"I'm just saying, if the trophy gets its own seat in the car, I should at least get to hold it for like 5 minutes!” Aryan muttered, leaning his head against the window of the SUV.
"No way!” Leah fired back, holding the gold award tightly against her chest like it was ger baby. "I'm the protector. If you or Walker handles it, you’re going to drop it trying to do a lightsaber flip or something."
"I did one flip with a water bottle on set and suddenly I'm banned from holding heavy objects for life," I complained, throwing my hands up. "This is unreal."
Honestly, my heart was still beating so hard I could barely sit still. Winning the award felt completely fake. Walking up those stairs, seeing the entire theater full of talented actors and actresses I always admired standing up and clapping it was like a dream.
My phone buzzed in my lap. I picked it up, expecting another text from my mom or a congras meme from Ryan Reynolds. Instead it was just a Instagram notif from Leah.
@leahsavajeffries tagged you in a post.
I glanced over at her in the seat next to me. She was already staring at her screen, a massive, suspicious smirk growing on her face.
"Leah. What the hell did you do?"
"I didn't do anything," she giggled, but didnt looking up. "But the internet did. Look at your feed."
I opened the app and clicked it. It was a post from a massive Hollywood gossip page with the caption:
"Who even is-" I started, but then the video loaded.
It was a js a 5 sec clip from the live broadcast right after McKenna Grace had announced our win. The camera had cut to Dead Letters table. Sitting right there was YN Thames. I knew who she was, obviously whi didnt. She was Mason Thames' younger sister masons a close friend of course I knew his sister and had been a massive child star before taking a hiatus. Her new Netflix show was literally all over my TikTok feed.
But in the clip she was staring straight ahead right in the general direction of the stag with this incredibly, dazed expression. She ha slowly licked her lower lip, blinking like she was lost in thought, before the camera zoomed back out to me
With the slow motion filter and the romantic pop music the fan pages had already added, it literally looked like she was staring a hole through my head.
"Oh my god," I choked out, a laugh escaping my throat. "Wait. Is she actually staring at me?"
"Walker, you were standing right in her sight hoe" Aryan said leaning over my shoulder to watch the video play for the 5th time. "Look at the comments. People are LOSING their minds."
I scrolled down, my eyes slowly widening.
@diorsbxtch: she was gagged by the black suit LMAOOO HE LOOKS SO GOOD
@leahsavajeffries: 👀🍿??
"Leah!" I yelled, shoving my phone toward her face. “Why did you comment the popcorn emoji?! You're making it 10x worse!”
"Because it's fucking hilarious!" she yelled, laughing so hard she practically dropped the trophy. "Look at the other comments! Her own costar said she doesn't even know you!"
I kept scrolling until a comment with a massive amount of likes caught my eye.
@masonthames: bro delete this video right now my sister was just nervous about her category.
"Uh oh," Aryan whistled. "The big brother has entered the chat. You're a dead ma Walker."
"I didn't even do shit!" I laughed, running a hand through my curls my face feeling weirdly hot. "We habe literally never spoken a word to each other in our lives! She’s probably freaking out right now."
I tapped on yns profile @yourusername. Her latest post was just a photo of the Dead Letters cast looking amazing on the red carpet, and the comments were already flooded with people mentioning my name.
I hovered my thumb over the follow button.
Follow.
"What are you doing?" Leah whispered, squinting at my screen. "Are you following her?!"
"Yeah," I said, locking my phone and tossing it onto the seat with a grin. "If the internet is going to manifest a whole Hollywood romance between us before we even know each other's names the least I can do is see what she posts about it if she posts bout it”
"Your a menace," Aryan muttered, shaking his head.
"Hey, the black suit demands drama," I joked, leaning back against the headrest as the car pulled up to the afterparty place.
We hadn't met yet. We hadn't said a single word. But as I looked out the window at the flashing lights of the party, I had a feeling tonight was about to get a whole lot more interesting.
I sighed. “Well hopefully she’s here” I said and both aryan and Leah gave me a side eye.
