fiction and reality
'I got you something…' Eugenia said jumping up behind Shane and putting her arms around his neck. It had always been her favorite celebration of the year, in her heart she hoped that Shane liked it the same way she did. It reminded of her parents, running through the house like they were just kids, her Dad with his guitar crooning silly love songs, her mum squealing in pink pajamas.
It seemed like a lifetime ago, and now here she was with something, she wasn't quite sure what, in her heart, but it sure felt like love.
'Oh thanks Eugenia,' he said as he turned around to face her.
'Here,' she beamed up at him passing him the small blue box. She waited for a few moments to see his response. He smiled at her once again and paused for a few moments.
'I gotta get going to class,' he said in a carefree, even nonchalant manner.
'Oh…' she stammered. 'Okay…'
Eugenia wandered over to her locker with a crestfallen look on her face. As much as she told herself it didn't really matter, she couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. Wasn't it tradition for couples to buy something for each other on Valentine's Day? Was it really so different in Tree Hill?
She glanced around the hallways, couples everywhere were hugging, pecking each other on the cheeks. Gosh even the teachers looked happily.
A deep pang of disappointment tugged at her heart,
Maybe he hadn't really meant to be seriously attached, maybe it was just a joke that day in the basement.
She pulled her locker door open roughly, with a heavy heart.
And inside, she received a huge shock. She gasped.
The entirety of her locker was covered with blue and pink paper hearts and hanging from the center was a series of shiny silver and gold pieces and a string of tiny brown bears. Along the wall of her locker were snapshot photographs they had taken with their handphones, a row of black and white passport photographs they had taken one Saturday. Right smack in the middle was a mirror with the words 'I so love Shane Scott' scribbled across the middle in black ink. Along the sides were dozens of scratch-and-sniff strawberry cutouts. But the best thing of all was in the middle of her whole locker, stacked on top of her books was squashed a huge red bear with a gold pendant hung around his neck.
'In Tree Hill there's kinda a tradition,' Shane whispered in her ear from behind her. 'On Valentine's Day, we like to pimp our "girlfriend's" lockers.
So Eugenia did the only reasonable thing, she turned around and gave her boyfriend a fantastic kiss on the lips.
------- end of scene ---------
'Hilarie? Where are you?' Chad walked through the basement set, stepping over a few oddly placed lumps of wax.
'I'm in Peyton's bedroom,' she called.
Chad walked briskly through the sets and opened the door to the dark red room. As he did so, he felt an odd sense of mixed nostalgia that were becoming extremely frequent. He usually only got it during certain "Lucas-Peyton" scenes with Hilarie. James liked to tease him about it, that he was becoming an actor with some "depth of emotion" for a change.
He usually ignored him but especially in this room, he often felt that he'd acted as Lucas for so long some of the memories in this red room became intertwined with his own. Sometimes the emotional process went through seemed to parallel events in his life. And most scary of all, sometimes the line between fiction and reality didn't seem so clear.
'What ya' doing in here,' he asked standing at the door. Hilarie was looking down on the bed absorbed in a few pieces of paper.
'Trying to get inspiration for my next scene, it's eating me up...' she murmured busily.
'I'm so glad you got Mike to write Peyton's artwork back in by the way.' She looked up for the first time and gave him a smile. 'Peyton didn't feel like Peyton without her artwork.'
'No problem,' he said casually as he stepped over at sat down on the bed opposite her. How many scenes had they acted in here, like this so close together? It felt like a million.
'I can't get all the emotions right Chad,' she murmured, deeply engrossed.
'You'll get it,' he said softly watching the curves of her face move. He was so close to her he could smell the fruity scent of her shampoo, see the golden strands of her hair move as she moved her head, feel her rosy skin close to his.
'I don't know I…' she looked up and straight into his eyes.
He leaned in his lips almost grazing hers.
Almost.
'I… I have to go,' Hilarie stood up suddenly scooping up the pieces of paper with her. 'I'll see you tomorrow…'
Leaving Chad there alone in the middle of the set, wondering if for him that line between fiction and reality, really existed at all anymore.