CHAPTER EIGHT

windows to the soul

the three of us approached the fence to the right of jordyn's garage, the first step to the risky series of parkour needed to get up to his bedroom. maeve and i knew it by heart, so we led the way for walker. we gestured for him to follow us to the fence, where we would cautiously step onto a tall buildup of cement on jordyn's driveway to get on it. walker gave us a perplexed look and climbed onto a recycling can next to the fence. i've never done that before, but it seemed to work fine.

i wish we could just go through the door, but jordyn's almost always grounded. not even i'm allowed to come over when he's caught drinking or something along those lines. and what's annoying is that my aunt always questions me if i drink too. and it's every single time, as if i would ever do that? plus, she installed a camera on the doorbell last year which luckily doesn't see very far to its sides.

once we were all on the fence, since i was in the lead, i took the first big leap to the roof. the last time i did this was over the summer, when i had the time and when the temperature was much higher, so my stiff legs weren't used to a jump like this. i waved my hands around trying to keep my balance as i made a faulty landing. "y/n, be careful," cried walker.

i forced myself to fall forward. scraping my palms on the shingles was better than cracking my skull open. "i'm good!" i lifted a bleeding hand to make a thumbs up without turning toward them. my face was scrunched up as i waited out the stinging sensation in my hand.

next, maeve's combat boots swiftly planted into the roof. "how'd you do that so easily," i asked.

"practice."

"you're saying that like i haven't been here the same amount of times as you," i said, shivering.

"uh... guys? a little help here?" walker was unsteadily holding one hand out with the other gripping the fence. he was a few feet away from us.

i hobbled toward the edge of the roof, locking hands with him like we were in a fist fight and helping him heft himself onto it. i had stained his gloves with my blood, but he didn't seem to notice. maeve got ahead of us and knocked on jordyn's window as walker caught his breath and i rubbed on my palm against my coat in pain.

i watched as jordyn crept up on the window, his figure morphing into a black silhouette against the bright blue lights. he took both hands and lifted the window open, making a squeaking sound. "party of three, huh?"

"hope that's okay," i said.

clearing the way for us to come in, he said, "any time."

maeve lunged herself up to the windowsill and, followed by me, entered the bedroom. after doing whatever guys do to greet each other, walker also joined us, looking around the room in amazement. "whoa, this is sick!"

there was a scarcity of open space on jordyn's walls — they were filled with posters and his tv took up a big portion of the wall opposite from his bed, which wasn't made as usual. what was sick was probably the light show of l.e.d.s and the projected stars on the ceiling.

"y/n, did you finish your homework or...," said walker. "i wanna start reading the script a.s.a.p."

i also wanted to start. and i didn't finish homework, but there wasn't an ounce of desire in me to do it. baby steps, i reminded myself again. "yeah, i did," i lied. i saw maeve flash a face of shock at me before smiling.

"so you brought your bag because it has the script in it, i'm guessing?" jordyn asked as he closed the window again.

"no," i said as if it was obvious. "i have the notes for the script in there." this is where my acting skills come into play. i regretted bringing my bag, it was just something i would have to lug back home now.

"alright, so this is gonna be a full-on performance?"

"yep, prepare yourself for the greatest script reading you've ever heard," said maeve, taking off her jacket before cracking her knuckles.

"wait for me," whispered jordyn, opening his door. "i'm getting popcorn." he tiptoed out of the room, which was his parents'go-to prison cell as grounding punishment.

i cleared my throat, prepared to start preparing for the preparation. we had exchanged emails so i could share the script with him online ( i'm saving the trees until it's official ). "you got the link?" i asked walker.

he nodded. his eyes widened as he exclaimed, "twenty five pages! that's awesome."

i lit up. finally, someone appreciating our work. "why, thank you," i said fancily.

˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

"guys, this is so good," he beamed at maeve and i, and only after a few minutes of reading it to himself. us two had read it a myriad of times, so we left the script to walker to picture in his head before we see how it works with full emotion and acting in front of jordyn. he continued, "can we start filming, like, right now?"

"slow your roll," maeve said. "even though you have zero competition, we need to make sure you're the right guy. let's finish reading first."

walker rolled his eyes. it made me happy how alacritous he was to join in on this project that i thought would never come to life. i don't think fourteen year old maeve and i had even imagined we would be reading the finished script with a famous actor, or any actor at all, which is pretty impressive considering the outlandish things we did imagine. as a mild example, in the first draft it was specifically written that caleb and aurora had a two and a half foot height difference, of course by maeve and her obsession with twilight. personally, i'm certain walker is the right guy. but maybe that's why maeve is hesitant -- she quixotically wants a caleb as tall jacob black, who's six foot seven in the books.

"alright, where is jordyn," i whined. "i want to actually read this out loud."

"he's taking forever," agreed maeve.

i plopped down onto jordyn's bed with an impatient sigh. it didn't take this long to get popcorn. i felt like we could be done writing howl at the whole solar system by the time he got back.

my leg started shaking out of habit, watching walker's eyes go from right to left over and over as he read the script in his phone screen's light. his jaw dropped. "she just walks in and yells at her in front of everyone?"

"okay, it's because it was the anger of the moment," maeve defended my character. there's a scene closer to the beginning, at a party, where aurora barges in to confront a "friend" who she had just found out back stabbed her. that's the scene i'm most excited to act out.

"you know what, jordyn can pay for making us wait. let's start reading it out loud," i proposed.

"sounds good to me." walker got up from the beanbag in the corner of jordyn's room. he stood before us on a makeshift stage in the front ( we had just pushed aside the mess on the floor. )

maeve pulled up the document on her phone and cleared her throat, joining walker on the stage. our first scene was set in front of school, as we probably can't film inside it, where caleb stood, admiring his crush emily. he stupidly thinks that she's the key to his happiness. maeve would be emily's filler actor, but she can't act for the life of her. i really wish i had popcorn for the unintentional comedy that was about to be made.

we got to the part where the dialogue starts, where caleb approaches emily nervously. walker opened his mouth to speak, when maeve's phone began blasting a ringtone. "oops, sorry!" she rushed to decline the call, and i just assumed it was a scammer or something.

i watched intently as the scene was restarted and caleb was again walking up to emily. "hey—"

he was about to speak when what had to be jordyn's neighbor started yelling outside. very. loudly. i stomped over to the window which we came in from. two old ladies were squabbling with each other in front of the next house over, one of them gripping her dog's leash.

i scoffed. "let's try to ignore them."

after a few seconds of peering over my shoulder to the outside, — i was not expecting to see him when i turned around — he said, "okay, i'll try..." and went back to the front of the room.

sounding a little less nervous and a little more on-edge, he began again, "hey, emi—"

there was another angry voice that cut him off, but this time, it came from inside the house. it was loud enough that i recognized it as my aunt's, but it was still too muffled for me to figure out what she was saying.

"what is going on down there?" walker asked. i could tell him and maeve were growing frustrated.

the yelling swelled and it started to sound more and more intense, so to break the awkwardness in the room, maeve said, "alright, walker. i know you're used to working on a set and such, but in our little indie, zero-budget, underdeveloped production, you're going to have to have what it takes to be in an unconventional environment. you need that nirvana concentration level," she said, like she was giving a pep talk. "again, we have to make sure you're the right caleb. so let's see, who will win in the ultimate battle of concentration: a staring contest?"

"so, is this your thing? to force the innocent people around you to participate in these evil games?" walker raised his arms defensively, "don't get me wrong though, i'm up for the challenge."

he stepped closer to maeve. "wait a minute! you have to compete against only the world's best staring competitor," she pointed to me, "y/n!"

"me?" i, too pointed to myself.

maeve nodded and poked walker in my direction. we locked eyes as he stood just a foot away from me. i blinked a few times to prepare myself, and the tension set in as she said, "one... two... three!"

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thank you for reading chapter 8!