There was another knock; more impatient this time.
There was no time to get ready.
Groggily, I opened it to find Reese standing there.
Today he looked put-together; a tailor-made man in another of his impeccable suits. His tie was another deep purple with a subtle damask pattern shimmering across it. He was freshly-shaven, and his silver eyes were sparkling with excitement.
“Good morning Charlie,” he said, a smile lurking at the corners of his mouth.
“‘Morning,” I said sleepily, squinting in the morning light.
“I have good and bad news — which do you want to hear first?” he said.
Something unpleasant lurched in my gut as I pictured everything that could go wrong. The bad news had to be that I was going back to L.A., right? That this dream of mine was over.
“Um… bad?” I said tentatively, as if I was preparing to get slapped.
Reese shifted his posture and straightened his tie. “The bad news is that it’ll be a while before you act again.”
My face fell. This was it— all of my dreams were coming to a screeching halt. I looked down sadly. “I’ll pack up my things…” I said, turning around in my sleepy stupor.
“Charlie, wait,” Reese said, grabbing my hand and forcing me to turn back to him.
His touch was cold, but it was strong.
I looked back at him cluelessly.
He smiled, the expression hatching on his face. “Charlie, the good news is that you will act again. And you’re getting a bigger part in the Black Castle!”
“Wait, what?!” I said in disbelief, rubbing my eyes sleepily. “But you said—”
“I said you wouldn’t be acting again for a while,” Reese clarified. “A while being a few weeks. The perfect time to introduce your character is when we’re on set in Morocco.”
“M-morocco?” I said, still trying to wrap my mind around everything.
The dream wasn’t ending; it was going on.
“Oh, and one more small bit of bad news,” Reese said. “Alina came to me yesterday and demanded a different stylist.”
I clenched my teeth as I felt a gut punch. Alina clearly wanted me out of her life.
Our fight was more serious than I thought.
Reese frowned. “We’re at an awkward spot considering the timing of everything. Since we’re filming you in a few short weeks, it wouldn’t make sense to send you back to L.A., forcing you to find somewhere to stay, then flying you back out to Morocco.”
I was staring at him open-mouthed, still trying to register that I wasn’t getting fired.
“So, if you’d be patient with us, would you stay on set? It would be easier from a logistics perspective,” he said, eyeing me carefully.
“Um… yes?” I said, mentally pinching myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. This had to be a dream— this couldn’t be real.
“Excellent! That makes everything so much easier for all involved,” Reese said, clapping his hands together.
Then a twisting sensation took form in my gut. “Wait… so if Alina doesn’t want me to do her hair and makeup anymore… what am I expected to do for the few weeks we have before my scenes?”
Reese shrugged. “Make the most of Italy I suppose? Hang out? Spend time with the cast, I guess. Oh, and that brings me to your new compensation…”
He said a number and my mouth dropped.
“Is that agreeable to you?” Reese said, biting his lip.
He was afraid I was going to turn him down; refuse this fortune of money I’d be making daily.
I blinked a few times, unable to believe it. “Er… yes? Yes.”
A smile cracked Reese’s face. “Excellent! I’ll have one of the set managers come by later with the contract, so we can make everything official.”
Reese was practically vibrating with excitement.
I was still blinking sleepily as he listed off a few more details, then we shook hands, and he was off.
I closed the trailer door behind me, not entirely sure what had just happened.
My whole world had shifted, again.
The phrase, “Makes me famous” bounced around in my mind like a bouncy ball.
It was happening. It was really happening. I wasn’t going back to L.A., I was going to be an actor on The Black Castle for real, I was going to get paid an exorbitant salary to hang around a bunch of movie stars all day…
But Alina was mad at me. That was the one piece that felt out of place; it hung around my consciousness like an anchor.
Today I decided that I would try to apologize; to make her my friend again.
How hard could it be?
By the end of the week, I had made no progress with getting Alina to forgive me. At first, I thought she was just being dramatic, but before long it became clear that she wanted to sever our friendship entirely.
She froze me out. Every time I tried to get her alone, she would find an excuse to ditch me, or go hang out with Rachel, or suddenly remember that she had to do something.
I did manage to corner her once and demanded to know what I could do to make it up to her.
“What’s wrong?” I asked one day after she was done shooting. “Please Alina, please talk to me. We’re going to be acting together in a few weeks, we at least need to be on friendly terms.”
She tensed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said. “We are talking. We’re talking right now.”
“You know what I mean,” I said, my eyebrows coming together.
She turned to leave the empty room. Her footsteps were echoing farther and farther away from me. “Just because you’re angry about what you did in the past doesn’t mean you get to take it out on me,” I said.
She turned back to me, her white hair fanning around her face. “Just when I thought you understood, you go and say something like that,” she said.
Her eyes were full of hurt, and it struck me like an arrow straight to my heart. “I didn’t mean it like that, you know I didn’t mean it…”
But it was too late. She was already
