get lonely with me || tom holland

one: the one with the beginning of everything

When Tom tells Harrison that he wants to be in a romantic comedy, his best friend laughs at him as if that's the most ridiculous thing he has ever heard. Tom is slightly offended because come on, the idea of him being in a romantic comedy is not that outlandish, is it? He's been in a musical for God's sake and compared to a rom-com, the former is way bizarre - at least that's how he sees it.

Tom has been fortunate enough to star in several different genres of movies like actions, psychological thrillers, science fictions, historical drama and even animated films, but he's yet to know how it feels like to star in a rom-com. Don't get him wrong, he loves each and every movie he's ever been in but if he gets to be in a rom-com, he thinks his life will be made. Well, it'll be made all over again because he said the same thing when he got the role of Peter Parker.

He's intrigued, to say the least, and besides, he wants to venture into other genres.

"Are you sure, mate?" Harrison asks him, corners of his eyes crinkling as he finds the mere idea of his best friend being in a rom-com amusing. "You're not exactly 'rom-com' material. No offence."

"Fuck off." Tom gives his friend the finger and continues to scroll through his Instagram mindlessly, tapping twice on pictures of his friends and family. He's trying to distract himself from checking his emails every five seconds but it proves to be a futile attempt because less than five minutes later, he finds himself exiting Instagram and opening the mail application instead. He pulls his screen downward, refreshing his inbox but nothing new comes in.

A few days ago he found out that the best-selling book, The (Mis)Fortune of Knowing You, is being adapted into a movie and they're looking for someone to play the role of Leon James, the charming main character in the book who happens to be loved by the readers, and immediately he felt drawn to the character. So he did the one thing that he thought was the right thing to do: he contacted his agent and asked her if it's possible to land him an audition.

And he hasn't heard about it from her ever since.

As he refreshes his inbox again because yes, he's borderline obsessive about it by now, he remembers something.

"You know, Haz, there's one character in the book that reminds me of you."

Harrison quirks an eyebrow at him, prompting him to continue, which he learns a second later is the wrong move. He should've just ignored Tom.

"He's a bit of a dick but he's Leon's good friend and I think you should audition for that part seeing as you're a dick too, so you'd be perfect that part," Tom says to his friend, who rolls his eyes at him. And because he can't help it, he adds, "But maybe you need to tone it down a little."

Harrison doesn't warrant Tom's statement with a reply, but he could see that there's a hint of intrigue on his best friend's face like he's thinking about it too. While he's joking at first, now Tom can't shake the idea off of his mind. He thinks about how cool it will be to not only have his best friend on set but to be in front of the camera together.

"Maybe I should audition for Leon and you should be the dick best friend."

"Sure," Tom replies. That could work too. "I can finally channel Harrison Osterfield on screen."

"Glad I could be your muse," Harrison grins, to which Tom responds with a snort and an eye roll.

Tom opens his mouth to say something else like how much of a diva Harrison is when he sees a new email in his inbox. An email from his agent - the one he's been waiting for. He sits up, holding a hand out, and shushes his best friend.

"What? I'm quiet," Harrison says with a frown.

Tom shushes Harrison again, who shakes his head at him and diverts his gaze to the telly in front of them.

Holding his breath, Tom clicks on the email and skims through it. Then when he reaches towards the end of the email, for a moment he stills, expecting bad news. But instead of feeling as though his heart has sunk to the pit of his stomach, it feels as though his heart might jump out of his chest.

"Mate," Tom says as he reaches out for Harrison, accidentally hitting him on the stomach before he clutches his friend's shirt and tugs at it. "Mate."

Harrison turns to him, frowning. "What?"

"Mate."

"What."

Tom reads the email once more to make sure that he did not misread it because that would be horrifyingly embarrassing and when he's certain that he got everything right the first time he read it, he hands his phone to Harrison.

Harrison takes Tom's phone from his hand and reads the email out loud while Tom listens to him intently. Hearing it is way, way better than reading it and Tom feels like he might lose his shit. He remembers the day he found out he would be the new Spiderman, remembers how thrilled he was because holy shit he's the new Spiderman - the character that almost everyone loves.

And this moment right now feels exactly like that. It's unreal.

When his agent contacted the writer and the producer of the upcoming rom-com, Kim Davison, she was told that Kim was already planning on sending the script to Tom. It turns out that Kim thought Tom would be perfect for the role of Leon James and the role is his if he wants it. But of course, he still has to send his audition tape just for the sake of it.

"This is amazing," Harrison says when he's finished reading the email and hands the phone back to Tom. He pats his friend's shoulder, squeezing it before letting go, and adds, "Congratulations, mate."

"Thanks, Haz," Tom replies, still trying to wrap his head around everything.

He's lucky, he's very much aware of that, because opportunities like these don't come often. It's not every day that the writer who is also the producer of the movie wants you to be in the movie. More often than not, Tom has to go through auditions that usually last for months and even then he's still not guaranteed a role.

This is a sign, he thinks, but a sign of what he's not sure yet.

"But hey." Harrison nudges Tom's knee with his, snapping him out of his thoughts, and then continues, "Don't spill it to the Internet just yet."