“Fuck you!” Taylor yelled, then slammed the door. He was getting sick of this. He leaned against the door, tears streaming down his face, then slid to the floor. Now they’d gotten to the point where he couldn’t even go back in there. They were yelling and screaming at each other all day, and it was just getting worse with every take. Isaac came up, and Taylor shoved him away. Zac wheeled up in his wheelchair, but kept his distance. He looked at Kris bawling inside, then at Taylor out here. They both looked like shit.
“Cut! That was brilliant!” Kris looked up. She’d been practically bawling through the last few takes, and she was at the point where she couldn’t cry anymore. “That’s a wrap with this scene, let’s go.”
“Thank God.” Kris got out of the bed and ran out the door. She nearly ran into Taylor on her way to get changed. She couldn’t even look at him anymore. She did, however, run into Zac by the couch.
“So, how did it go?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“That bad, huh? I heard you screaming.”
“Who didn’t?”
“Misty.” Zac pointed to Misty, who’d fallen asleep over a few chairs.
“Keep her up last night?” Zac gave her a look. “Oh, right, I’m not supposed to joke about that. Sorry.”
“First off, that’s insanely gross with you and Taylor in the room.”
“Yeah, I guess it would be.” She shivered. “Anyway, I need to get out of here and away from Taylor.”
“That’s not going to happen. He’s our ride back to Milani, and you have to do a scene with him next.”
“Another one?”
“It’s actually the four of us.” Kris shrugged.
“Who decides what order we’re doing this in? You have me and Taylor break up, brutally at that, and then stick us in a scene together right away!”
“Plus it’s supposed to be a pretty close scene, so you’re going to be all over each other.” Just then an unfamiliar girl walked by. She looked sort of like a model, especially by the way she walked. Zac’s eyes followed her as she went by.
“Zac!”
“What?”
“Don’t go looking over her, Misty is right there.” Zac looked sheepish. “Who is she anyway?”
“She’s playing Ike's girlfriend.”
“Playing?”
“His real one is back home, we couldn’t get her here. So we got a model to fill in for her.”
“That is so typical. Oh well, better for him. Taylor’s stuck with me and you’re stuck with Misty.”
“What’s wrong with you guys?”
“We’re nowhere near as beautiful as she is.”
“I beg to differ.” Kris rolled her eyes.
“Who is she? What’s her name?”
“She’s a model. Her name is Elise.”
“That’s a pretty name.” Zac looked at her. “What?”
“Nothing…” He thought, then spoke. “What was that like? Having to break up with Taylor over and over again.”
“Hell. I don’t even want to look at him right now.” Zac sighed. “At the beginning it was okay, cause I knew we were just acting, but as we kept doing it over and over, everything we said just became more and more personal. Every time we just more and more mad at each other, until we were screaming every word at each other. We only did about five or six takes while we were in there, that’s how long it took us to break up. That room is a mess, we were throwing things at each other, I’m sure if we didn’t realize the cameras were there we’d be at each other’s necks.”
“Pretty bad, huh?”
“Most definitely.” She looked at him. “Why are you still in that wheelchair?”
“Cause I’m too lazy to get out.”
“You are so stupid.”
“I know.” He smiled. “But there’s not much I can do about that.” She leaned her head against him.
“I’m tired.”
“Get coffee. We’re not going to be leaving for a while now. We still have a few more shots to do. Isaac and Elise have their shot, we have the one in Milani and the opening car scene.”
“Opening car scene?”
“Yeah, before the accident there’s a bit of dialogue. It’s just in the car, Taylor driving and the two of you bickering. Nothing out of the ordinary.”
“Great.” She yawned.
“How could you possibly be tired? I’m not tired.”
“You’re never tired. And you’re used to this. I’m not. We went to sleep at like two last night. I was up at four, okay?”
“Why?”
“Cause I was the first one in the shower. I knew I was going to take a long shower, so I got up early. You slept an extra hour too.”
“Two hours isn’t that bad.”
“Zac! I’m tired! I’m not quite to the slaphappy lack of sleep stage with two hours. If I had one hour, I’d be a bouncing off the walls, unable to control my laughter type of person. Now I’m just tired.”
“Well get up, we’re going.”
“No.”
“Fine, stay there. Bye.”
“Bye.”
“Kris!!”
“No, I don’t want to move.”
“You have to get up.” Zac got up, causing her head to fall. She caught herself before hitting her head. “Oh, yeah, sorry.”
“Whatever.” She reached out her hands.
“I’m not going to do this every time you have to get up.”
“Yes you are.”
“Hey!” He grabbed her arms and pulled her up. “Come on, let’s go. Time for quality time with Taylor.”
“Yay.”
“Don’t sound too enthusiastic. You might strain yourself.”
“Zac, you’re just not getting it. I need support from you, don’t push me towards him like that.”
“I’m not. I’m in now way pushing you towards him. He’s your boyfriend, you might as well like him.”
“I do like him; I love him, I’m just pretty bummed right now.” Kris sighed. “I have to get changed.” She walked off to change. She managed to squeeze herself into her slinky dress, then walked over to Taylor, Misty, and Zac. They’d all changed by now, probably because her squeezing into the dress took a while.
“Ready?” Kris asked. They walked over to the car. They’d be in makeup quite a while, because the finals scenes they were shooting consisted of absolutely no cuts or bruises at all. All the false stitches they had were to be removed, which was going to be a pain, and then anything that was real had to be completely covered up.
Kris sat in the front of the car, Taylor driving, Misty and Zac in the back as usual. Kris looked out the window when the phone on the floor rang. “Could you get that, Kris?” Kris reached and picked up the phone.
“’Lo?”
“Hello, Kris.” It was Brian. Kris screamed. She immediately hung up the phone and threw it back on the ground.
“What? What? Who was that?” Taylor asked.
“It was Brian.”
“How? That’s my phone, how does he know my number?”
“I don’t know. If he was in my room he could have seen it somewhere, I remember having it on my desk when we went there last night.”
“See where he called from.” She grabbed the phone and checked the caller ID.
“Shit! He called from my house. From my line! Why is he there?”
“Your best bet is to not go home anytime soon.”
“Duh, that’s why I’m staying with you.” Kris held onto the dashboard in order to stop her hands from shaking. “Shit.”
“Call home. Ask Cynthia.”
“What? I’m not calling! He’s probably going to pick up.”
“I’ll do it,” Zac said. “Give me the phone.” Kris handed over the phone to Zac. He dialed her home number and waited for someone to pick up.
“Hello?” Cynthia asked.
“Hey Cyn, it’s Zac. What is Brian doing there?”
“Just looking for Kris, that’s all.”
“He just called us and totally freaked out Kris. He called from Kris’s line. What is he doing in her room?”
“I don’t know. He came in, it’s not that big of a deal to me.”
“It’s a big deal to us. Get him out of her room, he doesn’t need to be prying around in there. He’s dangerous.”
“There’s nothing wrong with him. He’s a perfectly good kid.”
“He’s right there, isn’t he?”
“He’s not going to do anything. And yes.” Zac sighed, looking at Kris.
“Are you going to be okay?”
“Yes. I’ll be fine.” She hung up. Zac rubbed at his face and put the phone down.
“I couldn’t get a decent word out of her, he was right there.” Kris let out a breath. “I’m sorry, Kris.”
“He’s really starting to freak me out. Can’t he just leave me alone for a little while? Must he keep tabs on me everywhere I go? I bet you anything he’ll get where we are out of my mom. If she hasn’t already said anything, he’ll make her. That’s the kind of person he is around her.”
“Just don’t think about it, Kris,” Zac said.
“I’ll try.”
Milani wasn’t far away, so they got there quickly. Taylor parked and thy got out of the car. They went immediately to makeup, trying to get done as quickly as possible, but not look like it. David was still over at the hospital filming Isaac and Elise’s scene. They weren’t in the accident, so they weren’t in any dire need of makeup.
“Kris, you do know that I didn’t mean anything I said in there.”
“Neither did I, but it sure as hell sounded like you did.”
“I was acting. I guess I’m better at it than I thought.” Kris sighed. “But, you’re not going to hold it against me or anything, are you?”
“No, I won’t.”
“Hey Kris,” Taylor said. “If I told you that you have a nice body would you hold it against me?” Kris laughed.
“Well why don’t I sit on your lap and we’ll talk about the first thing that pops up?”
“That’s dirty,” Taylor said, then laughed.
“I still got you to laugh.”
“Okay, okay, I got one. I’ve had a bad day and the only way to cheer me up is to have a beautiful girl talk to me. So talk to me, Kris.” She smiled widely.
“That’s not funny, that’s corny,” Zac said, from the chair next to Kris.
“It’s the line he used to get me to talk to him,” Kris said. “First day we met.”
“Don’t get mushy on me,” Zac said. “I don’t need that.”
“I think it’s cute,” Misty said. “He remembers that.”
“We’re not even going to talk about the first day we met,” Zac said, looking over at Misty.
“Yeah, cause you don’t remember any of it.”
“Yes I do. I’m here, aren’t I? Are we not making a video out of it? What do they have of the first day they met? We have a whole music video.”
“Well we met on Thanksgiving. When did you meet? The day after Valentine’s. You weren’t even on a holiday.”
“We were the day after a holiday. Your holiday date always changes year after year. At least we’ll always know it was February 15th.”
“What was the date?” Taylor asked. “All I can remember is Thanksgiving.”
“November 25th.”
“Okay, someone’s quick with dates,” Taylor said, looking at Kris.
“What, I just happened to remember the date. It’s not every day I meet people as nice as you. Well, you were nice. I’m not so sure anymore.”
“I’m still nice.”
“No, not really.” She shook her head.
“Listen, I can be a lot worse,” Taylor said. “You have not seen how horrible I can get.”
“And I don’t really want to. I don’t plan on getting that side of you. If you can get worse than what I’ve seen, I don’t want to even know.”
“I’m supposing you’re miss perfect?”
“No, I’m a bitch. I know that. I accept that. I’m just not a bitch all the time. Just when people make me mad.”
“Shut up!” Zac said. “I don’t want another fight in my presence. I think we should separate you two.” He directed to the make up people, and traded seats with Kris, who then traded with Misty. “That’s better.”
“It’s not going to solve anything if we don’t talk about.”
“No, you’re not going to talk about it. Even if you could, you wouldn’t. All you’d do is upset each other, start screaming, then one of you will run off extremely pissed. I know you people.”
“It’s not going to happen, okay? Just let me talk to her.”
“No. And I know you’re not going to talk to her over me and Misty, so don’t even try it.”
“Let me just talk to her! Ow!!” he said, turning to Rose. “What’d you do that for?”
“I'm sick of you constantly bitching. You’re annoying. Shut up or I’ll send you home,” she said. Taylor gave her a look.
“You can’t send me home.”
“I can do it, and I will if you don’t shut up. If you keep acting up, what I do to you will not be pretty. Remember, you are in my make up chair. I have a pair of scissors, and you love your hair. I can cut it very, very easily.”
“NO!” he screamed, putting his hands over his head.
“Then shut up!” She yanked a piece his hair, causing his head to jerk back to the position she wanted in it. “Not another word from you until I am done.” The other three started laughing. “You guys too. You can talk when I’m not around. I can cut all your hair off too.”
They all shut up and waited to be done.
Taylor sat on the couch, his arm loosely draped over Kris’s shoulders. They hadn’t started filming yet, but the position was comfortable. Kris was deep in thought, a far away look on her face. Taylor was talking to Misty. Kris turned her head and looked at Taylor. He was so cute when he wasn’t pissed. She tapped him. He turned to look at her. She moved her lips to his ear.
“I love you,” she whispered, then put her head on his shoulder. He smiled.
“I love you too.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Me too. Today just wasn’t a really good day for us.” She kissed him.
“Alright! You’re better!” Zac said, then looked at his watch. “Okay, you guys made up at 5:15.”
“Why do you care?” Taylor asked.
“No reason.” Taylor turned back to Kris. A whole bunch of people suddenly came over, and they all dug in their pockets for money. David, being one of them, took off his hat and all the money was placed in the hat. Rose had a piece of paper, and started writing down times that people were saying.
“Okay, we’re ready to start,” David said, putting his hat and the paper down where Taylor and Kris couldn’t see.
“Where’d you hat go?” Taylor asked.
“I took it off, it’s hot in here.”
“It’s actually very cold in here,” Kris said.
“Well I’m hot. Okay, let’s start right now. Everyone get into place.” Taylor sat back, Kris cuddling next to him. She put on her fake smile, and waited for action. “Okay, action!”
“Okay, so I open the shower curtain and start doing the Psycho thing with the butter knife,” Kris said. “And Taylor screamed like a little girl.” Everyone laughed, including Taylor.
“Yeah, well, at least I can handle bugs.” Kris laughed.
“Cut!”
“That’s supposed to get me pissed off? ‘At least I can handle bugs?’”
“What? I had nothing else.”
“Okay Kris, whatever he says, you’re just going to have to get mad,” David said. “Taylor, try. I know you can do it. You’ve been doing it all day.” Taylor rolled his eyes. David looked at his watch, as did a number of people in the room. “Okay, back to square one.” They all adjusted back to their positions. “Action!”
“So then I went in and did the same thing to Misty, who was just as surprised and screamed twice as loud as Taylor did,” Zac said. They all laughed again.
“Yeah, well, Kris’s boyfriend beats her.” Kris’s smile faded instantly, and she got up and looked at him.
“I cannot believe you.” She stormed off. Taylor immediately went after her, a camera following.
“Come on, Kris, you know I just said it to make you mad.” She turned around and looked at him.
“That was the last thing you should have said. Anything, you could have said anything and I would have got up and walked away. But you just had to say that! I specifically told you never to mention that again!” He looked at her lovingly, but she wouldn’t have it. She shook her head and walked off. Taylor watched, upset.
“Cut! That was perfect!”
Kris came back and smacked him.
“Does that mean you’re mad at each other again?” Zac asked.
“What the fuck do you think?” Kris yelled. Zac looked at his watch.
“Yes!! It’s 5:20, that means I won!” He laughed and ran up and grabbed the hat full of money. “I believe this is mine.”
“You made a pool? To see how long it would take before we got mad at each other again?” Kris asked, walking up to Zac.
“Yeah. And I won!” He sat down to count his money. “This is yours, David, and this twenty here, I think it belongs to Elise…” He held up another twenty dollar bill. “Now I know this one belonged to you Misty.” He waved it in front of her face. She went to snatch it, but he pulled it away before she could. “Nope, mine now. This one was Rose’s, and this was Isaac’s…that makes 100 bucks for little ol’ me. And look at much I have left to count!”
“How many people were in on this?” Kris asked. No one looked at her, including Zac, who was busy counting his money, slightly snickering. “Hello! I asked you a question! Who was in on this!?!” A few hands raised, then Kris looked around to see the whole room with their hands up. “I can not fucking believe this.” She stormed off.
“Kris!” Taylor called.
“And don’t you talk to me! I’m so mad at you right now I am one comment away from ripping your pretty little head off,” she screamed. She ran off, wincing along the way. Taylor sighed and turned around. He walked to Zac.
“Zac, go talk to her.”
“I’m busy.”
“Go talk to her!”
“I’m counting my money right now.” Taylor grabbed the hat away from.
“Go fucking talk to her! I’d go, but I’m not in the mood to get my head bit off, okay?” He lowered his voice, realizing people were staring. “She’ll listen to you. She doesn’t listen to me.” Zac sighed.
“There’s not much I can do.”
“At least get her to come back out, Zac. We can’t finish this video without her.”
“Fine.” Zac got up and walked away, looking for Kris. He found her all the way across the club, laying on the floor. “Why are you on the floor?”
Surprised, she wiped at her tears and sniffed. “Oh, hi.”
“Why are you on the floor?”
“Cause it’s the only place I can lie down.” He sat on the floor next to her.
“Are you in pain?”
“Lots.” She looked at him. “He sent you here, didn’t he?”
“His name is Taylor. It’s not ‘he.’” She huffed and looked away. “Don’t give me that, okay? You’re mad at him, not me. Remember that before you end up biting my head off for no reason.” She bit her lip. “He didn’t mean to hurt you.”
“He said it, and he said it on purpose. He knew that it would have worked if he said anything else. But he had to just piss me off and tell everyone there about Brian. Half of them knew already, sure, but he didn’t have to say it. He knows how I feel about that.” She rolled over and put her head in her arms. “Goddammit, I just don’t get him. What possesses him to do things like that?”
“I don’t know, Kris. I’m not him. Why don’t you ask him instead of running over here to seclude yourself?” He put his arm around her, lying next to her. “You know what upsets him the most?”
“I don’t care.”
“Yes you do. I know you do.” She turned to him, her eyes red, and her makeup ruined.
“What?”
“He’s afraid he’s going to lose you because you won’t listen to him. He looked so upset when he told me to come over here, I know he truly cares about you. All these problems lately have hurt him to the point where he can’t even take it anymore. He loves you so much, but he just screws things over.”
“That’s true.”
“Do you still love him that much?”
“Yes.” Zac bit his lip. She smiled at him. “I know what you’re thinking. Yes, I still love Brian.” Zac looked at her, amazed. “But you don’t know that.”
“Okay.”
“Go get him for me, will you? I just need to stay lying down for a while, I’m just in so much pain,” she explained.
“That’s okay. I’ll get him.” He kissed her cheek.
“Thanks, Zac.”
“Hey, I’m your best friend, aren’t I?”
“Yeah, you’re my best friend.”
“Then I’m just doing my job.” He walked off. As she waited, she closed her eyes, trying to rest. The pain of being active all day, with all her broken bones, was definitely taking its toll on her. She didn’t want to move, ever.
“Kris?” She opened her eyes, looking at Taylor above her. “Are you alright?”
“I’ve been better.”
“Listen…I’m really sorry.”
“I know you are. Come down here, I don’t want to move.” He laid on the floor next to her. “I love you. I want you to know that. All through this, as much as I may bitch and scream at you, I still love you.”
“And I love you.”
“Zac says I don’t listen to you. I listen, it just don’t like your advice.”
“It’s good advice.”
“I know, but I don’t like it.” He smiled. “Can I just stay here for a little bit? Just a little bit?” she asked. He thought about it.
“I don’t know…”
“Please? Teensy bit? Micro size? Itsy bitsy teeny weenie?” she asked.
“We do have to work…”
“Pleeeeeeeeeease!” He smiled.
“As long as I get to stay with you.” She smiled. “You know, I’d kill to have the relationship you have with Zac.”
“It’s nothing big.”
“It is. The two of you are so close that all I want to do is weasel my way in somehow. I’d love to have a best friend like Zac.”
“I thought he was your best friend.”
“Zac can’t have more than one best friend. He doesn’t feel totally loyal. I’ve been booted to brother again.” Her smile faded.
“Oh.”
“But you need him more than I ever will. I know you, and you don’t have many friends. You don’t even have any loyal friends.”
“What a way to impress me, Taylor.”
“Shut up. I know how much you need him.” Kris smiled again.
“Yeah, I guess I do.”
“Give me your full undivided attention? Until it’s time to go back?”
“Why?”
“So I can tell if you really listen to me,” Taylor said. She shifted and looked at him, straight into his beautiful blue eyes.
“Okay.”
But she had other things on her mind.