Before you guys read ahead, I want to thank you all for your sweet comments. You guys are the reason I still write!

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All your words mean a lot to me and I won't be giving up on this story, so you don't have to worry. For everyone who commented, thank you! 

I won't keep you from the chapter now.

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Chapter XVI

"Why are you smiling like that? It's creepy," Adrian said, making a face at me.

He had been examining my odd chirpiness for the past few minutes as I sorted through the different costumes he was supposed to be wearing for the scenes today. He was done with the first part of his scene and was waiting to be called for his next one in his van.

I looked up at him, trying to suppress my smile and seemingly failing badly.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," I replied and returned my attention to the work I was doing.

He began to say something when Amber burst through the door, startling both of us. She was really out of breath and was panting with her arms being supported by her knees. Both Adriana and I stared at her, not speaking a word.

I guess he was as surprised as I was, considering this was the most worked up I'd seen Amber be.

After what seemed like a few minutes, she regained her full height and grinned at me. Her smile was so wide that it almost reached her ears.

"Did you just manage to do what I've been hearing you did?" she asked, her grin widening by the second, if that was even possible.

"What do you mean?" I asked, feigning innocence, even though I did have an idea of what she was referring to.

Amber rolled her eyes, seeming to look right through my facade. "Did you or did you not embarrass Stacy in front of Mr. Rick and Mr. Anthony?"

The way she put it, made me sound like such a bad person. It wasn't like I had purposely gone out of my way to do something to humiliate her. It was her own actions that got her where she was right now.

"Well, don't make me sound like a bitch. It just happened," I said, defending myself.

Amber rolled her eyes again. "Whatever, but finally someone showed her up for once. Her arrogance was getting on my nerves now."

"Care to explain?" Adrian interrupted, raising an eyebrow at me in question. I could see the curiosity in his eyes.

I couldn't help but grin as I recalled the events that had occurred a while back.

I was pretty firm as to what I had decided to do. Anyone could make out from one look at my face and the pace at which I was walking at.

Upon asking around, I had discovered that the girl with pink highlights or Stacy   was also an intern like me but she had joined a bit earlier than I had and probably had a little more experience than I did. She was apparently pissed that I had been chosen by Mr. Gilbert himself for the internship and had already had the chance to talk to him a few times.

She was also known for her tantrums around the set and a lot of people didn't like her that much. All this knowledge I'd received was because of Amber, Adrian's makeup artist who I am pretty sure had a grudge against her, if I went by the sour expressions she made when I asked her about Stacy.

The way she had handled meeting me basically seemed to me as if she wanted to show me that I was 'unimportant' and being here didn't make any difference. I could have tried to understand her reasons but her pettiness literally showed how unprofessional she was when it came to these things.

And whatever the circumstances, I had earned my spot on the team here and she could not do anything about it.

I snapped out of my thoughts when I saw the person I was looking for. As if the universe was on my side, she seemed to be standing next to the assistant directors I had seen with Mr. Gilbert. Stacy seemed to be getting a task assigned to her since from what I could make out, the two guys were explaining something to her.

Without waiting much, I walked towards them and stood right behind Stacy, waiting for her to finish talking so as to not interrupt them.

Just as I wanted, one of the directors- whose name was Rick, if memory served my right- spotted me and stopped talking.

"Hi, can I help you with something?" Rick asked, making both the other pairs of eyes turn to me.

I briefly let my eyes wander to Stacy, whose face had a really satisfying expression. Her eyes widened upon seeing me.

I shot Mr. Rick a polite smile and answered. "Hello, I apologise for interrupting, I am the new intern on set assisting Mason and I just came here to report my task to Stacy since she mentioned it was urgent," I said, giving a sugary sweet smile to all.

Stacy opened her mouth to speak but I didn't let her speak. "Here are all the old drafts you asked my to arrange according to characters and page numbers. I have highlighted all the individual dialogues on each page and sorted them according to different roles," I said, handing her the entire pile of scripts with a smile.

Her eyes darted nervously between me and the two people standing in front of us.

I had purposely placed the scripts I had sorted out on the top because I was pretty sure that no one was actually going to look through them.

"Old drafts?" It was Mr. Rick who questioned this, making Stacy squirm under his gaze.

Stacy seemed to not know what to say for a moment so I decided to add a few more things to spike up a little drama for a little revenge.

I turned to Mr. Rick- who seemed a little confused- and quickly added," I also wanted to apologise for causing a little delay with Adrian's timings. I was supposed to assist him but Stacy insisted that this was urgent and held more importance," I spoke, mustering up a remorseful look to show that I actually felt sorry.

The truth was that the delay in Adrian's scene was because the costume department had accidentally misplaced a major prop needed for the scene and as it is there weren't enough people available to help find it. That is why Mr. Pain-in-the-ass had come to annoy me at the rocks.

But in reality, I could have been helping the crew if I hadn't been busy sorting out trash.

"What is going on, Stacy?" Mr. Rick turned, his face showing emerging annoyance with a tinge of anger and I was whooping inside.

"I-uh, uhm, sir what happened was..." she trailed off, probably looking for any valid reasons to give Mr. Rick to save her ass.

"Forget it, Stacy. I've had enough of your tantrums on set. If I hear one more complaint against you, I will officially ban you from coming to the sets throughout the duration of the shoot. Do you understand?" Mr. Rick reprimanded Stacy, letting out a sigh.

Stacy's eyes widened in alarm as the finality in Mr. Rick's voice seemed to dawn upon her. She nodded her head vigorously, her lips pressed into a thin line.

Giving her one last look, he turned around and walked off, forgetting all about the conversation he was previously having. The other director shook his head and followed lead. The moment they left, Stacy turned around and glared at me, hard.

If it were up to her, she would have already incinerated me.

"You bitch!" she screamed,"You almost jeopardised my internship here."

I stood straight matching her glare with equal intensity. "No Stacy, you did this all on your own. And the next time you even try to mess with my internship here, I'll make sure you lose yours because I'm not here so that you can push me over whenever you feel like it," I said in a low voice, making sure I sent the message across with a final glare before turning and walking back.

I did catch the faltering of her expression before I turned and that was enough for me.

"Wow, you're a badass," Amber exclaimed, launching herself on me and pulling me into a bone-crushing hug.

"Um, Amber, I appreciate that but I. Can't. Breathe," I squeaked, through her embrace and she finally loosened her hold on me.

My eye caught Adrian's amused expression and slight smile which made my own lips quirk up a little.

***

"So how long have you been working on the sets of movies?" I asked Amber as I helped her organise and pack her stuff.

Adrian had been called out for his scene. Since it was just re-takes, I decided to help Amber instead. Might as well be a little productive given how I'd technically done nothing worthwhile the entire day because of that Stacy fiasco.

"A while, now. This is my first big movie. I worked for a mini-web series and some music videos before that. This is a pretty big deal for me," she answered.

I was amazed to know all about her experience. She was really hard-working. If it wasn't evident by her work already, her backstory was a full on proof. Amber's parents didn't believe in pursuing subjects like make-up and wanted her to do something more "stable" so she had to enrol in a university taking on subjects like Business Management. Rather than being de-motivated by it, she secretly enrolled in different courses that she paid for, herself by working shifts at a local restaurant.

So she was not only studying two courses at once but also working to pay for her second course.

I couldn't imagine what would have happened if my parents did not support my love for the performance and entertainment industry. Just the thought of it gave me shudders.

The amount of respect for the girl in front of me doubled.

I opened my mouth to say something when I was interrupted by a loud thud on the door of the green room. Both of us snapped our attention to the door where a very frantic looking guy was standing, panting as if he'd just run a marathon. His red hair that seemingly reached his shoulders were sticking to his neck while his wide, green eyes looked at the both of us.

He looked at Amber and visibly sighed in relief, almost slumping against the door.

"Oh thank God, you didn't leave yet. Tori had to leave because of an emergency so I need you to fill in for her. Can you do that?" the guy asked, his eyes wide as he looked at her as if mentally urging her to say yes.

Amber chuckled at him. "Of course, Ted. It's not a problem. As it is, Adrian is probably going to be done for the day, anyway," she answered to him, before giving me a look that practically saying 'we just packed for nothing'.

I chuckled at her as she started collecting all her kits and vanity.

"I just need you to do one favour," she said, not looking at me as she made sure she had everything she needed.

I knew it was directed at me so I nodded, momentarily forgetting that she couldn't see me.

"Once Adrian is back, can you help him remove the prosthetic makeup and get him all cleaned up?" she asked, finally looking up.

My eyes widened.

She wanted me to peel of all that on my own?

I had seen her do that before and it didn't seem that hard but that didn't mean I could pull it off all by myself. No pun intended.

She must've noticed my panicked expression because she chuckled. "You don't have to worry. You just have to use this spirit to weaken the bond of the latex before carefully pulling it off. Just be careful not to rip it off- just be patient with it and help him remove the rest of the bits with warm water and some mild soap. He'll know how to wash the excess off," she said, trying to calm me down.

I nodded, not wanting her to think I couldn't do it. It wasn't that hard by what I'd seen, anyway.

She quickly muttered a thank you before Ted dragged her away in a hurry, leaving me alone in the make-shift room surrounded by costumes and props.

While waiting for Adrian, I decided to google how to remove all the makeup, just to be sure I was going to do it right. I was in the middle of a YouTube video when I head the knob on the door jiggle.

My head snapped up to see Adrian walk in looking tattered but way too good looking for it to be considered normal. This was not fair to the common folk like me.

His ocean blue eyes scanned the room and they landed on me questioningly. "What are you doing?"

"Watching YouTube tutorials on how to get the prosthetic makeup off?" I replied, shutting my phone and slipping it into my pocket before getting up from my position on the floor.

"Where is Amber?" he asked, entering the room.

"She had to help out another actor on the makeup so she left with that Ted guy," I answered, waiting him to set his ass on the chair so that I could start off by getting the fake blood off his face.

"So she left you to help me," he remarked, seeming to be really amused by the situation.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "What are you trying to say?"

He shrugged it off as nothing but the smirk on his face said otherwise. I kept my eyes narrowed at him, trying to figure out if it was my imagination or he was once again trying to insinuate that I was going to mess up.

"So are you going to stand there all day or are you going to help me out?" he asked, starting to unbutton his tattered shirt.

That made me snap out of my thoughts. My eyes widened as he ever so casually tossed his shirt aside before I could even react.

"What are you doing? I squeaked, averting my eyes to look anywhere but his perfectly sculpted body. One glimpse and I could say that this guy could put photoshop to shame. I could now vouch for the fact that whatever pictures he has shirtless aren't edited.

He seemed to be enjoying by my reaction, going by the humour in his voice as he uttered the next few words. "You said that you were going to help me get off the prosthetics off me. I'm just getting the costume out of the way, unless..." he trailed off.

I waited for a moment, wishing that he would complete his sentence because I did not want to look up. But when he didn't answer, I got curious.

Mustering up the courage to look at him, I fixated my eyes to his stupid smirking face. I narrowed my eyes once again. "Unless what?"

"Unless... you wanted to be the one to strip me as well," he spoke, his smirk deepening.

Once his words registered, my jaw dropped as heat pooled in my cheeks and my eyes once again focussed on anything but him.

"Don't be shy, I know a lot of girls dream of doing that. It's okay if you're one of them," he teased further, making me go redder.

"S-Shut up!"

I almost smacked my head for stuttering. It was annoying how he knew what to say to embarrass me. I didn't blush easily but this guy had made me go red twice in less than two minutes and it was irritating. No wonder he had such a die-hard female following.

It took me a moment to collect my thoughts before I decided that I wasn't going to go down this easy.

Taking a deep breath, I once again looked up at his smug face, willing the redness in my cheeks to fade away.

"Are you done?" I asked, trying to throw a deadpanned look in his direction, which going by his face wasn't working too well.

I grabbed the bottle of spirit and a some cotton to dab it onto the skin and the prosthetic to remove the latex like I'd seen on the videos I had been bingeing on.

"Sit down," I all but ordered, focussing my attention to the products in my hand.

Thankfully, he didn't say much and did what I asked. Though going by his expression, I could see that he was still pretty entertained.

Taking a subtle deep breath, I faced him. He was facing the mirror and I had to bend a little to reach his eye-level.

I examined his face to see where latex had been used, so that I could start from there. I could feel his eyes on me as I leaned in closer to have a better look at his face.

He had two bloody gashes on the left side of his forehead and a smaller one on his right cheek. HIs right eye also had made to be look a little swollen, which was probably the result of a punch he had to take for one of his scenes.

Amber was really good at her work. I would not have believed it was fake if I didn't see her do the makeup in the first place.

I decided to wipe off the simple makeup before I started with the latex so I grabbed some wipes off the table and gently dabbed it on Adrian's face. I was so concentrated on my work that I hardly noticed how close my face was to his.

Surprisingly, he didn't comment on it.

It was when he suddenly looked down and I involuntarily lifted his face up with my fingers gliding under his chin, that I noticed the amount of space between us. If I leaned in a few inches, my nose would be touching his. My eyes widened as his gaze locked with mine. His eyes were so clear and deep. It reminded me of the beautiful images I saw of clear water beaches or lakes. They seemed like an open book, especially this close. The swirls of dark and light blues mixed together creating a beautiful hue.

I didn't know how long I stared, it could be seconds, it could be minutes, but for however long it was, I wouldn't have snapped out of it if the packet of wipes didn't slip off the table on the side.

The moment I realised that I was staring, I quickly backed up, creating ample amount of space between us. I looked away, coughing to ease away the awkwardness that dawned upon me. My heart was beating at a pace more than the normal and I didn't know how to calm it down.

What just happened?

I peeked a look at Adrian, to see his reaction.

He seemed to be lost in thought, his expression wasn't carrying the same amusement it had before.

I coughed, efficiently getting his attention. "Sorry about that," I replied, not knowing what else to say.

I quickly resumed my work, this time not meeting his eyes even though I did feel them on me more than once. I still couldn't get the fuzzy feeling out of my stomach and the proximity was not helping one bit.

I increased my pace, being careful enough at the same time as I pulled the latex off one wound and a time and by the time I was done removing most of it, I was glad to put enough space between us because there was something wrong with me.

Adrian seemed to be out of words as well, which made me wonder if he was quiet because he felt awkward or if he felt something else.

I decided to discard the direction my thoughts were taking and quickly started collecting the stuff when Adrian's voice stopped me.

"You'll have to help me get it off my back too," pointing to the slashed cut on his lower back.

The normality in his tone did help calm me down a few notches and I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. I nodded, not trusting my voice on this.

I motioned for him to get up and turn around. He did as I asked.

Once I was sure he wasn't really looking, I stole a quick appreciative glance of his muscled back. His workout clearly paid off because even though I would never say it out loud, he had a sexy back. The thoughts made my face heat up once again, much to my annoyance but thankfully this time he couldn't see it.

I quickly got to work, before he questioned why it was taking so much time for me to get started.

This one took less time since I had gotten a hang of things now and it was easy to pull off because it wasn't on his face.

"It's done," I said, thanking the stars that my voice didn't waver.

I didn't have a chance to step back when he abruptly turned around, making me come face to face with his ripped chest.

Before I could react in any way, the door to the room burst open, catching the both of us in surprise. "SURPRISE!"

I looked at Mason wearing a huge grin and he entered the room. I peeked a look to my side to see that Adrian had already busied himself in throwing on a shirt, much to my happiness. Even though I did enjoy the view, I wasn't really up for figuring out my reactions to that.

I returned the grin as I turned my attention back to the cute boy in front of me. He winked at me and I blushed a little, though not as much as before. It seemed like today all I was doing was turning red. Whether is was from anger before or from something else after.

"What are you guys up to?" he asked, stepping into the mess of clothes.

I turned to see Adrian who was looking from Mason to me with a curious glint in his eyes. I realised that he might have noticed my blush when he came in.

I tried not to think too much about whatever was happening and decided to distract myself with Mason. "Nothing much. Just finished helping Adrian remove his makeup since Amber wasn't available," I answered, smiling up at him.

"What are you doing here? I thought you were still back at the previous set," Adrian spoke up, addressing Mason.

"I finished my work early so thought that I would stop by the shoot to see how it was going and also ask Addison if she needed a ride back home," he said, looking at me.

I looked at Mason in surprise. "Oh no, don't worry about it. My friend will come pick me up," I replied, a little sad at the thought of turning him down.

"Does he know we're at the cliff?" Mason asked, making a valid point.

I gave him a sheepish smile in return.

My expression must've given him the answer he needed because he chuckled. "It's okay. Let me know if you still need a ride. I have to stop by the agency near your school so I'll be heading that way anyway," he smiled, making my heart stop for a second.

"I'll go with you," I answered, quickly making a mental note to ask Brandon not to pick me up.

He smiled. "Okay, I'm ready when you're ready."

I nodded, quickly collecting my things before pausing. I turned towards where Adrian was sitting.

"Hey, do you need any help with the remaining makeup?" I asked, not wanting to leave my work half-done.

He gave me a half smile, making that fuzzy feeling return to my stomach. "Don't worry about it. I'll manage the rest. You should head home before it's late."

With that, he turned his chair to face the mirror and started scrubbing the residue off the face.

Giving him one last look, I followed Mason out, a lot of thoughts clouding my mind.

I just hope I can make sense of everything that happened today.

**********

Hey Guys!

How was the chapter?

I hope you guys enjoyed it. Leave me your thoughts in the comments!

I am really sorry for the delay in the update. I hope the length of the update made up for it.

A lot happened and I was without my laptop for a month- it sucked and then once it got fine, the diary where I'd kept all my notes and the plan for this story got left behind. It has been a whirlwind of different things happening all at once.

I hope I'll be able to update more often but with university weighing me down, I can't guarantee consistent updates but I will keep updating.

Thank you for sticking with me <3

Love you all!