Once Upon a Time

The next day was another rehearsal filled day. I was exhausted, Len had decided to redo the choreography from the first scene. I still wasn’t sure why, the choreography before had been much better and more entertaining than what we were currently learning. It was somewhere around 1 when Len called for lunch and asked me to come and talk with him.

“What did you need Len?” I asked as I walked towards him, I was still wiping the sweat from my face.

“Ryan wanted me to talk to you about giving you some lines on one of the episodes this season. I know Lea talked to all of us about how you two met during some musical, so we know you can act and sing…. Probably better than you can dance.”

I couldn’t help but laugh, Len always had a way of throwing some sort of insult into whatever compliment he was giving you.

“I don’t know Len, I came out here to dance and god knows how long this will even last. I don’t….”
“Take a few days to think about it. The first episode is already written so it wouldn’t be until later in the season. Think about it.”

With that Len walked away from me. Did I really want to do this? Did I really want to be on TV and actually act? My mother would shit. Lea would as well, then came the whole other question of it was something I even wanted to talk to Lea about. God knew how she would react and I already knew what she would push me to do.

My mind was going a million miles an hour until I felt my phone vibrate, I could only assume it was Lea asking if I wanted to do lunch. Instead, I was met with a text message from the guy from last night, Darren.

Darren: Sooo… I’ve been wracking my brain about what show you could be on all day. I’m sure you’re on set right now, working away like slave labor…. And then I thought, maybe we could meet up tonight and I could question you some more?

Elle: Darren, you’ll never break me but I wouldn’t mind the entertainment of watching you try.

Darren: Great, give me your address. I’m picking you up at 8

I couldn’t help but smile as I quickly sent him my address and started towards the cafeteria. It was around 1:30pm. I knew that Lea would be sitting in the cafeteria. I decided against my better judgment to let her know of my plans for the evening. She’d said something last night about not hanging out with homeless people, and although she was already a little tipsy I figured it was better to keep my mouth shut for now.

Lea was sitting at one of the tables in the cafeteria with Kevin, Diana, and Jenna. I couldn’t help but smile as I watched Kevin doing wheelies in his wheelchair. From what Lea said he was in it 24/7 while on set, trying to figure out how to effectively maneuver around in it. I made my way over to them after I’d grabbed a small salad and whatever version of a sandwich they’d had catered in that day.

“You’re getting pretty good in that thing.” I smiled at Kevin as I took a seat beside Jenna.

“Tell me about it.” He laughed. “When are you and the lovely cheerios going to finally be joining us Elle. I’m getting lonely. Lea isn’t very good company.”

“I think Len said Ryan wanted to get us all together next week sometime.”

“Finally!” Kevin yelled, doing another wheelie in his wheelchair before pulling it up alongside the table and eating with us. It was a comfortable silence, and Diana was the first to break it.

“So I think since last night was fairly tame and none of us have to be at work tomorrow, we need to go out and get crazy tonight?”

“I know Elle is down.” Lea smiled, looking over at me as she picked at her salad.

“Actually….” I started. “… I think I’m gonna stay in tonight. I’m really tired after today’s rehearsal. Len has us working like dogs.”

It was a lie, and by the way Lea looked at me I wasn’t sure if she could tell. I liked to party, it wasn’t a lie, and I would generally always jump at the opportunity to go a little wild. Everyone agreed that they’d go out and gave me the address of a club that Diana said was “super fun” just in case I changed my mind. I made plans with Lea to drive her car home while she rode with Diana. My plan to skip out on the party went relatively smoothly, with only Lea seemingly questioning why I didn’t want to go.

After lunch I made my way back to the dance studio to finish up the choreography for the day. Since we had the weekend off, Len wanted to make sure we had everything down before he let us go home. Thanks to a few of the more inexperienced dancers, that meant we didn’t get to leave until sometime after 6.

I rushed back to Lea’s apartment and set about getting myself ready for the evening. I wasn’t sure where we were going, but Darren didn’t seem like to type to want to go anywhere extremely fancy so after showering and attempting to fix my hair I threw on my black vest that Lea had come to hate over the years, a pair of jeans, and high heeled boots.

Once my makeup and jewelry were done I looked in the mirror, it would do. It was just about that time that I heard a light knock on the door. With a deep breath I threw the essentials, ID, credit card, and lip gloss into my orange clutch and opened the door. Darren stood on the other side, hands in the pockets of his jeans rocking back and forth on the heels of his oxford shoes.

“Hey, you ready to go.”

He looked up at me with a smile and nodded his head before extending an arm out to me. I linked my arm through his and allowed him to lead me down the stairs of the walkup building and out to his car. It was a slightly beaten up 1995 Subaru something or other. I wasn’t great with cars.

“After you m’lady.” He joked in a British accent that I couldn’t help but laugh at, as he opened the door to the car. By nature I’m a fairly nosy person so I quickly took a look in the back seat to see things haphazardly thrown across the back seat floor.

He sat down in the driver’s seat and must’ve noticed my spying. “My car’s generally dirty. One of those bad habit things.” He smiled. “By the way, you look gorgeous tonight.”

Damn pale, blushing skin. I smiled back with a mumbled thank you. He smiled back at me before turning on the radio and pulling away from the building. I still wasn’t sure where we were going but as I studied over him, I could only hope it would take a moment to get there. He looked much different from last night. Dressed in a tight pair of jeans and a button down shirt with the sleeves rolled up, he’d paired it with a pair of oxford shoes and his hair seemed a little more tamed than the previous night. He was subconsciously humming along to the song on the radio, I was unable to place it but it was fairly intriguing.

“Who is this?” I asked, finally breaking the silence and his reverie that he’d been in.

“It’s my brothers band. Freelance Whales. You like?”

“It’s different.” I answered. “But I like it.”

“Good.” He winked, taking his eyes off the road momentarily to look at me.

“So where are we going?” I asked, pulling my eyes away. I knew I was blushing, this whole embarrassing blush crap really needed to stop.

“I’ll tell you that as soon as you tell me what show you’re on?” The smirk on his face as he said it was entertaining.

“So we’re just going to drive around L.A. until I tell you?” I combated.

“I wish, nope. We’re here.”

I looked out the window to the small club as he pulled up to the curb and parked. The sun was just starting to set so the streetlights had probably just come on, the place looked pretty close to deserted and it was hard to tell if it was a restaurant, bar, or a club. I must’ve become lost in my questioning of his selected venue because he suddenly was standing in from of my mirror with a wide smile on his face before opening the door.

“M’lady.”

I couldn’t stifle the chuckle and grin that escaped me as I slowly stepped out of the car and allowed him to lead me inside. The lighting inside was incredibly dim, the dark red walls only illuminated by the kerosene lamps on each table. As we walked in, the bartender gave a quick wave to Darren as he led me to the one of the booths in the back next to a small piano.

“What is this place?” I asked as I took a seat in the booth.

“Well…” Darren started, sliding in beside me. “… it’s a little hole in the wall place that a few of my friends and I found when we moved. They have the best burgers ever. FYI.”

“And the piano?”

“That’s the surprise. I’ll only tell you when you tell me.” he replied, a self-satisfied grin on his face as he merrily bounced in his seat.

I could only smile as I buried my head a little further into the menu. We continued to make awkward small talk as the waiter came and went, taking our order and bringing out our food and drinks along the way.

“You like Disney?” Darren asked. His mouth was half full of the hamburger he’d ordered and I nodded as a giggle escaped my mouth. I put my hand over my mouth to keep in my bite of hamburger, and I couldn’t help but curse at myself. I was seriously giggling, and why did he have to be so right about this damned hamburger. He held up a finger and stood from the booth, wiping his hands before throwing the napkin onto the table and running over to the piano. He looked like a little kid on Christmas Day as he played a few chords on the piano.

“Hey everybody.” He mumbled into the microphone. I’d come to realize that the toothy grin that spread across his face was one that happened often. It was rather humbling, he seemed so enthralled by so many things. “I think you’ll know this one so I apologize, but moreso please apologize to the beautiful woman sitting at that booth and if she gets up to leave, please remind her I’m her ride home.”

He looked at me once more before starting into a song that I quickly recognized as ‘Part of Your World’. The words rolled off his tongue easily and his face emitted such glee as he made his way through the song. He would look over at me every few seconds to ensure I was watching, and I wasn’t even the slight bit embarrassed at the goofy grin that was no doubt plastered on my face.
I’m still not sure what came over me but as he made his way back over to me I rose from the booth and secured the seat on the piano bench he’d just left. He was still standing beside the booth with a look of shock on his face, his mouth slightly open and his head tilted to the right.

I sat down slowly and let my fingers fiddle around on the keys for a few moments before I finally started playing. I looked up at Darren and he seemed to almost immediately recognize it, he leaned back in his seat, arms folded neatly across his chest as he studied me.

I let the lyrics to ‘Paparazzi’ flow easily as I concentrated on the piano portion. I’d never been the most accomplished player and it was always a fairly decent amount of work for me to be able to play and sing at the same time, especially with the quick staccato notes that this song required when playing. I knew that this may not be the crowd for this song, but I was against playing a Broadway tune. After all, I’d come to LA to get a break from all of that.

Darren’s eyes were constantly watching me while I was playing and during the last chorus, I found myself stumble on one of the piano parts which seemed to merit a small chuckle from Darren.
When the song was over, I was shocked at the applause from the small crowd and found Darren standing up in his seat just as he stuck his finger in his mouth to give me a loud whistle.

“So you dance? You play? And you sing?” he questioned as I took my seat beside him at the booth.

“You act? You play? And you sing?” It was a snarky remark, no doubt, but he seemed entertained by it.

“You have a beautiful voice.”

“You’re not so bad yourself.”

“So why are you dancing? Why not play or do something else?”

I wasn’t sure how to answer the question, mostly because I wasn’t sure how much information of my life I wanted to divulge to him. He was, after all, still a stranger. “You take the opportunities that are given.” For some reason that seemed like the best possible answer I could say at this point.

“No…” he started, taking another bite of his hamburger, and finishing his statement, mouth half full. “… there’s more. You said the other night you went to Tisch. Why’d you leave?”

His question was asked in a very non-chalant way, and as I looked up at him I was grateful he seemed to involved in his burger to see the shocked look that was probably on my face. It must’ve been a longer silence than I’d anticipated, because his concentration soon shifted from his food back to me.

“So we’re delving into life stories now?”

“Just a question.” He sighed. “You can answer or not, but I can only assume it’s an interesting story since you don’t truly want to tell me.”

“You’re snarky, you know that?”

“Wouldn’t be the first time I’ve been told that.” He had a smirk on his face, and followed his remark with a small wink. It was at that moment I wasn’t sure why the words started to fall out of my mouth, but part of me instantly regretted it.

“I’ve been on Broadway and in musicals since I was 8. That’s when I met Lea, I just needed a break. My mother pushed me to follow in her footsteps and not that I don’t appreciate all of it, I really do but she got her start at 18, not 8. It’s stressful to grow up in that environment.”

He stayed quiet for a few moments, looking into his drink and swirling it around momentarily before taking a quick drink. “So your mom does musicals?”

“Yes.” I muttered, unsure of where this interrogation was leading.

“Do you mind if I ask who she is? Or if I may know her?”

“That’s for the second date Darren.” I smiled. “Can’t learn too much too fast.”

_________________________________

[ url = http://www.polyvore.com/chapter_secrets/set?id=105093452 ] Elle's Outfit [ / url ]