've been trying to reach you all night." Nick pulls out his own phone, "they finally found me after like a million attempts."

"Who's trying to reach me?" I ask as Nick shoves his phone in my face, the light nearly blinding me. I take it from his hands and see all of the missed calls that started about an hour and a half ago until He finally picked up.

"Do I call it?" I really don't know what any of this means right now, and the cold from outside has woken me up from my happy trance. I pull tighter on my jacket.

"Yes call it! I'll be back inside when you're done." Nick smiles and jogs back inside.

I press the ID and listen to the ringing, pressing the phone against my ear.

"Ah, Mr Goodman, we've been waiting to get a response from you." A cool, colder voice comes from the other line.

"Who am I speaking with?" I change my demeanor quickly, knowing this isn't a simple call.

"We'll catch on a name bases once we settle on a deal. If you agree of course." The voice replies. "This could benefit you highly, Mr Goodman. We took great interest in your movie clips submitted, it's quite impressive what a couple of young adults can do with such a small budget."

"So this is about the film?"

"This is about the rest of your life."

I look to the bar where TJ stands talking to others, his smiling still catching light from this distance. Jonah and Walker (who was invited) are tangled in each others arms, Nick is getting ready to stand and do another drunk speech.

"Alright, I'm listening." I say, not talking my eyes off any of them.

A/N We only have an epilogue to go! That's insane.

It feels like it took me forever to finish this story, in fairness I was going to much earlier in the year, but then life got in the way. I'm still so glad that I still have people here. That's what matters most. <3 <3