While walking towards the projection room, through the hallway, a lot of thoughts began to run in my mind. The cube crashing on the floor added to the stream, causing beads of sweat to form near my temples. Besides that, the flickering light bulbs were not helping, syncing with the crests and troughs rising within me.
'Will I be able to nail this?'
'What if the cube stops working?'
'What do I tell to Franxis?'
My steps treaded off at the stairs leading up to the room from the backstage, but I held onto the railing and managed to reach the room. It was a wooden door surrounded by acoustic foam covered with velvet on all sides, matching with the red carpeted floor. This made me feel like I was a substitute king, walking towards my unexpected coronation.
I pulled down the lever slowly and pushed the door inwards, walking inside and looking up to see the people inside. They all smiled at me and gestured me with their hands to come over.
"Even if it goes wrong it's still fate, right?"
I muttered softly as I kept the cube on the table, but sounds echoed so they heard me, but carried on with their work.
One of their leaders spoke up while focused.
"I'm Lee, the leader of visual and sound team, and this is Sarah and Nathan," he said, turning at me directing at the other two.
"Hello Sarah and Nathan, I'm Alex," I said as I reached out a hand at them. They both took turns shaking their hands with me. The lady had wheatish complexion and was dressed in smart casuals while the man was dressed in an all-black oversized outfit.
The room had a half-length window on one side, with projectors in the center and to look through and monitor the situation clearly. I went back to the cube, unraveled it and kept on the table, right below the projector. It began to glow a light peach colour, with the lenses on its faces emerging from each side except the bottom, covering the room in peach colored hue.
In case you're wondering why there's no reaction from the team, it's because they can't see it.
In fact, no one can see the cube except the one in charge of it, in this case being me. So for them I'm just standing near the table as a playwright monitoring the play I wrote. Even that punk couldn't see it, hence I couldn't even hold him accountable.
"Actors in position. Lights in position. Props on cue. AND START!"
The speaker echoed, with Margie on the other side.
It had begun.
I looked at the cube, which started to flicker and beacon like lights began to beam from all its sides. It began to vibrate and started shaking with its vibrations shaking the floor beneath me, causing me to fall on the ground. The lights eventually filling up the room, blinded me. I covered my eyes with my arm, only seeing Ben near the stage and curtains opening before everything blacked out.
...
"Dude what the f*ck are you wearing?!"
I heard someone scream further from me. Everything had changed around me. The air was crisp and there was a sharp salty fragrance, the metallic smell of wet sand and the sound of fast moving water crashing against rocks and foaming. I gradually opened my eyes, moving the sand away and stood up, seeing someone familiar in action. It was Linda, the character I created, the one looking for Rendezvous.
Linda was unique, to to say the least.
She was pale, had a ton of piercings done on her face, had a straight bang down one side of her face with electric blue highlights and was a little on the frail side. She only wore black punk outfits, often with fishnet sleeves, high platform boots and stockings. She was textbook rebel kid, to say the least.
But today was a little different.
She stood in front of me, with a full length pink one piece swimsuit, with an attached frilled skirt.
Her friend, Berlin stood facing her, eyebrows furrowed and eyes on her, but no genuine rage. She was the opposite of Linda, a style queen. She had donned a retro swimsuit with black stripes and a wide rimmed hat to complete her look. She had a glamorous face with high-weight features, adorned with elaborate makeup, untouched by the hot sun. She was the one who screamed earlier.
"Linda, we thought we could get you to have some fun, but what are you wearing?" She asked her, with a frustration in her voice.
"Berlin, I did wear what you guys suggested... The pink swimsuit I found in our room," she said, gripping her elbow with her other hand, "this one is good, I'm okay with it."
"But I'm not," she said, pointing at a little girl playing in the sand, "You're wearing Chelsea's swimsuit! Oh dios mio... this is a kids' swimwear!"
Linda stood for two seconds, looking at the little girl, who was fully enveloped in sand in an all denims dungarees. Berlin ran towards her and pulled her out of the mess, dragging her with one arm and walking back to her.
"Please give her suit back, she will ruin my vacation," Berlin said, pulling her hat away from her face.
Linda, now looking at the kid with her eyes widened, switched back and forth between Berlin and her sister Chelsea. She had just digested what happened. She was an emo teen standing in the middle of a public beach, dressed in a pink swimsuit that had frills. Due to the respect she had for Berlin, she had agreed to wear whatever was suggested, but didn't think to confirm what she had to wear!
All their other friends rushed back towards them, all trying to hold their laugh inside. Anyone would laugh in this situation, but out of their care for Linda, they decided to hold back.
But someone didn't.
She heard a distinct laugh in the background, coming from over the sun bathe section. With a ring as clear as day, it was hard to ignore. However, the area had mats covered with an umbrella each, so she couldn't see who it was.
Linda's non-chalant image had all shattered and she looked around, before darting back in the direction of the hotel, she covered her eyes and started to run away from the crowd, not aware where she's heading. She walked into the sun bathing section, tried to run across. Right then, one of her frills got entangled with an umbrella, causing her to trip and fall.
A choir of shock was heard.
Surprisingly, her fall was cushioned, it didn't hurt much. She looked under and saw herself on the umbrella, its veins smashed. She immediately jolted up and tried to fix the umbrella, only for it to bend on one side, and fall apart. She tried to pull off the frill from the veins, but couldn't. Something just clicked her, there was a person underneath!
Walking over to the man under, she saw that he had a textbook ideal body glistening from the sweat, he was tall and muscular, and his overall complexion was tan. At her mercy was his now flattened face, with delicately sculpted features and a bleeding nose.
"I'm so sorry!" She cried as she tried to wipe the blood off his face with the frill scrap.
He immediately shot his eyes open, jolted upright, grabbing her hands, causing her to shudder.
"Oh, it's you," He threw a smug face and looked at her, tightening his grip.
But Linda wasn't a weakling. She immediately twisted her wrist and turned it around, grabbing control of his hand and grabbing it back. She looked back at him, intensifying the stare.
Though he was serious, he was also not serious. This pink swimsuit girl had caught his attention and he thought she was amusing. The more he tried to hide his amusement, the more derpy he looked, earning a strange disgusted expression from her.
For Linda, she thought he was a fool trying to act smart. He had marks of blood on his nose, sand in his brunette locks and a comical smug face. Safe to say, she wasn't amused.
'Now THIS is a first meeting scene!
'Mixing the cliche grumpy x sunshine with comedy was a genius move!'
I stretched my body, looking into the ocean and its playful waves amusing the rocks at bay.
"Mission half accomplished," I said to myself, deep breathing in the crisp air. "Atleast the moron isn't here," I sighed in relief.