The Things You Do To Me

Skimming the pages as she stood with her agent Roger inside the studio, Laura flipped through the pages of the freshly printed script. She focused on the characters names and their parts as she drowned out Roger’s voice as he talked to the director.

Laura was captivated by the plot line, she felt like she could reread the story over and over again without ever getting tired of it. She had done some research the night before and was genuinely excited to act in this movie. She still wasn’t sure what role she had wanted to play, but she decided she would let the directors choose for her.

“Laura, are you still with us?” Roger chuckled, his hands coming between her eyes and the letters on the white paper.

Shaking her head she looked up at the two men, one being her agent and the other a three time winning Oscar director. “I’m fine," she said closing the script. “I was just reading and kinda got caught up in it. It’s really good, I like it a lot.” She grinned up at them, both of the middle aged men smiling back down at her.

“Well I’m glad you like it,” the director said. “I’m Peter; I’ll be your director if you make the role.” He stuck his hand out for a hand shake, and Laura fixed hers into his, giving it a tight squeeze as she shook it lightly.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Roger smirk and nod his head happily. He mentored her on strong handshakes and strong eye contact, it shows the director that you mean business and serious for the job. “Well I look forward to working with you Mr. Jackson.” She still held the contact between them, squinting her eyes and letting her face draw a smirk on her lips.

The man chuckled and brought his hand back to his side as it slipped out her grip. “You’re confident you’re going to get the part?” He asked as his eye brows raised, little indentions also becoming present as he followed through with the stupefied look. “What part do you want anyway?”

She shrugged. “I have no idea, whatever you feel that I’ll do best in.” She told him exhaling. “I’m up for anything.”

Even though she pulled a confident face, on the inside she was nervous. “Well then,” Peter said to her. “When Joe gets here we’ll start the auditions and you can run through all of the females roles. Sound good?”

Knowing she had no way out she agreed. “Of course; now if you excuse me, I’m going to go read some more of the script.” Said Laura before walking to a set of chairs set up against the plain white wall.

Propping her left leg over her right she grabbed the thick book and found her doggie eared bookmark and began reading from where she left off. The three lights hanging above her help illuminated the small black ink on the white paper.

Laura began to drift off from reality and let the tale of a murdered child watch her family grieve her death, and her father and sisters rage to bring her murderer to justice. Laura could picture herself playing the main character, but she began to wonder if she could handle the intense scenes.

She could imagine herself running through the streets, her cheeks stained with tear drops as they ran from her eyes to her jaw line. She could picture herself standing amazed at the beauty of the in between, it’s magnificence making her feel safe, but still making chills of fear run down her spine. She could see herself playing the innocent school girl admiring her crush.

Hearing the excited sound of chatter from many of the other people around her Laura glanced over the top of the script and a group of teenagers standing by the entrance. She eyed them intensely. Something had to have happened to get them all excited. She noted that the girls were grinning, their cheeks slightly blushed as the giggled as low as they could manage. The guys on the other hand seemed annoyed by the girls behavior. To Laura, they seemed the sanest at this point.

“Monica,” one of the males said to the brunette. “You’re looking like an idiot. Chill.”

“Yeah, deep breaths. In-n-out, in-n-out.” Another male added, receiving a glare from the grey eyed girl named Monica.

“I’m not in labor moron. I don’t need to practice my breathing.” She said rolling her eyes before smiling up at the two boys.

“Well then quit acting so weird. It’s just a boy.” A tall teenage boy said. His hair was slightly long, a color that reflected the same color as Nick’s.

Laura noticed that all the girls seemed on edge, their cheeks flushed with a dark red. Out of the corner of her eye she say the producer walk by her. Turning her head to face him she was even more confused when he passed by, whispered to a security guard, and slipped out of the room.

“It’s not just any guy. It’s a Jonas!” Monica squealed.

‘Oh schnitzels…’ Laura thought, her heart stopping. She quickly closed the script, placed it on the seat next to her and walked out of the room through another door.

Laura walked aimlessly down the corridors looking for a girl’s bathroom to hide in; heck, even or a supply closet would work. Laura did not want a confrontation with Joe. She didn’t want one with any of the Jonas members; all because it would remind her of what once was.

At that moment she had a terrible thought. ‘What if Nick came to tag along with Joe? Be his support and come to smooth over the still rough patches of their rocky relationship?’ She was scared to death of that.

She smoothed her palms over her pants and swallowed the lump in her throat as she jogged down the hallway to find a non locked room. As she turned handles she was asking herself why she was getting so worked up over all of this. But she knew why.
She had always been the one to over worry, letting little things grow way out of proportion when she got nervous. She couldn’t help it, and that bugged her.

“Chill out Laura!” She whispered yelled to herself. “You’re running away from one guy-- one guy that you hardly even talk to. You’re only freaking out because he’s brothers with your ex; it’s not like he is your ex.” She sighed to herself as she slid down to the floor, her hands resting on her knees. “Oh forget it. I’m not going to be able to get around him, so why even try to run?” She asked herself.

“Run from who?”

She froze. Squinting her eyes and scrunching up her nose she looked away from the figure standing to her right. “Dang it!” She mouthed, her eyes squeezed shut tightly.

“Hello?” The voice asked. “Hey, you’re Laura.” She could hear the smile on his face. Oh how she wanted to smack it off of him at that very moment. She would’ve too, if she hadn’t been paralyzed from getting caught talking to herself.

“Are you going to answer me?” They asked again. “If you’re embarrassed about getting caught talking to yourself, don’t be. I don’t mind, well unless you were answering yourself, then I’d be a bit concerned for your mental health.” Again she could hear the smile on his face, the light chuckling just rolling off of his lips and into the surrounding air.

She figured if she didn’t answer him he’d keep annoying her; possibly even sit down next to her and gently rock her body to get her to spill. So, she sighed as an answer to his many questions.

“Sorry, but I don’t speak sigh-nese. You’ll have to repeat that in English.”

She rolled her eyes angrily and spoke. “Me laisserez-vous la paix? Je ne veux pas vous parler. Je ne veux pas parler à personne en ce moment. Parter.”

The awkward silence made her want to laugh, but she constrained it.

“Uh uhm, well, you see, I don’t speak fluent French so I have no idea what you just said.”
He told her honestly. “Can we try that again in English?” He asked, his footsteps echoed down the empty hallways as he stepped closer to her.

Standing up and patting all the dirt off of her pants she met his gaze for the first time. “You weren’t supposed to get it. That’s why I said it in French.” His face turned from goofy to confused as her voice gave way to her aggravation. She passed by him as she walked back towards the room where the rest of the waiting cast was.

“What’s your deal?” He asked. “I didn’t do anything to you. I could see if I did something to piss you off, but I didn’t. So would care to explain why you’re being rude?” His hand reached out to grab her arm and keep her from walking, causing Laura to jump at the touch. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

Turning around to face him she could feel the guilt coming to her. She was being rude to him, and he was right, it was uncalled for. But could he possibly understand where she was coming from? It was worth the shot at least.

“No I’m sorry.” She said looking up at him through her knotty bangs that hung in front of her eyes. “I shouldn’t have taken all my aggravation out on you. I was just nervous and scared. And I didn’t like that you found me talking to myself, which was the cherry on top of my irritation. Forgive me Joe?” She turned her lips into a half smile-half frown while her eyebrows furrowed together to show that she was sorry.

Joe dropped his hand from her arm and crossed it with his other arm at his chest. “Apology accepted. Why were you nervous and scared?” He asked, one of his brows lifted up to form a quizzical look. “Wanna talk about it?”

Laura felt herself involuntary smiling at his question, a small snort releasing through her nose. “No not really.”

“Are you sure?” He asked as he stepped closer and peered down at her small frame.

Laura looked around Joe when she heard a hum of voices approaching them, their voiced and footsteps growing closer every second. She started growing uncomfortable when she thought she heard his voice.

Joe noticed her discomfort and looked over his shoulder to see what she was looking at. He watched as the producers and directors were walking down the way with a clipboard in each hand, every member mumbling to each other.

Joe shot his head back to Laura and watched as he eyes stayed glued to the corner where she feared more people would come around.

“Laura,” Joe spoke her name, trying to get her to focus on what he had to say. When she finally managed too look up at him he smiled and chuckled. “Don’t worry, Nick isn’t here.”

Laura shot daggers into Joe’s eyes. “Why do you think I’m nervous because of him?”
Joe opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by the director. “Joe! Where have you been? We went out to meet you in the front but you weren’t there.”

Joe turned to face the men and gave them all a strong hand shake, his smile lighting up the small hallway. “I know I know. I was going to come in through the front but there were so many people Big Rob was afraid that the barriers would break, so he had me come in through the back.”

“Laura, I didn’t see you there. What are you doing out in the corridor darling?” He asked her.

Laura didn’t let the sudden question scare her, instead she practiced her acting. “Oh, I had come out here to find the bathroom when I ran into Joe. We began chatting a bit, and then you guys showed up.” She said adding a smile as she looked into each of the men’s eyes.

“Well that’s odd, we were all trying to find you two. What a coincidence.” Peter said grinning. “Now, shall we get down to business?”

“We shall,” Joe and Laura said at the same time, earning a laugh from all of the producers.

“They’re perfect for the parts!” One man said.
Laura looked from man to man, shaking her head and smiling. “What parts?”

Peter cleared his throat before he began to explain. “Well you see, Joe being popular with teenage girls and their mothers we have wanted him to play a main role, but still look of age. That’s where you come in Laura. You’re big with all of the boys, and with your acting skills you could easily claim the role of Susie Salmon. So in the end we want you to play Susie and Joe play your love interest Ray. How does that sound?”

Both teens were speechless. The awkward tension easily let anybody who knew about celeb gossip on why they weren’t thrilled about playing each other’s love interests.

“So, you want us to be main characters and love interests because we’re the biggest teens in Hollywood at the moment?” Laura asked, trying to make it seem like the real reason wasn’t really the reason.

All men nodded.

“Skill doesn’t count?” Joe asked joining in.

Peter spoke next. “Skill does count, and we’ve watched your previous roles and talked to those producers and they gave us nothing but good things about you. We feel you guys would be perfect.”

Joe and Laura looked up at each other, Laura’s cheeks begin to turn pinky from this situation. “What would we have to do?” She asked.

“Well in the book Susie and Ray have a very intimate scene where she comes back from the in between and they—How do you guys say it now, ‘hook up’” One of the other men said.

Laura made a disgusted face. “They had sex?” She watched as the men nodded their heads again. “Oh god.”

“We won’t be doing that? Right?” Joe asked, his cheeks becoming a tad bit pink as well.

Peter laughed. “Oh gracious no. Well, if you wanted to I’m sure we could write it in.” He said winking.

“I don’t think Joe’s fan would like that. I’d rather not get killed, sorry.” She said. “No job is worth dying over, unless you’re defending your country.”

All of the men laughed, except for Joe who was held an unreadable face as he stared at the wall. Laura sighed as she ran a hand through her tangled hair and looked up at Peter.

“Do I have to audition?” She asked.

“Not at all, but you do have to show up to film.” He said messing with her. “But we’d like it if you didn’t tell the rest of the cast and got to know all of them. We’ll also need to meet up with your people at one time to discuss the plot and everything real soon. How about tomorrow?” He asked.

“It’s no problem for me.” Joe said, Laura agreeing with him.

“Perfect, I’ll see you two tomorrow then at ten a clock sharp.” Peter said walking into the casting room with the rest of the men, leaving Laura and Joe by themselves.

“This’ll be so awkward.” Laura said dragging out the ‘so’.

Joe nodded, then followed Laura’s previous actions from earlier and slid down to the floor. “It will be. You want some popcorn?” Joe pulled out a bag of popped corn from his jacket pocket and offered it to Laura who was settling down next to him.

She let out a chuckle and grabbed a couple pieces from the edge of the bag. “That was so weird. You were all serious and then randomly offered me popcorn.”

“Well,” Joe said smiling as he stared at the wall in front of them. Laura looked at him intensely, her eyes following every curve on his profile. His forehead, nose, cheek bones, everything. “I’m not going to worry about it. It’s just acting.” He said shrugging the topic off his shoulders.

“But you won’t be the one receiving death threats.” Laura said seriously, eye balling him even more now.

Joe turned to face her, his lips still planted into a smile. “Don’t worry, I’ll protect you from them, and Nick.” He said smugly. “And again I ask, why were you nervous about Nick being here?”

Laura sighed innocently. “You wouldn’t understand. You’ll think I’m just some teenage girl.” She told him.

“Laura, you are a teenage girl. Plus, I’m sure if you’d explain it to me I could understand and possibly help.” He told her quietly.

Laura looked down at her fingers and began to pick at the polish. “Okay, but you mustn’t tell anyone, or else I’ll hurt you.” She told Joe seriously, but then started laughing when he pulled a funny face. “The reason why I was rude to you was because I thought Nick was here. The reason I was nervous Nick was here was because I’m not ready to face him yet.”

“What do you mean?” He asked handing her more popcorn as they sat in an empty hallway.

From there Laura told Joe. She told him all of her worries, all of her insecurities.