brodie sank back into the couch, honestly not thinking much of it when neve left the room. his eyes flicked back to the television until she reappeared with the requested alcohol. “fuck, knew we were friends for a reason,” he commented as he sat up while taking the glass from her. he poured a couple shots’ worth into neve’s glass before doing the same for himself. he let out a deep sigh as he drank the dark liquor, wincing as it burned down his throat. after another long silence, he finally asked, “did i tell you about me and dove? that it’s pr?”
neve rolled her eyes, “damn. i thought it was because of my charming personality.” she chuckled as she took her cup to her lips and took a drink. she wasn’t a big drinker, but she always liked to have the option just in case she felt like it. maybe it was everything she’d been through sneaking up on her in that sort of way. she nodded, “yeah, you mentioned that. so i’m guessing it’s either gone sour and you feel stuck or you’ve...developed feelings for her or something?”
“oh, holy shit, i can’t believe i won it.” allie giggled excitedly as she got a confirmation email from her manager. had shelling out $65k for the may queen dress from midsommar been worth it ? very much, if you asked allie, but she was very aware that some people may feel differently about that. she turned to look at the familiar face she’d been with and showed them a picture of her brand new, very unpractical dress. “if you had just won this at an auction, where in your house would you put it ?”
neve raised an eyebrow and let out a chuckle. “are you tellin’ me you spent all that money and you’re not even gonna wear it once?” neve asked with a shrug of her shoulders. she loved that allie did something like that. it was something neve might do, too. but she wasn’t entirely too interested in that dress. she loved it, though. “uh, do you have a closet? like i know some people have airtight sealed things they put costumes in. make sure it ages well.”
without second thought, he nodded, “i’ll take tequila.” he would’ve preferred whiskey, but he wasn’t exactly in a position to be picky. plus, any hard liquor would get the job done. he raised his eyebrows, more to himself as he thought through the response. every part of it sounded ridiculous and created a story that would only exist in hollywood, the convoluted world of publicity stunts and complicated, intertwined relationships. “how much time have you got?” brodie replied dryly with a glance in her direction.
neve nodded her head and got up from the couch. she wasn’t going to let him drink alone, so she grabbed two glasses and the bottle from the kitchen and brought it back to the couch, handing the glass to him and putting the bottle down on the coffee table. she leaned back, running a hand through her hair and shrugged. “well, i’m not doing anything important tomorrow so take your time.”
“i’m fine,” brodie denied at first in a huff. it was pure habit, engrained into his everyday actions to act like everything was fine. it wasn’t like he put on a smile and put on a show of emotions. he did the exact opposite, a stoic expression and crossed arms generally to get through the day. “i don’t know about ice cream, but i’ll take any alcohol you have,” he said half jokingly. dragging a hand down his face, he looked over at the female, someone who had somehow become a close friend over the course of knowing each other and he let out a deep sigh. he couldn’t keep it all in forever. “i fucked up, neve.”
neve nodded her head, though she was tempted to roll her eyes. the amount of times she’d personally said the words i’m fine when she was so not fine were almost outnumbering everything else. but she let it slide. “i’ve got rum, i think. and tequila.” neve offered with a shrug of her shoulders. she wasn’t sure if it was the time to get up and grab alcohol or just sit there and stay listening to whatever brodie was going to say. “you fucked up.” she repeated slowly, looking at him as she leaned back on the couch. “what happened?”
“yeah sure, that’s fine,” brodie shrugged with even more of a nonchalant air than usual as he took the plate and followed neve to the next room. whatever activity allowed him to not talk sounded great in his books. “i’m not picky, so pick whatever you want,” he told neve as he set down the plate on the coffee table and fell into the couch with his full weight.
neve raised her eyebrows as she took a seat on the couch and looked at brodie, setting her plate on a pillow. “okay, are you in a mood? should i order ice cream?” she questioned, doing her best to keep her voice light and joking, even with a hint of serious if you need to talk thrown in. “cause i’m down. we can put on a crappy movie and eat junk food and gossip or just talk.”
neve had stopped off to get food for them, which she was setting up now. “okay, so i’m not saying we should watch a movie. but i did find a whole bunch of dvds and shit i thought i lost in the move.” she explained, holding a plate out for him to take as she walked into the living room to sit down.
@alliejames98: i feel u. the amount of times random kids come up to me shoving a camera to my face in the least appropriate places so ill help them with their beetlejuice tiktok would shock u
@nevelaurent: @alliejames98 i've also had people come up to me dressed like mcu characters for videos so i feel that
zendaya. cisfemale. she/her. ／ neve laurent just pulled up blasting take me by aly & aj — that song is so them ! you know, for a twenty-one year old actress & grad student, i’ve heard they’re really capricous, but that they make up for it by being so ebullient. if i had to choose three things to describe them, i’d probably say hiding behind a smile, ripped jeans paired with old tshirts, and messy notes in multi-colored ink. here’s to hoping they don’t cause too much trouble ! ( acting/career claim: zendaya ! )
triggers: toxic/abusive relationship.
growing up
neve is the younger sister of noel. she doesn’t really remember her dad, but she’s always been close with their mother. she was a chip off the old block, and as a toddler liked to emulate her mother.
she also looked up to her big brother.
basically, she loved her family with her whole heart.
never cared to look for her father when she was old enough to wonder about him. she figured if he had cared enough he would have stuck around and clearly he didn’t. so why should neve care about that?
however, she did feel a weird sense of abandonment because of it. she never really liked to talk about it--still doesn’t--but it permeated her life and left her with a lot of unanswered questions.
it was clear from a young age that miss neve was brilliant. she might have also been a bit hyperactive ( her kindergarten teacher still remembers her -- as the girl who decided to let the class chickens free during snack time ) too, but she was clearly not being challenged enough in classes.
before getting to school neve had already taught herself how to read from watching subtitles on tv screens. she’d ventured to the local library as well to gather as many books as she could. by the age of ten she’d have read several plays--her favorite was shakespeare’s much ado about nothing. in fact, she’s still got an old copy of it covered in notes.
but she was in first grade by the time they figured this all out--she was already reading at a fifth grade level.
anyway, she got tested. there was a whole bunch of people to talk to and everything. she’s basically a genius--like she has an actual genius level iq.
so when this was found out the school had to adjust her learning. in the middle of the school year she was moved up to the fourth grade, and it was recommended that she continue classes outside of the elementary school.
of course, it wasn’t easy but neve would go to seminars that were open to the public, anything she could go to she wanted to learn. she’s basically the equivalent of ralph from the show scorpion ( if anybody else remembers that show ) except she’s more sociable.
she wasn’t the easiest to talk to as a kid--think the kind of kid who used big words to sound smart, except she did it because she wasn’t sure how to dumb everything down when she needed to, it was a big learning process for her.
neve did get better as she got older--it came from her family surrounding her and the kids in her grade ( and also from watching tv and reading a lot as well ).
she was in a lot of local plays, including school plays too--though in the school plays she was usually undercast since she was the tiniest/youngest in the grade. but she loved acting. she just never thought it would get her anywhere.
by the time she was fourteen years old she was a senior in high school, set to graduate a few weeks after her fifteenth birthday. she was working with several offers from major schools, including several scholarship programs. of course, it was enticing to get offers from ivy leagues like harvard and yale.
eventually, neve settled on nyu--they offered her a scholarship that was a big proportion of her yearly fee. plus, she was intrigued by going to live in one of the biggest cities in the states.
maybe it was also the fact she was fifteen and really wanted to get away from home.
college
it was a lot to deal with, since she was so young. and her roommate definitely treated her differently than she would have someone who was her own age.
they decidedly did not get along. it wasn’t exactly what neve thought she would be dealing with when she arrived to college--she wasn’t naive by any stretch of the imagination to think that her roommate was going to be her best friend, but she wanted to get along with her too. and that seemed like a very unlikely thing.
she spent a lot of time working a part time job in the literature and film departments. she was a study aide, working as a tutor even though she was only a young teenager compared to everyone else starting off at the college.
neve grew a quick attraction to one of the TAs in the film studies department. they grew close quickly. he wasn’t too older than she was, but make no mistake that he was older.
she didn’t really tell anybody about it when they began dating. she wasn’t self conscious about it or anything, but she knew the age gap was probably an issue with people and she didn’t want to cause a stir since she wasn’t too far into her college career.
the next few months were fast paced between college and her new romance. she barely had time to speak to anybody.
POSSIBLE TRIGGER WARNING !!!
which her new boyfriend took advantage of that isolation. she wasn’t really noticing the signs at first but it was all very toxic and began to border on abusive. he was controlling and took over every bit of her life that he could.
even when things went back to normal after exams, he was still the same controlling person. it got worse as time went on, he made her feel insecure.
it didn’t get physical until the very end of their relationship.
the only way that it ended was because she was cast in a disney channel original movie that took her away from new york.
she hasn’t spoken to him since, but she used to get phone calls and messages that she believed to be him.
END TRIGGER WARNING !!
acting to now
it started with a disney channel movie ( frenemies ). she’d been on several auditions before that but hadn’t landed anything big. this was her first lead role.
acting was always something she really liked--she’d always been drawn to plays and reading scripts. but never did anything quite as big as that.
it was really what started her career--though she’d been in a couple of things before that there was never anything big time.
it came out that she could sing a bit too and she was almost coming out with some music. but then everything changed and she turned down a record deal due to time constraints.
of course, the time she’s spending working on acting, neve is also working on her degree. she wanted to go through with school.
she’d transferred to an online program where she could still attend school and be on the set of movies and tv shows.
she currently holds an undergraduate degree in film studies, literature, and a minor in philosophy.
she’s working towards a masters and plans to continue her education farther too. neve plans to continue working as long as she has the drive to learn more.
she’s been in several movies at this point, though one of her favorites was the greatest showman. -- and one of her favorite projects in general was dancing with the stars simply because it was really fun.
live in la in a house, but likes to travel because she’s got money now.
personality
neve hasn’t told anybody anything about her past abusive relationship, and is kind of a ticking time bomb when it comes to her emotions. she doesn’t mean to be, but sometimes she doesn’t know how to hold it all in longer.
a bit of a big mess. but she’s lovable when you get to know her.
hard edge.
wants to be the best she can be and pushes herself to do everything that she can.
often winds up with a fuller plate than she can really handle, but she doesn’t like to talk about it either.
possible connections
a roommate/housemate or two?
a childhood best friend -- someone from texas!
good friends
co-stars !!!!!!!
exes?
i’ll have a list at some point with more things but like this to plot with her!
