Sign On The Dotted Line

Chapter 30

Claire

I looked down at the script in my hands whispering my lines to myself, praying that everything I should've already memorized would suddenly come to me.

Thank God we were on standby right now because I was so not prepared. On top of not having my lines memorized, I had the worst migraine. I should've gone over my lines instead of drinking that last bottle of wine last night.

At the time it seemed like a great idea, to drown my feelings in wine but all I wanted right now was a dark room, some Gatorade, ibuprofen, and cuddles from Beth.

Jessica walked up beside me and bumped my hip with hers, "hey! Thanks again for the little heart to heart with Dani. She's a little shy so I'm glad she was able to confide in you."

I smiled weakly, "Yeah, no worries. She's a great girl I hope everything works out for her." I brought a shaky hand up to push my hair behind my ear.

"Are you ok?" She asked raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, just peachy," I replied with a slight tremor in my voice.

"Ok guys," Jonathan clapped his hands together, "can we get everyone in the next scene at their marks?"

I gave Jess the biggest smile I could muster to show her that I was alright but she gave me a look that said she didn't quite believe me.

"Hey, Claire," Brett appeared in front of me, "ready for me to break up with you?" He joked, talking about the scene.

"I'll try not to take it to heart," I smirked.

"Quiet on the set!" Jonathon yelled while Brett and I got into character.

I sighed inwardly, this was going to be a long day.

* * * * *

"Cut!"

I watched Brett's facial expression relax as he rolled his neck back. I felt bad, we've had to do this scene multiple times and we're already behind schedule as it is.

Hair and makeup flocked towards us, touching up our faces and hair and I tried to keep still instead of giving in to the want of just running away and hiding in my dressing room.

Jonathan got up from the director's chair.

"I'm so sorry, Jon. I'll get it right, I promise."

Jonathan gave me a tight smile, "you're doing fine, Claire. You're getting all the cues and the lines right, but where's the emotion?"

He reached behind in his back pocket and pulled out the rolled-up script, "this scene is the last time Amanda and James will ever have before he is killed in action. It's supposed to be desperate and heartbreaking and raw."

"Ok," I nodded my head and cleared my throat, "ok, I think I got it." This particular scene was hitting too close to home and I was scared that if I really let myself get immersed in my emotions it would be too much.

He sighed and turned to walk back to the director's chair. Brett appeared in front of me again, "don't sweat it," he whispered, "just let yourself go."

"Quiet on the set!" Jonathan yelled.

A guy stood in front of us holding the clapperboard. "Roll," he said loudly.

"Action!"

Beth

Every notification I was getting from Instagram were either broken heart emojis or fans asking if we were really still going to be friends ever since I put up the breakup post. In the future, I would love to have Claire in my life but right now, it hurt even seeing her face on my page.