The Twilight Twenty-Five
thetwilight25[dot]livejournal[dot]com

Prompt: 10 - Feign
Pen name: lleighhh
Pairing: Bella & Edward
Rating: M (just for language)

Photos for prompts 1, 7, 13, 19, & 25 can be found here:
community[dot]livejournal[dot]com/thetwilight25/16325[dot]html

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This is not me. Why am I here? How did I let myself get talked into this?

My leg is anxiously bobbing up and down as I sit on the very edge of this very cold and very hard metal fold-up chair. My stomach feels like it might shoot out my nose any second and I've wiped my sweaty palms off on my jeans at least twelve times in the last five minutes we've been sitting here.

In groups of two, names are called and all these good looking people disappear behind a bland, cream colored door.

"Isabella, stop fidgeting! They'll know something is up if you look guilty!" My friend Rosalie hisses at me while using all her might to shove my bouncing foot flat on the floor.

"Tell me again why I agreed to this?" I whisper back.

"Because I thought you loved me and wanted me to get the job even though my stupid partner bailed!"

"Rose, catching mono and not even being able to walk yourself to the bathroom hardly qualifies as bailing." I snort.

She just glares at me and then returns to studying her script.

I smile back before it quickly fades and I'm slightly freaking out again, "What if they realize I'm not the original girl? I mean, yeah, Jessica and I both have brown hair, but that doesn't make us identical twins!"

"Bella, would you please just calm the fuck down!"

I shrink back into the chair away from Queen Crabby and lift my own script up, reading over my measly three lines.

What feels like only a few seconds passes by and before I know it I'm standing in front of two casting directors with Rosalie. They ask us to just stand there for a moment and stare at us. After scrutinizing our appearances they scribble some notes down on a piece of paper and each give a nod to the assistant.

The assistant comes over and grabs our shoulders, placing us on special marks taped to the ground in red.

One of the more pretentious looking directors at the table lifts up Rosalie and Jessica's resumes, reading over each, and I wait for her to realize I'm not the girl in the picture, but she doesn't.

I have a momentary sigh of relief and relax a little bit.

"Alright, Jessica, you lead us in with the opening line."

"Jessica?"

"…Miss Stanley?"

I'm looking at Rosalie as her face transforms into an irritated grimace directed at yours truly.

Whoops! Right, that's me…

"Oh! I'm so sorry…" I mumble and quickly recite my first line about the product we're trying to sell.

...

Rosalie is just a little bit ticked off at me for forgetting my 'name' back there, but I forgive her because she's really stressed about the audition and I'm such an awesome friend.

Now that I've successfully pulled off being Jessica once, I feel a little more confident as we wait in the crowded holding room. Rose, on the other hand, is freaking out. She doesn't think we'll get a call back.

Everyone goes silent as the assistant strolls in with a white paper in his hands and pins it up on the bare bulletin board.

"Oh shit. Bella you have to go look, I can't." Rose looks like she might throw up, so I jump into the mob of people swarming around the list just so I know I'm safe from the possibility that she might blow chunks all over anyone in a three-foot radius.

I finally fight my way to the front of the crazy actors and smile seeing Rose and my – I mean Jessica's – name.

...

It's the next day and it seems the roles have switched. Rosalie is now the fidgeting mess while I smile politely at everyone who gives her a funny look, trying not to be embarrassed.

The stupid assistant I've seen so much of in the past twenty-four hours comes out to greet everyone and then informs us that we will be paired up with different partners for today's audition.

God dammit.

...

I gaze helplessly over at Rose, who seems to be hitting it off with her make-believe husband for the day, as I await my marital fate.

"Jessica Stanley and Edward Masen."

I'm still staring at the assistant when I remember that's me.

Shit, I need to get better at remembering my fake name.

I notice some pretty boy with coppery hair scanning the women of the room, so I walk over to him and hold out my hand for a shake.

"Edward?" he nods, "I'm Be…Jessica! Jessica Stanley."

...

I'm out with Jessica tonight and we've decided to call it, 'Hooray! Jess is All Better Day' rather than Valentine's Day or Single Awareness Day.

We're at a bar littered with lonely suckers and pretending we're a lesbian couple because that's easier than turning down all the gross men who hit on us for a holiday hook-up.

Rosalie's commercial comes on and even though we've seen it half a billion times we still whoop and holler after it is over, telling anyone who will listen to our drunken asses that we know her.

Jessica announces that she has to go pee, so I focus my attention on the condensation running down my glass and I barely notice when Jess' empty chair is replaced with someone I know.

"Jessica Stanley?" I look up to find my fake hubby from the auditions smiling at me and, of course, I have to smile back.

And, of course, my luck has it that Jessica hears him. "Yeah? Who's asking?"

I bury my face in my hands as I listen to them stumble over confused questions and explanations, knowing there is nothing I can do to make this situation better.

"Wait, so you are Jessica Stanley?"

"Yes!" She throws her arms up in the air, driver's license in hand, and looks a little exhausted from having to prove her true identity.

"Then who are you?" Edward lifts an eyebrow and points at my guilty face.

I down the rest of my drink, take a deep breath, and wave, "Hi. I'm Isabella Swan: Pretend Actress, but you can call me Bella."

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Just a little somethin' for V-Day and to let you know I'm still here!
I haven't fallen off the face of the Earth or anything ;)

With Love,
Emeleigh