No cursing.
No romance between her character and the Linus character.
No nudity. Even with a body double.
No gruesome, bloody, or suicidal scenes.
Those were the demands that mum had presented the screenwriters and director with and, since she technically still reserved certain legal rights to the story was being given a producer credit and the lead was her daughter, they obliged, for the most part. Considering Veronica's character's mental state, it was difficult to not include the last one, at least a bit... How could you refer to bloody, gruesome, suicidal things without being offensive? You didn't want to romanticize illnesses, though you didn't want to be crass or triggering.
After a bit more debate, mum reluctantly agreed to allow one F bomb to be said by Veronica, the only F bomb in the film, since they were trying to keep it PG-13, and implied "romantic, ehem, interactions" between Veronica's character and Linus, who was played by Will McMahone.
I want Harrison there if there's any... Kissing or implications, though.
Mum wasn't almost as protective of her mum's story as she was towards Veronica. I wasn't exactly enthused to be stuck on set, I'd visited a few times and dropped her off, however it meant a lot to Veronica to be allowed to have the restrictions on her acting lifted, so I sat here for the past four hours.
"Cut!" The director exclaimed, as I glanced up from me phone. Will and Veronica were embracing, saline tears streaked down her face.
"Harrison!" Veronica exclaimed, bouncing over to me, "What'd you think?"
"Great!" I smiled. "Oscar worthy, if I do say so myself."
"Shut up." She playfully swatted my arm, rolling her eyes. "This is gonna be a summer flick, we're pandering a bit towards teenagers and the early twenties crowd, there's no way I could win any awards."
"Teen Choice Award?" I suggested. I'd seen Veronica practicing her award acceptance speech in the mirror, unbeknownst to her. I wasn't sure what her exact career goals were, she was getting general courses out of the way at the community college and loved her art class, she'd talked about majoring in a few things once she technically graduated high school and would enter college as a sophomore, but she hadn't stated anything for sure. Mum wanted me to encourage her to go into teaching, like her, she could become a teacher at MENA, teach dance or art or drama, and also do community theater on the side. Perhaps she wanted to be an actress, win an Oscar, a Golden Globe, be interviewed on the red carpet, though, and not pick, as dad described it "a stable career".
"Will might, he was in that adaptation of that book about those kids at boarding school with that clinical depressed smoker chick and got a nomination for it."
"You're ten times better than him."
"Right." She giggled, rolling her eyes."Because I totally have the skills of someone who's been taking acting classes since they were seven and starred in a Disney TV show for four seasons while balancing high school."
"You're starring in a movie while balancing college without any formal acting training, so of course you are."
"Shh! He's coming over, we don't wanna seem rude."
"Hey, is filming over for the day? Lyla's having a Star Wars movie marathon to celebrate the fact that next semester her roommate's moving into a new apartment and the first thing they did together was watch A New Hope and since there's only three weeks left in the semester, they kinda have to have it soon, before finals."
"Oooh, Lyla's having a Star Wars movie marathon, that's why you're going, isn't it?"
"No... I'm going for Harrison Ford." Lyla and I had resumed our lab flirtations after the one awkward instance, though Wilson and Veronica still insisted on teasing me about my infatuation, like middle schoolers.
"Harrison Ford?" Will came up, glancing at us. "Harrison Ford's bad ass."
"Ha, yeah. Will, this is my brother Harrison, Harrison this is Will." Veronica shot me a glance, warning me not to mention award shows.
"Er, we've actually met before, wasn't your brother here yesterday?"
"Oh... Oh, yeah he was." She blushed crimson, as I chuckled.
"I have to go, I have a Star Wars movie marathon to get to."
"Cool... Nice to meet you, again, I guess."
"Yeah." We awkwardly stood there for a few moments before I shuffled off, heading to Lyla's apartment. Her directions had been decent, take a left by the gas station where you can score cheap pot, it's the third apartment building on the right, she'd prop open the door so I didn't need to be buzzed in. I glanced at the car's clock, accelerating a bit. The commute from the film lot to uni wasn't long, maybe thirty, forty minutes, but I was still running late.
Half an hour later I parked, turning my phone on so I could check and make sure I'd gotten the address right. I climbed out of the vehicle, striding over to the door, entering into the lobby, just as my phone rang.
"Hey, what's up Lyla?"
"Harrison, hey, I just wanted to see if you were on your way."
"Er, yeah, yeah. I was running a bit late."
"Okay, well, I'm sorry, the movie thing is a bit, well it's cancelled. You aren't here, are you? Since you're late?"
"I'm, er, not really."
"Good, I'd feel so shitty if you drove her from the film lot, skipping your sister's thing and now it's canceled. My roommate had this fight with her boyfriend and like they were going to move in, but now I dunno, she's in more of a binge eat ice cream then binge watch Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford mood..." She trailed off, as I turned, glancing at the door.
"Chill, Lyla, I get it. Maybe you could come over to my place sometime, we could watch Star Wars together."
"Like a date?" The hesitance in her voice was apparent, even over the phone.
"Yeah, it could be a date!" Smooth, Harrison. Real smooth. I berated myself, knowing I came off as way too enthusiastic."Or just two friends or lab mates or whatever watching one of the best film series of all time." Great, I'm sure that'll make you sound less desperate.
"Alright... Text me later?"
"Will do."
"Bye."
"Bye." I hung up, sighing. Our problems could be solved will simple communication, we could talk about our flirtations or we could read way to far into them and awkwardly ponder whether or not someone would eventually make a movie. Clearly we were going to do the latter and hope things worked out like a romcom. I glanced down at my phone, wondering if I should price the cost of getting the original trilogy on DVD or if I should wait. I began walking, scrolling through Amazon. DVD or stream it? Why the hell was I invested in an "alright text me later"? Other than being sincerely surprised that I didn't already own the movies, since they seemed like the type of thing that everyone owns, I shouldn't be concerned about it. Still, here I was, exiting Lyla's apartment, on my- "Shit! Hot!"
"I'm so sorry!" A girl looked up at me, then down at my shirt, which was soaked with herbal tea, a disposable coffee cup printed with the campus' shop's logo lying on the floor.
"No, no, it was all me, I was on my phone and wasn't paying attention, I'm sorry." Her cheeks were turning crimson as she stood there, biting her lip. "I'm, oh I'm blocking the ent- Sorry, I was just going."
"New tenant?"
"Oh, no, I was coming to visit somebody, but it was a bad time, so..."
"So... You're free? Because you could come up to my apartment? The tea was scalding and I'd hate for you to have to drive home soaking wet. Er, I don't want to sound imposing, I just, my mom always told me common courtesy, love thy neighbor, I dunno, sorry, I babble when I feel awkward... Did you know this is one of the oldest apartments surrounding campus?"
"I didn't and sure or we could go out, I could buy you a new tea as an I'm-sorry-I-wasn't-paying-attention."
"Sure, I just need to drop off my bookbag." She stepped forward, pressing the elevator's up button. It dinged, as she stepped forward, into it. "Hey... What's your name?"
"Harrison."
"Harrison, get on the elevator." I stepped on, next to her as she smiled. "I'm Katie."
"Nice to meet you."
"Same, so... I take it you're a trusting person."
"Why'd you think that?"
"Well, it's the most stereotypical line, but I could be a murderer."
"Are you?"
"Nah, I'm against the whole murder thing... I'm guessing you aren't planning on dismembering anyone today, either?"
"Eh." I shrugged, "The day's still young, though I admit I'm also against the whole murder thing."
"That's good." She laughed. Her giggles were beans of sunshine, filling the room with warmth, as her face lit up. "So, there's this tiny independent Chinese place with great jasmine tea, we could go there. You buy me tea, I buy you chow mein?"
"Who doesn't love noodles, spicy chicken, and vegetables? Though, I couldn't let you buy me a meal and me just buy you tea, I'd have to at least throw in, I dunno... Dumplings or spring rolls."
"You could, you don't have to, though." She smiled, looking up at me. "Considering that I spilled tea on you and everything."
"Nah, it was my fault. C'mon, how about a complimentary fortune cookie?"
"You know, I had Chinese last week and my fortune cookie said that I'd run into a tall, handsome stranger."
"Have you?" I smiled, feeling my cheeks flush.
"Well, there's this guy who I accidentally spilled tea all over and I'm fairly certain he's not a mass murder, and he's fairly tall, I mean only about two or three inches taller than me, not bad on the eyes either."
"That's odd, because I had a fortunate that siad I was going to run into a beautiful, intelligent stranger and I did... Literally."
"That is odd... I supposed it's both of ours lucky day." She looked up as me, smiling, as the elevator dinged, signifying that we'd reached her floor. I nodded, beaming.
And with that, we exited the elevator.
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