Chapter Text
It was past 2 am and Sage was still reading that script. She considered texting her agent but decided against it. Sabine deserved some sleep and she’d just repeat the same text from earlier.
Are you sure about this?
She drank her tea and frowned at how cold it was, then checked the time. Damn, the audition was tomorrow morning and she’d be attending with dark circles under her eyes. Her makeup artist would be pissed. She was sleepy indeed, so she closed the script and left it on her desk to go take a bath and brush her teeth.
It’s not like she could pass up this opportunity. It was the only role being offered at the moment and she needed work to stay in the media. Sabine made that very clear. People couldn’t forget her face. She was starting her career and her last job was a year ago. It was a short series that was aired until last month.
This role was big. Well, bigger than her last one. Perfect for gathering fans , Sabine told her. And it would be recorded in Paris.
Indeed, the script had everything you’d expect from a popular show. Those that go viral. It was based on a book and the book was very famous, called Perfect Pair, about a ballet dancer who is being tested to replace the prima ballerina of a fictitious prestigious ballet school.
She wasn’t so certain if she was the best choice, however, and Sabine was the one who got the audition for her. The director didn’t have Sage in mind for the protagonist role. And reading the script, Sage would agree with the Director.
It was a Rated R series to begin with. Sage had never done anything like that. Her last job was a children's show. It would be quite the jump.
Free publicity, Sage. It’s free publicity, Sabine told her.
And it was a lesbian romance. It was beautiful, it nearly made her cry here and there, but most of the time the scenes were justifying that R rating. Captivating as it was, Sage wasn’t sure if she could interpret that level of passion and desire with another woman. A lesbian actress would be the best choice not only for that, but for representation. But Sabine also thought it would be great to show how flexible she was in terms of acting.
She didn’t know who the other protagonist would be either.
I’m thinking too much about this, I don’t even know if I’ll get the role.
Sage turned her lights off, lied down and tried to get some nice 4 hours of sleep before the audition.
Reyna didn’t make it past page 8 of the script before calling her agent. She threw on her desk a block of paper with Pilot written on the first page and typed Hazal’s number on her phone.
“Please don’t tell me you’re in a hospital,” Hazal said, with a sleepy voice.
“Why would I be in a hospital?”
“It’s 3 am, Reyna. Why do people call each other at 3 am? You, of all people."
“I didn’t check the time. The script you gave me. Is this what I think it is?”
“You just read that now? I gave you the script a week ago. The audition is in 4 hours.”
“Is it?”
“Reyna, I explained it all in the email I sent you. Read that and let me sleep.”
“You ain’t gonna sleep, I know that.”
“That doesn’t mean I wanna discuss this shit with you right now. Read the email. Good night.”
Reyna cursed in spanish when Hazal hung up on her. Then, she opened her flooded email inbox, with a cursed number of 1200 unread messages. She had to use the search bar to find Hazal’s email.
Zyanya,
Fabron just talked to me and he said he has a role for you. He specifically said he wants you for this, he will not see other actresses unless you say no. He came from France to do the auditions here, just so you can participate. The audition is not for you, though, it’s for the other role. You’ll be testing candidates. Now, the thing about this role is that it’s a french lesbian R rated show. He mentioned around 8 episodes initially but it’s open for renewal. It’s based on that book, Perfect Pair. I’m sure you have no idea what I’m talking about. It’s famous and it’s good exposure for a fanbase that might not know you too well. The pay is very, very good.
I know what you’re gonna say. Yes, if the series has good acceptance, we can prepare a come out narrative for you. The audience is gonna scream louder than the critics and it’s gonna be safe for you to come out. But it has to be a hit.
Read the script and tell me if you like it. The audition is in 6 days, at 7am, so try not to get drunk the night before.
Hazal
Reyna looked at the glass of wine on her desk - already empty - and sighed. Oh well, too late now.
Usually, Reyna wouldn’t be that excited for a role in a series. She stopped doing series a long time ago. But this one was different. This one is what she’s been waiting for. It wasn’t the biggest project she ever worked on, but it was the most important one. It was a chance of freedom.
She tried to look for the suggested names for the other protagonist but couldn’t find any. So she decided to read a few more pages of the script to understand her role and be able to at least present something. She found herself reading that until 4:30 am.
Sage didn’t know how Sabine managed to convince the director that she should audition for this role, but when she saw who he was, it was very clear why. She didn’t remember him by the name, but his face and the way he greeted her agent was very recognizable. She had to thank Sabine later for putting up with him for her.
“Sabine, mon cherie. What a pleasure to see you again,” said Vincent, kissing the back of Sabine’s hand.
“Uh, great, it’s nice to see you too, Mr. Fabron,” Sabine answered, clearly trying not to look as disgusted as she was.
“Ms. Wei,” Vincent said, taking Sage’s hand, “I’m glad you could make it. I must say you look adorable today.”
Adorable was not what she was going for with her clothes and makeup. But it’s hard to make people stop seeing you as adorable when you were on the TV for a year making a kids show.
“Thank you, Mr. Fabron. And thank you for the opportunity.”
“Ah, don’t worry, I’m sure you’re a great choice for this role. Now, if you don’t mind, we’re waiting for one last girl and we’ll start. You can sit over there in that room and my assistant will call you by your name.”
“Do you have an actress for Régine already?” Sabine asked.
“You won’t believe who I got. It’s who I’m waiting for. She should be here any minute. Now, unless you wanna have some coffee in my room…”
“We’ll be waiting,” Sabine quickly said, with a fake smile, and turned around with Sage to go to the room he pointed.
Sage sat down with 8 other actresses. She knew 7 of them. They weren’t big names and perhaps that’s what they were going with. People beginning their careers. That’s how it goes, isn’t it? If you have to be naked on screen, better be when you’re starting, instead of after you did other stuff. But none of these girls had been on a kids show beforehand.
I’m never taking this job, she thought.
After a few minutes waiting, she heard some loud talking, some cursing in spanish, and a happy conversation that involved Vincent and some other person. The voice was familiar. Sage was sure she had heard it before.
The girls started being called by their names one by one. They never returned to the waiting room. Sage had no idea of what she’d have to do in the audition but Sabine kept telling her to relax and just do what she does best.
Sage was a great actress. There was no denying. She was disciplined and very technical. While she might not be the best with improvisation, no one was more focused than her. She memorizes her texts in the first reading, practices to the point of being unhealthy, and constantly wants to re-do takes for the sake of perfection. And that was in a kids show. But auditions weren’t like that. Improvising was a good skill in these situations. And Sage hated to act without a script.
So she wasn’t sure of what Sabine meant with do what she does best.
“Ms. Ling Ying Wei,” the assistant called.
Sabine gave her a nod and she stood up.
She left the room and the assistant guided her to the audition room. There, Vincent Fabron was sitting on a table with two other men and a woman with dyed white hair, and standing in the middle of the room was Reyna.
Reyna.
Reyna?! The other protagonist is Reyna?!
Reyna Mondragón was not a small name by any standards. She was known in the whole world and had been part of big industry films and franchises. This woman was not starting her career, she was on its peak. And hell, she looked just as beautiful as she did on screen.
Sure, you don’t wanna get naked for a series if you’re a known name, unless you’re Reyna and most of your camera shots are focused on how hot you are.
“Ms. Wei, this is Zyanya Mondragón, and she’s our Régine. For this audition we’ve decided to guide ourselves by how much chemistry you show with each other, since that’s the determining factor for Perfect Pair. So you’ll be playing the scene where Hanna sees Régine again for the first time after the break up. I wanna see the shock, the hope, the sadness, the love she felt for her ex girlfriend.
Thank God, it’s a scene from the script.
Sage nodded, took a deep breath and moved her shoulders to relax. Reyna was typing on her phone in the meanwhile, not even noticing what was happening around her. She was giggling at the screen, very amused by whatever she was seeing.
“Reyna, my dear, would you mind?”
Reyna looked up. The woman sitting at the desk with Fabron facepalmed herself.
“Sure. Same thing?”
“Same thing.”
Reyna walked to the opposite side of the room. There, Sage observed how she closed her eyes and then opened them. And it was a different person entirely. Her whole stance changed, her shoulders looked a lot less relaxed, she straightened her back and seemed to occupy a smaller space in the room. Like a ballerina.
Somehow Reyna didn’t seem the type of person who could act that well and on command the way she did. Perhaps because most of her roles were in blockbusters or spy movies, and the characters didn’t require that much effort. But changing even her posture to look like a ballerina seemed effortless to Reyna. Sage was so focused on how Reyna, the super star, became someone else, that for a moment she forgot she was supposed to act as well. She was just staring, until the other tilted her head to the side.
“Hanna?”
Sage blinked and realized she was in an audition.
“I can’t believe it’s you,” said Hanna.
Régine smiled - and it was by no means Reyna smiling. She walked forward, one foot in front of the other, crossing the room like she was on a catwalk, until she stood in front of Hanna, towering over her. And she was so incredibly beautiful that Sage was mesmerized again. Not Hanna, but Sage. It was hard to keep in character, it was hard to even think of her lines when she was standing in front of a star she was used to seeing on the cinema and TV. If they had told her before that Reyna would play Régine, she could've prepared herself, but this was too much of a shock.
But it wasn’t Reyna, it was Régine. The ballerina. The prima donna. Her ex-girlfriend. Sage had to keep that in mind.
“Am I that unbelievable, my love?” Régine asked, her voice sweet and slow, like a warm embrace, getting husky at the end, which just added some sexiness to it.
Sage’s heart was beating fast. No, Hanna’s. Hanna was seeing the woman she loved, who had shaken her world years ago, the woman who never gave her anything, but promised the Universe. She was sad, happy, scared, all at the same time.
“I’m not your love,” Hanna said, but Sage’s voice cracked. It came out weak and embarrassed.
Régine smiled - or was it Reyna? - and tilted her head to the side just a little. Sage felt like she’d eat her alive.
“It doesn’t sound like you believe what you just said.”
No, no, no, that’s not the line, Sage thought. Reyna was improvising because Sage was nervous. Damn it. She was supposed to say “why so rude?” and Hanna would say “I learned that from you”.
What does she say to that?
“I’m not anyone’s love, Régine, and that’s thanks to you,” Hanna said.
Yes, Hanna was broken since she was abandoned by Régine. That was okay.
“When you left you said I meant nothing to you, my dear. How come I’m to blame for your loneliness?”
What would Hanna say? Hanna grew colder after she left Régine. She became stronger and could be heartless. She learned to be rude with Régine, and she learned a lot of other things. Hanna had become a lot like her ex after the break up.
“You got it all wrong,” Hanna said, and stepped closer, daring to invade Reyna’s space, like she wasn’t nervous and shaking to be so close to a person like her, and looked in her eyes, “just because I’m not someone’s love, doesn’t mean I’m lonely. You should know that. I learned from you.”
"Oh, I see," said Régine, not stepping back even though Hanna was right in her face. She seemed to like the proximity. "But all you're saying only proves I meant something."
"Yes, you're right. You meant pain," Hanna said, and stood on the tip of her toes to get closer to her lips. Régine tilted her head to the side, ready to kiss her. "Now look at how you're craving me. Are you ready to admit you want me?”
“Yes,” said Régine, “I am," and started to lean into a kiss.
“But I don't want you, Régine. Go to hell.” Hanna stepped back and turned her back to her.
They heard Vincent clapping.
"Bravo! Thank you, thanks to both of you. We had enough, merci, Sage.”
Sage was still lightheaded. She literally got out of script after her first line and never went back.
Reyna didn't look bothered by anything. She pulled her phone from her pocket and finished typing whatever she was typing. There was no trace left of the ballerina Régine.
"So, I imagine you'll contact my agent in case I get the role?" Sage asked.
"Yes, don't worry, we'll be in touch," Vincent said.
And it sounded a lot like when they plan on risking your name out of their contact list.
She really had no way to know if he had liked her audition. She hadn’t followed the script, but that was on Reyna, really. She was the first to do it. And perhaps it was because Sage wasn’t delivering her lines accordingly, but she could’ve stayed on track anyway.
Disappointed in herself, she left the room and went back to Sabine. Her agent instantly stood up.
“So, how did it go?”
“No idea, but if I had to guess, better keep applying to other roles,” Sage said, honestly. “I gotta go to the bathroom. Meet me outside?”
“Sure.”
Sage returned to the previous corridor where she had seen a bathroom. She really needed to breathe and wash her face from that horrid makeup. It really wasn’t her style.
In the bathroom, she pulled her makeup remover from her bag, but first she took a good look at herself. That’s how she was supposed to look for this role, isn’t it? That would be her persona if she was accepted. Heavy eye shadow, red lipstick, big earrings, fake eyelashes.
Most roles, actually, not just this one, she thought, and started removing the eyelashes first.
The bathroom door opened, but Sage didn’t care to look immediately. When Reyna Mondragón stopped behind her, looking at her through the mirror, Sage got a jumpscare that made her knock her makeup remover on the sink. She quickly grabbed it before the whole thing was down the drain.
“Did I scare you?”
“No. No, sorry. I was just distracted.”
Reyna smiled - a weird smile, like she was a hunter catching prey. She came closer, making Sage very confused, and kept staring. Sage felt like she was trying to get a reaction from her.
“Can I help you?”
“I hope it’s you who gets the role,” she said. “It’s probably you, by the way, because I gave him my opinion and he’ll take that in consideration.”
“Uh… thanks? I’m glad you liked my acting.”
Reyna looked slightly confused and Sage had no idea of why.
“The others couldn’t improvise. The way you did it, the scene looked better than the script. Loved how Hanna teased Régine with a kiss” Reyna said.
“Oh, thank you. Hanna tries to forget Régine by behaving like her, so I thought it would be good.”
“For a moment there, I thought Hanna would kiss Régine.”
"I don't think she would, would she? Not so soon."
"Maybe not, but I was hopeful."
Sage blinked a few times, looking up at the taller woman. She was missing something. Reyna was behaving like she should be aware of some deeper meaning in their conversation, but Sage was completely lost.
“I don't understand.”
Reyna smiled.
“God, you are really a good actress,” she said, and stepped back.
“What? Sorry, I don’t follow.”
“Never mind, corazón. I’m looking forward to working with you.”
Reyna simply smiled and left the bathroom. Sage was still baffled by that conversation. She turned around to keep washing away the makeup, only to see that she looked ridiculous with only one eyelash and eyeliner running from her left eye because of the makeup remover.
She finished removing it and applied a more natural makeup, then left the bathroom.
Sabine was waiting by the door, smoking a cigarette. Upon seeing Sage, she put it off on a small tray she carried around and threw the butt in the trash.
“Wanna tell me what went wrong?” Sabine asked, and their driver opened the door of the car for them.
“Actually… I think it went okay,” Sage pondered, entering the vehicle.
“You said we should keep trying for other roles.”
“Yes, but… Reyna met me in the bathroom. God, that was a weird talk.”
“Reyna? Reyna Mondragón?”
“Yes, forgot to say, she’s Régine.”
“Are you kidding me?” Sabine said, baffled. “Fabrón managed to get Reyna Mondragón on a french tv series? I think the last time she was in a TV series was 8 years ago.”
“Anyway, she… I don’t know. We improvised. You know I hate that, but it's just… I was nervous, she noticed and changed her line. I just went with it. I thought it was okay, but I would’ve rather just followed the script. That’s why I had no idea if he liked it. There’s no way to know if they like improvisations. But Reyna met me in the bathroom and she said she hopes I get the role and told him she wants me.”
Sabine raised both eyebrows and smirked.
“Reyna said she wants you?”
“Yes. And she was behaving so weird, you know? In the audition, after she went off the script, I thought it would make sense if Hanna teased Régine, so I pretended like I was gonna kiss her. Reyna later said she liked the teasing, but she thought Hanna would kiss Régine.”
"Alright, so?"
“Well, it wouldn't make sense for Hanna to kiss Régine, and that's what I told her. Reyna agreed, but said she was hopeful. I said I didn't understand and she just stared at me. Maybe it’s because of my makeup? It was all over my face. And then she said I was really a good actress and left.”
“And you have no idea of what happened?” Sabine asked, starting to chuckle.
“You know what happened?”
“Oh my God, Sage,” Sabina laughed, shaking her head.
“What? What is wrong?”
“She thought you were gay. Then in the bathroom she was flirting with you. When you didn’t correspond, she realized you were just acting.”
“What?!” Sage yelled, which caused the driver to get a jump scare.
The driver stepped on the brakes, making both of them be thrown forward.
“Sorry, Ms. Wei, Ms Callas, I thought there was something wrong,” the driver quickly said.
“Sorry, Dave,” Sage apologized, embarrassed.
Sabine was still laughing.
“Sabine! That’s absurd, Reyna is not gay. She dated quite a list of guys. She’s like… super straight.”
Sabine shook her head and waved her hand dismissively.
“Oh, my dear, you’re up for a surprise.”
“Come on. There’s no chance Reyna is not straight and was flirting with me .”
“Sure, Sage. What matters is that she wants you for the role and if that’s the case, you gotta start practicing ballet and preparing yourself to go to France. Can I arrange your schedule for a few classes? I know a good teacher. We gotta discuss the contract as well.”
“Yes, okay. Sure. When they send the contract we can discuss. If they send it.”
“Sage, this role is yours. Fabrón chose Reyna, and if he wants her in his series, he’ll have to give her whatever she wants. So if you can just give me a list of things you really wouldn’t do, I can discuss the contract with him as soon as he sends it.”
“Things I wouldn’t do?”
“It’s an R rated series, Sage.”
“...I mean, it’s not real sex, so why would I not do something?”
“Will you do frontal nude?”
Sage went silent for a moment, then opened her mouth to answer, but still had nothing to say.
“Will you let Reyna have direct contact with your body, including, but not only mouth to breasts, ass?” Sabine continued.
“I-”
“Will you be willing to have direct contact with her body, including, but not only mouth to-”
“I got it. That’s enough. But I wanna see the contract first.”
Sabine laughed.
“No problem.”
They went quiet for a few minutes. Sabine was looking at her phone all the way, while Sage was lost in - very nervous - thoughts.
“Will I have to touch her like that?” Sage asked out of nowhere.
Sabine didn’t answer, she just burst out laughing.