The Truths Behind the Life of Maeve Sun Lively

39

HAS SHE EVEN ACTED BEFORE? She's a singer, not an actress, this doesn't make sense." I had just told Mason what was said in the phone call, and I didn't know what was happening to me. I haven't felt so much emotion piling up in me all at once and now one by one, they striked me nonstop. I think, despite everything that I had already been through, I've never been so overwhelmed before.

Mason was staring at me, and I expected him to be frowning, or already convincing me to drop the project because of her. I knew he wanted me to get over her, and in all honesty, I've never really gotten over her, how could I? But at least for the past two years I had been able to not talk about her and maybe that has fooled him. Now, all those emotions were surfacing up and for some reason, I wanted him to tell me to drop the project.

Instead of doing any of the things I expected of him, he calmly got up and went to the sink and started washing his cup. The sink water ran with a calming pattern of splatters, and I stared at it until he turned the faucet off.

I watched him do all of these things; wash the cup, dry it, put it away, walk to the living room and bring his plant to the kitchen, watered it, went back to the living room and put it where it had been, and then came back to the kitchen table and sat down. Then he looked at me with such calm eyes I was starting to get mad for no reason. He hadn't said one thing since I told him about her.

"What? Are you not going to say anything? Aren't you going to make me drop the role?"

"Why would I make you drop the role?"

"Because she's also on the project!"

He still wasn't frowning, just looking at me with those doe eyes, and he looked at me sideways like what I was saying was the most unreasonable thing he's heard before. "Maeve, I am not going to make you drop your first," he looks back at the bathroom door where Cameron was still in it, talking with someone. A breath escapes him when the door stays unmoved. "Your first given lead role just because she's on there. I would be a terrible agent if I did that."

I thought I didn't know why I was getting so irritated, but really, those few simple meanings of why I was freaking out and annoyed at both myself and Mason were too clear in my heart.

He stood up, went to the sink and started washing his hands, what for?

"You're going to take the project, you earned it for yourself."

I sat there, staring at the table and listening to the running water. I wondered how much water was needed to be taken up in order for him to wash his hands.

"I..."

He stopped the faucet again and turned around, but instead of coming back to sit down he leaned his elbows on the sink counter and watched me. No, waited for me. He had always known me too well.

"I don't think I can take the project, Mason." It was finally out, I admitted it. And I was half expecting a crack of smile out of his face or something like, 'Ha! I knew it!' But that doesn't happen.

"Sometimes," he looked down at the floor instead of at me. "We think we can't do a lot of things, we think that we're not good enough, or we just can't do it and maybe someone else will be better for the job. But I think, really, we're all just too consumed by our fears to accomplish what we want to accomplish, and those who do accomplish their dreams are ones of the miracle who stepped over their fears instead of letting it consume them."

As he said this, not one moment did he look up at me. During that time, I was too self involved to notice something was up with him and what he had said wasn't exactly towards me. I wish I had noticed, as his best friend.