hope | t.h.

f o u r

"You know my name so well. It's my turn." Tom reminded me about that part.

I cringed at myself. "Oops. I forgot. Uh Alison." I paused, unsure if I should say my last name, but I did anyway. "Birks." My cheeks were red now from embarrassment for no absolute reason, except the fact that I can never interact socially without being awkward.

He laughed at my burning red cheeks. "Nice name. Can I call you Ali for short?"

I thought about it before I made a decision. "Go ahead."

Tom was smiling to himself, glad that I'm letting him call me Ali. Nobody has called me Ali since I was in middle school but I prefer Alison 100 times more than Ali.

The other man decided to start interacting with me as well. "Can I call you 'son of Ali'?"

This man really just made a Thor reference and my heart was so happy to hear it. "YES. PLEASE DO!" Maybe I said it a little too loud because both of them flinched. "Even though 'son of Ali' would be for a son, please do!" I made it much more simple and less overwhelming for them both, and watched their faces loosen up.

"Speaking of names, I'm Harrison by th—"

I interrupted him. "The infamous Haz. So you're the 'mate'." I glared at Tom as he started to chuckle and place a hand on the back of his neck, embarrassed.

"Right. You're the woman who woke up early to drunk Tom knocking on your door." He too glared at Tom, who's cheeks were now redder than Santa's clothes. "I feel so bad for you." He continued.

"Yup, that's me. Anyway, if you can call me son of Ali, can I call you 'son of Harry'?"

He was about to say something until someone else bursted through the door. "Tom, hair and costumes in 5." A man said with a clipboard in his hand.

Tom nodded and the man shut the door loudly, filling the whole room with nothing except the sound of the door shutting.

"I guess I have to go now. I have no idea where the hair and costumes room is so it'll probably take me a while to find." Tom stood up from his chair and proceeded to leave the room, leaving Haz and I alone.

I sat down where Tom was previously sitting and put my feet up on the vanity, sitting back and relaxing.

I instantly continued our conversation. "As I was saying, can I call you 'son of Harry'?"

He chuckled because coincidentally, both of our names had 'son' at the end. "Sure. We could be the 'son' duo."

I snickered at that horrible name. "The 'son' duo it is."

Because the room went dead silent, I pulled out my phone and unlocked it with the touch of my thumb, revealing my home screen, along with 99+ notifications on the icon of Instagram. I ignored my lock screen notifications, leaving me absolutely shocked at these notifications.

I got another notification from Instagram. And another, and another... They just kept coming.

ding ding ding ding

Haz's eyes widened."Woah what's wrong with your phone."

I shrugged. "I have no idea."

I put the ringer on silent but my phone just kept buzzing.

Thousands of notifications from Instagram, so I went through my notifications to find the solution to this problem.

"I see. Tom followed me on Instagram."

Haz nodded slowly, understanding the situation. "Just turn notifications off for Instagram."

I did as he told me to do. "Okay, done. Finally, no more dings." I breathed.

He laughed. "I suggest that you try not to get too overwhelmed with the comments that his fanbase may give you. Some of them can be assholes while most of them are the best. Just don't let the 0.01% of assholes get to you."

I acknowledged his statement. "I'm just a makeup account. Why would anyone even want to see my content."

A smirk grew from the corners of his lips. "Guess who else just followed you too."

I tried to look through the notifications but failed since 10 were coming at me per second. They just would not stop, but at least the sound and constant notification banners were gone. I was scrolling through the actual notifications section on Instagram.

"Who?" I glanced back at Haz.

He smirked. "The one and only Haz Osterfield. Oh, and Zendaya but whatever."

My heart was beating so fast. "Z-zendaya... The Zendaya?! Wow I hadn't realized how close she was to Tom. This is the best day of my life!"

I could tell that Haz was questioning my statement.

"How could you not know that Zendaya was Tom's friend? They're literally everywhere. People 'ship' it so much and always say that they're confirmed to be a couple so they should tell the world. In reality, none of that is true." Haz explained to me.

I licked my lips. "I don't keep up with drama often. I had no idea. BUT THIS IS AWESOME."

Harrison rose an eyebrow. "Did they not tell you that you'd literally be meeting Zendaya from this movie? I mean, you are going to be doing her makeup after all."

"I know that. It's just that this is the first ever interaction that we've made. It sounds stupid, I know, but this is coming from the biggest dumbass on Earth." I said to him.

He attempts to lift my spirits up. "That's not true. You're probably very smart. Your makeup skills definitely make you smarter too."

I shook my head. "No, they really don't."

He rolls his eyes. "Alison, you're smart and unique and the opposite of anything you think of yourself. You're a good person to talk to and you should never have these doubts surrounding your thoughts."

I sigh at his words. Those words come out of everybody's mouths but they end up betraying me and talking behind my back. That's just how my life works. The same routine over and over again. A never ending cycle. If I become one bit of happy, true happiness, it fades away faster than you can say sabotage. My positive emotions towards myself never stay consistent. The negative thoughts about myself are very consistent though.

"You're sweet, Haz, but you don't have to give information or advice about a subject you barely know of. In this case, I am the subject. We just met today so you don't even know much about me... I'm not trying to be rude, alright?"

We stay silent for a while, not looking at our phones. Just thinking about what just happened and why it happened, the words that had left my lips, and why we even started this topic in the conversation.

His blue eyes finally pierce through my dark brown eyes. No words came out of any of our mouths.

I looked away immediately, afraid that he'd think I was into him. I can never keep eye contact anyway. I must always focus my eyes on something else after I make eye contact with someone for a split second. Eye contact just isn't my thing. Of course, all humans make eye contact, but I'm just weird and can't keep eye contact with anyone ever.