Four Reasons (ON HOLD)

Chapter 1

-Elena's POV-

"I don't know if I can do this," I said for about the trillionth time that morning.
"You can! And you will! I will march you onto that stage myself if I have to!" My best friend Katelyn(picture) sounded exasperated, which she was because I hadn't calmed down since yesterday when I got a call back from my previous audition for a chance at a role in the 2019 Spider-Man 2 movie. Now I was waiting amongst about twenty other girls for my audition, which was actually the call-back audition from the previous one. The twenty other girls were only a fraction of what there had been earlier that morning, because most of them had gone through already.
I was currently pacing back and forth in front of my seat, not at all ready to do this because I was so nervous and yet really excited at the same time. Kate just sat in her chair on her phone; she had given up trying to calm me down several hours ago. Even though I put her through all of my stressed out emotions, she chose to come anyway because she wanted to be there for me.
A few minutes passed and the stage attendant popped his head out the door once again. "Elena Herris! You're up!"
Oh crap.
Katelyn and I looked at each other right as my name was called, and I gulped.
"You're gonna be fine," Kate said gently, standing up and hugging me slightly before gently pushing my towards the door where the attendant was waiting. "You can do this."
With one final shove I went through the door, the guy shutting it behind me.
"This way," he motioned for me to follow him.
I twiddled with my fingers as I walked behind him until I got to the studio where I was to audition. We walked into a large room where several sophisticated looking people, who I assumed were the directors, were waiting, sitting behind a table. There was a large space in front of them where I went and stood, waiting for their judgment. I felt like I was in court for murder.
It took me a moment but I finally recognized them. Amy Pascal stood first, reaching forward to shake my hand and introducing herself. "Nice to meet you, Elena. I'm Amy, this is Kevin Feige and Jon Watts." Both men stood up and shook my hand. "Thank you for being here."
"Yeah, it was—uh, yeah. It was kinda unexpected, but yeah, it's good to be here," I was nervous-rambling. Great.
"Alright, well let's get started. Here's your script," Jon said, handing me a sheet of paper. "Take a few minutes and read over it, then perform it as best as you can. No need to worry, you'll be fine. Just do your best." He smiled at me and sat back down.
All three talked quietly amongst themselves for a few minutes while I read over the lines. When I felt like I got the idea of it, I looked back up at them.
"Alright, go ahead," Kevin encouraged me.
"Ok," I let out a shaky breath and began.
The given situation was a high school hallway at a supposed locker, where I was with my crush who was also my best friend and I didn't know he liked me back. So I was supposed to be awkward and nervous throughout the scene.
"H-hey Peter, what's up?" I read the line, pantomiming pulling a book out of a locker.
They played a recording of Peter's line before I continued with my next one. "I'm good, how about you?"
"I'm g-good," I replied to the recording, turning to look at an invisible Peter Parker. My look at nothing was only a glance before I looked at my toes, beginning to fiddle with the necklace around my neck.
"I haven't seen you for a while," the recording played. "What happened?"
"I—uh, just some family stuff," I turned back to my imaginary locker. "No big deal."
"You've been gone for three weeks, of course it's a big deal!" Peter suddenly exploded.
"No it's not! Why would you care anyway?! You never have before!" I whipped my head back to face the nonexistent Peter in front of me, anger and distress written all over my face. My eyes began to fill with water as I was sucked into the scene, completely forgetting that I was only acting.
"Yes I have!" The recording yelled back, but I could clearly picture him in front of me, as if he was actually there saying it. "I've always cared!"
"No you haven't! You've never been around to care! You're always disappearing, you say you're my friend but lately you don't even talk to me! I see you everywhere but you don't say anything to me, most of the time you won't even look at me! I don't know what your deal is with that, but you don't get a right to say you care because all you've done is ignore me for the past five month-"
"ITS BECAUSE I'M IN LOVE WITH YOU!"
I froze, my angry face turning completely around into shock.
"I-I..." I started, losing all sense of words.
"Look, you don't have to say anything. I... I've been wanting to tell you for a long time now, I just didn't know how. I'm sorry that I've been ignoring you, I just didn't know how to talk to you. That's no excuse, I know, but I still wanted to apologize for it."
I gulped, looking down at my feet, not saying anything.
"I gotta go to class... I'll, uh, see you later," Peter sounded upset and also kind of disappointed.
I pictured him turning away from me and walking down the hall. I hesitated for a moment before calling out quietly.
"I forgive you."
Everything went silent for a moment and the whole scene I had pictured melted away as I remembered where I was. I whipped my head in the direction of the producers to see them sitting there, practically slack-jawed, with tears brimming in their eyes. I froze, too scared to say anything or move at all for I had no idea how I should feel about their reactions.
There was a long pause that felt like it dragged on forever, when Jon stood up and slowly clapped his hands together, a smile growing on his face. When he started, everything was going in slow motion, but a split second later all three were standing up and applauding me with grins plastered over their faces. I could finally move and I looked at my feet, my face growing hot as I let my hair fall over it to hide at least half of it.
"That..." Kevin started, taking in a deep breath. "Was amazing."
"T-thanks," I stuttered, still not able to look any of them in the eyes.
"Elena, would you give us a moment?" Amy said kindly.
"Yeah, s-sure," I replied, turning and walking out of the room. I shut the door behind me and thumped against the wall next to it, letting out a breath as I sank to the floor in shock. I still had no idea what happened. The scene had been so real I had lost myself in it, and without knowing it I had pulled all of the pain and grief from that day back into my present mind. I hadn't wanted to, and I just wanted to curl into a ball and cry for hours, all because I brought back a memory I had put away for good; or so I had thought. Now I could only sit, and wait.
About five minutes passed while I sat there, when the door next to me opened, making me jump just a little. Kevin was standing there beckoning me back into the room. I stood up and followed him back to the front of the room, where I stood awaiting my final judgement.