Out Of Focus (Wattys 2023)

3. Oliver's Interlude.

Oliver watches as Shayne walks away, and he's just as much confused as he is relieved.

He's never had a thing for words outside of his roles, personal conversations at least. There's the charm for sure, and the humbleness that comes from dedicating one hour a week to spending time with cancer patients, but they're always small glimpses.

He doesn't realize it until Shayne's left him there that he's worn his heart on his sleeve; meant it when he said sorry. He's honestly not even sure why he cares so much.

"Turn it back on," he says to himself, something that he's now associated with the life of fame he's now living.

It's a mask really, but a mask no one seems to care about or recognize really. All they want is all of you, and by all of you, really only the parts they want to see. They want the perfect teeth, jawline, sex appeal, and maybe a bit of scandal. They don't want the baggage, or if they do want it, it's on their terms; or maybe after you've offed yourself. It's exhausting, Oliver is exhausted.

"How did I get here," he says to himself as the mask slips back on, a rhetorical question.

He knows how it all started and wishes he could go back and tell the little 15-year-old punk to run for the fucking hills.

He grew up in Sydney, often entertaining his family and friends with impromptu performances, a skit now and then; a monologue when they saw potential. His mom was always along for the fun, his dad kept pushing him harder.

"You're only as good as the guy above you when he stops giving a crap," his dad would say between fake audition takes.

He has to admit now, as he soaks in the moonlight of the garden, and the taillights of Shayne's ride, that it did get him places; but were they places he wanted to be?

At 15, he landed a breakthrough role in an international hit, "A Tail of Courage." It was cheesy, but it packed a punch. A boy and his loyal dog, a cancer battle they both share and the heartbreak when they die together. Critics called it equal parts as heartwarming and devastating as "The Notebook."

"You OK over here kiddo, need an Adderall?" Penelope, his manager's, voice says.

He barely notices the shorter woman as she inches her way out of the shadows to meet him at the center of the garden. He can tell she's exhausted, and can all but guarantee she only has one cigarette left in her fresh pack this morning.

"I'm fine Pen," Oliver says, the lie coming as easy as the dozens of others he's told today.

"You're not, but whatever," she says. "You're paid well enough by now to know how to fake it right?"

It's a brutal, but straight-up take, and he honestly appreciates her. Most people in his inner circle don't tell it like it is, or understand the pressures tied to the gig, but Penelope Suarez does, and she always has.

Even back then, when he was 15, and she was 30, she saw the spark from a young kid no one knew acting his ass off. He was uglier back then, a little chubby, but nothing she said he couldn't grow into a star.

"You let me sell the big dogs on you," she had said to a much younger mind. "I'll make sure they bite, but not too hard."

Before his big break, he had only been offered small parts that failed to showcase his true abilities. Penelope believed that "A Tale of Courage" could be his stepping stone into the world of stardom, paving the way for something bigger.

"You'll just have to take this gamble for me first," he remembers her telling him. "Hollywood needs to see you with a hot chick with big tits on your arm on a red carpet and they'll have their hooks in. You have an accent, you have the looks and the talent."