Lights, Camera, Romance 07

The flying halter yellow sundress landed right in the middle of Ella and Eddie which made the couple exchange a look.

Ella picked up the dress and examined it remembering exactly the last time she had seen Jenifer wear it. It had hugged her curves exactly and gave her average sized breast a huge push, but Jen had complained that it was too tight. A pink mini-dress came out next.

"What's wrong with this one?" Ella held it up.

Jen's head appeared in the doorway of her closet and she narrowed her eyebrows as she tried to remember the reason for not liking that particular dress.

"Oh yeah, I never liked pink. You know that."

Ella rolled her blue eyes. "Then why the hell did you buy it?"

"If I remember exactly," came her friends muffled voice from deep inside the closet, "You gave it to me as a birthday gift."

"It was a Christmas gift actually."

A light blue spaghetti strap knee length dress with white polka dots landed on Ella's head.

"Seriously," she complained, tugging it off, "What the hell is all this fuss about. You still haven't told me where you were going. And besides, this dress is perfect on you with those white sandals with the blue bows."

Jen came out and scrutinized the dress closely, turning it around in her hands and narrowing her eyes searching for the tiniest imperfection. She shrugged after a while and laid it on the bed, picking up all the other garments that were strewed across the room and disappeared into her closet again.

"Jen were are you going?" Ella called after her.

She came back again and sat on the edge of the bed, next to Ella and took her friend's hands into hers. "Now Ariella, i'm going to tell you something and i'm begging you not to freak out. Please."

Ella's face twisted into confusion then her eyes widened. "Are you moving out? Please dont move out Jen!"

"I'm not moving out." Jen struggled to raise her voice over her friend's panicking one who let out a sigh of relief.

"Thank God. Dont ever scare me like that."

"Ella, tomorrow we shall be going on the set of a movie where I will most likely be meeting celebrities and famous directors. I would like it if you came with me." Jen said slowly and calmly, flinching towards the end of her sentence waiting for Ella's reaction.

But it never came. She sat and stared at Jenifer, bare face, looking as though she was in a completely different world. Eddie waved a hand in front of her face, but she didn't blink.

"Ella are you okay?" He asked with concern in his voice.

A loud blood chilling scream erupted in the room and Ella was on her feet out the room and somewhere in another part of her voice yelling at the top of her voice, "Why the fuck didn't you tell me? Do you think that its funny to tell me this late?" There was a ruffling sound of Ella going through her closet. "I have nothing to wear! Its too late to go to the mall because I wont be able to get the perfect outfit in only a day! Jenifer I hate you so much. I bet Hannah Poe is gonna be there. Oh My God! I'm going to see Hannah Poe!" Then she started her screaming again.

Jen turned to Eddie who was looking at her. "Who is Hannah Poe?" She asked.

"A celebrity." Eddie rolled his eyes

"I take it that you dont like her very much."

"She's a damn whore." He raised his voice over Ella's shouting over what to wear. "Is she always like this?"

Jenifer nodded. "Sadly, yes. But she's fun anyway."

"I dont doubt it. So what do we do now?"

"She'll find something soon enough. You hungry?"

"Starved."

"Lets go see what there is to eat."

----

The next morning at exactly 6:30am, Jenifer got up, slightly nervous. After taking a long shower, she bounced down the stairs to the kitchen where Ella was in her robe, on the phone, a pen in her hand, taking down some kind of information.

"Morning." Jen whispered, making her way over to the fridge and opening it up to see nothing.

"We're out of food." Ella said unnecessarily, one hand covering the phone.

"But I bought food last Friday!"

"But not alot. We need food pronto. You got any cash?"

"No. I dont get paid till Saturday again, you know that."

Ella put down the phone and let out a very loud groan. "The mortgage is due."

"Didn't we pay that?"

"Not according to the phone call I just got. We got two weeks to pay it."

Jenifer sighed loudly and sat in the closet chair in fear that her knees might give way. "So, how do we get out of this one?"

"I could ask my mother and-"

"You know your mother wouldn't give you money for this house."

It was Ella's turn to sigh. "I know. Maybe we could take a loan."

"We had enough trouble getting out of the last one." Jen answered breaking off as she noticed that her friend was close to tears. She knew exactly how much this house meant to Ella and she couldn't stand to see her friend this way. "Maybe I could go back to doing double shifts. If we do that for a while and get some good tips, we might be able to scrape together enough, maybe."

"We could try..." Ella sniffed before her eyes widened in realization. "Jen, no. You cant start today. We got to go to the studio! Please."

"I'm not going Ella." Jen regretted every word as she said it, but was too proud to admit it, so she marched out the room.

Looking sadly at the clothes she had laid out for the day, she put them away and took out her regular clothes, a pair of jeans and a random t-shirt. Pulling her wavy brown hair into a messy ponytail, she plastered some lip gloss unto her lips quickly pressing them together before pulling her bag on her shoulders and running to the door.

"Ella, i'm out!" She called before she was gone.

-----

"Therefore, the study of this rare herb will actually prove to change the way we look at plants forever. You see, the molecular compound-"

Jenifer blocked out her teacher's words in stared into space.

------

"Why didn't you come see me today?" Daniel asked, a hurt tone in his voice pushed guilt straight to Jen's chest.

She sighed slowly. "I'm sorry ... I just ... Its really complicated."

He sat next to her. "Try me."

"I had to work a double shift."

His hearty laugh filled the room and she felt her heart blossom in her chest. Seeing him happy made her happy and she couldn't explain why. "That wasn't so complicated, was it?" he teased her.

She just grinned and he did the same back which sent chills down her spine.

'It shouldn't be legal for a man to be able to smile like that.' she thought.

His eyes narrowed as he seemed to know what she was thinking about and his body neared. "I missed you today." he told her, leaning in slowly.

"I'm sorry I couldn't come." she repeated, her brain turning to mush the nearer he came. She felt her insides ignite although he had not made physical contact with her as yet.

His face continued to draw closer to hers. When his lips were an exact inch from hers, he dodged her oncoming kiss and headed for her ear whispering, "Maybe you might just have to make it up to me."

"Maybe I just will," She responded in a sexy tone.

"JENIFER!" he yelled suddenly

----

Startled out of her day-dream, Jenifer looked around in awe and saw the many faces of her classmates either laughing or looking seriously concerned at her.

Her head swiveled to look at her Professor who was looking at her with an angry look on his face.

"Maybe you just will what?" He asked.

"I- uh- I-I..." how was the best way to tell your teacher that you had spoken out loud during a day dream which she never got to finish.

He glared at her before turning back to his class. "Like I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted-"

The rest of the class went back to listening while Jen, who was sinking low in her chair wished that the floor would just open up and swallow her. She could feel the blood pumping to her cheeks and although she knew they couldn't see it, she hid her blush from everyone else wishing that this horrible day would just end.

----

"Yo Eddie!"

Figures, Eddie thought to himself before turning around and facing Daniel, who was running up to him grinning like an idiot.

"Hey," Eddie said less enthusiastically.

"Whats the matter?" Danny's smile didn't fade a fraction and he was looking around wildly signalling to Eddie that he didn't give a damn.

"Nothing."

"Cool, okay. Dude, they're calling me on set. Catch you later." he ran off without another look back.

----

"Danny didn't you see me calling you?" Hannah whined as soon as Daniel was within earshot.

"Yeah, sorry Hannah," he said distractedly.

"What were you doing over there with that - Black person."

He spun around and looked at her angrily and she visibly shrunk, knowing that she had made a mistake. If there was one thing that Daniel hated more than her it was racism. "That was the my best friend. You know that." He said through gritted teeth, trying very hard to conceal his anger.

"Guys, I dont pay you to sit around and talk shit," Zeus the director called through his most treasured equipment - a megaphone. "Are we gonna start this fucking movie or do you guys wanna catch up first?" he asked sarcastically.

Daniel lazily got to his feet in his best effort to piss the man off. He was grumpier than anyone else he knew, so whenever Danny was in a particular good mood, like he was now, he tried his utmost best to get on the director's bad side. Bravely, he walked up to the chair and picked up Zeus's darling megaphone.

The sandy-haired director looked at him as if he had gone crazy. With a smirk, Daniel announced, "Everyone, listen up. I need you all to look your best because I got a special friend coming over here to meet ya'll."

Hannah came forward eagerly. "Ooh, is it another actor?"

"Nope."

"EEz eet a criteeque?" Pierre the hairdresser came out.

"Nope."

"Well daw'ling wont you tell us who he is?" Hannah drawled with a suggestive bat of an eye.

"My girlfriend." Daniel burst out in a huge laugh at the indescribable looked that crossed Hannah's face. It looked like the 'I just sucked on a lemon' face crossed with and 'I'm choking,' face with a blend of, 'I think i'm about to faint.'

"You have a girlfriend?" Zeus asked in genuine surprised.

"Yes."

"Well I hope that she didn't like you because of the fact that you're an actor because if you dont get your precious white ass onto that set in five minutes that same white ass is going to be out of a job."

----

"I dont feel right doing this." Ella complained as the elevator went through the gates. "I mean, he wants to see Jen. If she doesn't come then I shouldn't."

"Relax." Eddie told her. "I'm sure that you're as welcomed as I am. And besides, you're my guest now. And i'm not sure if I mentioned this, but you look absolutely gorgeous."

She laughed. "You've mentioned it about fourteen times already."

"That doesn't make it less true."

As expected, he was telling the truth. Ella looked ready to kill in a cream colored blouse and booty hugging jeans, and cream colored platforms with small bows at the front. Her makeup was natural and blonde hair was curled and framed her beautiful face.

At his compliment, she blushed, just like she had the fourteen times before. "Thank you," she said again.

"We're here," he told her, smiling as he watched her face light up with excitement.

-----

"Mr. Daniel Pierce Logan, your company has just arrived." A voice over the intercom said.

His lips almost touching Hannah's, Daniel quickly pulled away and began to straighten his clothes.

"Cut, cut, cut. Logan what the hell are you doing now!" Zeus called into his megaphone.

"She's here." came the answer simply as though that excused everything.

"I dont give a rat's ass. We're in the middle of a scene, you cant just decide to end it."

"Eddie!" Daniel rushed to him. "Everyone this is - Ella?"

"That's her?" Hannah asked with visible disinterest. "I was expecting alot more." she admitted.

Daniel looked around the room for any signs of Jenifer, and when he didn't see her, felt the heavy crush of disappointment. Ella looked right into his face and saw it.

"I'm so sorry." she said softly, trying to make sure that only he heard her. "She had to work, and, its really my fault."

"Where is she?" he asked, surprised that he could still speak, even more surprised at how sad he felt.

"She had to work. She really wanted to come, honestly." Ella rushed quickly.

"Its fine." he breathed, straightening up himself before looking over at Eddie who had a concerned look on his face and realized what reaction he might have given off.

'I shouldn't be like this.' he told himself, forcing a smile. 'I've only known her for what, two days?' But he couldn't help it. For the first time in his life, he actually cared. 'And look where its gotten me.' he thought glumly. The first time he had ever trusted a woman and on her first time, she failed him. 'Stop it Daniel.' he said. 'I'm sure there is a perfectly good reason behind this.'

And with that thought, a small smile - a real one - came across his lips. "Hey Ella, how about you go take a seat. I gotta get back to the movie."