At The End of The Day (Bars & Melody: Chardre)

Chapter 5

July 1st

Leondre and I have been ignoring each other for the past few days. The countless board meetings, recording sessions, and appearances have been very stressful. The argument drama that happened just a few days ago seems to have vanished into thin air after Leondre came out. I've been sort of standing in his shadow. He's always been the more popular one, but now it's more noticeable than ever. All the fans rush to hug Leondre and congratulate him. They give him many words of encouragement while I only get a few stares. I felt a little left out, but I can't complain. I'm sure he has felt the same whenever I go out with Chloe. 

Outside of our professional lives, we mostly give each other sly glances. The most I've gotten from him is commands. Commands such as "The manager wants you at his office" or "Your mum was calling for you." We hide behinds masks in the public eye. Everyone assumes that we've gotten along ever since Leondre's coming out. Nobody knows about that fateful day in the hotel. The day where I said those wretched 3 words.

I hate you. 

I'm not sure what I meant when I said that. Sometimes, we say things we don't mean in the heat of the moment. I have no idea how Leondre reacted after I said that. I left the hotel too quick, and there's no way to ask him casually. I probably really hurt his feelings... Again. I don't know what's wrong with me. Chloe gave me the simple solution to apologize to him, but I still haven't done so. I don't know why! It's literally tearing me apart, and Leondre hasn't seemed to show any interest in mending the problem anyways. I'm not sure what this could mean for our friendship...

Either way, work always has to come first. Today, we were shooting the music video for our new single, "Battle Scars." The concept of this music video was about a boy standing up to a bully with his friend. Leondre thought of the idea a while back, and it seemed like a pretty good idea. It was supposed to reflect his own experience way back then. The director has high hopes for us, and that this video will propel us into further success. Hopefully us two boys will put aside our conflicts and deliver a stunning performance. 

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Leo and I made it to the studio at the same time. He didn't bother making eye contact with me, as he was texting someone on his phone. That's great. The set was all prepared for the first scene. We would simply be sitting on concrete lip syncing our song, then clips of the actual story will be edited in. 

"Ah, hello you two! You are both in uniform, perfect. Head over to your spots and we'll start playing the track. We'll be skipping through the track, as we only need certain parts filmed on this set. Let's get to it!" Our director explained. 

Leondre put his phone away back in the dressing room, he seemed to be in a good mood for some reason. However, his facial expression changed when he looked at me. The big goofy smile he had coming out of the room turned into a frown. Was I really that big of a deal to him? Whatever.

The 2 of us got on the set. I would be standing, while Leondre would be sitting on concrete for his parts. 

"Why are you 2 so far apart? Come closer!" The director demanded.

Leo and I moved over just a bit towards each other. We had about 2 feet of distance between us now. It felt like an imaginary brick wall was between us. We did not look at each other at all. 

"... That'll do. Alright, 3, 2, 1... Action!" The director yelled.

The track started playing, and I stepped forth to lip sync my lines. I was usually good at making myself seem like I was having a good time, but this time around I felt uncomfortable. I was making weird arm gestures, and my smile felt forced. The track skipped forward a bit, until it came to Leondre's second verse. The camera focused in on him, so I could just stand & look natural. The track then stopped, that was pretty quick.