One of the Cast

The phone rang as I retrieved the milk fro the fridge for my breakfast of cereal. I put the milk down and tried to make my voice sound as though I hadn’t just woken up. “Hello?”

“Roman? Hey, this is Chloe, I talked to you yesterday about a job?”

I grew more nervous immediately. “Oh, of course, hey Chloe!”

“I’m just calling to tell you we’d love to have you! You can start tomorrow at 10!”

I hadn’t realized how much I’d truly wanted the job until I felt the flood of relief spread through my body. “That’s great, I’ll be there! I can’t wait!”

“Nor can I! See you tomorrow!”

“See you!” I hung up and put the phone on the counter, which was when Amanda walked through the door from her bedroom.

“Who was that?” She asked, fixing herself a cup of coffee.

“Chloe, from that store I was looking at yesterday. I have a job! Start tomorrow,” I finally got around to pouring the milk over my cereal and replaced it in the fridge.

She grinned widely and hugged me, almost causing me to spill my new bowl of cereal. “Amanda, you better watch yourself!” I joked as I moved the bowl to a safer place on the breakfast table.

She just laughed and shrugged before heading out to the set.

My first day at work ended with me being completely exhausted; they had had me running around the store all day learning the routine of everything and showing them more of my designs, which they seemed to like a lot. So, even though I was tired, I was very happy from what the day had brought me. I was just leaving the store when my phone rang, and Aaron’s name popped up on the screen. I smiled; it was nice to feel wanted, even if it’s not by the person you’d really like to want you.

“Hello?” I answered.

“Hey, Roman! What are you doing?”

I smiled. “I’m heading home, I just left the shop. Are you stalking me or something?”

He just laughed. “If I say no, would you be willing to put up with me for a few hours?”

I fake sighed, and said, “I suppose I could manage that, you’ll just have to give me time to get home and change first, though.”

“So what time should I expect to hear from you?”

“Well I’m walking, so at least an hour, I’d guess.”

“No need! I’m right around the corner from the shop, you stay where you are and I’ll be right there!”
He hung up before I could get more than a few words of protest out, so I looked at my phone a second before putting it back in my purse and leaning against a nearby wall after checking that it didn’t have anything gross on it. Either Aaron drove incredibly quickly, or he was already just around the corner when he called, because he took only a couple minutes before he stopped right in front of me, grinning madly with his favorite Ray Bans on. These and his messed up hair made him look incredibly attractive, but I managed to ignore this as I got in the car and shut the door behind me.

We decided to just go back to his house and watch a movie and hang out, and I’ll have to admit that most of the time we were in the car, I was only half listening to what Aaron was saying. I had realized after agreeing to watching a movie at his house that his house was, in fact, also Eddie’s house. What if Eddie’s home? I wondered. I disregarded it quickly, telling myself it was silly to have such a huge crush on Eddie. Because that’s all it is...a crush. It doesn’t mean anything. I reassured myself. Time to get over him.

We were sitting on the couch with his arm around me and my head on his shoulder watching The Avengers when one of the doors in the short hallway opened to reveal a shirtless Eddie, who seemed momentarily startled by the fact that I was there but recovered so quickly I almost didn’t register it. He merely said, “Hey, Roman!” And walked quickly into the kitchen, grabbed something to eat, and disappeared behind his door again. The whole rest of the movie I feel awful - there I was sitting with a wonderful, gorgeous, awesome guy yet it was all I could to to not think about Eddie every minute. By the end of the movie I felt absolutely terrible; so terrible that I almost didn’t let Aaron give me a goodnight kiss when he’d dropped me off at Amanda’s, but I did so that it wouldn’t hurt Aaron’s feelings by rejecting him.

With that I let myself into the house and went to bed feeling like an awful person for not appreciating everything and everyone that I had.

* * * * *

A month passed, and I had become much closer with everyone on the set, particularly Samantha and Aaron, who seemed to actually be interested in me, something it seemed as though I hadn’t experienced in ages. He had asked me out a few times, mostly just to hang out, but a couple times to dinner or lunch, whichever fit best with our schedules. Samantha and Amanda seemed bent and determined that we would end up dating, but I wasn’t so sure. He was bound for such fame and was surely going to be surrounded by girls much better than me, why would he even look twice at me?

But working at the shop had proven to be one of the best decisions I’d ever made, the girls there seemed to genuinely like me and some of my designs had even sold, much to my excitement. I had seen a random girl on the street wearing one of my outfits, and for pretty much the rest of the week I was simply glowing with excitement.

The only bad part of the whole thing was that every time I’d make any progress getting over Eddie, something would happen with Aaron or Eddie would do something undeniably super attractive and I would be right back to the beginning. It was awful.

It was a Wednesday night and I came home late, after Amanda even, and locked the door behind me before walking through the living room to the kitchen. I had just gone to get a coffee with Aaron because he would be busy that weekend and couldn’t do anything.

“How was it?” Amanda asked, not looking up from her magazine.

Mostly because I’m not generally one to elaborate a whole lot on everything, I simply said, “Good,” and opened the fridge to find something good before bed. I almost didn’t hear her huff of annoyance because of everything in the fridge door rattling around. I shut it and turned to her. “Is something wrong?”

She threw her magazine down and got up. “Yes, something’s wrong! You have Aaron and Eddie, and it’s obvious you’re not totally into Aaron but he still loves you anyway even though I’ve liked him way longer than you! Yet I still have to sit around and watch you drag him and Eddie after you like lost puppies and you don’t even care! So yes something’s wrong!” With that she turned and stormed back into her room and slammed the door shut, leaving me standing there with my mouth gaping open and completely confused about everything she’d just said.