Co-Stars
Chapter 8- Throw Away the Assumptions
Sookie Stackhouse is a big time actress lost in the fame & fortune. Eric Northman is her new co-star and he hates her personality, naturally they butt heads and seem to hate each other, but will working together change that? Will it change her? Rated M.
I only own the movie, the idea for this story line and any characters not mentioned in the Southern Vampire Mysteries or True Blood (& yes there are True Blood characters mentioned).
EPOV
I followed the girls around for the majority of the morning, not really too excited to be here. My mind was everywhere else, on all the things I would need to do to make it to Sweden and to the photo shoot and then to Louisiana and not to stall production for too much time.
It was all making my head hurt and my feet drag. I just felt tired. I wasn't used to this kind of exhaustion. Usually things just kind of fell on my shoulders and I handled it, but I wasn't sure how to handle this.
This was more of a personal thing. I hadn't talked to family in years, let alone spent anytime with them. And now I had to go take care of nieces and a nephew I'd never even met? I didn't even know their names.
I was so lost in my mind that I almost hit the person that touched me when I was sitting in the Hard Rock café, until I realized it was a little girl. I was so glad I kept me reaction under control. "Excuse me; can I have your autograph?"
I turned to her and smiled nodding my head as I bent down to take her pen and sign the book. While I was signing the homemade autograph book she leaned up and whispered in my ear, "do you think she would sign it?"
I glanced at Sookie, she was watching us closely, "why don't you go ask her? I bet she will." In my head I was screaming at her not to say no to this little girl, I'd probably scream at her if she did.
I watched the girl walk over and heard her ask Sookie for her autograph, but I was watching Sookie's reaction, she looked over at me and I just stared at her, even though in my mind I was ready to reach across the table and smack her.
"Of course, sweetheart." Sookie said, the girls eyes lit up and she smiled, telling Sookie that her name was Hannah and flipped her autograph book over to a page with Sookie on it. It was cute, she had spent time putting together a book with her favorite artists in hopes to get their autographs one day.
After Sookie handed it back Hannah reached up and hugged her quickly, once she pulled away she came over and gave me a hug before running back to her mom with a happy smile.
Sookie turned to me, "why did she look so petrified?"
"Well, you're not exactly known for being kind to your fans." I replied sarcastically.
"What the heck are you talking about? I'm always nice to my fans." She hissed at me. It pissed me off almost instantly, but I kept my anger in check.
"Oh really? Were you nice to that girl at the café the day before we flew out? She said she was a fan and you just blew her off. And I've seen you do it to a few other fans. I thought maybe they caught you at a bad time, but you seem to blow them off no matter what." I snapped.
She stared at me petrified and shook her head, she froze and I could see the gears in her head turning, thinking back, and I watched her face go from petrified to horrified to ashamed, "Oh god." she let her head drop down on to the table; then she picks it back up and looks at me. The waiter comes by and delivers our food around the same time Pam and Thalia return from the bathroom.
I notice Sookie doesn't eat much, more like she pushes her food around her plate like a little kid who doesn't want to eat their vegetables. Once the rest of us had put our plates aside, she pushed her not even half eaten burger with the others and excused herself.
"We want to go shopping. You stick with Sookie, by." Pam says before pulling Thalia off after we agree to meet at the Popeye ride at 4:30. They certainly got friendly really fast. I pay for lunch and then head upstairs to wait by the women's rest room for Sookie.
"Thalia and Pam went to shop. I didn't know what you wanted to do, so I told them we'd meet them at the Popeye ride around 4:30. Is that okay?" I ask her.
"Yeah." She says with a shrug. I can tell she's still upset and she lets me pick most of the rides, which we spend more time in line waiting for then actually riding. A few people come up while we're waiting and ask for autographs, all the while we're still standing in about the same place for 20 to 30 minutes.
It's about 3 thirty when we make it to the Jaws ride, which we had planned on going to after lunch, it was actually kind of fun. Our boat driver was cracking jokes to the hardly full joke, including a few about a movie I did, and then another about one Sookie was in.
After that ride we walk around through the shops and things, looking at the shirts, trinkets and everything else they had. I bought a few things and refused to show Sookie what they were, and then we headed over to meet the others at the Popeye ride.
I hadn't wanted Sookie to see because I bought her a shirt that said, "you say Villain like it's a bad thing" and a Slytherin shirt I caught her looking at. I also got myself one after we waited in line to go on the Harry Potter ride.
When we were in line I saw a girl with purple hair walking around with a boy dressed up like a wizard. I laughed and compared her to Nymphadora, and she apparently heard me, because she spun around and said "don't call me Nymphadora, Malfoy." I must've looked shocked because she was laughing when she walked over to me to ask for an autograph and a picture.
"Come on, why won't you just show me what you bought?" Sookie complained while we were waiting by the Popeye ride for Thalia and Pam, "I showed you." She pokes my arm, causing me to chuckle and I bend down until my face is inches from hers. I notice her breathing stops.
"You'll have to wait." I tell her, touching the tip of her nose with my finger. She bit at it but I pulled it back faster then she could move her head. Both of us chuckled and leaned against the wall outside the line for the ride.
My phone buzzed in my pocket, I hoped it was Pam calling but had no such luck, "the devil is calling." I mutter, accepting the call, "hello again Sarah, we're still together."
Let me talk to Sookie. I shrug and press the phone to Sookie's ear.
"Uh, hi?" she sounds confused. I watch her eyes roll and she starts mimicking her silently, it's really funny and I can't help but laugh, because she's got Sarah's facial expressions down pat. Eventually she shoved the phone away and I snap it shut as she lets out an exaggerated sigh.
"I don't think I've meet a woman that annoying." I told her, "even you." I teased, she smacked my arm lightly, and I hardly felt it, but I faked hurt anyways.
"Hey!" Thalia called, waving us over to the end of the line. We quickly go join them, both seem to be in a good mood now, and the four of us start talking animatedly about things that happened today, mostly from Pam because she enjoyed embarrassing people that weren't her. We also exchanged stories about fans that had come up to us, because, well it was funny and we even ended up taking a bunch of pictures in the line.
Then we dumped all of our stuff into a plastic Ziploc bag, put it in Sookie's bag and got onto the ride. The ride was basically a big round thing with a place in the center for your things that couldn't get wet with a plastic bag. You buckled in and then got ready for the fun of the water ride.
The water in my seat was freezing, so I was a little nervous about the water washing over me. Beside Sookie, Pam was already saying something about the cold water soaking into her jean shorts.
All four of us took off our socks and shoes, placing them with out belongings before the ride moved. At first it was only a little bit of splashing and then I realized we were turning to have our backs to the dip I had seen. I was prepared for the cold, or so I thought, but hissed when it poured down my jeans and back.
But then Sookie squealed the chill in my lower region was forgotten because she was freaked out and I was laughing at how, I guess adorable could be a good adjective, she looked. Soon all four of us were laughing, though Thalia had been laughing the whole time because wasn't dunked in. but then we went under something and it dunked on her head, I started laughing all over again.
She looked like a drown rat and once we got off the ride and carried our stuff over to a dry place she took down her hair and shook her head like a dog. I was glad only my jeans were wet.
Sookie complained that her shorts and underwear were soaked through completely, but now that I was I standing in the hot Florida sun it felt kind of nice. We went around to a few more rides and attractions before heading back to the car. We all had clothes in the car so we took turns changing and then Sookie drove us back to the hotel.
The whole time we kept exchanging more stories and decided to go to dinner after, but once we were all gathered in my suite's living room we realized we had no idea what restaurant to go to.
"Why don't we just ask twitter?" Pam offers, already pulling out her phone. She waited five minutes and then browsed through her responses, the rest of us sat in silence while she did this. "Okay, I know where were going. I'm driving." She pocket's her phone, snatches the keys and walks out the door, leaving us stunned behind her, but our stomachs rumbled and we quickly followed her.
We ended up at a place called Winghouse, and at first we were a little bit confused, but Pam was hungry and insisted we go eat here because she wasn't going to drive around looking for anything else.
I personally didn't care once I saw our waitress. The uniforms were almost exactly like Hooters uniforms, and our waitress was really attractive and peppy. She took our drink orders and sauntered off.
After she brought our drinks back we ordered, then spent the rest of the time checking twitter and talking. A few people came over to our table and asked for pictures or autographs, and stayed to talk to us before wandering back over to their table.
The food was really good and the music wasn't really obnoxious, and neither were the people. I ended up taking food home because everyone was ready to go and I was still eating, and so did Sookie, because we had ordered too much. Sookie ended up giving me her sandwich though, because she realized she wouldn't be able to finish it, and I was already hungry again.
I sat down and watched a movie and finished off the food, and then I checked my email. Pam had sent me a few pictures of Sookie and I together, including one I hadn't know she'd taken.
It was when Sookie was still begging to know what I had bought. We were standing close in the first one and in the second one she was biting at my finger. I didn't reply to Pam, because even though my friend correctly assumed I had a hint of feelings for the girl, she didn't need them confirmed. There was already too much for her to poke fun at me for, no need to fuel the fire.
I shut my computer off when the movie ended, packed it up and grabbed my things, heading over to the elevator. The elevator doors closed just as I got to them. I sighed and hit the button, waiting with my mind buzzing.
I didn't hear Sookie until she plunked her bag down next to me. "you have a sunburn." I shrugged. The area right under my eyes was red and so were my arms, but it would be gone by the time we touched down in LA tomorrow.
The elevator doors opened and I stooped down and scooped up Sookie's bag, and I got on the elevator once the crew members stepped off, "thanks Eric." Sookie said stepping into the elevator behind me.
"It looked heavy." I mumbled, shifting my bag before it slipped off my shoulder, "I'm shocked you only have one bag."
"Well, most of the time we were at the studio and I had clothes there that I would be in so I could wear the same thing for two days 'cause I only wore it like 15 minutes." She replied, pushing the button for the lobby.
"Oh, so are you going to pack more when we get to LA?" I asked.
"I already have the other bags packed. I'm stopping to get them before we get to the airport, since we'll be in Louisiana for a few months instead of weeks. By the way, has Sarah told you where we were staying? She doesn't want to tell me, for some reason."
"No, she hasn't said anything. But she said it's not going be like the Hilton or anything." I shrug, "Probably some family owned Inn or something like that. She said it would be in Shreveport."
She nods and seems to space out, "what were you worried about?" I wasn't sure if she would answer me, but I figured I'd ask anyways. Her teeth pulled her bottom lip into her mouth, she seemed to be contemplating on telling me or not.
"Just I used to live in Louisiana is all." She finally said, I shrugged and picked up my second bag from the floor and marched toward the car. The trunk was already open and I tossed my bags in, waving the driver away and opening the door for Sookie, I guess I silently decided she was riding with me.
"Thanks Eric." she whispered, slipping into the car.
"Whatever." I mumbled and got into the car next to her, pulling the door shut and locking it. The airport was an hour away and I couldn't handle that much silence. "So, maybe we should get to know a little bit about each other. We'll be working together for awhile and we hardly know anything about each other that didn't come from the internet or an assumption we made."
"Yeah, we probably should." She agrees, but neither of us says a word.
"I speak three languages." I blurted out to kill the silence.
"I speak English and a little Spanish and French. I can't sing but I like to." She tells me with a fond smile.
"I can't sing either. I grew up in Sweden with my brother and mom and dad."
"I grew up in Louisiana with my brother; my Gran raised us after I was seven when my parents passed away." She paused, "I haven't been back since I left."
"I'm going back to Sweden soon." I replied, "I have three dogs, and I really want to bring them to Louisiana with me." and wasn't that the truth. They were like family to me. It sounded like such a sappy thing to say, but they'd been with me since I was little.
"What kind of dogs?"
"A Rottweiler and two pits." I pulled out my phone and moved over next to her to show her pictures of my beloved dogs. She smiled and told me they were cute, and adorable and a bunch of other girly adjectives. But they were right descriptions of the dogs.
"They're really cute. I hope you can bring them to Louisiana. I'd love to meet them. I had a cat before, but she got sick and I had to put her down. And then I wasn't really home much so I never got a new pet." she sounds a little sad.
I smirked, "I used to have 7 cats. My mom loved them. What got you into acting?" quickly steering the family talk away, I'd had enough of family for the day.
She bit her lip and didn't reply, so I racked my brain for a new question until she spoke up, "well, everyone from the town I was in thought I was crazy. I really didn't fit in with them. I didn't want to be rooted there like everyone else. And I wanted a chance to be a million people. To live someone else life once in a while. And I wanted to make money to help out charities. That was my dream when I started. I really forgot about once I hit it big. What about you?"
"I wanted to get away, and I loved to act and entertain people. So I thought, why not get into movies?" and our conversation died from there. The airport was still so far away. I couldn't find anything else to even consider saying so I let my mind wander to all the crap I had to do in the next few days. Two interviews, a photo shoot, and to top it off? I had to fly to Sweden and help with my family.
I really hoped my brother was okay. But I was ashamed just to admit it to myself that it wasn't because I was worried about him, not that I wasn't, but it was because I couldn't handle his crazy wife and her kids.
