A/N: This is a Kastin story. Please don't read if you like Castin in any way. I mean no offense by this. This is fiction based on real events. This is the way things are in my mind, because I figure that there is no point in having the ability to imagine the world the way you think it should be if you don't use it. This is how I think it should be…
She scrolls through his Twitter feed, angrily clicking on his pictures and reading the comments. You idiot, she thinks, this is why you don't follow him on Twitter or Instagram, because every time you see any of his posts all you're left with is anger. That, and nausea, she mentally adds before closing the browsing window on her phone and tossing it onto her bed.
So what if they're engaged. She doesn't care, right? Who cares if she-who-must-not-be-named tweeted a picture of their manicured hands with hers proudly displaying his ring. Who gets points put into the white tips of their French manicure anyway? She grumbles internally. And who cares about her stupid lost hat at the gym. Post signs up at the gym, not on social media for the entire world to see! The girl needs a hat that reads Attention Seeker in big, bold letters.
She doesn't understand why she feels this way. She's famous, more so than either of them. She's Oscar nominated. She's won awards. She's had a number one single on the radio. So why is she letting them make her feel bad?
Only it isn't them, it's him.
And the fact that he chose her instead.
And she doesn't know if she'll ever get over it.
It didn't start this way, and she isn't even sure what changed. When they first met on the set of Pitch Perfect, he flirted with her like crazy. She was the one he posted pictures of on social media. He followed her around like a lovesick puppy, going out of his way to try to make her laugh and smile, much like his character, Jesse Swanson, did in the movie. It was towards the end of filming when his focus shifted to Anna Camp instead, and Anna Kendrick didn't understand why. Anna Camp was married. She'd been to her and her husband's house for Thanksgiving during filming. They seemed happy together. Rumors began circulating around the set that Skylar and Camp were an item, but she dismissed them because in her mind, Camp was married to Michael. And besides, Skylar wasn't like that, right?
Not too long after the movie finished, it was announced that Camp and Skylar were officially an item. Camp divorced Michael, claiming that they'd been having problems. Camp had been a good friend of hers, a best friend, and had never mentioned ever having any difficulty with Michael, so again she was stunned.
And then the social media onslaught began. Pictures of them with horrible hashtags like #mylove. They got a dog together. They somehow managed to always have pictures of them kissing, sometimes photo-shopped to make them look dreamy together. She couldn't take it, so she unfollowed both of them on every social media platform. But occasionally, like right now, she found herself seeking out their profiles, like some sort of masochist.
"Hashtag my love," she scoffs out loud to no one, "How about hashtag my ass." She flops down on her bed and sighs. At least he hasn't signed on to do Pitch Perfect 3.
Yet.
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He's only half listening as she rambles on and on in a whiny voice about her lost hat. He can't help but think if it were so important to her, then why did have to carelessly leave it at the gym? He doesn't voice that aloud of course, not wanting to start a fight with her.
He opens Twitter and searches for her as if he's on autopilot. He's done this so often that now he does it without thought, and since she unfollowed him he unfollowed her out of principle. Mainly though, he was hurt by her actions. What had he done that caused her to want to sever their friendship? Her Twitter feed loads and he laughs at her latest tweets, they're so sarcastic and witty and undeniably her that he can't stop the smile that spreads across his face and the chuckle that escapes his lips.
"I don't see how any of this is funny," Camp snaps, obviously annoyed.
"Oh I'm sorry," he replies, quickly closing Twitter and turning his attention to her, "I just saw something funny online."
"You didn't answer my question," Camp says pointedly, looking at him expectantly.
"I'm sorry, what was the question?" he asks sheepishly.
"I knew you weren't paying attention," she scowls, crossing her arms over her chest. "I asked what you thought I should do if the hat never turns up."
He sighs, "If you never find it, I'll fly to Hawaii and buy you another one," he responds.
"You don't get it," she frowns at him, "It's not just a hat to me. It's the hat I got on the trip we were on when you proposed!"
"Alright, alright," he says holding up his hands, "I'll alert the FBI. I'm sure they'll stop everything that's going on so that they can find your hat." He means this to be joking, but she doesn't laugh. "Look, I don't know what you want me to say or do here. I think you've done all you can to find it. If it doesn't turn up, I'm sorry, ok?"
She says nothing, shakes her head, and turns to leave the room. He sighs again, unlocking his phone with his thumb and this time opening Instagram. Again he searches for her, and smiles when he's reminded that she loves Star Wars and seems to have a mild interest in football, at least where the Patriots are concerned.
He finds himself daydreaming about when they first met on the set of Pitch Perfect. He was attracted to her, of course. He'd be a fool not to notice her. He was aware that she had a long time boyfriend but it didn't stop him from flirting shamelessly with her. He told himself that he was just playing a role, gearing up to play Jesse Swanson, but he knew it was more than that. They had this chemistry together, this spark that he couldn't explain. It was the reason he got the role in the first place. But no matter how hard he tried, she remained professional, detached almost. Camp pursued him from the beginning, and he couldn't help but feel flattered. She was more famous than he, and she was pretty. He didn't realize she was married at first, and then she reassured him that it was nearly over, so he didn't think much about it. He was so wrapped up in the excitement of being with this woman that prior to this movie he wouldn't have had a chance with that he didn't notice that Kendrick was disappearing from him, one step at a time. It wasn't until the film wrapped and she unfollowed him that he realized. He tried texting her but she never replied.
When Pitch Perfect 2 was announced he was over the moon about it. The first film had launched his career in so many ways, and he immediately signed on to the project. He waited eagerly to see if Kendrick would also sign on, and when she did he was thrilled. Maybe now he could figure out what went wrong with her before.
She was perfectly pleasant with him on set. She acted her scenes brilliantly and as always was the consummate professional. But he couldn't help but notice that she joked around with everyone but him. And she smiled more when she was around others than with him. And he found himself fumbling awkwardly through their shared scenes. Elizabeth Banks kept having them redo them and he could tell Kendrick was losing her patience, but she continued to nail it each time. He just couldn't get over himself. He wanted to shout at her or shake her, anything to figure out what was going on in that pretty little head of hers, but he couldn't. Not with Camp always watching his every move, standing on the side of the set while he tried to pretend as if he was in love with Beca Mitchell.
When the film was released it was no shock to him that most of his scenes were cut. He was probably dreadful in them. Elizabeth claimed that it was because they didn't want to have tension and negativity shroud Beca and Jesse's relationship, but the edits made his storyline look choppy and convoluted, and he wasn't happy about that. It just seemed like Jesse abandoned Beca when she needed him most, and it didn't make sense that he showed up in Copenhagen after being absent for most of the film. Was Becca happy to see Jesse? They didn't even show them reunite in the end, just a one second shot of her smiling at him in recognition. It was as if she didn't really care that he just disappeared out of her life.
Art really does imitate life, he thought.
Camp was so thrilled with her performance in the movie that she didn't even seem to notice that he was cut. "Still pays the bills," she commented when he tried to express his disappointment, but it didn't even faze her.
And then Pitch Perfect 3 was announced, and Kendrick immediately signed on to star in it. He wasn't approached right away, and he couldn't decide if he should even do it after his performance in Pitch Perfect 2. Would they cut all his scenes again?
Mostly, he didn't know how he would ever be able to face Anna Kendrick again.
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An emerald shaped diamond…doesn't he know that this cut creates the least facets which make the ring look dull and sparkle-less? She's just being bitchy now, she knows it, but she can't help it. Her thoughts drift back to when they were filming Pitch Perfect 2 together. The spark that she felt with him during the first film was gone, and they just seemed out of sync together. She knows that's why their scenes were cut, too. He just seemed so awkward with her, and she couldn't figure out the reason. She's the one who should have felt awkward, with his girlfriend staring at them the entire time.
It's been like a splinter in her mind all this time, this sudden shift in Skylar. She knows she was trying to play it cool with him out of respect to Edgar, but then he went for a married woman instead. "He's not worth all this angst," she says out loud. I mean the guy tweets stupid sports facts and the stuff with Camp was sickening. Why does she care about him at all?
It's that electricity she felt, and she knows it. She's acted with many other guys, and she's met a lot of men in her life, but she never felt that before. His behavior is making her question whether it ever existed in the first place, and she hates that.
She scrolls through her phone contacts noting that his number is still saved amongst them. She taps it and opens up the window to send him a text. His last message appears on her screen, the date stamp reading February 2012. "Hey, did I do something wrong? If I did, I'm sorry."
She stares at this for a long while. She never replied to it. Did she mean to never reply? She can't remember now. She knows that he and Camp were already an item then even though they were trying to hide it. Her stomach begins to churn with the thought, but of seemingly their own volition, her thumbs begin typing out a message to him.
"I hear congratulations are in order. Cheers to the happy couple." She hits send before she can change her mind.
Skylar's phone chimes with an incoming message. He gapes in disbelief as he processes who it's from, and doesn't hesitate to type his response. "Thanks! Long time since we chatted. Glad to hear from you."
He waits for her reply, and then smiles when her message appears, "Been busy. You know, making movies in between my sitting around and eating."
"What are you smiling at?" Camp's voice breaks him out of his reverie.
"Kendrick just texted to say congratulations, wasn't that nice of her?" Skylar explains.
"I thought you guys didn't talk anymore," Camp furrows her brow, "I wonder why now all of a sudden?"
"Maybe she heard we're engaged and just wanted to congratulate us?" Skylar says sardonically.
"Yeah, but she was really weird when you and I first got together. She stopped talking to both of us, and cut all ties," Camp reminds him.
"I know," Skylar rubs his forehead, "Look, I don't know what she's thinking. I'm just trying to be polite here. You know, stay on good terms in case we film together again."
"Right," Camp pauses, clearly deep in thought. "You know what I always thought? I thought she liked you too, and that's why she got so strange with us. She was jealous."
Skylar laughs, "Yeah right, like that could ever happen."
Camp scowls, "Why not? Hey! Don't insult my taste in men," she quips, and then with a wink, she leaves the room.
Skylar stares at his phone at Kendrick's last message to him. Could it be true? Could that explain all the awkwardness and silence? He types a reply to her, testing the waters.
"Haha. I've missed talking to you. Do you think you'd want to catch up sometime? Maybe get a coffee or something?"
There's a long pause before she responds, "Sure, name the time and place and I'll be there."
After that, neither one of them can stop smiling for the rest of the day.