<🎧 Song Recommendation: soso by OMAH LAY>

...

"So, Chloe, you have any scene in mind for the audition?"

Chloe, who had been quiet all that while, practically jumped in her seat. She was genuinely shocked when Marcus turned to speak to her; she definitely wasn’t expecting him to ask for her input.

"Uh, oh... Do you really want to use my pick?"

"Yeah, why not?" Marcus shrugged. "As long as it’s fine by me, we’ll go with it."

Hearing his words made Chloe feel a lot more confident in herself. And now that he had asked, she did have a scene in mind.

She had been wondering how to tell Marcus about the brilliant suggestion Mr. Janitor had made during their secret rehearsal.

Directors of Marcus’s caliber were known to be incredibly territorial and protective of their work.

It would be almost impossible for him to take acting advice from a young actress like her without getting defensive.

’Maybe I don’t have to tell him personally,’ Chloe thought to herself. ’I could just act shocked like I did on the campus set, and he’ll definitely spot that it’s better himself!’

Chloe had a small smile creeping onto her face while she thought about her masterplan. Beside her, Leviathan looked at his niece weirdly, wondering what on earth was going through her mind to make her grin like that.

"Ahem," Marcus cleared his throat, interrupting her trail of thoughts.

"I’m sorry," Chloe laughed awkwardly before quickly fixing her posture. "So, I was thinking, we could do Act 2, Scene 29. I think it’s a really good one."

"Hmm," Marcus tapped his chin, trying to recall the exact pages of the massive script before nodding his head in approval.

"Not bad, not bad... It’s not the usual quiet Aiden we’ll see at the beginning of the script, so it’s a good test of his emotional range. We’ll go with that."

’Yes!’ Chloe exclaimed within her mind, doing a tiny victory dance before continuing her wait for the first male lead option to walk through the doors.

It only took five minutes.

The doors pushed open, and an extremely charming young man with fair skin and striking violet eyes that many people had been mesmerized by walked into the room. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

This time, his dark hair was styled to look a bit messy, and he wore a pair of simple reading glasses on his face. But none of those subtle changes obstructed Chloe even by the slightest from telling exactly who he was.

"Mr. Janitor," she muttered outwards, her mouth falling wide open.

Her brain short-circuited that moment. The shock hit her so hard she almost fainted right out of her chair.

The guy she had bribed, the guy she had almost fallen for, the guy she had rehearsed with alone in the night, wasn’t a janitor at all. He was auditioning to be her co-star!

Leviathan immediately noticed her sudden, wide-eyed panic. "Whoa, what’s the problem, niece?"

Chloe snapped out of her daze, forcing herself to sit up straight.

"It’s nothing... I just lost myself for a second. I’m fine."

"Hmph." Marcus wasn’t pleased with what had just happened. He glared at Chloe, immediately assuming that she was already falling for the young actor’s good looks.

"Teenagers," he scoffed under his breath.

Von saw the entire exchange and couldn’t help but let out a subtle smirk. He walked forward with a calm, composed posture, giving a gentlemanly bow to the room.

"Good morning, Marcus. Good morning, Leviathan. Miss?"

He asked, stopping in front of the table and extending his hand toward Chloe.

"Chloe," she squeaked out, taking his hand while still entirely paralyzed in shock.

"Chloe... Such a beautiful name for a beautiful lady. I’ll look forward to working with you soon."

Chloe blushed a deep shade of red, but she could only manage a stiff nod while he gently held her hand.

"Yoo, King V! How’re you doing, eh?"

Leviathan’s booming voice broke the tension. The rapper got Von’s attention from across the couch, taking his hand backward for a heavy, dramatic slap that Von received firmly.

"I’ve been good, Levy," Von replied smoothly. "Just doing my rehearsals and surviving the quarantine. Now I’m here to see if it was all worth it."

The bearded man threw his head back and laughed at Von’s remark before punching the right side of his chest. "I wish you luck, man!"

"Appreciate it," Von repeated the friendly gesture before returning to the middle of the room and taking the single chair that faced Marcus.

"I never knew you used glasses," that was the very first thing Marcus commented on, his sharp eyes scrutinizing Von.

"Oh, no," Von answered, adjusting the frame on his nose. "My eyes work fine, but they’re for Aiden."

"Hmm, not bad."

It was a small detail, but Marcus appreciated it greatly. It showed the kid was actually thinking about the character’s mundane reality.

It raised the director’s favorability points a bit, but it was still not nearly enough to completely pull him out of the hatred zone from their recent video call.

"So, Von," Marcus began, lacing his fingers together. "You seem pretty sure about getting this role. Are you aware you’re competing with an A-list actor, Sammy Howkins? Why the confidence?"

"Sammy is a great dude, no doubts about that," Von said evenly, leaning back in his chair.

"But my confidence isn’t supported because of a name I have, so it can’t be derailed by a name someone else has. I believe the audition is for whoever knows Aiden best to get the role, and I’m here to show you that now."

Olivia had sent Von a long list of potential interview questions he would be asked and the best PR-friendly answers to use, but Von hadn’t even bothered to open the document.

He wanted his answers to be genuine and natural, and right now, it was currently going very well.

"Interesting," Marcus touched his white moustache. "You claim to know Aiden. Care to tell me something about him?"

Von had spent a massive amount of time studying Aiden in his room, so this was among the absolute best questions he could have been asked.

"Of course," Von started, his voice naturally shifting to carry a bit more weight.

"Anyone who studied the script would be able to tell that Aiden is a socially awkward fellow with a fragile heart and a knack for writing. But there are other major things that would need a much deeper understanding to figure out about him."

Marcus leaned closer to hear what he had to say.

"For one, Aiden is an incredibly guarded, risk-averse guy. He is terrified of losing things," Von explained.

"That’s the real reason he writes, to escape the world. Because of this, Camila means so much more to him than just a college crush. She represents the exact opposite of what he stands for, and just the thought of him being with her is like a chance for him to give life an actual try. So she is indeed a very big deal for him."

"But another thing I’ll add is his other side. His dark side. Beyond the awkward and nervous exterior, Aiden is a possessive and ruthless individual when pushed. Let’s call him a wolf in sheep’s clothing. We’ve seen it across many minor bits in the script, and I’ll guess we’ll see a lot more of that dangerous side of him if this movie does indeed get a sequel."

"Wow," Marcus breathed out, nodding his head while smiling genuinely.

The last part of his breakdown was something that made the movie script differ greatly from the original source novel.

The fact that Von was able to figure out that that specific side of Aiden was so prominent was incredibly admirable.

’He’s passed this first stage,’ Marcus thought to himself. ’But this isn’t anywhere near to being enough if he’s going to actually beat Sam on camera.’

Marcus picked up his pen and sat up straight.

"Let’s start your audition, Von. We’ll be doing Act 2, Scene 29. Are you interested in using a script?"

Von’s eyes discreetly darted over to Chloe for a fraction of a second after recognizing the script.

"No, no..." Von said with a confident smile. "Why would I need a script? You couldn’t have chosen better than Scene 29."

"I like that," Marcus smiled, genuinely excited to see what the young actor was about to do before calling his assistant forward to set the scene.