A/N:

Welcome everyone to this new story of mine! It combines two of my biggest passions in life: writing and acting! :D

As this is a FAGE story (Fic-Awesome-Giveaway-Exchange) you will notice that you won't have to wait for updates! The story has 13 chapters + prologue and epilogue. I will post 1 chapter every half hour from now until it's finished. If my calculations are correct, that means it'll take me about 7 hours from start to finish!

Thank you to Cruiz107 who provided the prompt and whom this story is written for! I do hope you'll enjoy the ride!

Title: To Be or Not To Be

Written for: Cruiz107

Written By: MarieCarro

Beta/Pre-Readers: Alice's White Rabbit/LaMomo

Rating: NC-17

Summary/Prompt used: Enemies to Lovers. Two people with a common passion should get along fine, right? Unfortunately, classically trained actor Edward Cullen, and self-taught actress Bella Swan didn't get that memo, and the two are notorious enemies. But what happens when they're both cast in the same stage production as lovers?

If you would like to see all the stories that are a part of this exchange visit the facebook group: FAGE: Sweet Sixteen, or add the C2 to get all the stories direct to your inbox.


PROLOGUE

So, I suppose you want to ask me what happened to my lip. Contrary to what you might be thinking, I didn't bust it in a fight. Not one with fists anyway.

It's a rather long story. Not particularly complex but still filled with prejudice and unwarranted insults. I'll admit right off the bat that I had a heavy hand in setting myself up for my current predicament. Had my ego been smaller, things would probably have played out differently. But such is the life of an actor. We've all got egos too large for our own lives hence why we continuously seek the thrill of embodying others.

There's probably a myriad of other psychological reasons behind it, with self-hatred and a need to just leave yourself behind for a moment while you pretend you're someone else topping several lists, but I'm not here to give you a full psychoanalysis of why I decided a life on stage or in front of the camera was what I had to have.

I'll just summarize it as an inexplicable need. A need that began at an early age when I looked out over an audience for the first time, spotlights in my eyes and the hum of electricity always in the background of each line I had meticulously studied and memorized.

My middle school production of A Christmas Carol. I'd played Jacob Marley, and once my part in the play was done, I found myself yearning to go back out on stage.

I was lucky enough to have very supportive parents who only encouraged my dream when I told them I wanted to pursue theater, and they happily signed me up for classes and watched all of my performances. At least, as long as they were convinced it was just a hobby.

Everything got slightly more difficult as I got older.

Not only did I have to endure bullying throughout my high school years because I was a guy who loved the theater, but I also had to accept the looming truth of how ridiculously expensive it was to study acting in college. In fact, if you wanted to study the subject in Los Angeles or New York where you'd be the most likely to land a job after graduation, the living expenses would scrape what little flesh you had left on your bones after tuition costs, literary materials, and what you were expected to own, like character shoes and rehearsal outfits.

My family didn't possess the sort of wealth needed for those kinds of expenses, and while I'd always planned on taking out student loans, my father was very adamant about me taking a gap year to work and save up as much as I could to make the debt a little less debilitating. I respected that and diligently did as he wished. But when the reality of how difficult it was to save money on the minimum-wage job I could get without a college degree settled in, one year quickly turned into two, and then three.

I could've easily fallen into despair, and I definitely had my low moments when it felt like my life had stagnated, but I always kept my eyes on the prize. I continued to take acting classes as an adult, and when it was finally time to apply for schools, I had glowing recommendations from my teachers.

At twenty-three, I was accepted to a highly regarded school in New York where I spent three of the best years of my life. But school was a bubble, and all bubbles burst eventually.

After graduation, it was time to start working in the business, and I went to audition after audition without landing a single role. It mattered very little to casting directors that I had excellent training and the discipline needed. If I didn't have the right look for a character, I was dismissed. If I didn't have the right accent, I was dismissed. If I was too old, or too young, I was dismissed. And time and time again, I watched how young people without an ounce of training got the chance I longed for.

I scored smaller roles here and there—a commercial or smaller production. As a background extra and, once, as a body double for a famous actor who experienced a scheduling conflict during a day when they didn't need to film his face.

Years passed until I'd built up my resume enough for an agent to sign me, and it felt like the steel hand around my throat eased up just the tiniest bit. Compared to other actors in their late twenties, I was woefully behind in my career at that point. Several of those I'd crossed paths with during early auditions had already reached the route to success, often because of nepotism or because they possessed favorable genetics before they received the Hollywood beautification treatment.

One could definitely say, without a doubt, that there was a bitterness inside me that grew and poisoned my mind against people who didn't necessarily deserve it because of jealousy and frustration.

Which brings me to the present.

My name is Edward. I'm twenty-nine but closer to thirty. I live in New York in an over-priced shoe box apartment. I do various temp work to sustain a living while I pursue my dream. And I just landed the lead in my very first Broadway stage production.

I am beyond ecstatic. The sun is shining in a clear blue sky, and the birds are singing and all of that. There's only one small thorn in my side. A five-foot-four, dark-haired, and brown-eyed thorn to be exact.

My co-star.

The world was full of people who tolerated, and even liked, Isabella Swan. I wasn't one of them.


A/N:

Unless I have something specific to say after each chapter, there won't be any A/N's :)