The Journalist and Her Actor

Chapter 6

Bex wouldn't stop screaming, something that most of our regular Pizza Nerd customers were used to, making the birthday part of six year olds stand out with their wide eyed stares. Shoving my hand over her mouth, I tugged Bex into the kitchen, trying to control the situation before she blurted my apparent new side job to our boss.

"Stop screaming," I hissed, letting her go.

"YOU ARE WORKING ON A MOVIE!" she shouted, completely ignoring my protests, throwing her hands into the air and nearly spilling a container of mozzarella cheese. "WHAT MOVIE? WHAT ROLE? TELL ME EVERYTHING SO I CAN LIVE VICARIOUSLY THROUGH YOU!"

I yanked a bread stick off the counter, holding it like a sword. "Stop screaming or else you'll get a face full of this and no answers."

She fell silent, eyeing the bread stick with an irritated expression. Our pizza was fantastic but our bread sticks were... well as hard as swords and made for great weapons.

Slowly lowering the bread, I let out a sigh, editing my words just enough to give Bex the truth. I couldn't tell her that I wrote gossip columns for a living. I didn't tell anyone. My job was messy and not well liked.

"I... auditioned for a small... very small part in a movie and apparently got it." I hurried on before Bex could ask more questions. "I don't know much about it yet. Just that it's an action romance and there's singing in it apparently."

"Anyone famous in it?" she asked, grinning so wide that I couldn't help but smile back. Bex's face was normally set into a furrow of frustration, one that was so consistent that until that moment, I had forgotten what her smile looked like.

"Luke Walk—"

And she started screaming again.

...

I stared at myself in the mirror, sporting a multicolored A-line tulle tutu petticoat tiered skirt that fell down to my thighs, a pair of black converse, and a black shirt to dial down the color scheme, so I wouldn't scare anyone with all of the color.

"Does this look like something an actress would wear?" I asked Bowser in my reflection.

Our water turtle blinked at me, before settling down into a bed of lettuce, half asleep. He seemed unimpressed.

"You're right. Needs a bit more color." I switched out my black converse for pink ones, satisfied. It was more me anyway. The more colorful I was, the more at home I felt in my own skin.

Peeking into Carter's room, I took in my sleeping brother, his face snuggled into the side of a comic book, hair a tangle of bed head. Leaning down, I kissed him on the forehead. "I'll be back in a bit buddy."

Duke was coming over in a few minutes so Carter wouldn't wake up alone.

"Love you, Em..." Carter murmured in reply, half asleep.

His words nearly melted me into a puddle. The only words of love I'd ever need. I loved my kid brother so much that the thought of anything happening to him made it hard to breathe. I swallowed past the lump in my throat. "Love you too, kiddo."

His grey eyes blinked open, his smile sleepy as he stretched. "Which job are you heading off to today?"

I shrugged on my jean jacket. "A new one. Should be interesting. I'll tell you about it when I get back." Carter knew most of my secrets, and the idea of getting to tell him something exciting left me smiling for the first time over the idea of acting in a movie. "Go back to sleep."

Carter, who's eyelids were already heavy, nodded, yawned and laid back down, not having to have it suggested twice.

...