Chapter 5
Naomi
I rubbed my eyes open, completely confused. Where was I? How did I get here? Once everything began to clarify, I looked around the unfamiliar room, trying to find a clue as to where I was. It looked like a fancy hotel room. I was in the bed, with a mountain of sheets and blankets. Suddenly, the blankets began to shift and I stifled a scream. I slowly lifted one of the blankets, my heart hammering, praying that I wouldn’t find what I suspected I would. When I saw the face of Jonathan Loukas softly snoring, I froze. Okay, I’m going to sneak out of here and figure this out later, I thought to myself. I carefully began untangling myself, wincing once I realized that our legs were completely entwined. How had I not noticed before? I slowly inch my legs out, when Jonathan shifts and groans. I panicked and quickly jumped out of the bed. I look down and internally groan once I realize that I’m wearing a hoodie that is 100% not mine. Just as I’m looking for my shoes under the bed, I hear Jonathan sit up. I hold my breath and freeze. Jonathan’s feet suddenly appear on the side of the bed and a couple seconds later, his face peeks out as well. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and had a little frown on his face.
“What are you doing on the floor?” he asked. Regaining my confidence, I stand up and cross my arms.
“Why don’t you tell me what I was doing in your hotel room, in your hoodie, on your bed, while you were in it?” I replied, cocking my head. He raised his eyebrows.
“Well, I didn’t think you’d have complete amnesia about what happened last night.” I felt my insides filling up with dread.
“You mean we-,” I pause, waiting for his response. His eyes widened with realization.
“God, no, that’s not what I meant, that never happened.” He rubbed his forehead, probably trying to wake himself up more. I sighed with relief.
“So? What happened?” I asked again.
“Umm… well, it’s a long story…” He didn’t look like he wanted to relive the details but I rolled my eyes.
“Then you better start telling it,” I said, glaring at him. He sighed.
“Yesterday night, I was taking a walk. I walked by your house and you were dangling off a tree, singing Juice WRLD lyrics. When you saw me, you started waving wildly and fell off the tree. I went to see if you were okay, but you were like, super high. There was this note in your back pocket, that basically said to get you somewhere safe and away from your house. When we got here, you said there was enough room on the bed and threatened to sleep on the floor if I didn’t use it. And that’s basically it.” I suddenly felt dizzy and stumbled into the desk behind me. Jonathan’s eyes widen as he rushes to steady me, but I weakly push him away.
“How bad was it?” I asked quietly.
“Naomi, you should sit down,” he whispered panickedly. I shook my head.
“Tell me how bad it was,” I whispered, meeting his eyes. He looked down.
“It was really bad,” he finally said, avoiding my gaze. I take a shaky breath.
“Thanks for keeping me safe,” I said, all confidence gone, as I looked for my stuff, ready to go home.
“At least let me call a taxi,” he pleaded. I held a hand up.
“You did enough. I can take care of myself.” Jonathan looks heartbroken as I push past him to the bathroom. It wasn’t fair to blame him for what happened, but I didn’t care. How could I have slipped up so bad? I felt my face and realized a couple of tears had fallen. Keep yourself together, I told myself, as I wiped away my tears and straightened myself up. I left the bathroom, this time avoiding Jonathan’s gaze.
“As far as either of us are concerned, last night and this morning never happened. Thank you for your hospitality,” I said, plastering a fake smile on my face. I grab my phone off the ground and leave the room before Jonathan has the chance to say anything. I pull the hood over my head, internally groaning once I realized I hadn’t given Jonathan his hoodie back. Luckily, Jonathan’s room was on the first floor, so the elevator ride was short. As I got off, a short black girl with glasses and a tall lumbering bodyguard got on. The girl looked at me suspiciously and I quickly turned away. I was too slow, however, because she grabbed my arm.
“Aren’t you the new girl? The one playing Atlanta?” she asked. I gulped. Was I going to get kicked off the show before I even started?
“I’m nobody,” I said, wrenching my arm away and running out the lobby. I sneaked a glance back and the girl was frowning, looking right at me. Suddenly, she saw my hoodie, and her eyes widened. Run before she pieces it together, I told myself. I flagged down the nearest taxi. My last view of the girl was her gaping at me, from the door of the hotel.
I settled down in the back of the taxi, and finally dared to turn on my phone. I had 13 missed calls and 73 texts from Ruby, twice the amount from Nico, but so far, none from Mom and Dad. It was 9; there was a chance they were still both asleep. Soon, the taxi turned into my street and I tapped the glass so the driver would pull over. If a taxi pulled up into our driveway, my cover would be blown. I paid the driver and left. Once I got to my house, I climbed over the fence and went up to my tree house. I decided that I should probably respond to both Nico and Ruby before they started calling my parents. I called Ruby first and she picked up immediately.
“Hey, what’s up?”
“You have 1 minute to explain what happened last night. Go.”
“Umm, the funny thing is that I remember pretty much nothing, so I was hoping you would tell me,” I said, chewing my lip nervously.
“Oh? You don’t remember calling me last night? Running your gob about me being the queen of England? Hitting your head on the roof? Saying you can fly out the window? Do you take me for a mug? Tell me what happened.” I swallowed. Ruby on slipped How was I supposed to get out of this mess?
“Oh, that? That was nothing. Yeah, I was hanging around with some of the new crew members and we were playing truth or dare, and they were just daring me to do that. That’s all. They were in the tree house too. Didn’t you see them? Yeah, they were in the tree house, laughing. You heard them laughing, right?” I continued babbling, thanking God that I didn’t FaceTime her. She would’ve been able to tell immediately.
“Why didn’t you answer your cell, then?” she asked suspiciously.
“That was part of the dare. I couldn’t tell you about it being a dare until today,” I lied hastily. I could tell Ruby really wanted to believe I was telling the truth, because she sighed in defeat.
“Well, you better tell Nico that. He was having a bit of a strop when you hung up and ignored our texts and calls.” Oh, God. I can’t lie to Nico. He knows that. She knows that. I know that. I can’t tell him.
“Actually, Jonathan invited me out to breakfast with some of the other cast members. Could you explain it to him? I’m running late.” I held my breath, hoping she’d take the bait.
“Spending a lot of time with the cast, are you? Fine, I’ll tell him. Have a grand time,” she said, hanging up on me abruptly. I sighed in relief. Yes, she might be a little annoyed at me right now, but she’d come around. It suddenly occurred to me that Ruby was interning at the set. If I was to pull off the charade of me going to breakfast with the cast, I needed to enter at the same time as them. I pulled out my phone to text Jonathan, cursing once I realized we’d never actually exchanged numbers. My best hope was to go to the set now, and wait at the door until they all came. I climbed down the tree house, and let myself in the front door.
“Hi, honey! I was looking for you! Last night, the casting director said they were having a cast-only breakfast today. It would be an amazing way for you to get to know all the cast members. You’ll need to get ready fast if you want to go, though; I’m leaving for work in 15 minutes, and I can drop you off on my way,” my mom said once she saw me. I felt as if I could fly.
“Oh, yeah, definitely. I’ll get ready in a minute,” I said breathlessly. I ran upstairs to get ready. I brushed my hair, remembering what Luca had said. The short, wavy, caramel brown hair, to the lightly tanned complexion, down to the silver eyes. I’d received compliments from my hair before, but I never realized how similar my hair style was to Atlanta’s. I scanned my closet, finally choosing a white cropped tee and cargo pants. I grabbed a pair of sneakers, my baguette bag, and some lip gloss and made my way downstairs.
“I should tell you you’re having breakfast with celebrities every school morning if it gets you out this fast,” my mom said, putting her hands on her hips. I resisted an eye roll.
“Let’s go, Mama,” I said, tugging her sleeve.
“Alright, alright,” she said, putting her hands up. We left the house and got into the car.
“Can I play some music, Mama?” I asked.
“Sure, honey,” she said. I plugged my phone into the stereo and picked a playlist. You’re on the phone with your girlfriend, she’s upset, she’s going off about something that you said, she doesn’t get your humor like I do. I hummed along while tapping my fingers. As we pulled into the parking lot, my mom looked at me out of the corner of her eye.
“Did you take your ADHD meds?” she asked. I closed my eyes in frustration. I knew I was forgetting something. I got ready too fast to have not forgotten something.
“I can’t believe I forgot them, I need them today.” I covered my face with my hands.
“It’s okay, honey, you can do this. If it gets too overwhelming, text me,” she said, putting a hand on my shoulder. I nodded and opened the door.
“Bye, Mama!” I waved as she pulled out. She waved back and I walked into the diner. That’s when it occurred to me that I didn’t know any of the cast members, except for Jonathan. Suddenly, I saw a familiar head of brown curls and my heart skipped a beat. How is it possible for him to look even better than he did this morning? Stop. You are coworkers. Nothing more than coworkers. I took a deep breath and made my way to the back of the diner.
“Well! If it isn’t the new girl!” one of the guys said. I gave him a weak smile.
“Hi, I’m Naomi,” I said, waving to everyone. Jonathan turned around and we made eye contact, then I looked away.
“I’m Lance,” said the guy from before. He held out his hand and I shook it. One by one, everyone introduced themselves. There were about 20 of them. Olivia. Alex. Marcus. Fiona. Pat. Elizabeth. Xander. Seth. There were too many names, I couldn’t keep track of which face belonged to which name. Or was it supposed to be the other way around? Which name belonged to which face? Oh my god, they’re still introducing themselves. I missed at least 7 people. Now it’s gonna be awkward if I have to talk to them. I’ll just have to point and say he or she. But what about the person between Fiona and Alex? Are they a dude or a girl? What if they’re both? What if they’re neither? Wait, I think I got Fiona mixed up with Olivia. They look alike. Are they twins? Why am I still thinking about stupid things, they’re still introducing themselves! Focus, Naomi! Wow, Elizabeth won’t stop staring at Seth. Does she like him? What am I even saying? Marcus has his hand around her waist. They’re definitely dating. Wait, what if Elizabeth doesn’t actually like Marcus? What if she has a secret crush on Seth. No, wait, what if she’s cheating on Marcus with Seth? No, Elizabeth doesn’t look like the cheating type. Wait, what if she was dating Seth, got dumped, then started dating Marcus to make him jealous? But then again, what do you classify as the cheating type? You can’t look at someone and tell if they’re a cheater. So technically, she could be cheating on Seth. But what if she’s not the cheater? What if Seth cheated on her, she broke up with him, got with Marcus, but still has feelings for her? Or, wait, what if she was dating Marcus, he cheated on her, dumped her, then she got with Seth, but then once Marcus saw Elizabeth with another guy, he realized what a big mistake he made, and begged for her back, but she doesn’t have the heart to break up with Seth, so she’s secretly cheating on Seth with Marcus until she can finally break up with Seth and get with Marcus? Or, what if she doesn’t want to publicly get back with Marcus because it’s embarrassing to get back with a guy who cheated on you? Or maybe-
“Naomi?” My eyes snapped up. Jonathan was looking at me with a worried look in his eyes. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine, what’s up?” I said, plastering a smile on my face. He looked at me warily.
“Nothing, you were just staring at me for a while,” he said, scratching the back of his head. I can’t do this, I can’t. I turned around and ran out of the diner and sat down on the curb, sobbing. I heard the door open and close, and when I looked up, it was Jonathan. I looked away, trying to clean my face, when Jonathan sat down.
“ADHD?” He took a sharp breath. “I’m sorry, that was totally out of pocket. I shouldn’t have said that. I’m sorry. That was rude. I say things without thinking. I’m sorry. I know I’m saying I’m sorry a lot. I’m sorry for that. I’m going to shut up now.” He looked down and we sat in silence.
“How did you know?” I asked quietly.
“My sister. She has ADHD too. Before she got her meds, she would just randomly space out. But when she did it, her eyes would get big and she would just stand there, frozen, transfixed on whatever the last thing she was looking at was. When I saw you doing that, I just sort of assumed.” I gave him a small smile.
“After I got home this morning, I went back into my treehouse. By the time I made my way back into the main house, my mom told me I had 15 minutes to get ready. In all the rush, I forgot to take my meds.” I fidgeted with my fingers, regretting not grabbing any rings.
“In case you didn’t catch their names, don’t worry. I don’t even know everyone yet,” he said, beckoning towards the diner with his head. Suddenly, the door opened and a girl walked out. Elizabeth.
“C’mon, guys, what’re you doing over here? We’re ordering our food,” she said, stretching out her hands for us. She smiled at me as I took it.
“It’s nice to meet you! I’m playing Alessandra,” she said, winking at me. Alessandra was Atlanta’s best friend and one of my favorite characters. I immediately brightened.
“I’m excited to work together!” I said. Jonathan took her hand but looked at her with a poker face. What’s up with him? I thought as we walked back into the diner.
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