Subway Cars & Lonely Hearts

thirty/irl/

italics ~ elliot

bold ~ carter

underline ~ marie

normal ~ mario

italic/underline ~ leo

tuesday september 18th 10:42 am est

"holy shit! i am so sorry," elliot exclaimed, jumping up from where she was perched on the stool and rushing over to the three people who had just entered the studio. without thinking, she ran over to the man who she had hit with the ball and touched her fingertips to the red spot forming on his cheek. "does it hurt?"she asked, finally looking up to meet his eyes. 

carter let out a deep chuckle and looked down at the girl. teasing her, he said, "it's alright don't worry about it, i'll survive." 

she took her fingers off his cheek and took a slight step away from the boy she had only seen on magazine covers and powerpoint presentations. "well thank god, your face is probably insured for like a million dollars and i really can't afford that lawsuit right now," she teased back.

"it's two million actually."

"oh, is it now?" she raised an eyebrow, fighting back a smile.

his face mirrored hers, "yeah, we just had the insurance policy updated, it really would have been unfortunate timing for you."

someone cleared their throat behind carter, and the two finally broke eye contact, snapping back into reality. elliot for the first time looked behind the boy in front of her to see a man who looked to be in his mid-thirties, who elliot assumed was a part of carter's team, and then to her boss. 

marie's eyes were full of humor and the older woman looked between carter and elliot for a moment. "i have a meeting in five," she said to elliot, "but i want you to stay here and help mario for a little bit." elliot nodded in response, and marie strode out of the studio. 

"i'm going to go burn this" elliot said, picking up the discarded beach ball and walking over to the prop closet to put it away. 

mario took this opportunity to introduce himself and stuck out his hand to the older man first. "i'm mario donato, head photographer." elliot could tell, even from across the room, that her friend was playing up his italian charm. someone's got a crush, she thought, making a mental note to tease him about it later.

"leo altridge, carter's manager."  

"and i'm carter, nice to meet you."

"oh, and by the way the girl who hit you in the face is elliot," mario added.

"elliot?" carter echoed, a smile suddenly shining from his face as he looked away from mario and at his manager, "oh my god, it's-" 

before carter could finish his sentence, elliot emerged from the closet, holding a smushed bag of cheetos. "mario, you really need to clean out that closet, these expired in 2016."

carter's eyes looked straight past the crumpled bag instead to elliot's hand.

carter never thought he'd be so happy to see baby barf green nail polish.

it was her. 

it was his elliot.