“Thanks for coming with me, AJ. I really appreciate it,” Brian said as the two rode to the movie site.
“No problem, Brian. You gonna be okay?” AJ asked.
“Yeah, I just… need to get out of that hotel room, I guess. I would call Leigh, but… I don’t want to be the boy-… ex-boyfriend that bothers his ex-girlfriend and gets classified as a psycho or something. If she wants her peace, I’ll give it to her, because she deserves everything she wants.”
“So some of the guys at The Firm called the movie producers and confirmed that we could come hang out there?” AJ asked.
“Yeah. Cool of them, huh?”
“Yeah.”
“Here we are,” the limo driver said.
They pulled up to the huge mansion, and AJ began to freak out. “That’s Bruce Willis! I didn’t know he was going to be here!”
“You can go get an autograph,” Brian chuckled. The security in front of the gates of the mansion confirmed that the two Backstreet Boys could come in, gave them two passes to show anyone who wanted to make sure they belonged there, and directed them to a few places.
“You can go behind the mansion, which, at the moment, is where the actors and actresses are running over their lines with the sound guys. Then they’ll start filming scenes inside the mansion around 10 AM, and you can watch that, too. On the top floor of the house is where costumes are, and if you want to go browse through there, you can. Basically, because you guys are famous yourselves, and the director is friends with your management, you can go anywhere you want. Just don’t distract any of the stars while their filming, or mess anything up. If you do, we’ll have to ask you to leave. Is all that clear?” the security guy said.
Brian and AJ nodded excitedly. This was so cool to them!
“Let’s go to the back and watch the actors run over their lines,” AJ said.
“Yeah.” The guys headed out back, and they admired the house as they did. The movie was obviously taking place in the olden days, because the house itself was very old and eerie looking. And from what they had seen of some of the actors the day before, the costumes represented the 19th century times.
When they got to the back, there were lots of people running around doing errands or talking on cell phones or fooling with equipment. They searched for the actors, and soon came upon them. Bruce Willis and Sigourney Weaver were holding scripts in their hands going back and forth with lines. Sigourney was dressed up in an elaborate green velvet dress. The bottom poofed out and jewels were sparkled all over the hem. Her hair was up in a French twist.
“Yep, it’s an olden-days movie,” AJ commented.
Soon, Joshua Jackson, who must have been playing a farm boy or something by the way he was dressed had come out and began reading dialogue, and then Denzel Washington had also joined them.
“This is awesome,” AJ said. “I’m dying to meet Denzel.”
“Look!” Brian cried.
Standing not 20 feet away, in a deep red princess dress, with red glitter in her brown hair, was Michelle Colback.
“Oh, for crying out loud!” AJ moaned as he fell back on the grass. She had not seen him, and was talking to the director about something.
“She’s not reading dialogue, let’s go talk to her,” Brian said.
“No.”
“Maybe if you talk to her, you’ll see that she’s a nice person and you just met her at a bad time. Besides, I’m a fan and I want an autograph or something.” Brian turned his blue eyes to AJ and said, “Come on, it would cheer me up so much. I’d forget about Leigh for a whole 5 minutes.”
Now, AJ seemed tough, and he usually was, but not when it came to his friends. Especially when they were hurting.
“OK,” he grumbled.
Brian and AJ stood up, and Brian wrung his hands as they walked up to her.
“You nervous or something?” AJ asked in disbelief.
“Uh… yeah.”
“Believe me. You don’t need to get nervous over this girl. She’s nothing special.”
Brian cautiously tapped Michelle on the shoulder, and she turned around.
“Yes… AJ?”
“Yeah.”
“Um… what brings you here?”
“A disenchanted friend. Brian, this is Michelle.”
“Hi,” Michelle said, smiling warmly at Brian. Brian’s brain seemed to melt.
“Hi,” he said with a weird grin on his face.
“You’re also in the Backstreet Boys,” she commented.
“…yeah…”
“So y’all are going to watch us do our thing today?” she asked.
“Yep,” Brian said happily.
She smiled at him. “OK. Well, we’re going inside to start filming in 10 minutes…would you guys like to come inside with me now?”
“Sure- .” Brian started.
“No, we’ll be there in a minute, thanks,” AJ said coldly. “You go by yourself.”
“AJ!” Brian said.
AJ looked down at the ground. He hadn’t meant to be so mean, and he knew he should apologize, but the words wouldn’t come out. Michelle just gave him a LOOK and nodded.
“OK. See you guys later, then. Nice to meet you Brian,” she said.
“What is wrong with you? She didn’t do anything!” Brian said.
AJ wanted to tell Brian that he didn’t know why he had said what he did. But his pride was in the way.
“I don’t like her, OK? There’s nothing more to say.”
“Let’s go inside,” Brian sighed.
“Whatever.”
The guys headed inside and asked where filming was at the moment. Some guy pointed them to a large room a few doors away. The set was a living room type, and overhead lights shown above, and there was filming and sound equipment everywhere.
They walked in just as filming was about to begin.
“Michelle, Bruce, and Joshua, get in your places,” a voice said over an intercom.
Michelle walked in and sat down on a sofa that was positioned in the back of the room. She smoothed down her hair and glanced up. Brian caught her eye, and she smiled at him. He smiled back. AJ rolled his eyes.
“Living room scene, take 1. Action!” the director called.
Josh Jackson walked into the room in his dirty clothes and mussed up hair, and said in a fake hick voice, “Miss, I finished up in the sugarcane field. Is there’a anything left for me to do? Can I go home now?”
Michelle threw up her hand. “It doesn’t matter, Stanley. Just go,” she said in a snotty voice.
“Thanky Miss Hannah,” Josh/Stanley said to Michelle/Hannah.
Michelle, in character, shooed him away, and sighed. “He never wants to stay.”
Bruce Willis walked in the room right after she said that.
“Honey?”
“Yes, dad?” Michelle/Hannah said.
“Are you giving that field worker hell again?” Bruce/dad asked.
“No dad,” Michelle/Hannah said. “Where’s mother?”
Bruce/dad shrugged. “Who knows?”
“Cut!” the director called. “That was good, but let’s do it one more time.”
An hour later, Michelle and Josh were doing a scene together. The basic plot of the story seemed like a cliché at first, but turned into something different. The basic plot, used many times, was that Michelle played a rich heiress, Hannah, who falls in love with one of her father’s poor field workers, Stanley, played by Josh. In the story, Stanley leaves for war, and Hannah receives news that he has been killed. So, she ends up getting married to someone she does not love, and finds out 10 years later that Stanley never got killed, but was thrown in prison during the war, and had just gotten out. In the scene they were shooting, Stanley was coming to tell Hannah that he had to go off to fight for the Confederates in the Civil War, and that she should find someone else.
“But… I love you,” Michelle/Hannah said tearfully.
“I love you too, Hannah, but… there’s no other way.”
Michelle, in her acting, had tears streaming down her face. “You can’t go! I’ll just die without you!”
Josh/Stanley pulled her to him. “No, Hannah. You’re strong. You can make it without me.”
Michelle/Hannah continued her crying, and Josh/Stanley embraced her. “Fate will bring us together again.”
“Cut!” the director called.
Michelle smiled, wiping her eyes, and Josh grinned at her.
“You were about to make me cry, Colback, and Stanley’s not supposed to!” Josh said.
Brian turned to AJ. “She is incredible,” he said.
AJ shrugged. “She’s a good actress.”
“Take a break, everybody!” the director said.
Michelle and Josh continued a conversation, and Brian, pulling AJ along, walked up to her and Josh.
“You guys are doing really good,” he complimented.
“Thanks,” Josh said. “But I bet you want it that way, huh?” he joked, making a pun with the song “I Want It That Way.”
Brian laughed, and even AJ cracked a smile.
“I’ll see you later, Josh,” Michelle told him. She walked away with Brian and AJ, and Brian began to ramble on to her about how great she was doing.
“I didn’t know I had such a fan,” Michelle joked.
“Oh, yeah, I think you’re just… great,” Brian said.
“You said that already,” AJ mumbled.
“Well, I am appreciative of the attention,” Michelle replied.
“You said that already,” AJ mumbled again.
“I’m glad I got to meet you,” Brian said to her. “You’re really down-to-earth.”
“You are too,” Michelle said.
“I’m not even here,” AJ muttered.
15 minutes later, after Michelle and Brian had talked about random things, the actors had to get back to work.
“Forgot about Leigh yet?” AJ asked.
“I think so,” Brian said, smiling.
“Yeah right. She just dumped you last night! You’re on the rebound! Get it through your skull!” AJ cried.
“No…no. I like this girl,” Brian said.
“Ugh,” AJ replied. “Well, you are the one with the most tolerance, so you could probably take her.”
“Why don’t you like her again? Give me two reasons.”
“Well, she was rude to me at that after-party…”
“You were probably rude to her too,” Brian interrupted.
“AND she’s conceited!” AJ said.
“What?! She is not!” Brian said.
“I just love the attention!” AJ mocked her in a girly voice.
“She’s totally humble. There’s more to that girl than that, AJ,” Brian said.
“Mmm-hmm. Sure,” AJ said sarcastically.
“You’ll see,” Brian replied knowingly.
~~~~~~~