“Hey guys,” I beckon them away from Ali.
“It’s Ali’s birthday!” yells Heath and Ali cringes slightly.
“Yeah, yeah…” she dismisses him with a wave and heads off towards her bag with Ryan.
“What’s with her?” Heath asks me.
I shrug. I know exactly what’s with Ali but I have a feeling she wouldn’t thank me for telling.
“We gotta do SOMETHING for her,” says Heath. The other guys nod excitedly.
“Throw her a party!” suggests Paul.
“A surprise one!” adds Mark excitedly.
“In our hotel?” says Josh dubiously. “The rooms are kinda small.”
“Jade,” Mark sidles closer to me. “Could we come over to YOUR place?”
“Yeah!” Heath yells. “We can make a cake and stuff!”
“Cakes!” yells Joshua. “I can’t bake but…fuck, I can eat!”
I laugh at their enthusiasm. “Sure, but we don’t have much food in.”
“We’ll bring,” says Paul.
“I’ll volunteer to go after Ryan and when Ali’s done, you give me the keys and I’ll go get started. Then when you’re all done with the pictures, you start coming over. Jade, you keep Ali here as long as you can and then call us before you leave. Done?” Joshua looks around and everybody nods. “Break!” he yells and the group splits up.
“I challenge you to a game of pool,” says Josh brandishing a cue like a sword.
Mark chuckles and picks up the other one, “No one can beat Yoda!”
“Yoda?!” I giggle.
“The master of everything,” says Mark seriously.
“Whatever,” I say dryly.
I head over to the air hockey table with Paul and we start playing each other. He’s pretty cute. I have to admit that I’ve never seen him before in my life.
“So, what movies have you done so far Paul?”
“Varsity Blues, She’s All That, The Skulls…” he rattles off the list.
“I saw Varsity Blues and She’s All That,” I say. “I don’t remember you though… You SURE it was those movies?”
“Pretty sure,” he laughs. “I had kinda big parts too.”
“Oh well, I guess I’m just dumb at recognising people,” I shrug and manage to shoot the puck past Paul who’s laughing at me. “GOAL!”
“Hey, keep it down!” yells Mark. “I’m kinda tryin’ to shoot here.”
“Oops,” I giggle and Paul laughs even harder.
“He’s pissed cos he’s losing!” yells Josh as Mark misses his shot.
“I’m takin’ that again!” Mark tells Josh. “Foul play.”
“Sore loser,” Josh chuckles.
“Hey Jade,” says Paul and I look back at him. He points to the table. “I scored.”
“No fair!” I yell. “I wasn’t looking.”
“Not my fault,” he says with a grin.
“Jeez, can’t a girl get distracted any more?” I mutter, retrieving the puck and shooting it at Paul’s net. He laughs and the game continues for a few minutes. After being tied at 3-3, 4-4, 5-5 and so on, we both get bored and give up the game.
“What now?” Paul asks me and I laugh.
“Am I your designated entertainer or somethin’?”
“Yup,” he nods with a big grin. “I’ve just attached myself to you.”
“Hmm,” I raise an eyebrow and he laughs. Damn the boy is gorgeous. I make a mental note to rent out those three movies and cross the room to the pool table. “Who’s winning?”
“Me,” says Josh smugly.
“Best of three,” glowers Mark.
“What number are you on?” I ask.
“Game two,” grins Josh.
“Ok, moving on,” I say and Paul follows me down the stairs and into the studio where Ali is shooting Ryan Phillippe. Joshua Jackson and Heath Ledger are sat on the couch watching MTV. We join them.
“Goddamn I’m hot,” says Joshua. “Anybody mind if I peel off?” Nobody responds and I keep a discreet eye on him as he pulls off his shirt. He sits back down with a sigh and swigs some water. Pretty soon, the other guys follow his lead and I’m sat in a room full of half-naked male actors.
“Ali!” I almost whimper her name as I head over to the doorway between this room and the studio.
“What?!” she yells. “Kinda tryin’ to WORK here!”
“Think you might wanna look…in there,” I say quietly as she walks over to me.
“Look where?”
“In there.”
“Jade…” she sighs and glances into the room. “Ooh… Whew, it is hot in here…” she starts fanning herself and I giggle.
“How am I supposed to sit in there now?!” I complain.
“It’s a hard job Jade,” she says, not able to tear her eyes away from Joshua’s chest. “VERY hard… Whew, I need a cold shower now.”
“If I don’t use up all the cold water first,” I say, transfixed by Heath’s six-pack.
“Uh, hello?!” We both turn around and see Ryan standing on the stage looking decidedly pissed off. He has his shirt off and a fan is blowing cold air at him. He looks pretty chilly and we smother giggles.
“Sorry Ryan,” Ali says, hurrying over to the camera. “Just a couple more shots and then you’re done.”
“Hopefully,” I mutter heading back into the room.
“Come sit here Jade,” Paul beckons me over to sit between him and Heath and I oblige. Hell, who’s gonna refuse that? “This is a cool song.” The video for Survivor by Destiny’s Child is playing and I roll my eyes.
“Yeah, I just wish they’d wear clothes once in a while.”
“Ooh, put your claws away girl,” laughs Joshua.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound bitchy.”
“Nah, I’m with you on that,” says Heath. “The really sexy women know how to tease. How can you tease when you’re displaying the goods already?”
“And window shopping is boring,” Joshua carries on the analogy as we all laugh.