A/N: On Patreon there are chapters ahead right now!
https://www.patreon.com/cw/pageboy707
Emma kinda forced me to go to Zachary Quinto's party since it was in the same neighborhood. The press tour was so intensive—the crew traveled five continents from Seoul to Buenos Aires—and my newfound fame (I hate that phrase) made me much of a hermit that she wanted me to have some fun. I agreed.
I half-ran to the Beverly Hills mansion, trying not to touch the paparazzi and putting my hands up to try to ruin their photos.
"Jennifer! Are you and Nicholas breaking up?" one Indian man said.
"Are you dating Bradley Cooper?"
I rushed in and felt elated when I saw Emma.
"Oh my god, you actually came," she said.
"Of course," I stretched my hands up. "Why is it so hot in here? You should take off your shirt."
Emma said, "Does my concealer look like shit? My armpits are finished."
I said, "I should jump in the pool."
"Why am I not surprised," she whispered. "Maybe after some tequila."
I walked over to the bar, which looked like it belonged to a high-end hotel or an underground speakeasy. I whispered, "What does Zach do? Should I join Star Trek?"
Emma said, "You can probably buy Star Wrek."
"Star Trek," I giggled. "You look wrecked. You don't know what that is?"
She shrugged her shoulders, and we both took a shot. "How are you feeling after all that?"
"I'm never dating a British guy again, why do we like them so much?" I said with a half smile.
Emma leaned in. "My one is pretty good. And he's committed actor too."
I raised my voice. "And that's the thing. We were both committed! He was doing Jack the Giant Slayer and I—"
She said, "What did you call it before? That was so funny. Jack the Giant Dick cuz he's hung like one."
I laughed. "Shut up!"
I continued, "We just were too busy."
"I get it. Me and Andrew are there. It's perfect on set because you see them all the time but the moment press is done and on to a different project its almost impossible."
"Yeah, what project did Andrew do?"
"He spent the summer in Italy, I was so jealous. Do you know the novel Call Me by Your Name?"
"No."
"Well, it's this gay relationship between this young and older guy who have to hide their relationship, I believe during the 80s."
I nodded. "Who's the younger guy? Or an older guy, is he playing a teenager again?"
She giggled. "No, do you know Ryan Stone?"
"Oh, yes. He was in some scandal, right?"
She shook her head. "Total bs, his ex-girlfriend made up some lie because she found out that he hooked up with some model after breaking up. I was at that party."
"Really? He kinda came out of nowhere, I saw Looper recently."
Emma drank the last of her champagne. "I do not get that time travel shit." I agreed.
She said, "He's actually here." She turned around and pointed to a young man talking to some producer. "He might be younger than you."
"He's not bad looking," I smiled. He was wearing a red polo shirt, and his long, blonde hair almost touched the back of his collar. From all the way here, he looked like the thin, bookish type you could see on any college campus.
"Let me introduce y'all."
"No, you don't have to."
"No, you would like his humor."
Ryan and Zach came together, and up close, his emerald eyes looked more vibrant than you would see in the theater or on TV.
Emma said, "Two future Oscar winners here."
I laughed, and throughout our small conversation, I was surprised by how wrong my first impression of Ryan was. I cannot imagine, at his age, how he deals with all of the fame and invasion of his privacy, but here he was joking and laughing with Zach and Emma.
So when he wanted to go to the pool area, I agreed, and my thoughts of him slowly changed.
He was very good at impressions, had a very playful sense of humor, and did not seem arrogant at all. It felt like we were sitting in the back of class somewhere talking shit about a teacher, and eventually they would have to separate us.
Then he stunned me by saying, "I have this role, Skylar. You get this asked a million times, but it will only take 4 days of your time. Skylar is the reason that Will changes, she's the most important part. And you would be perfect for it."
I looked towards the sky that only had a few stars. How many pitches have been made since The Hunger Games and X-Men? How many times have I seen my serious face with a bow and arrow in Times Square or the Sunset Strip?
Then I pictured myself as Skylar in this indie drama in a low-stakes, low-expectations environment and just having fun acting against this writer-actor. No billboards, no 3-month press tour marathon, and most enticing, no paparazzi.
I said, "I am interested."
He explained the role more, and my enthusiasm increased. We teased each other more—our banter was natural—and headed to the bar to get more shit-faced.
"What's your number?" he asked.
I felt very loose and free. "Trying to take me out," I joked. "Only Nobu."
"Nobu?" He said as if he discovered a new word. "That's at least the third date."
I put my thumbs up. "We can't break professional boundaries, Mr. Stone. Are you related to Emma?"
I laughed. "Okay, I send the script as fast as I can."
I leaned in closer, my speech slurred a bit. "Are you British?"
He put on a Scottish accent. "Supposedly I have some ancestry from Scotland. I do love Trainspotting."
There was a long silence.
When I was very little, I thought it was a good idea to jump out of the emergency exit of a moving school bus. The bold red letters seemed like they were drawn in blood under the early morning light, and I thought—in a weird way—that I would be transported somewhere else.
For why I did that, I do not know, although at the time, I was obsessed with Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and loved Pierce Brosnan's Golden Eye.
And I felt that same feeling talking to Ryan, that joining this project would bring me outside that yellow school bus or, at the very least, into a different type of work that was new to me.
"See you soon," he asked. For the first time, he looked a bit nervous.
I nodded and said, "You do not look like Emma at all."
***
The next couple of weeks were completely devoted to polishing the script since, in order to save some budget, the movie was set in the early 2010s instead of the original timeline during the 90s.
I spent Thanksgiving back at Tessa's—thank God no one asked me about Emma—my "cousins" were surprised that I made comparatively little money from Looper even though it grossed 300 million dollars.
"You don't get at least 10 million dollars? You can buy Hawaii with 300 million dollars," one of them said.
"Actors usually don't get a share of the movie unless they financed some part of it."
Tessa came up to me. "Can you get some ice?"
"Want to come with me, Rick?" He nodded.
We drove in his Toyota Camry, and I welcomed the chilly November air as it filled the car, smelling of deep rust and bare branches.
"Been too long," I said.
"I understand, I would leave Newburg too, it's not the same."
"I miss it sometimes, remember when we hid our weed under the floor of the basketball court and Mr. Gallway brought the whole fucking school there?" I said.
Ricky laughed. "And when half of the kids there looked at us, you ran to the bathroom to drown yourself with cologne."
"That shit did not help. Fucking Lindsey said," I put on a Long Island accent, "Ryan Stone is getting stoned in the bathroom; he says he is 'method acting.'"
I continued, "Apparently the whole auditorium laughed, and I was kicked out the play."
"I am so sad that I wasn't there. I'm surprised one of those magazines haven't picked up on that story. I read somewhere, Tom Cruise missed his graduation because he was auditioning for some roles; I'm surprised you made yours."
"I was close to missing mine. Tessa forced me to go, remember it was burning."
He nodded. We made it to Walmart and got the ice.
"I got it."
I gave my credit card, and he said, "Thanks. I was expecting some Amex black card."
I smiled. "Not even close to that level."
"You know Spider-Man."
I shrugged my shoulders. We walked out of the Walmart when a high school-aged boy walked up to us.
He stood there, silent for a moment and rocked back and forth. He asked, "Are you Ryan Stone?"
I nodded. "Can I get a picture?"
He was about to give the phone to Rick, but I grabbed it and held the phone as far as I could. "Say Stone."
He didn't say it, and I took the photo, and we went back to the car.
"How do you get used to it?" he asked.
"Eventually it becomes normal."
He laughed. "I would miss Newburg too, you quit weed, right?"
"Yeah, I would always get in trouble, so I stopped. And Tessa hated the smell."
We drove back to the house and had a delicious Thanksgiving dinner: Bob made Brussels sprouts with bacon for the first time, the cousins decided to make butternut squash soup after fifty rounds of UNO, and Tessa cooked all of the classics of the holiday.
Ricky drove me back to the airport, and I headed to Naples International Airport for the worldwide release of Call Me by Your Name.
The world will see me, for the first time, as Elio.
Please leave thoughts or reviews!