I arrived back home and the next day, on the 24th, I got a visit from James early in the morning, where he gave me the script for the audition.
It was a simple scene, the character named Charlie was talking to his mother about his creepy looking new gadget he just made. She asks him to set the table as they're going to eat dinner before the purge starts.
The whole morning I reviewed and rehearsed the scene with my father until I could do the scene by heart when I suddenly received a message from my two best friends Ethan and Alex. The two of them wanted to go hang out at the beach.
It had been a while since we had all three hung out together, Ethan was also an aspiring actor represented by James, we had met a year ago at MMA classes, he had been taking them for more than three years when I joined and had been my sparring partner when I started, we quickly became the best of friends after that even though he was 17 and I was 14 at the time.
Alex on the other hand was a bit of a wild card, he was a year older than me and I had met him when we had just moved in four years ago and had gone to Venice Beach. He was skating there and literally ran into me, we both fell to the ground and to make up for it, he bought me some food which sealed our friendship. He had done a lot of model work ever since he was a child, he was perfect for it with his blond hair and blue eyes, and had since started doing the same classes as me and Ethan. So yeah we were all aspiring actors in a way.
Normally, I'd spend my time with them during our acting and Martial arts classes and even outside of that we usually played video games together or went to the beach. Around three months ago, they had started working at a restaurant in LA and had asked me to join but I was rehearsing my lines for the Maleficent audition and later on got picked so I couldn't join them since then we had pretty much only hung out once or twice before I left.
I quickly texted them to come and get me, I missed them after not seeing them for a month.
"Dad, I'm going to the beach with the boys." I said
"Alright, do you need a lift ?" asked my father
"Nah, Ethan said he was going to come and get me" I replied
"Okay, have fun" he said, "and remember to be back for dinner."
It was currently 1 PM so that meant I had a good few hours before coming back.
"Alright."
I went back to my room and took some red swimming trunks, along with some sunscreen, towels and all the essentials for a day at the beach. A few minutes later, Ethan arrived with Jake in the front seat of his car, a new one visibly. I guess that summer job paid off, though his car is kind of…ugly.
"What's up bro" said Alex opening his window.
"The sky obviously." I said, dapping him up.
"Nah really?" he replied, rolling his eyes. "Anyway, it's good to see you, how was London? Got with any girls ?" he said, grinning.
"Is that all your filthy mind can think of, I was there for a job, on business." I said smugly, a smirk on my face.
As he was about to reply, Ethan interrupted, "You know how this guy is, ever since he lost his virginity he's gone girl crazy."
"Yeah I trust I know, no matter how many times we tell him Katie wanted to do some charity he just refuses to acknowledge it" I said grinning, going to the other side of the car, dapping up Ethan.
"Actually it was Kylie and we've done it again multiple times since then so fuck you." replied Alex, mockingly. "Anyway, this summer was crazy bro, you should've been there. We went to the beach every day after work, we had so much fun. Met plenty of girls as well"
"Nice but I have to say, I can't pretend like my summer wasn't fun as well" I replied, getting in the backseat of the car.
"That's right, how was filming ?" asked Ethan.
"It was nice." I said stiffly, kind of regretting bringing it up now, " By the way, you got yourself a new car ?"
I honestly wasn't sure how to bring up the subject of me getting a speaking role before him, especially in such a big production too. Ethan had wanted to become an actor for as long as me and we had gone to the same auditions multiple times, including the one for Maleficent, but he was eliminated in the first round of audition, not because he wasn't handsome enough to play prince charming or because he was a particularly bad actor.
It was quite the contrary in fact, the truth is, it was because he was Asian, don't take my word for it, when we came out of that audition a casting assistant outright told him so and Ethan being who he is, almost fought him right then and there in the parking lot. Luckily James was there and put a stop to it, still I'm not sure speaking to him about the role he didn't get over something he couldn't control is a good idea.
"Yeah, you know how my dad is, he wanted me to stop using his car all the time so he said that if I could come up with 6,000 dollars he would match it and we got this two year old Kia Soul thanks to that." he replied proudly.
"You had 6,000 dollars ?" I asked, surprised.
" Of course I did, I've been working a lot for the past year even though it wasn't in movies very much." he retorted, still smiling proudly.
Just like me, Ethan had graduated high school a year ago, though he did the normal trajectory unlike me who did all of high school in two years. Alex on the other hand, was going into junior year, but he was trying to convince his parents to let him finish early as well.
"Nice I'm happy for you bro but umm did it have to be so…" I continued
"Ugly ?" continued Alex, laughing, "I told him the exact same thing the first time I saw it and he told me to get fucked if I didn't like it."
"And I mean it too, my dad insisted that I should get a Korean car since I'm half Korean and Chinese cars aren't a thing here, since Korean cars are pretty good cars I didn't see any problem with it."
"I still think a Hyundai would've been less ugly" replied Alex, to which Ethan replied by promptly shoving him into the car door.
"Well at least it's a big car, could be good for a road trip if we ever take one right ?" I said, trying to say something positive.
"Thank you exactly." said Ethan, he then turned to Alex, "See? It doesn't hurt to be positive."
And with that we took off towards Venice Beach.
(Break)
As we arrived at the Venice Pier, we got out of the car and changed into our swimming trunks. The day was beautiful and a fresh breeze kept the temperature to exactly the type of climate California is known for, we went to find a spot on the beach and soon were able to rent three lounge chairs. I took my shirt off and put on some sun screen, planning on tanning for a bit.
As I was about to lay down Alex suddenly opened his bag and took out a go pro camera with a relatively big microphone then said,
"What's up guys it's your boy Alex Walker, doing another vlog, this time I'm at the beach with my two friends, you've already met Ethan, but new to the channel here I got Xavier who just came back from an acting gig in London. Say hi to the viewers Xavier"
I blinked a few times, not fully registering the sentence that just came out of my friend's mouth right there. "Uh…hi?"
Alex laughed, "He's not used to talking to the camera but you guys will warm up to him you'll see, anyway say hi to the viewers Ethan"
Ethan, seemingly used to it by now, put a his most charming smile before saying, "Hey guys"
Alex continued talking to the camera for a few minutes before finally turning his go pro off to which I then said,
"Uh what the fuck ? Since when did you decide to become a youtuber?" I said, flabbergasted.
"Since I realized you could get quite rich and famous being one." He said. "Plus have you seen how quickly that Youtuber Pewdiepie got to two million subs? It took like 1 month, I bet I could do the same thing."
"Umm first of all Pewdiepie started his channel at least more than a year ago, cause I've been watching it for at least that amount of time and second just because he went from a million to two million in more or less a month doesn't mean that shit'll happen to you." I said, "Also he does gaming content, I haven't seen anyone filming videos of themsleves at the beach."
"It's called vlogging and it's gaining in popularity slowly, you'll see, in like a year or two it'll be super popular and I'll be one of the first to have done it,." Alex replied, then a nasty grin suddenly appeared on his face he continued by saying, "Also, haven't you seen me ? I'm hot as fuck, why wouldn't I film myself at the beach and post it, bet the ladies would love it."
I literally facepalmed at that, the amount of cringe that invaded my body at that sentence could not be described by the english language at the moment, "Bruh did you really just say that about yourself ? Let's be real, out of us three you're obviously last in the looks department."
"And yet I'm the only one who's a model." he replied, not backing down.
"Are you guys really arguing about who's the hottest, what kind of gay shit are you both on." said Ethan, laughing at us. "Overall this isn't a bad idea, and it is absolutely becoming a way of making money and becoming famous, and more so he's already posted 4 videos on his channel too."
Alex shot me a triumphant look, "See ?"
I rolled my eyes, "Whatever." I muttered.
"Also, we haven't gotten any auditions for a while now, Ethan sometimes gets stunt work but it's rare so every bit of fame we can get will help."
My eyes dropped at that, feeling embarrassed and also a bit guilty all of a sudden, "Sorry I didn't mean to-"
"It's fine bro, we're happy that you got an opportunity, especially for a big movie." said Ethan, I looked at him and I could tell, he was sincere.
" Though it would've been fun to know a bit more about it." said Alex, teasingly.
"I told you, even though I could tell you about it, Disney would hate me if something leaks and it's my fault, anyway you both still know quite a lot. Especially for someone that didn't participate in the auditions." I replied, looking at Alex pointedly.
"Oh come on! How was I supposed to know that a perfect acting role for our level would pop up while I was an extra on Pacific Rim." groaned Alex.
"James literally told us like a month before to keep our schedule open and we then told you but you didn't believe us." replied Ethan, "You should seriously consider switching agencies. This is like the third time you've missed an audition for a big role."
Alex has been represented by the same agency since he was a kid, it's a lot smaller but they got him some decent work all along. However they were mostly focused on modeling and didn't have a lot of proper connections in the acting world. Which had caused Alex to miss out on quite a few auditions in the past year like Ender's Game, Chronicle and Project X, at least me and Ethan had auditioned but he hadn't even been able to do that.
"Yeah well they're still able to get me modeling work, I was in an ad for Target not too long ago." defensively replied Alex, he had become quite close with the people from his agency, so he didn't want to abandon them.
"Anyway, enough of that I'm going for a swim, you guys coming ?" he continued, smiling and taking his shirt off and standing up.
"Yeah, I'm going to tan for a while though, give me 15 minutes." I said laying down on the lounge chair.
"Yeah me too." said Ethan.
"Bunch of lazy fools, if you guys aren't in the water in five I'm throwing water into your bags." muttered Alex, walking towards the beach.
"Yeah,Yeah, we'll be there, I'm just a little jetlag and want to relax." I said, shooing him away.
I relaxed for a few seconds before Ethan asked what I'd been dreading about,
"So do you think James will have any more auditions for us any time soon ?"
I couldn't help but stiffen at that, "Umm well yeah probably, one thing about him is that he can get us work quite frequently so yeah i'd imagine."
Ethan looked at me for a while before saying, "You have a new audition don't you ?"
I looked down, "Yeah a horror movie for Blumhouse, it's tomorrow."
"Good luck then." he said smiling at me, I looked at him carefully, see the truth is, I was a little scared he might get jealous, we had known each other for only a year after all, so would he really be happy for me. Turns out he was, or maybe he was a really good liar.
I smiled back, "Thanks"
"Although you're paying for our food today because I know for a fact that you got paid bank for that role of yours." he said, teasing me
I laughed, knowing the truth in that statement, I simply replied, "Alright, alright I will"
"Good now let's join Alex cause he looks like he's about to come here and really put sand in our bags."
______________________
Well Damn this is embarrassing💀, but I actually had a good reason this time for missing all that time. I got sick, caught pneumonia, had a fever and all that nice shit. Anyway I realised Xavier was lonely so I gave him some friends, the chapter should be fine but I'm still a little weak so if this is unreadable just tell me and I'll redo it later, Anyway thanks for reading!!! 😁