French-American |t.c|

eleven

Squeezed uncomfortably between Aurora and Angelina was the last thing Nai wanted or even thought would happen tonight. They were at Brad's film premiere and it had shocked everyone when Angelina showed up.

Maybe Nai the most, seeing as she was chilling with Timothée behind the scenes when her mother and sister strolled into the garden. Nai's eyes widened and she rushed to get up and hide behind Timothée or just do anything, but they had already seen her.

Her mother passing commented, "don't bother hiding Nai. It's embarrassing enough that you choose to disregard your craft and discredit yourself as an artist, but to hide it and act like a child?"

Angelina was notorious for voicing her rather controversial and often hurtful opinions. She'd insulted a whole crew of actors and their craft straight to their faces with no remorse. She didn't value actors, that was easy to tell. But the whole thing about it was, is it because she doesn't value the craft or that her divorce from her film director husband, ruined it for her?

Nai wasn't a therapist, but it was the latter. Her mother had a hatred for film because of Brad and she was a master projectionist. A fine one that really did not care about the opinions of others; kind of admirable if it wasn't such a horrible thing to be.

Nai had to awkwardly excuse herself from Timothée, unable to look him in the eye as her mother waited for her to join them. Aside from the situation and the earful Nai got from both her mother and sister, the premiere was rather enjoyable.

She wished she was on the other side of the room, laughing with Timothée, his friends and the cast, but even watching from afar, it wasn't too bad. The series had potential, she was proud of her dad and excited to see Timothée acting.

"Hiya, dad!" Nai laughs as Brad pulls his daughter into a large bear hug.

"Nai dear! Tell me what you think," holding her by the shoulders, her dad gives her that sceptical look as he awaits her answer, reading her face for any tell.

"Well... I loved it! It looks incredible dad, well done," Nai breaks out into a smile as her dad matches it, pulling her into another tight hug. The way he smiles at her, it's almost as if she acted in this and made it a huge hit.

"Hmm, now there's someone I want you to meet quickly," Brad begins scanning the crowd and Nai tries to follow to see who it could be until her dad turns to the side and clasps a young man on the shoulder bringing him around. "Nai, this is Timothée Chalamet, an incredible actor. Timothée, this is my daughter, the most talented ballerina. I may be biased, but wow."

Nai blushes at her father's comment as she looks up at Timothée with a small smile. He claps Brad on the back and smiles at him.

"Ah yes, I've had the pleasure of meeting Nai already. A wonderful lady your daughter is," now it's Timothée's turn to make Nai blush and smile. She noticed he had a habit of doing this whenever they were around each other, especially in front of other people.

"Yes, dad, and I've met the talented actor you speak of. Very charming," Nai wraps her arm around Timothée and gives him a gentle squeeze, giving her dad a big smile.

"Of course, great people find their way to each other, I should've known better--" Brad begins laughing with the pair, but is soon interrupted by someone asking a question.

With the departure of her father, Nai punches Timothée in the shoulder.

"What the hell Nai?" Widening his eyes, Timothée rubs his shoulder and his face contracts in pain.

"This is so good! How could you have forgotten to mention that you were working with my dad on something so brilliant?"

The pair exchange pleasantries that light up the other's face and make the other unable to stop grinning. They talk for a while, Timothée's excitement bubbling over as he expresses his love for working with Brad, how much fun he'd had on set and how he could tell that was where Nai got her wild and spontaneous side from.

Nai then went on to profusely apologise about how awkward things had been when Angelina and Aurora came unannounced, to which Timothée countlessly told her it was okay and he didn't mind too much, he still got to spend time with her. 

"This might be a long shot, but are you busy tonight? It's my friends' party tonight, would you like to come? it might blow, but I'd love to spend more time with you. Even though your mum isn't too fond of that, and it's totally cool if you aren't either, I just wanted to--"

"Timothée it's okay, I was invited to that too. I wasn't going to go, but I'll go with you,"