"Do you see him anywhere?," asked Petra, scanning around the Endercon festival. Alex and Jesse stopped next to her. "We lost him!," groaned Jesse. "Then we'll just have to find him again," said Petra. "Go!" The three of them ran in different directions. Alex ended up in the middle of a marketplace and was about to start her search when she felt a hand grab her arm and pull her between two stalls. Alex barely let out a shriek before she felt another hand cover her mouth. "Shut up, you bitch," growled Thomas' voice. "Shut up."
Thomas spun her around, grabbed the front of her shirt, and roughly shoved her against the wall. Annie stood next to him, her face covered with nasty looking bruises. Thomas smiled at Alex wickedly and pushed her against the wall. "Better say your prayers, freak," he snarled, droplets of spit flying into her face. "That big guy isn't here to save you anymore."
Alex looked into Annie's eyes, pleading for her to help her, but she just turned around. Thomas slammed her into the wall. "Look at me when I'm talking to you!" Tearing up, Alex turned her head to look into his evil, cruel, remorseless eyes. "You've got some nerve, huh? It all makes sense now! You teamed up with those losers and stabbed your own team in the back. You helped them build that enderman." Alex shook her head. "Thomas, listen to yourself!," she cried. "I couldn't have helped them. I was building the cannon with you guys."
"Liar!," he screamed, forgetting he was supposed to be quiet. "And I'm gonna make sure you never lie again." He took something out of his coat. "Recognize this?"
Alex's eyes widened. It was the blade of the wooden sword that Jesse used against those zombies before it broke. "W-w-what are you going to do with it?."
Thomas smiled. It was the smile of a madman. Without a word, he lifted her shirt up, held the wooden blade in his hand...and suddenly fell to his knees. "I can't do it!," he wailed. "I'm sorry, I just can't!" Numerous groans could be heard. "Cut, cut, cut!," groaned Stevack, rubbing his forehead tiredly. "All of you, get out of there!" Thomas, Alex, Annie, and a cameraman walked out of the alley. "Thomas, this is the fourth time I had to stop the scene," sighed the director. "It's very simple. Just pretend you're stabbing her with that wooden blade."
"I-I just can't," Thomas sighed. "It's so...needlessly bloody and violent. Can't my character do something else, like...I don't know...send her to bed with no food?" "Thomas, we already talked about this," Stevack sighed. "Your character is supposed to be an unhinged and psychotic man who's on the verge of falling into total insanity. Sending Alex to bed with no food wouldn't make sense in that context. The audience would be rightfully confused." "Ugh, for god's sake, Thomas, look!," groaned Alex, reaching under her shirt and pulling out a plastic bag filled with red liquid. "This isn't even real blood. It's fake! You're not literally cutting my stomach open, you imbecile!" "Hey, that's my brother you're talking about!," Annie snapped.
"Alex, stop antagonizing the other actors," sighed Stevack. "And Thomas, man up and grow a pair. You agreed to this role, and you have to stick with it, understand?" He waved his hands in the air erratically. "You know what, let's just take five. We'll get back to this scene later." Everyone sighed in relief and began doing their own business while the cameramen went to recharge their cameras and the janitors started cleaning up the mess left behind by the dozens of extras who milled around in the so-called Endercon festival, a fictional event that was made up solely for this movie. Thomas and Annie went to take a break, with Annie glaring at Alex as they went. Alex ignored her and went into a wooden booth to get her makeup done.
"Well...this is running along smoothly," Jesse snarked, crossing his arms. "Yeah…," said Petra, standing right next to him. "This isn't really going according to plan." After going through numerous rehearsals inside the warehouse, Stevack finally decided that they were ready to start filming the movie. The entire cast, as well as the cameramen, extras, sound producers, and so on, traveled to a remote part of the woods where the first part of the film was going to take place. At first, things went off rather smoothly. The special effects people did a great job using CGI to put in the hostile mobs in some scenes. They weren't stupid enough to use real mobs, after all. Things started going downhill, however, when Thomas came into the picture. First, he had to get over the fact that he was playing as his own sister's boyfriend, which ended up being incredibly awkward for both of them. After that, he had trouble acting cruel, even though it was really just that: acting. He knew that none of the scenes where he had to abuse the other characters were real, but that didn't make the experience any less unpleasant.
But perhaps the biggest obstacle that stood in the way of the film's progress was the main star herself, Alex. She already gave off the impression of being rude when Petra first met her, but when the filming finally started, she was an absolute terror around the set. She was arrogant, demeaning to her fellow actors, and always seemed to look down on everyone, even the director himself. Petra was honestly shocked by how easily Alex could transition between a kind, loving, vulnerable girl and a rude, pompous, spoiled brat. The only redeeming quality about her was that she took her acting very seriously, but even THAT had its own share of problems. She was incredibly harsh on those whose acting didn't live up to her expectations, with Thomas being one of the examples. It was pretty ironic that in the movie, Thomas was supposed to be the big bad villain terrorizing a poor, defenseless Alex, but in reality, it was the other way around. Out of everyone involved in the film's production, Stevack was the only one who could tolerate her behavior, and even he seemed to be at his wit's end.
Other than that, the other actors had relatively easy times immersing themselves into their roles. Petra found it surprisingly easy to play as the independent, badass warrior girl who regularly travels to the Nether. She wondered what Peeta would think if he saw her acting like a completely different person during filming. Possibly be impressed and congratulate her.
Jesse also had no trouble playing as the "nice guy" in the movie, since that was already his original personality. The same thing went for Axel and Olivia, the latter doing phenomenally well in portraying herself as a girl who has low self-esteem but still has a lot of sass. Lukas also did surprisingly well as the slightly arrogant guy with good intentions. Petra honestly thought that Lukas was going to let his incessant flirting get in the way of the film's production, but he was actually professional enough to hold back. Once the cameras were off, however, all bets were off. Aiden, Maya, and Gill also did fantastic jobs acting like traditional bullies.
Acting as a rude and antisocial person was an easy task for Ivor. He was already pretty antisocial to begin with, so all he had to do was crank his grumpiness up to eleven and he was good to go. For Petra, the real star of the movie was Reuben. The little pig didn't even need to say any lines; he'd just snort and bash his eyelashes, and everyone would start eating out of his little pig hand. He was that good. As for the rest of the cast - Ghost, Gabriel, Soren, Magnus, Ellegaard, Ramus, Nancy, Lucy, and Kevin - they didn't have the chance to show off their acting skills just yet, though Stevack assured them that they would be in the movie.
To be honest, Petra still couldn't get over the fact that she was actually acting in her first movie. It sure wasn't what I thought it'd be, she thought, remembering what her brother told her a few weeks back about how actors can be entirely different in real life. Alex was definitely the prime example of that. I still can't believe she snubbed me off during my own audition, she thought sadly. It wasn't all bad, she supposed. Most of the other actors and actresses were much more friendly, and they also had interesting stories about themselves.
"Hey Petra, I just remembered something," said Jesse, snapping Petra out of her thoughts. "Olivia and Axel rented a hotel room just outside the woods and they invited me over to a movie night with them. Would you like to join me later?" Petra smiled, eager to take her mind off the recent events and enjoy some time with her new friend. "Sure," she said. "I'd love to." "Great!," said Jesse, grinning. "Hope you're not afraid of scary movies, Petra."
That night, when filming was wrapped up for the day, Petra followed Jesse through the woods and eventually arrived at a fancy hotel near the edge of the treeline. They went inside and walked up to a man wearing a bowler hat sitting at a marble counter. "Hello, sir," said Jesse, smiling and waving. "Me and my friend Petra are here to see Axel and Olivia. They told me that they rented one of the rooms in this hotel." Petra couldn't help but admire how confident and outgoing Jesse was. If she was in his place, she would have been reduced to a stuttering mess. The man nodded and took out a large book with numerous signatures scribbled on the pages. "Ah, Axel and Olivia," he said, pointing at two of the names. "They're on the second floor in room 102. Please make sure not to disturb the other guests during your stay here."
"Will do," said Jesse. "Come on, Petra." The two of them went up to the second floor of the hotel and came across room 102. Jesse knocked on the hard wood of the door and waited. After a few seconds, footsteps sounded from inside the room before the door opened, revealing Olivia who had changed out of her costume and was now dressed in a red shirt and black jeans. "Hey, Jesse," she greeted, then saw Petra standing next to him. "You brought Petra?"
"Yeah, I figured she could use the company," said Jesse. "I hope you don't mind." "Not at all," said Olivia, smiling and shaking Petra's hand. "A friend of Jesse is a friend of mine. Hey Axel, go prepare another bowl of popcorn for Petra!" "What?," Axel asked in a muffled voice, looking up from his half empty bowl of popcorn. His cheeks were round and stuffed with the buttery goodness like a chipmunk preparing for winter. Jesse and Petra couldn't help but chuckle while Olivia rolled her eyes. After everything was set, the four friends finally settled down with their bowls of popcorn and started watching the movie.
Petra was honestly nervous about watching a horror movie, even when in the company of other people. She was never a big fan of them. She still remembered the time when Peeta accidentally left one of his favorite horror movies in the disc player and didn't bother to change the channel. She just wanted to watch a cute little show about talking ponies blasting their enemies away with friendship lasers! But what did she get instead? A movie about an insane mad scientist kidnapping people and sewing their mouths to other people's anuses!
But after just a few minutes, Petra was pleasantly surprised. This horror movie wasn't that scary at all. It was riddled with plot holes and overdone cliches, the teenagers had wax in their heads instead of brains, even though they were clearly played by adults, and the monster itself had a design that made it look far more goofy than scary. Petra couldn't help but laugh throughout parts of the movie alongside Jesse and Olivia. The only one who didn't laugh was Axel, who had his eyes covered with his hands for the entire time. "Is it over? Is it over?," he would ask repeatedly. Olivia would giggle and say, "Yes, Axel, it's over." Axel would take a small peek through his fingers, then scream and cover his eyes up again.
Suddenly, in the middle of the movie, someone began banging on their door. "Excuse me!," a familiar voice yelled. "Some of us are trying to sleep!" "Oh no," Jesse murmured, pausing the movie. "And just when I was starting to enjoy myself," Olivia grumbled. "Of all the people to be in the same hotel as us, did it have to be HER?," Axel whined. "Hey, is anyone going to answer?," Alex continued, banging on the door. "I know you're in here! Do you have any idea who I am?" "Someone who woke up on the wrong side of the bed," Jesse murmured. "It's kind of ironic that she's telling us off for being too loud when she's the one being way louder right now," said Olivia. Petra sighed. "I'll answer the door," she said, standing up.
She opened the door, revealing Alex on the other side, dressed in a sleeping gown with her hair tied into a bun. Alex immediately scowled upon seeing Petra answer the door. "So you're the one who was causing all that noise?," she asked. "Why am I not surprised?" Petra felt an inkling of sadness mixed with anger inside of her, but before she could retort, Jesse walked up next to her. "She wasn't the one causing the noise," he defended her. "We were all just having a movie night together." "We?," asked Alex, raising an eyebrow. She leaned further into the room and saw Olivia and Axel sitting on a bed together, their faces lit up from the glow of the television screen. Then, she turned back to Petra and Jesse, glaring at them. "Why are you guys watching a movie anyway? You know you're not going to get enough sleep that way and we need to start shooting first thing tomorrow." "We're just having some fun," said Jesse, shrugging his shoulders. "There's nothing wrong with that. Why don't you join us?"
"What?!," Olivia, Axel, and Petra cried simultaneously. Alex's eyes widened just a smidge, but it was barely noticeable. "Why would I do that?," she scoffed. "I'd just be wasting time doing those silly things. I need to practice my lines." "Hey, I'm not forcing you," said Jesse. "This is just an invitation. If you don't want to join us, then you can leave and do whatever the heck you want." "Maybe I will," Alex retorted before closing the door on him. Her footsteps echoed through the hallway before another door could be heard opening and closing. "Thank god," sighed Axel, flopping onto his back. "I thought she was never gonna leave." "Jesse, why would you invite her to our movie night?," asked Olivia. "You DO know what she's like, right?" "I just figured I should let her join if she wanted to," Jesse, shrugging again. "Seemed like the right thing to do." After that, they continued watching and laughing at the movie.
Only a few minutes had passed before there came another knock on the door. "Don't tell me that's her again," Axel groaned. Jesse paused the movie and went to open the door. Alex was back, but this time, she seemed more nervous and embarrassed. "Hello, Jesse," she greeted. "And...you guys." Olivia rolled her eyes. "Look…," Alex continued, "...maybe I was a little hasty in rejecting your invitation. I don't have that much to do, anyway. So I'd like to join you and your friends in your 'movie night'...that is, if the offer is still up." Jesse looked back to the others in the room. Axel and Olivia were frantically shaking their heads while Petra just sat there, not sure what to do. "...sure," said Jesse. "The more the merrier."
Alex nodded and walked over to the bed, then sat between Axel and Olivia, who subtly tried to scoot away from her while giving her suspicious looks. "Don't have much to do, huh?," asked Axel. "What about 'practicing your lines' like you said you would?" "Guys, be nice," Jesse chided. "Just because we sort of rub each other the wrong way doesn't mean we can't have a little fun. Come on, let's watch the rest of the movie." Petra took the remote and unpaused it. Alex stared at the television screen in surprise. "You're watching The Thing from the Cursed Swamp III: Evil Always Comes Back?," she asked. "Yeah," said Olivia, giving her a side glance. "You know this movie?" "I used to watch it with my grandparents," Alex replied casually.
At first, other than the occasional fake scream from the television, there was tense silence in the room. None of them really hated Alex. They just weren't sure how to act around her, since she was usually a pompous brat on the best of days. They kept expecting her to make some snide remark about how "pointless" the movie was or how "stupid" they were to actually enjoy it. So far, she was just watching the movie silently, not making a sound.
Then came one of the most hilarious parts of the entire film. On the black and white television screen, the swamp monster, which was obviously just a man in a rubber suit, was chasing after a half naked woman through the woods. After a while, the woman finally tripped and fell. The monster caught up to her and was about to eat her when an absurdly handsome and muscular man jumped out of NOWHERE, wearing nothing but a loincloth. He pointed a spear at the monster's neck and yelled in a totally not dramatic voice, "Don't worry, my love! I will save you from this vile, disgusting hobo- er, I mean monster!" What followed was a fight scene between the man and the monster which looked so fake that, if you were to look closely, you could see the damsel trying very hard not to laugh. Petra wanted so much to burst out laughing, but she tried her best to hold it back, afraid of how Alex would react.
"...snrk!" Everyone practically shot up, looking around the room to see where that sound came from. To their shock, they realized that Alex had just snickered. "Who do those people think they're fooling?," she asked. "That monster suit looks like some cheap costume that you could get from a dollar store, not to mention that their acting is atrocious. Seriously, why do so many old fashioned horror movies have their actresses become hopeless damsels? They're freaking women, they should be able to kick more ass than any man! And why does the main star look so clean even though he supposedly trekked through miles of filthy swamp water? Whoever directed this scene should be bent over my knee and thoroughly have their asses spanked raw!" The image of Alex spanking a grown man was just too much for Petra. The dam ended up bursting. "BWAHAHAHAHA!," she howled, bending over with tears coming out of her eyes. She was laughing so hard that she was getting stomach cramps.
Everyone else looked at her like she was crazy, but she just couldn't stop laughing. The mental image of Alex spanking someone who was probably an old man by now, combined with the terrible acting she had just witnessed in the movie, was just too much for her. As Petra continued laughing uproariously, Axel finally lost it as well and joined in on the laughter. Then, Jesse also started laughing upon seeing the funny side of the whole thing. Then, it was Olivia's turn to start laughing. And their combined laughter was so infectious that Alex, who usually had a permanent scowl on her face, began letting out giggles and peals of laughter.
They were interrupted by angry knocking on the door. "Quiet down!," someone yelled. It was the man from the front desk. "You're disturbing the other guests. If you keep this up, I will not hesitate to BAN you all from this hotel." With a huff, the man walked away. The four, possibly five friends, were reduced to quiet giggles. "Okay, I gotta admit, that was pretty hilarious," Axel chuckled, wiping a tear from his eye. "Yeah," Olivia agreed, giving Alex a smile. A real smile. "I didn't know you had it in you." "I can be funny when I want to," said Alex, winking playfully. It was incredibly startling how quickly she changed. "What, did you think I was just all work and no play?" "Honestly...yeah," said Jesse. "We kinda got the impression that you cared more about your acting career than...you know, things like this." Alex stared at Jesse for a moment. Then, it was as if a switch suddenly turned off. She was instantly back to her old, unfriendly self. "Let's just finish watching this garbage," she said, turning to look at the screen blankly.
Jesse looked at Alex in confusion, then turned to look at Petra as if she had the answer. How am I supposed to know?, Petra thought, shrugging her shoulders. Axel and Olivia seemed just as confused. "...okay," said Jesse, unpausing the movie. They continued watching the movie, with one of them making a snarky quip at it every so often. Alex was oddly silent for the rest of the film. When it was finally finished, Alex quickly got off the bed and turned to face everyone. "It was nice hanging out with all of you," she said curtly, "but I'm tired now and need my sleep. Don't be late for the shooting tomorrow." Without even a goodbye, she strided out the door and slammed it shut behind her. "Uh...did we do something wrong?," asked Axel.
"I don't know," said Olivia. "We seemed to be having so much fun, then she just...closed herself off. What happened?" "I think it was something I said," said Jesse, showing a slightly guilty expression on his face. "She was acting totally fine before I opened my mouth." Petra remained silent, not knowing what to think. On the one hand, Alex had been pretty rude to not only her, but most of the cast. On the other hand, she did seem to be a genuinely friendly person when she allowed herself to be. Plus, Alex was still Petra's role model, the one who she looked up to for most of her childhood, the one who inspired her to take up acting in the first place. Finally, she made her decision. "I'll go talk to her and see what's going on," she said, standing up and walking to the door. Without waiting for a response from the others, Petra walked out of the room and into the hallway. Alright, then, she thought, looking down the hallway. Now to find out which room she's staying in. But which one could it be?
"Are you serious?!," a voice groaned out across the hallway. It came from the room right across from theirs, room 138. Wow…, thought Petra. That's pretty convenient. "Why are you asking me? You're my agent!," Alex complained. "You're supposed to handle this sort of stuff on your own!" She appeared to be talking with someone on the phone. Again, Petra couldn't help but note how ironic it was that Alex had told them off for making so much noise, even though she was currently being MUCH louder than they were. Petra decided to wait outside the room until Alex was done with her call. "No, you listen to me!," Alex angrily continued on the phone. "This is supposed to be your problem, not mine! I don't want you calling me ever again, and ESPECIALLY not on my personal cell phone, unless there's a REAL emergency, got it?" There was a moment of silence as Alex listened to her agent talking on the phone. "Yeah, that's what I thought," she said, before a beeping noise was heard, which was possibly her hanging up. Petra chose that moment to knock on the door, which almost instantly swung open.
Alex stood on the other side, still in her nightgown and with an angry expression on her face. That anger quickly turned into annoyance when she saw who was at the door. "Oh...it's you," she said bluntly. Petra chuckled nervously. "Uh...yeah, it's me," she said. "What do you want?," Alex asked, leaning against the doorframe with her arms crossed. "If you're asking me to come over again, I'll have to decline this time. I'm not in the mood." "No, it's not that," said Petra. "I just wanted to know how you were doing...you know, since it seemed like you were in a pretty bad mood back there." "I'm fine," Alex said stubbornly. After a while, she sighed. "Look, why don't you just come in right now instead of standing in the hallway like some brain dead zombie?" "Oh! Um...thanks?," said Petra, not sure how to feel about that sentence. Now that she thought about it, Alex seemed to do that a lot. She always said and did things that Petra was pretty sure were supposed to be insulting, even though she couldn't prove it.
Petra entered Alex's hotel room, which was definitely a lot more spacious and luxurious than the one that Axel and Olivia had rented. It looked like being a famous and adored actress certainly had its perks. Petra sat on a large, pink sofa while Alex went inside a small kitchen that was also part of the room. "Would you like some tea?," she asked, boiling a kettle of water. It didn't sound like she WANTED to offer Petra any tea, though. It sounded more like she was obligated to do so and just wanted Petra out of here as soon as possible. Still, Petra tried her best to remain polite. "Yes, that would be nice," she answered. "Thank you."
While Petra waited, she suddenly heard someone unlocking the door from the other side. The door swung open and Kevin walked in, still wearing his trademark hoodie. He froze at the sight of Petra inside the room, but quickly composed himself and smirked at her. "Well, well, well, seems like your first impression of me was pretty memorable if you came all this way just to see me," he teased. "I'm a little tired right now, but I'm sure I could tap into some extra energy just for you." At first, Petra wasn't sure what Kevin was talking about. Then, her face turned as red as a tomato. "What, no!," she cried. "That's not-! I didn't-! I'm not here to-!"
"Kevin, leave her alone," said Alex, walking back with a tray full of teacups and biscuits. "I was the one who let her in." "You let her in?," Kevin asked skeptically. "No offense, but I'm literally the only person in the world who you can even stand to be close to." "Nevertheless, she is our guest now," said Alex. "Even if she is an unwelcome one." Despite that last part being whispered, Petra was still able to hear her. Maybe she was meant to hear it, or maybe she wasn't. It was hard to tell. "Where were you, by the way?," asked Alex. Kevin scoffed and hopped onto another couch. "Just having a chat with the director," he said. "You're not gonna believe this, Alex, but Stevack apparently wants me to look like this 'otherworldly being' for my role, so he basically told me that I had to be stripped naked and have my entire body coated in black paint! Can you freaking believe that?" "How interesting," Alex droned, sipping from her teacup.
"Yeah, interesting is one way to describe it," Kevin continued ranting. "Plus, he said I had to wear these huge contact lenses to make my eyes look completely red, AND wear a set of fake yellow teeth to give me the appearance of having fangs! I tried them on, Alex. And THEY. FREAKING. HURT." "Yes, good for you," said Alex, not really listening to her brother as she continued sipping her tea. Kevin huffed and slouched over the sofa's armrest, then took out a tablet and began scrolling through the web. After that, Alex and Petra basically ignored him for the rest of the night. "Look, none of this means anything," said Alex, gesturing between them. "Once you finish your tea, I want you out. I have more important things to do."
"I know that," said Petra, remembering the angry phone call Alex made with her agent. "I just wanted to talk to you. Then I'll be out of your hair." On the inside, her inner fangirl squeed from the fact that she was sitting across from one of the greatest actresses to ever live. If only she was as nice as the movies portrayed her as, then it would have been perfect. "Well, you're here now," said Alex, placing the teacup on her lap. "Speak." Wow, straight to the point, huh?, Petra thought nervously. "I just wanted to know what happened back in that other room," she said. "You mean that movie night?," asked Alex. "What do you want to know about that? We just hung out for a while, then I had to leave because some important stuff came up."
Petra rubbed her head awkwardly. "No offense, Alex, but...it didn't really look like that," she said apprehensively. Alex's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?," she asked coldly. Petra gulped and looked towards Kevin for help, only to see him still absorbed in whatever he was reading on his tablet. "Well…," said Petra, "...you just seemed in an unusually bad mood. Well, more so than usual. I just want to know if we did something wrong to upset you."
Alex's eyes softened somewhat. "As hard as it is for you to believe," she said, "I'm not some spoiled child who sees everything as an insult. Trust me, there are plenty of people who insulted me to my face in the past, so I can tell when I'm being insulted or not. The only reason I left was because I realized just how childish we were acting. You know we don't have time to watch comically bad horror movies. We need to keep practicing our roles for the film." "I-I get it," said Petra, nodding. "But I just thought that since we were becoming such good friends, you would've stayed with us for just a little lo-" "Wait a minute," Alex interrupted her, staring hard at her. "You...thought we were friends?" "Well, yeah," said Petra, smiling. "We had such a good time watching the movie together and making fun of it, so it makes sense that-"
Petra's smile was instantly wiped from her face when Alex started laughing. She was laughing so hard that she had to put her teacup on the table in order to avoid spilling it all over her lap. Finally, she calmed down and wiped a tear from her eye. "Oh wow, that was a good one!," she chuckled. "For a second, you actually made me think that you believed we were…" At that moment, she noticed that Petra wasn't laughing with her. In fact, she just sat there in total silence and stared at her. "Oh…," said Alex. "You...weren't joking...were you?"
"...n-no," said Petra, frantically shaking her head. "Wait a minute. You...you don't think we're friends?" Alex sighed and rolled her eyes. "Petra, we barely even know each other," she said. "Of course we're not friends. Where did you even get such a stupid idea?" Petra couldn't help but flinch by how harsh Alex's words were, and at the same time, how casually she spoke them. "W-we had so much fun back there," she said sadly. "It looked like you were finally breaking out of your shell. Was that...was that just an act?" Alex rolled her eyes for the second time. "Petra, I have no idea what you're talking about," she said. "Firstly, there is no 'shell' for me to break out of. This is just who I am. And secondly, why would I be friends with someone who was obviously only accepted into this movie because of sheer luck?" Petra looked down, gripping the sofa's armrests tightly. She tried to fight back tears, but a few drops managed to drip onto the floor. Kevin looked up from his tablet, interested in the sudden turn in their conversation. Finally, Petra slowly stood up and roughly wiped her eyes.
"Thanks for the tea," she said quietly. "But I have to go now." Without waiting for a response, she walked out of the room and slammed the door behind her, just as Jesse was leaving the other room across from her. "Whoa!," he cried, jumping back. "Petra, what did that door ever do to you?" When he noticed that Petra was on the verge of tears, he grew worried. "Petra? Hey, Petra. What happened in there?" Petra took a deep breath and sighed heavily. "It's nothing," she said. "I just found out how good of an actress Alex really is." She grabbed Jesse's hand and walked down the hallway. "Come on," she continued. "Let's get out of here."