Behind The Scenes

32. Hero

I'm fucking hungry.
I wake up with a rumbling stomach. Where is Jo?
"Jo?" I call her. No response, then I hear the water from the shower run. I go into the bathroom. She is taking a shower.
"Miss Langford," Jo leaps into the air when she hears my voice and screams, "how dare you not tell me you're taking a shower?" I giggle. "Don't you feel all alone in there?" I open the glass slightly and put my head in to observe it.
She is rinsing her hair, keeping her back arched, one leg slightly ahead of the other and her head under the shower head.
"Fuck..." I bite my lip. I would go in if I couldn't pass out from hunger.
"What's up?" she says touching her hair in a way that drives me crazy, and she knows it, she's doing it on purpose in fact. "Tell me, what is it?"
I look at her from top to bottom licking my lips. "You provoke me, Miss..."
She laughs. "Can you stop talking like that? We are not in the nineteenth century."
"The story of Hardin obsessed with those books is fascinating to me, I'll never read them, but I can relate to the characters every now and then."
As a child I always watched the Pirates of the Caribbean, so I always knew how to talk to a Miss, but I never found the occasion or the reason. In fact, that historical period fascinates me a lot, there were only gentlemen and women were treated like diamonds by men, it was all a matter of honor. Today there is crap, like that worm that was about to harass Jo, what a lost world...
"You remind me of Will with Elizabeth from Pirates of the Caribbean," she smiles.
How the fuck... is she reading my mind?
"Crazy... I was thinking the same thing."
She wrings her hair and walks over to me. She puts her wet hands on her face and kisses me.
"You wet me all!"
"Dry off then."
I shake my head and go to dry with a towel. "Have you finished washing?"
"No."
"Oh well, fuck it, I'm starving. Do you want something?"
"Yes, anything is fine. But could you avoid saying fuck it all the time? "
It's true, I always say this, even for no reason. But I don't care, it's a habit, I know how to hold back on important occasions.
"Fuck you, no," I giggle, I do it on purpose.
I leave the bathroom and look for something to eat. Pop corn, I want too much. Okay, as soon as sh turns off the shower water I put them in the microwave, otherwise they get too cold.
What film could we see?
I search the internet for "books cited in After", I want to see an adaptation of one of the books that Hardin and Tessa love.
Pride and Prejudice, 2005.
The plot says: Mr. Bennet has a beautiful house in Hartfordshire where he lives with his wife and five daughters. Everything is fine until Mr. Bennet's death. The only way for girls to secure a future is to get married.
Mhm... I'm not thrilled.
Then I read again: it would be love at first sight even between Darcy and Elizabeth, if it were not for a sentence about her that the man utters in confidence to Bingley and that Elizabeth hears, a sentence that feeds in the girl's heart an antipathy and a resentment that leads her to move away from Darcy even before approaching him.
I was joking, it excites me a lot.
Jo turned off the water. I run to put two packs of popcorn in the microwave and as soon as I hear the beep Jo comes out of the bathroom in her pajamas. That means she stays here tonight...
I smile at that thought.
"You made popcorn!" she exclaims smiling and comes to eat one.
"Let's sit on the sofa, I've prepared a good film to see."
She looks at me curiously. "What movie?"
"Pride and Prejudice."
"But isn't it the movie adaptation of the book that—"
"That's right, Hardin and Tessa's favorite book," I interrupt.
"Okay, I'm in."
We lie down on the sofa, I hug her from behind and every now and then I reach out for a popcorn.
"What an asshole! She told her she's passable! Seriously?"
"Yeah," I say laughing, I like how she gets caught up in things.
She is silent for a while.
"Wait, so he, after all the things he's done, wants to marry her? I do not believe it."
"Me neither."
The film lasts two hours. There are now a few minutes to go.
Jo sobs when Mr. Darcy says, "If your feelings are still what they were last April tell me so at once. My affection and wushes have not changed, but a word from you will silence me forever. If, however, your feelings have changed, I would have tell you: you have bewitched me body and soul and I love you, love you, love you...  I'll never wish to be parted from you from this day on."
I remember saying such a thing to her once, surely she remembers it better than I do.
"Hero!" she turns to me and cries over my shirt.
"What's up?" I laugh.
"Do not laugh! It's movingly!"
"Yes, but you make me laugh!"
"Shut up and cry with me! Did I bewitch you body and soul?" she giggles.
"Of course, Miss Josephine, and I love you, love you, love you..." I imitate Mr. Darcy.
"I love you too, Mr. Fiennes Tiffin, very much."
We kiss as Darcy and Elizabeth brush their noses without kissing.
"Josephine Liza Langford... Isn't Liza your middle name?"
"Yes, how do you know?"
Well, Anna, do you know anything about it?
"I have my methods ..." I say proud of my research. "Do you remember mine?"
"Mhm... Beauregard?"
Okay, she remembers this, but the other one?
"I have two actually."
"Yes?"
I nod. "The other one's Faulkner."
"So... Hero Beauregard Faulkner Fiennes Tiffin?"
"Exact."
"Wow."
"My parents have indulged themselves... thanks!"
She laughs. I love the laugh of her.
"I love you."
"I love you too."