✦ ✧ ✩ Curtain Call ✦ ✧ ✩ - Charlie Gillespie

Chapter 13

"Eri, this is freaking amazing" Maddie said, holding the paper where we were writing on really close to her face. We were both sitting on a pile of crumpled up papers that covered all the living room floor "I can't believe you don't write more original stuff, I would watch the hell out of that"

"Actually" I said, grabbing my laptop that was sitting on the coffee table.

"What? No way Eri, show me" she said, as she sat down quickly next to me.

"I sent out a lot of scripts and pitched ideas for a lot of different TV shows" I said, plugging in my pen drive "None of them got picked up but it was fun. And, I have an original, the pilot's finished and I have a whole season of story lines lined up streaming of it, I just don't know how I would take it if they didn't pick it up. I have the biggest ego" I said, letting out a laugh.

Maddie laughed with me but then became very serious.

"Have you shown this to anyone else?" She asked, tilting her head.

I sighed "Yes, yes I have but I really don't want to talk about it" I paused for a minute before continuing, staring at the screen "Would you, I mean, do you want to read it?"

Maddie's eyes opened like plates, and she interlocked her hands putting them to her mouth

"Yes, please!" she said, letting out the biggest of smiles.

"I'll send it to you" I said, as I forwarded the file "You are one of the few people in this world I would show this to, you and of course..." I said, and my fingers suddenly stopped moving.

"Yes I know" she said, grabbing my hand. I shrugged my shoulders and gave her a little smile. "Have you sent it yet?" she continued.

"Yes it's done. Don't say anything about it until you read it all ok?"

"Ok, deal. I can't wait to read it. And I can't wait 'til we present this to the Julie and The Phantoms writers" she said, grabbing the paper where the final scene was written again.

"Ugh I forgot we have to go through the writers" I said, grabbing my head "I haven't talked to Matthew since, you know"

She nodded, biting her lip and rolling her eyes "Yeah I know but don't worry I'll be there with you, and Kenny will too" she said, putting her hand on my back.

"Yes you are right. It's just him judging my work again that makes me particularly nervous" I replied, looking down at what I've written "I shouldn't let him stop me anymore"

"That's what I'm talking about" she said, putting up her hand for me to high five her, and I followed suit.

"So, are we finally going to talk about last night?" she said, looking at her clock, that marked 5 am "And the fact that Maeve is not home yet too"

"Yes we can talk about it, and RIGHT? that girl amazes me. I love Owen for her. I really hope they can make it work out once she is gone."

"Ok thank you because I really want to but I didn't want to make you uncomfortable." she replied "Are you ok? How do you feel?"

"I mean, I'm absolutely crushed you know? Logically. But also, being as just as I can be, the only fair thing for me to do is to be happy for him. I can't expect him to be chasing me after I told him I wanted to be his friend. And friends just, you know, support each other. I would've loved that he told me, but he doesn't owe me anything" As I said those words I felt a weird feeling of anger that came from my guts and rested in my throat. I tried to ignore it but it just stayed there. Boiling. Brewing. Even though I knew he was entitled to do whatever he wanted, the fact that he just appeared with that girl settled right there and then and now I was fixated on that just two days earlier he was acting like I betrayed him, and worst of all, it dawned on me how he was acting like he liked me and moved on so quickly.

"You know, maybe we shouldn't talk about it" Maddie said, standing up and walking towards the kitchen "You have a murderous face on"

"Yeah I think you are right" I said, opening the text app on my laptop.

"Hey Matt, maybe we should grab a drink tomorrow night. Talk about what happened. Let me know what you think xx" I pressed send and shut the laptop to go join Maddie in the kitchen.

Maddie slept at home with us, and we woke up the next day to go straight to set. When we arrived Maddie and Sav went straight to hair and makeup, and I directed myself to the catering table and stuffed my face with donuts. I am a nervous eater and this was the time to be nervous. As I was grabbing the 6th one I felt someone tickle my waist, I turned around wiping my face quickly.

"Hey gorgeous" Maeve said, giving me a hug after wiping powdered sugar off of my face. "You look like that time you were called to work with Joshua Basset in that one really gory Grey's Anatomy Episode"

I hugged her and gave her a smack on the back of her head as we let go off each other.

"Shut up. I'm presenting a scene I wrote to Kenny and the writers today, I'm incredibly nervous so please calm me down" I said, as I started pinching my arms "Also, I did something super stupid" I was about to blurt out that I texted Matthew, and not only that but I also still didn't have an answer from him, but we were interrupted.

"What's up Eri?" Owen shouted at me, putting his arms in the air walking towards us and hugged us both "Hope you weren't too worried last night, I really wanted to give this lady the night of her life" he continued, letting go off just me "I'm really sorry about last night, If I'd known he would do that I would've never let you..."

"It's ok" I interrupted him "At least I did my part" I replied, coldly, and I could feel my body ick at my own attitude towards him "I'm sorry Owen I'm just really nervous" I left them standing there, both of them looking at me crazy confused, and walked towards the writers' office.

Maddie came out of hair and make up and met me outside their door.

"Are you ready?" she asked me, as she knocked on the door.

"Been Never more sure and unsure of anything in my entire life" I replied. Kenny opened the door for us, and we pitched the scene, from the guys deciding to hit the clubs to the song's last few notes. It was short and sweet but I still felt proud of it, It completed the song's feelings and the emotions I wanted to evoke. I was another person while doing that presentation, moving around and strutting, I was never more in my element than that day. I was not retouching something someone else wrote, this was mine, 100% mine.

The writers thanked us and told us they would revise and come back with notes. We made our way out and Kenny followed us. He just grabbed me by the shoulders and looked me in the eyes.

"Hiring you was straight up one of the best decisions I've ever made" and just walked. I was left there, frozen and freaking out internally while Madison hugged me and freaked out.

"That was amazing Eri you turned into a whole ass businesswoman in there"

"I can't believe I actually did that" I said, turning to her, shaking "I've worked with big names and gave them pointers or some ideas but this was something else, Mads I can't believe this, thank you!"

We were jumping around and celebrating when I spotted Charlie introducing Kenny to the blonde girl from the karaoke bar.

"God you gotta be kidding me" I said, letting out a sigh and clenching my fists.

Maddie saw and grabbed my arm taking me to the other side of the set.

"Hey, you haven't met Tori yet, let's go do that instead of letting all of that distract you from the fact that you just made a badass move". She made me walk around the dancers, interrupting a huge number's rehearsal. We stopped in front of a petite girl that looked like one of the leaders of the group. She hugged Maddie and turned to me.

"Tori this is Eri, Eri this is Tori" she said, using her hands to point at us.

"Yeah yeah I know who you are you play Kayla, our meeting is scheduled around this time next Thursday right?"

"Yes it is! It's so nice to meet you, the guys talked about you quite a bit, and I met Maeve a little earlier. Her, Owen and I are planning to throw a party tonight because she leaves the day after tomorrow right?"

"Of course you just met her and she already has you throwing parties" I said laughing "I guess I'll see you tonight if she has her way"