Flower Crown

As Brielle stepped out of the building and into her silver Toyota, she made sure nobody was looking and banged her head against the wheel.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt. I just bumped into the owner of hitRECord and a famous actor. She hesitated before putting the keys in the ignition. She couldn't freak out--not here, not now. But oh my gosh.

As she drove back to her sister's apartment, she started talking to herself wildly.

"Okay, Brielle. It's fine. It's New York--and it's Joseph Gordon-Levitt." She groaned--both in astonishment of what just happened, and in embarrassment of crashing into a celebrity's Starbucks tray. Why was she so clumsy?

Her thoughts were still on Joseph as she passed the beautiful landmark known as the Brooklyn Bridge, heading to the crowded section of downtown Brooklyn.

Before she knew it, she had arrived at her sister's--well, actually, her townhouse, now. Ashton's black Chevy was parked out front, but she hoped Samantha wasn't working.

"Samantha!" she called out, running up the brownstone stairs, opening the yellow, French doors while crossing her fingers. Her sister would go crazy--she knew it.

"Samantha?" she said again, climbing up the carpeted stairs to the second floor. She opened the white wood door to Sam and Ashton's bedroom. She walked in, feeling the plush, black carpet beneath her heels. Sam was lying sideways on the sheet-less bed, sleeping. Brielle rolled her eyes. Of course. She started to shake her shoulders, whispering her name in her ear.

Instead of waving her away and shifting her sleeping position (which was the routine when they were younger), Samantha sat up and rubbed her eyes.

Yawning, she said, "How did the interview go?"

"Great. Awesome, I guess. I think they'll just call me or something in a week or so. But I have to tell you something really crazy that happened," she added in a rush, her gray eyes wild with excitement along with the perplexed look of what had happened not 10 minutes ago.

"What? What?"

"I met Joseph Gordon-Levitt."

Brielle had imagined her sister bouncing, shaking her shoulders as well, and begging her to tell her more. But she just furrowed her brow and tilted her head. "Who the heck is that?"

Brielle laid back on the bed, sighing and throwing the soft covers over her. "Really? He's the guy who played in Inception, 500 Days of Summer, and Hesher. Oh, and he owns hitRECord."

For a second, Samantha just stared at her, but then her mouth dropped open and her face lit up--her true colors. She was always this way. "Oh my gosh, you met him? How? When? Was he cute? What happened?"

Brielle laughed. "Calm down. And I met him after the interview, and I, uhm..." she trailed off, her cheeks heating up with embarrassment.

Her older sister's eyes narrowed. "What did you do?"

"I kind of bumped into him when I was leaving your friend's office."

Samantha threw herself against the bed, groaning. "Story of your life, Brielle. How cliché! Was he cute?"

"Yeah, he was, but...what does it matter?"

She smiled. "Maybe I can pair you guys up," she said, wiggling her eyebrows. Brielle laughed. "Ew!" she exclaimed, hitting her with a pillow. "That won't even happen. That's stupid to think about!"

"You never know," Samantha replied, shrugging. "There's always a chance."

A few silent beats passed before Brielle’s blackberry blared a soft piano melody. Her heart sunk. It was the melody she assigned to her mother’s number.

Sam’s eyebrows rose, taking the phone out of Brielle’s blazer pocket before letting her delicate hand drop it between the two. Brielle quickly answered it.

"Hello?"

"Brielle."

Her mother's tone was even, but it sounded like it could escalate in a matter of seconds. She said it sternly, and slightly like the words were venom seeping from her mouth.

“Where are you?” her mother spat into the phone.

Lines formed on Brielle’s forehead. Where was she? It’s been over two days and now she was concerned about her location?

"Mom, I'm living with Samantha. I don't care about what you think of me, and I don't need your criticism on what you want me to do. I will live my life, being a screenwriter, not worrying about you."

Samantha stared at her little sister in shock, but then she smiled, throwing her hands up and giving Brielle a high-five. You go, girl! she mouthed.

"You are making irrational decisions, and you're acting like a stupid girl. You obviously don't care about where your life stands right now."

There it was. It was starting to go up--the tone getting higher and higher.

"I care about my life, and that's why I'm living in Brooklyn. I want to be happy for once, Mom, without hearing what you have to say about it."

There was a pause. The only emotion in Brielle's eyes was sadness, mixed with anger. She shook her head.

"Goodbye, Brielle."

The line went dead, and she turned her phone off and put it back in her purse. She exhaled and turned to her older sister, who was smiling sadly.

"You did the right thing," she whispered, hugging Brielle.



It was a week after the interview when she received the call; the call that would determine her job as a screenwriter.

It was late in the afternoon on Saturday, and Brielle was sitting quietly in her bed with her laptop in hand. She was emailing her past employer, who was always wondering what she was up to and what movies she would be working on next.

Her light brown hair was thrown into a messy bun, and after lunch with her sister, she hadn't bothered to do anything besides throw on a pair of red pajamas and run some errands.

Her ringtone blared from her Blackberry, and she stared at the caller ID. It wasn't a number that she recognized, and her heart dropped.

With trembling fingers, she pressed a button and lifted the phone up to her ear. "Hello?"

Natalia's voice was slightly muffled as it came from the phone. "Brielle Hyde?"

Her breath caught in her throat. "Yes?"

"Hi. I apologize for the long wait. Well, I've been looking over your resume and your references for the past week, and I think I'm fit to say that you got the job."

I got it. I got the job. "Wow. That's--wow. That's great to hear. Thank you."

"Uh-huh. Unfortunately, if we want to get anything done, we have to do it tonight. I'm very sorry for such a late notice, and I had no intention for this to be rushed at all, but I've been very busy lately. Is there any way you can come tonight to set up your office and get your work ready for your first day on Monday?"

"Absolutely. Would seven o'clock be okay?"

"Perfect. I'll see you then at my office."

"Thank you! Bye."

She turned off her phone and did a happy dance on her bed, then sat down and smiled widely. Just as she grabbed her phone again to dial her sister's number, there was a knock at her door.

"Come in."

Ashton entered, grinning, his jacket thrown over one shoulder. He was a tall man, with untamed brown hair that sometimes seemed to connect with his beard and mustache. His black, round-framed glasses seemed slightly fogged from outside as he stood by Brielle’s doorway. The first two buttons on his blue plaid shirt were unbutton as he held his hotel manager uniform in arm. "Did you get the call yet?"

"Yep! I got the job."

He laughed. "That's great! Congrats. When do you start?"

"Monday, but I have to go in at seven to get my office set up and stuff."

He looked at his watch. "That's in two hours."

"Late notice, apparently," Brielle replied.

Ashton shrugged before saying, “Well, congratulations.”

Brielle liked Ashton. He was very brotherly to her the past few days. They’ve never personally met before coming here, but Samantha spoke highly of him whenever she got the chance. They talked briefly before Ashton started to yawn, and leave to his own room

She hadn't washed her face from the makeup from her earlier lunch with Samantha, so all she did was throw on a black shirt with a yellow blazer, along with dark slacks.

When she had arrived at the correct floor, the assistant who was there last time showed her to Natalia's office. Natalia was sitting in her desk behind the neatly organized stacks of papers, shuffling through and a key in one hand.

"Brielle," she said, looking up at her with a smile. "Thank you for coming on such short notice."

She beckoned for her to sit down, and she did. "No, thank you for giving me this job."

"Not a problem. Firstly, we need to talk about your office. I'll show you everything after we get done. Don't worry, it shouldn't take longer than an hour."

Brielle nodded, listening closely as her new boss talked to her about her duties.

"This is the key to your office," Natalia said, holding up the bronze key. "You can decorate it however you like, as long as it's professional. It's small, but that's because most of them have two people working in them, so it's double the size. Well, except for mine, of course."

Natalia's smile was soft, but she knew how to get her point across, which Brielle admired.

"You'll do all your writing in the office, obviously. You can take a one hour lunch, although I'm not too strict since I know how hard it can be writing for the entire day. So don't feel like you have to be back at any given time, as long as it's around an hour. You seem like a pretty experienced screenwriter for your age, and you've done some successful movies, but being new to this company, you won't get many offers just yet. After this first one, trust me, though--if you do well, then you'll have lots of directors and producers wanting you to be one of their screenwriters."

She nodded as she took this all in. It seemed simple enough--some thought that writing all day would be so tiresome, but she was never the only screenwriter for the movie, so it moved along quickly and would rarely require extra work at home.

"Of course, you know that you won't always be writing all day. You'll receive plenty of emails from the directors and producers for you to come on set, get a feel of the movie, and spend a few hours understanding the drift of it. You can come in at 9:00 from Monday to Friday, and you get off at 5:00. Any questions?"

She basically understood everything. Over the past years, she had worked at different places with a variety of directors and producers, so she was experienced with what was going on and what work she would be doing.

Natalia's heels clicked along the floor as she lead her to her new office. "You can bring any decorations on Monday, and you won't be doing much work. You'll really just be meeting people, emailing the directors and producers, and getting to know this place."

It didn't take more than an hour after Brielle was showed her office. It wasn't as small as she had anticipated, but it was cozy, and it had a beautiful view of Brooklyn. A computer with a leather-bound chair sat over an expensive-looking wooden desk, with chic hardwood flooring and glass walls.

"Actually, the hitRECord people are here, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt is shooting his movie in Brooklyn. It's called Don Jon's Addiction, I believe. It's a really late notice for screenwriting, as everything seems to be here, so they need someone as soon as possible."

Brielle's mouth dropped open, but Natalia couldn't see as she led her to the elevator. Of course. She was screenwriting Joseph Gordon-Levitt's movie. In what world was she in?

After saying goodbye to Natalia, she stood in the elevator, still shocked. As she peered over at one of the rooms, she noticed him. Him. He was talking to an older man, his back towards her. She pushed the button to go down, still trying to hide her smile.