4
Faye
A
s I walked towards the room where the football players were going to interview potential videographers, my heart flapped violently in my chest. Nerves cascaded through my veins and butterflies danced in my tummy, but I didn’t feel quite as anxious as I might have had I not had that strange and unexpected interaction with Angelo in the library a couple of nights ago. Yes, it happened late and night and he seemed quite a bit intoxicated, but I had faith that he would stick to his word and recommend me. He promised that he would, and I absolutely had to believe him.
Angelo seemed like he was in a bit of a crisis when I first bumped into him, but as he left nearly an hour later after we’d chatted a bit about what this YouTube project would be, he looked a lot calmer. I felt like we got on really well which was going to be a good thing moving forward.
You can do this, I said inside my head to pump myself up. This will be fine. It’ll be simple.
I had to be the best qualified for the job anyway since I did the most work experience, and with the team captain on my side, they would want me for sure… or so I hoped. The more that I thought about this, I really needed it. After checking out the team’s YouTube channel, I realized that it was even bigger than I originally thought. Each video got thousands of views and comments, and I had a feeling that the documentary ones would be even better since they would have a bigger appeal. I needed the person behind all of that to be me, it was a fantastic opportunity for me. God, I wanted it bad.
Eventually, I worked up the courage and I pushed the door open to reveal what I assumed was the entire team looking towards me. I was in the spotlight for just a moment, and I hated it. A heat swept through my entire body which I could feel turning me red all over. Humiliation seared in me.
“H… hi,” I stammered while shifting awkwardly. “I’m here for the interview thing.”
My eyes blurred, I could barely see anyone, but I felt acutely aware that Kevin was there. There was a weird sensation that his gaze prickled all over my body, like he was looking at me. A part of me hoped that he was actually, and that he would feel a desperate need to ask me out. Because we’d already shared a flirtation in the past, I would probably even be quite confident around him.
“Right, Faye.” Angelo’s voice grabbed my attention, flooding me with a sense of relief. At least I had his friendly tones to connect with. “It’s good to have you here, thank you for coming.” He indicated for me to sit down which I did. I kept my eyes on him because I was scared of everyone else. Especially Kevin. “I’ve been telling the guys about how dedicated you are to your profession…”
“Oh right, thanks, and here is my reel of previous film for you to look at.”
I handed it over and Angelo took it with a giant smile. Then, much to my surprise he slipped it into the nearest computer to watch it. I hated that, and had to sit in excruciating agony while they all watched it. I loved my work and yes I was incredibly proud of it, but at the same time I hated to see the reactions of others as they watched it. It put me on the spot and made me center of attention.
“Wow, that’s really good,” Angelo said once it was done. “You’re really talented.”
“Yeah, you are.” Kevin’s voice joined in too, making my heart skip a beat. I needed to look at him, I really wanted to make eye contact with the person I had such a crush on, but I couldn’t make myself do it. “That’s really good, Faye, and I’m pretty sure that we’re all in agreement that we want you.” A murmur of agreement burst out around the room, which helped to ease the knot of tension that sat firmly in my chest. “You’ll be perfect for the job and we all look forward to our time with you.”
All of a sudden, a wonderful picture flew into my brain. One of me and Kevin hanging out and laughing, getting to know one another and having a lot of fun… fun that soon turns into something serious. All thoughts of a fling turn into a genuine romance, and I find myself yearning for the love that I haven’t wanted for a very long time. I want something even better and more intense than what I shared with Tyler, because really that wasn’t real at all. That was just something dumb and childish.
“Yeah, sounds great,” I muttered while barely listening anymore. “I like that plan.”
“So, we’re all set? I’m Dimitri by the way.” A skinnier guy that didn’t seem to belong on the team shook my hand. “I’m the manager of the players and I’m the one who’s running this project so you and I will be spending a lot of time together getting things right…”
“But not as much time as you will with me!” Angelo said while slinging his arm over my shoulder in a playful manner. “Well, at least for the first month anyway.”
“I’m going next!” Kevin practically yelled. “I want to be the next Player of the Month.”
As the two boys argued playfully, I felt so excitable that Kevin seemed so keen to spend time with me. That had to be a good sign, didn’t it? The thing between us that was supposed to happen last year was finally about to come to a head and I couldn’t wait. Well, next month. This month I had Angelo to contend with which would probably be a whole lot of fun. He was a great guy too. He seemed like he had a lot of niceness deep inside of him, it would be fine being with him.
“Okay well that sounds great.” I nodded slowly. “When do you want me to start?”
“Pretty much right away,” Dimitri said. “And as much as you can as well. Obviously I want the videos edited in a way that shows them in their best light, but yeah if you get it all the footage that you can that would be great. We can figure out the details afterwards.” As I paused and waited for instruction, Dimitri chuckled at me. “You don’t have to start right now. I’ll take your number and call you when we want to get started. Thank you, Faye, that means a lot. I think we’ve made a good match.”
He handed me his cell phone so I punched in my digits, wondering where the hell this was going to lead. Usually I had an emotion relating to an upcoming project, I would be able to tell which direction this was going to head in, but with this I had absolutely no idea at all.
As I left the room, I still felt a little numb, a bit like I was floating on air. I couldn’t believe how crazy well that went. It was better than I’d even hoped. Now I had the job and the chance to work with Kevin too. Not right away, but that was probably for the best. I could get into the swing of things with Angelo before I connected with him on a one on one scale. I could relax a little more.
“What’s going on?” Tia asked as I wandered back into my dorm room. “You look stunned.”
I hadn’t told her where I’d just been because I wasn’t sure how well it would work but now I felt truly comfortable with revealing all. “Oh, well I just applied for a position working on the football team YouTube page, and they offered me it.” I chuckled loudly, knowing how mad that sounded.
“Wow, you’re going to be filming all the games?” Tia screwed up her nose in disgust. “That sounds awful. The most boring thing that I’ve ever heard in my life. Why would you want to?”
I gave her a one shouldered shrug. “Because it’s such a large platform, it’s huge and will look great on my resume. Plus it isn’t exactly filming games, it’s more personal documentaries of the players. I’ll be following one of them around for a month and posting videos of them doing their day to day stuff to show off how they have become such amazing football players.”
“That sounds utterly awful. The football team are a bunch of arrogant idiots.” Tia was being very dismissive, which I could understand since we made a big effort to keep out of the popular people’s way, just to make life easier. “Which one will you be working with first?”
“Erm, the captain. Angelo…” I clicked my tongue as I thought. “I don’t know his surname…”
“Urgh, Angelo? He’s the worst.” I was shocked by this, I couldn’t believe that the lovely Angelo that I met the other day and again today had brought out such a strong reaction in my level headed friend. “Why the hell would you work with him? He’s such a jerk.”
“Why is he a jerk?” I needed to know what had caused Tia’s reaction. “What’s he done?”
“One time at a party earlier on in the year he spilled his drink all over me and he didn’t even say sorry or anything. I had to leave early to get changed.” I gulped down, remembering that night. I didn’t realize that it was Angelo at the time because I didn’t know him. “And also he’s known for being a massive player. He always has another girl on his arm. I hate guys like that.”
That was another thing I completely got because Tia had been heart broken by a guy just like that, in a very similar way to me. I couldn’t argue with her one bit because of that. We’d both been victims of the player types so it was no wonder she felt so strongly. Much as I wanted to defend Angelo and I wanted to tell her that he’d been really nice to me, I didn’t. It wasn’t the right thing to do.
“Yeah, well it’s only a job anyway, so I’m sure it’ll be fine. It’ll just look awesome on my resume. I’m not too worried about the players in the team because they will just be subject matters to me. I’ll be filming them, putting the videos online, and that’s that. There won’t be anything to it.”
“That’s that?” Tia gave me a look. “That’s that is it? And what about when it comes to Kevin?”
“Oh right…” I forgot that I told Tia all about Kevin at the time. “Yeah well that will be what it is. I don’t know…” I could feel a heat burning on my cheeks. “I don’t know if I even like him anymore.” There was a stirring in my underwear that I shuffled to avoid. “He’s just… yeah whatever.”
“Oh my God, you’re going to be married before the year is out. This is crazy.”
I laughed and shook my head at that remark, deciding to ignore it. My imagination was already getting the better of me when it came to me and Kevin, I didn’t need it to get any worse than it already was. My heart fluttered, my stomach churned upside down, I was an emotional wreck.
“Well I don’t want to…” I paused as I heard my cell phone bleeping. “Oh hang on.” I glanced at the screen, seeing that I was about to head out to one of the crazy football parties tonight. “I guess my position is about to begin. I’m off out tonight. Dimitri just messaged me so I better sort my equipment out.”