Chapter 14
“Holy shit, Y/N.”
You just sat there, looking fearfully and yet expectantly at your editor. Regina had asked you to come that afternoon just as she was finishing reading your screenplay. Logan had finished editing your work a week after turning it in to him. Logan smiled at you and hugged you at having been able to nicely tie up Midnight’s story without cliches. You promised to call him after she hears Regina’s reaction.
“Oh my god, wow, Y/N,” Regina says in awe as she placed the manuscript on her table and beamed at you. “I knew you were green when I took you on, but damn girl, you surprised me. This,” she taps an index finger on the front page. “Is the stuff that gets shown at the biggest festivals in the world. Oh thank God this trip halfway across the world is sooo worth it.”
"W-wait, what?!" you half gasped, half chuckled. "You're-you're not saying what I think you're saying?"
Regina nods vigorously. "I am saying what you think I'm saying indeed, Y/N. This screenplay will get shopped in New York at the very least. I can’t wait!”
A multitude of emotions hit you at once, none of which you can focus on as they come in like an avalanche. You wanted to be happy that you lucked out at the first editor you ever met but you also realized that since she had accomplished what she’d set out to do when she came to your country, she was gonna leave you soon.
“Hey, what’s the matter?” Regina senses your distress and comes up to sit in front of you. “Talk to me, Y/N. I know this is big news. Tell me what you’re feeling.”
“Reg, nothing I--” you grappled for what to tell her. You tried to take a deep, cleansing breath, but all that got out was a shudder.
“It’s not nothing. Come on, out with it.”
You pour your heart out to her over the course of the next few minutes. She lets you talk it out until she senses you’ve calmed down. You have, thankfully.
“I only have a few friends, and I just thought...well, there goes another one,” you conclude.
“Oh baby girl,” Regina coos and envelops you in a hug. “You’re not losing me! If anything, I think this is just the beginning of an exciting partnership for the both of us. Listen, I wasn’t expecting anything when I came here, just looking for something inspirational, then somehow we met and I’ve been so thankful for it ever since. You’re going to go places, I just feel it, and I want to be the one to help you.”
When you got home is when you really started feeling the excitement and the adrenaline about the possibilities now that Regina was taking it home with her Stateside. You couldn’t suppress the squeal of excitement as you jumped around your apartment.
You then called your sister Lana before calling Logan. He seemed breathless when he answered, but you didn’t pay much attention.
“Oh my god, Logan, you won’t believe what I have to tell you!” You began, your voice giddy like a five year old. When he doesn’t say anything is when you begin to hear the background noise surrounding him--a PA announcing a flight, the buzz of conversation...was he in an airport?!
“W-where are you?”
You could hear him let out a nervous breath before he spoke. “I’m going back home, Y/N. My flight’s leaving in three hours. Regina called me to tell me what she thought of your work and I am so happy and proud of you. I can’t wait to see it on the big screen.”
You fall seated on a chair and hold your phone a little tighter. This can’t be happening.
“Why didn’t you tell me? I thought we--Logan..I-I thought we were okay…” you said, rather confused, fighting off a sob.
“We are!” he counters. “I just...I thought this would be better for us, in the long run.”
“What the fuck do you mean?”
“Y/N,” Logan takes another breath. “I love you. In those few short months I have managed to fall so hard for you that I realized I can’t bear to just be friends. I know I said I’d take anything you’d give me, but I’d be lying to myself if I said I didn’t want more from you. And that would be unfair to you when I know exactly how you feel about me.”
By this time a few tears have begun escaping your eyes. You couldn’t believe what you were hearing, but you can’t deny that you agree with what he’s saying to you.
“I wish you would’ve at least given me the chance to say goodbye,” you croaked out. The tears were full on streaming from your eyes now. Why do you always have to separate from the good ones?
“I know, I wanted to see you too. But I think this is what’s best for now. This isn’t goodbye, Y/N. I know our paths will cross again, I promise you that.”
You wipe the tears with the back of your hand and clear your throat. “Okay. So this is just see you later then. I’m going to miss you like hell though.”
“Hey, don’t cry, alright? You’re not making this any easier, you know?” he tries to joke, but you could hear the pain in his voice as he said it. “You take care now, okay? I mean it. Don’t starve yourself.”
You both laugh at this, despite the dreariness of the situation. Logan says his final goodbyes and you just sit there still trying to process everything that has happened to you in the course of just about 24 hours. It’s been a while since you’ve been thrust into such a rollercoaster of emotions that even though it was just early in the afternoon, you already felt so exhausted once more.
Sebastian rubs his palms together as Kayla puts a stack of scripts in front of him. After finishing filming the back to back seasons of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, a Netflix movie and a TV pilot, he took a month to recharge and refresh, much to his management’s chagrin. He’d been non stop for a year, he deserved it. He smiles gratefully at his assistant before taking the first ring bound manuscript.
The title immediately grabs his attention. His jaw drops in shock upon seeing who wrote it.
Looking for Midnight
Written by
Y/N Y/L/N
He was about to turn the page when Kayla comes back rushing.
“Is that Looking for Midnight?” she asks. Sebastian just absentmindedly nods. “I’m taking that, Leslie said this is already in production, they’re done with casting for it.”
Kayla snatches the manuscript and checks the first page. Her eyes widen in surprise.
“Seb...is this…”
“Yeah, that’s her. Holy shit, K,” he mutters before reclining in his seat. “If that’s in production that could mean…”
“Fuck, Seb, you could actually see her again!”
You couldn’t believe it, you were back Stateside, and this time, not just for leisure but for work. It took about eight months, but Regina did come through, finding a producer willing to take your screenplay. And here you were, a full year after completing your script, in New York to be part of the production process, starting with the casting call.
“Hi, Y/N,” Phillip Eccleston, the director shakes your hand as he leads you to a room where Regina, the casting director and the rest of the producing team were. Regina gets up immediately upon seeing you to give you a hug.
“Oh my god, it is so good to see you!” she breathes. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t able to pick you up at the airport. How was your flight?”
You smile at her bashfully as you take a seat beside her. “It was okay, I can’t believe you got someone to take my script!” You muse excitedly. She then introduces you to the people on the table. You spend a few minutes on the intros and the perfunctory small talk before the casting director commences the auditions.
You had to keep your cool the entire time, seeing a few people you actually recognized. Some you had even seen a few of their work. You weren’t able to stifle your surprised gasp when Anna Kendrick and Cole Sprouse read for Midnight and Jeremy, the love interest.
“So, what do you think?” Regina asks her. After the auditions, the older woman had taken you out for an early dinner. “You think we got our Midnight?”
Your jaw drops at the incredulity of the day you just had. “I…” you tried to grapple for words. “I need a week to recover, today was insane!”
Regina laughs. “You better practice getting used to it, especially if you’re going to make this a career. You are writing another script, right?”
You nod, you dove right back into writing after she had left, spurred on and inspired by Regina’s enthusiasm about your work. “Yeah, I am. This is really happening huh?”
“I told you,” she tells you knowingly. “It was just a matter of when, and that time is here. We’re gonna have to fix your work visa and find you an apartment!”
You struggled with sleep that night as you recalled the day over and over. You only got your shut eye at almost 4 in the morning, a huge smile on your face that finally things were looking up for you.