Finding June

  As I took it all in, trying not to think of the camera fixed on me or the line of people staring at me, I heard the door open and close as the man re-entered the room with someone following behind him.

  I kept my eyes trained on the page in front of me, but the first thing I noticed about Lukas Leighton was how amazing he smelled. This could have been due to the fact that I wasn’t looking at him, so my other senses had to alert me that someone incredible had just walked into the room. The second his heavenly scent hit my nose I looked up from my script and into his perfect blue eyes.

  “Lukas Leighton,” I said dumbly. Honestly. That was the wittiest thing I could think of to say: his name. I was pretty sure he’d heard his name enough times that he didn’t need me reminding him of what it was.

  “June Laurie,” he replied with a winning smile.

  I let out a little laugh. It was all I could muster. Lukas Leighton had just said my name. And he was standing two feet away from me. His ocean blue eyes. His perfect, full mouth. The gorgeous dirty blonde styled hair. His ever-present five o’clock shadow. That chiseled jaw. All right. I had to get a grip or I was going to make a fool out of myself on camera. And in front of the casting director. And most importantly, in front of Lukas Leighton.

  “June, we’d like to have you read the lines with Lukas so we can make sure everything . . . fits,” Mr. Hill said thoughtfully. “So whenever you’re ready, you can start.”

  I was pretty sure I’d never be ready for this moment, but I tried to calm myself. Gran had been right after all. This really was the moment my whole life changed. I took a steadying breath and tried to quickly get in the mindset of the scene. From what I had gathered from the script, I was supposed to be emotional because Charles had been accusing me of killing my co-star for money. In this scene I was supposed to ask Cutter if he really thought I was capable of killing Edward. Luckily, I wouldn’t have to act much to get myself feeling worked up and emotional—I was there the second Lukas Leighton walked into the room.

  Turning and facing Lukas while still cheating out to the camera, I began with my lines, my voice full of emotion. “Cutter, I know all the evidence points to me and you really have no reason to believe me, but . . . you can’t think I’m capable of something so . . . so horrible,” I said, looking up at him hopelessly. My heart was beating out of my chest and I tried to harness that emotion into the character of Imogen Gentry.

  Lukas took a step closer to me, closing the gap between us in just one movement. He stared down at me with his blue eyes and looked as if a thousand thoughts were passing through his head. It was incredible. This is what it felt like to act with someone who really knew what they were doing. I actually believed that he was thoughtfully considering how to answer my question, even though I already knew his answer, since it was written right under my lines.

  “Listen, I know Charles can be kind of intense, but he means well,” Lukas said softly, bringing his hand to my cheek. I had to bite my lip to keep from grinning like an idiot, which proved useful since it just made me look like I was fighting back tears. “He has to follow through with every possible lead. If he got distracted by every pretty suspect we had, he wouldn’t be a very good detective, now would he?” His thumb lightly traced my cheekbone and I frantically tried to remember my next line. The fact that Lukas Leighton was touching my cheek really wasn’t helping my concentration at all, but I didn’t want to look down at the script and ruin the chemistry we were building. I remembered generally what I was supposed to say, so I took a shot in the dark.

  “But do you think I did it?” I asked, this time with my voice barely above a whisper. I stared up at him in silent awe, waiting for his next line.

  His big blue eyes were so easy to get lost in, and I forgot that there was a whole desk of people watching us until Mr. Hill said, “That’s all that matters to me.” It instantly tore my attention away from Lukas.

  “What?” I asked, looking over at Mr. Hill.

  “That’s your next line,” he said with a raised eyebrow.

  “Oh, right! Sorry,” I said quickly, turning back to Lukas and trying to get back into the moment. I thought I saw frustration pass over his face, but the emotion disappeared so fast that I couldn’t be sure. I took another breath and moved my expression back to one of distress. Lukas instantly brought his hand to my cheek and resumed caressing my cheekbone with his thumb once more. I could feel blood rising to my face and I hoped I wasn’t turning red. That was the last thing I needed right now.

  “That’s all that matters to me,” I went on, saying my line with a voice full of emotion. I took advantage of what assets I had, knowing that in the presence of this perfect man, I didn’t have many. I widened my dark, soulful eyes, looking up at him with a gaze full of intensity. I thought I saw a flicker of a smile pass over his full lips, though I didn’t know why that would have made him smile.

  “Maybe this will answer your question,” he said so quietly that I wondered if the camera had caught his line. I tried desperately to remember what came next, hoping I hadn’t forgotten a line again. But as Lukas moved his hand from my cheek to the back of my head I instantly knew what was coming. He moved his face closer to mine, making my breath catch in my chest.

  This couldn’t actually be happening.

  I held my breath, waiting for him to close the now-minuscule gap between us, when Mr. Hill loudly announced, “Thank you Lukas, that’s perfect.”

  I couldn’t believe it.

  I had been so close to actually kissing Lukas Leighton. I mean, I could actually feel the warmth from his lips right before he pulled away. If I had gotten a small shiver, we would have been kissing. That’s how close we were. And the magical moment was stolen away from me by "Mr. Casting Director." Wasn’t he the one who wanted to see if we "fit"? What better way to tell? I thought of bringing this up in a moment of sheer desperation, but luckily someone else spoke before I could make the suggestion.

  “We’ll see you on Thursday, Lukas,” the woman in the purple top said.

  “Thanks guys,” he said quickly, dropping his hand from my head and walking out the door without so much as a glance in my direction. The whole thing happened so fast that I couldn’t really tell if he was being rude or if he genuinely looked like he was in a hurry. Maybe I was just so worked up that everything seemed to move in fast forward. That was probably it. Lukas was a gentleman and I knew he wouldn’t just leave like that if he didn’t really need to.

  “Well, June, that was marvelous. Now let’s talk business.”

  CHAPTER 4

  The rest of the meeting was a bit of a blur. I tried to take in all of the instructions the casting directors were giving me, but it was so hard to get that image of Lukas out of my head. The look on his face right before he was supposed to kiss me could have melted butter in the dead of winter.

  From what I could recall (between daydreams of Lukas Leighton), I had gotten the part and they were very happy with my performance. The team gave me a packet full of filming times, paperwork to sign, and some general information. They also gave me a script, background information on my character, and pretty much everything else I needed to know to be ready for our read on Thursday. In exchange, I gave them my measurements for the costume department and some other schooling information they’d need to get me a studio teacher.

  When Gran pulled onto Pullman Avenue where we lived, I saw Joseph’s forest green car parked outside of the house.

  “That boy has been calling every five seconds to ask if you’re out of the audition yet,” Gran said with slight exasperation, even though I knew she loved Joseph. I smiled at Joseph’s interest and couldn’t wait to tell him I got the part . . . and all of the other exciting things that had happened that day. “I think he likes you,” Gran said mischievously.

  “Gran, I only met him today,” I said with a grin, but I secretly hoped she was right. Lukas did look very passionate when he was about to kiss me. Never mind that he had been duped by Mr. Hill.
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  “I meant Joseph, Bliss,” she said with a roll of her eyes. “Don’t you get all wrapped up in Lukas Leighton. It’s never a good idea to date someone you work with. Besides, you just can’t trust actors,” she said knowingly.

  “But you’re an actor . . . and I’m an actor . . . and Joseph’s an actor,” I said, ticking each of us off on my fingers. Gran simply shot me a silencing look.

  “You know what I mean, Bliss.”

  I smiled at her and jumped out of the car the second we pulled into the garage. Joseph scrambled out of his own car, holding a miniature cooler and searching my face tentatively.

  “I brought you ice cream,” he said carefully.

  “What kind?” I asked.

  “Both.”

  We were silent for a moment while I let the suspense build. Joseph knew me so well that it was scary. Whenever I was sad, I ate my weight in Praline Pecan ice cream. Whenever I was happy, I ate my weight in Huckleberry ice cream. Either way, I probably shouldn’t be eating my weight in ice cream no matter what my mood was, but that wasn’t the point. The point was that Joseph thought of everything.

  He continued to look at me with his dark brown eyes, practically pleading with me to tell him what had happened.

  “Break out the Huckleberry,” I said with a grin.

  “No way,” he exclaimed, dropping the cooler onto the ground and picking me up in a tight embrace. “No way,” he just kept saying over and over again while I laughed like a maniac. I was sure anyone driving by would think we had completely lost our minds. When he finally released me from the hug he just held me at arms length and smiled. “I can’t believe this,” he finally said.

  “How do you think I felt when they told me?” I said breathlessly. “I’m actually going to be on Forensic Faculty! And from the scripts they gave me, I’ll be on at least four episodes. Maybe more if they decide they really like me.”

  “June, this is a really big deal,” he told me, as if I needed reminding. “I say we go inside, you eat the Huckleberry and I’ll eat the sad ice cream and we go over your lines.”

  “I think that’s a perfect idea,” I said, linking my arm through his. As we walked inside, Joseph said hello to Gran for a moment while I grabbed two spoons from the drawer and raced him up to my room. We didn’t bother with bowls on special occasions; we just ate the whole pint right out of the carton.

  “All right, where do you want to start?” Joseph asked, skimming the pages of the script and scooping a huge amount of ice cream up with his spoon.

  “Honestly, I don’t really say much until my scene with Lukas that I auditioned with today. Most of my scenes before that are just a few angry lines that I yell at Charles, but I’d rather practice those on my own. Angry lines are always kind of embarrassing to practice in front of someone,” I said with a shrug.

  “Agreed,” he replied. “All right, so you start here, right?” he asked, pointing halfway down a page in the script.

  “Yep.” I took a deep breath, trying to get myself back to the heightened emotional state I was in this afternoon. Joseph and I sat side by side on the ground, our backs against my bed and our shoulders touching lightly. I cleared my throat and began the lines I had already gone over today in the audition and about a thousand times in my head on the drive home.

  “Cutter, I know all the evidence points to me and you really have no reason to believe me, but . . . you can’t think I’m capable of something so . . . so horrible,” I began, the dialogue sending a chill up my spine as I remembered the look in Lukas’s eyes.

  “Listen, I know Charles can be kind of intense, but he means well,” Joseph said, smiling as he read the lines. “I just can’t get over the fact that you’ll be saying these lines on the show,” he said with a grin.

  “So unprofessional, breaking character like that,” I said in mock seriousness, shaking my head and closing my eyes. Joseph pulled a face at me and went on reading his lines. Joseph and Lukas definitely approached acting differently. Lukas seemed like he stayed in character and didn’t really like to break it when reading his lines. Joseph, on the other hand, was all fun and games until the second he had to be in character, when he somehow magically turned into someone else completely.

  “He just has to follow through with every possible lead. If he got distracted by every pretty suspect we had, he wouldn’t be a very good detective, now would he?” At this line Joseph tried to suppress a laugh but ended up snorting.

  “What?” I demanded, wondering what he could possibly find so funny.

  “You didn’t tell me Cutter was going to be all smooth toward you on the show. It’s a little disturbing,” he said with a shudder.

  “What’s wrong with it?” I asked, now a little defensive.

  “Well, for one thing, his character is named Cutter. I don’t really need to expand on that. And for another thing, aren’t you supposed to be a murderer? Isn’t he the good guy?”

  “I am not the murderer!” I exclaimed, trying to defend myself as if Joseph were actually accusing me of being a killer. “They just suspect me. A suspect and a murderer are not the same thing.”

  “My mistake,” Joseph replied, though I could still see the smile in his eyes. He was teasing me. “Sorry. Back into character now,” he said, his face instantly melting into an expression of the utmost seriousness. I followed suit and went on.

  “But do you think I did it?” I asked Joseph, now turning to him and gazing into his eyes. The moment didn’t hold the passion of my audition, but that probably had something to do with the fact that Lukas wasn’t in the room, sending chills up my spine every time he breathed. “That’s all that matters to me.”

  Joseph held my gaze for a moment before looking back down at the paper to read his line. “Maybe this will answer your question,” he said before pausing abruptly. A look of great concern passed over his face and he looked up at me questioningly. For some reason the look made me very uncomfortable.

  “Don’t worry, Joseph, you don’t actually have to kiss me. We’re just reading through the lines,” I said, trying to play off how heavy the room had suddenly gotten.

  “This is the scene you did today?” he asked. I nodded silently, not sure why that mattered. “With Lukas Leighton?” I nodded again, this time with a grin spreading across my face. “You kissed him?”

  “No, I didn’t kiss him,” I said, as if that were the most obvious thing in the world. Joseph visibly relaxed at that news. “I was so close though,” I said sighing and laying back against the foot of my bed, closing my eyes. “I know you’re a guy so you don’t care, but it was honestly the most exciting experience ever. We were this close,” I said, turning and showing him an almost nonexistent space between my finger and thumb.

  “Great,” he said with at least some enthusiasm. I should have known not to bring it up to Joseph—he was such a guy about things sometimes. But he was my best friend also, so it felt like he should be the one I told about this kind of stuff. Maybe I’d just have to suck up my pride and tell Xani tomorrow morning. Letting out a deep breath, I closed my eyes once more and laid my head on Joseph’s shoulder.

  “This part is going to be so great,” I breathed. Joseph tilted his head down against mine, but didn’t say anything.

  CHAPTER 5

  The next morning Joseph and I were late to theatre because we were held up by dozens of questions from kids in our seminary class. Somehow word had gotten out about my audition going well. I had no doubt Gran had something to do with the news leak, but at that moment, I wasn’t exactly angry. Instead, I was reveling in all of the questions and the fact that I suddenly seemed very important.

  As Joseph and I ran into the auditorium for zero period theatre, Mr. Carroll gave a slow applaud, causing the other people in the class to join in. I blushed a deep shade of scarlet and tried to look modest while Joseph just beamed over at me like a proud parent.

  “As I’m sure some of you know, our very own June Laurie just got a part on the TV show Forens
ic Faculty,” Mr. Carroll announced happily. I imagined this was every theatre teacher’s dream come true—to feel like they’d contributed to helping someone reach their goal with acting. I simply continued to smile as Joseph and I took a seat in the audience of the auditorium with the rest of the students. Xani soon appeared next to Joseph, flashing him her perfectly bleached teeth.

  “Now, getting on to business. I’ve decided that I’m going to break the class into groups for our next acting assignment,” Mr. Carroll began. “I’m going to have each group perform a skit for the rest of the class that will require a great range of emotion. I’m talking tears, laughter, panic . . . the whole shebang,” he said with a wide gesture of his hands. “I’ve assigned the groups and the skits, so I’ll pass these out right now while you turn in your play analysis from last week.”

  As I scrambled through my backpack to find my play analysis, Xani leaned in to Joseph and whispered something that made him go white. It instantly brought a smile to my face. It really wasn’t that I liked to see my friend constantly embarrassed by Xani’s attention—I just liked that he was so surprised to be getting attention from a girl. Joseph didn’t realize his potential no matter how many times I reminded him of it.

  “I think the groups are already assigned . . . so we don’t know who will be in what group,” Joseph said stiffly to Xani, making her pout.

  “June and Joseph, of course,” Mr. Carroll said absentmindedly as he shuffled through the pile of scripts in his hands, not responding to what Joseph had said, but simply thinking out loud as he often did.

  I gave Joseph a thumbs up and a cheesy smile, knowing Xani was about to try to pout her way into our group. I’d let Joseph deal with that. Luckily for him, Xani was soon put into her own group and couldn’t keep trying to bribe Mr. Carroll into putting her in ours.