Shelby's phone rang, loud enough to wake her up. Gosh, she had to change that damn ringtone. She took a peek at the screen and fell back onto the bed in a heavy sigh. She grunted as she forced herself to get up. What had happened now?

She pulled up in the studio's car park and put on her sunglasses before making her way to the main entrance. She glanced at her reflection in a window and stopped for a second. The blood orange sun underlined her puffy eyes, she pushed the glasses up the bridge of her nose to try and hide them. She entered busy hall and checked her watch. 5:36am. Despite how early it was, the place was already crowded and noisy, which was quite overwhelming for Shelby. Assistants running around trying to find a specific type of coffee, trolleys carrying boom mics being pushed, a middle-aged man yelling at people to be silent and employees trying to make as little noise as possible.

In the crowd, Shelby spotted a familiar face and walked up to an enthusiastic looking man carrying a folder. He was wearing big round glasses and a pair of bright yellow dungarees, like a ray of sunshine in the middle of all this chaos. He flashed a smile and immediately pulled her into a hug.

"So, where is she?" Shelby took a step back.

The man's smile suddenly turned into an expression of concern. Shelby followed him outside, behind the studio area, to where one of the makeup trailer was parked. He opened the door and let her get up inside. Shelby entered the van and looked around. Her heart skipped a beat at the sound of loud sobs. He pointed at the corner and muttered, Shelby could sense the worry in his croaky voice.

"She's hiding behind the sofa."

The man rubbed his hand against his forhead, frustrated. Shelby turned to him and nodded, indicating that she could handle the situation. He sighed in relief and vanished back into a nearby building. The crying was clearly coming from the sitting area. Shelby made her way to the velvet couch, only to find Audrey sitting on the floor, hudled in on herself and holding her head inbetween her knees. She crouched down and softly caressed Audrey's arm. Before she could say anything, the woman looked up at her, eyes full of tears. Audrey sniffled and wiped her runny nose with her sleeve. Shelby delicately dried her tears and placed a soft kiss on her forehead as she did so. She shifted and sat down next to Audrey, who immediately rested her head on Shelby's shoulder, platine strays tangling with silky blonde locks.

"Look at me. I'm pathetic." Audrey sobbed, with a lump in her throat.

Shelby tilted her chin up in a soft gesture and gave her a shy smile.

"You are everything but pathetic, baby. Now tell me, what happened?" Shelby asked in a very gentle tone. Audrey started fidling with her pendant and sighed under her breath.

"It's just that… well I keep forgetting my lines, so we have to do the takes over and over again, then the director gets mad, and then I get upset, and it just ends up like this. What is wrong with me? It's not even that bloody hard! All I have to do is memorize a sheet of paper, and I mess it up everytime! Next time that happens, they're going to fire me for sure."

Shelby listened at everything Audrey had to say and didn't interrupt, mindlessly playing with the woman's hair.

"And so then he starts yelling at me and I don't know what to say, and everyone else is watching, like literally just watching us!". Audrey paused and took a deep breath.

"God, they must all hate my guts, I should just leave this production and find another job or something. I'm useless here, they could find someone ten times better than me by making one single phone call."

Shelby's heart was breaking more and more at each of the woman's words. She looked her in the eye as tears rolled down Audrey's cheeks.

"Hey. It's gonna be alright, you can do this. And that's not true. You're not who people think you are."

"No. I'm worse."

Shelby wrapped her into her arms and hugged her tightly. She wiped the tears off her cheeks and started rocking her softly. Audrey tried to calm her hitching breath and buried her face in the woman's chest. Once her vision wasn't so blury anymore and the sobbing had stopped, Audrey pulled back slightly and looked up at a smiling Shelby. She scrunched her nose.

"Why are you doing this?"

"Doing what?"

"Treating me like a person."

As Audrey's gaze fell to her feet, Shelby felt the tears coming to her. But she had to stay strong, for Audrey. She placed her hand on her chin and tilted her chin up, smiling softly.

"You deserve to be happy. You deserve to be loved. And I'm here for that."

She cupped her cheek and kissed her softly, her lips brushing againt Audrey's hungrily. The woman responded immediately and kissed back, tugging onto blonde locks as she completely gave into the kiss. What had started as a chaste peck on the lips was now turning into a heated embrace. Shelby slowly pulled back, earning a small whine from Audrey. She smiled teasingly.

"I love you, Audrey Tindall."

"I love you more, Shelby Miller."