Have You Ever?

                Saturday night.  The last Saturday night before the roller coaster takes off.  Tess had been all for staying home and having a few too many drinks and too much junk food but Carrie, of course, had different ideas.  With Kim and Lisa being of the same mind-set all three of them had pestered her until she had thrown up her hands in submission.  The night was now to celebrate the last weekend of freedom before they knuckled down to the job at hand. 

                “Does that mean that we’re not going to go out to the clubs or parties the whole time we are working?” Tess asked Carrie as she applied her lipstick.

                “No, I’m going for coordinated, should try it sometime, give you a whole different wardrobe choice,” Tess joked as she looked at her friend’s orange mini, purple shirt and black jacket.  To finish the catastrophe her black stockings and boots at least matched the jacket.  With her cherry red spiky hair it could only be described as colourful.

                “Hey, it’s not my fault the washing machine hasn’t been delivered.  This is all I have left that’s not wet or dirty.  Mum sent my other things yesterday so they should be here in the next few days.”

Orlando pushed his way back through the crowd that was trying to gain the bar staff’s attention with his arms wrapped around eight stubbies.  As he headed back to the table he allowed himself a moment to allow his excitement to surface.  In two days they would start filming and even though he had been here for six weeks training for the role, Monday was the day he had been waiting for.  Of course he had done a few things back home with some small roles, but this was the big time. 

He would lie awake at night wondering and worrying if he would be able to do it, terrified that he would botch it up completely.  His biggest fear was that they would realise that they had made a terrible mistake with picking him as Legolas and send him back home.  The worries had become worse when he saw this very thing happen to Stuart Townsend the other day and he was taken off the movie to be replaced by an as yet unknown actor. 

He always tried to be a very positive person but sometimes his fears would win and he would panic about everything, especially at night when it was quiet and he had no distractions.  His doubts would probably quiet down as the filming advanced and his natural confidence and instincts took over and reminded him that he was where he was supposed to be.  This was what he had dreamed of all the time he had been learning his craft in London. 

To have it come to him so quickly just before his graduation had been a shock to say the least.  He had sent his tape and went for an audition in spring of 1999 in front of Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh to try out for the role of Faramir.  It was only after they had let him know that they had decided on someone else for the part that they had asked him to read for Legolas.  When his agent had rung him and told him he had the part he was surprised to say the least.  Two days later he had graduated from The Guildhall Drama School but he was already on such a high he still had trouble remembering what had happened at graduation.

Now, almost four months later here he was about to start filming and he was still terrified that he would screw up and be sent packing back to London.  He had had such a wonderful time so far and had become really close to the rest of the cast that were already here.  Being so far away from their family and friends they had all formed close bonds with each, especially between the four hobbits boys and him.  He did not think their friendship would end after the film was finished and they all went back to their own worlds but it would be different to what it was now. 

They had all decided that they would go out tonight and celebrate the beginning of the shoot, giving them a whole day to recover and be bright eyed for Monday.  Then tomorrow they would all meet for lunch at the Chocolate Fish and discuss their evening which hopefully included some talk about who they had scored with and if they had ended up at home or somewhere else.   Although Orlando had always been involved in this after-hours hobby tonight his mind seemed preoccupied and he thought he would just have some fun with the guys and then go home. 

Since yesterday when they had done a full costume rehearsal with all the crew on set it was as if someone had shook his brain up.  He was sure that he was just anxious about his lines and the work but a couple of times his mind had flashed to Tess, the pretty little Australian makeup artist who had looked after him yesterday.  She had been so nice to him, making him feel more relaxed as she had done his make up yesterday.  Even though they had only spoken a couple of times he had enjoyed the feeling he had when he was around her.  Not that he could explain what he felt exactly but it was a good feeling.

Finally he arrived back at the table to see Dom and Billy sprawled across it pretending they had passed out while they waited for him to return.

“Tess, her name’s Tess,” Orlando answered quickly without thinking.  How could anyone look so sweet and sexy at the same time?  When he had turned to Elijah’s comment he was not expecting to see Tess standing at the door.  She looked even more beautiful with her hair down, the sides loosely swept up and clipped at the back with two white flowers slipped in. 

He could hear the guys talking behind him but he just continued to watch Tess as she draped her jacket over the back of a chair and sat down at the table where the others had been sitting.  Orlando could not help but allow his eyes to wander down her body, taking in the pink sleeveless top with a white see through overshirt and a denim mini that showed off her lightly tanned legs.  His gaze continued down to her pink suede ankle boots before he quickly looked back up at her face to watch as she laughed at some joke that Pete from makeup had told her and Carrie.

“Hey, Bloom,” Elijah’s voice finally penetrated his thoughts and he turned back around to his friends trying his hardest to look angelic.

“The pretty little Aussie you have just undressed in your head,” Elijah answered with a smile.   Elijah had seen the interest between Orlando and Tess yesterday on set so he knew exactly who his friend was staring at.

“I wasn’t doing anything of the sort; I was just looking over that way.”  Orlando was not about to tell them what he had been doing; he had to admit it was a little embarrassing.

“Fuck off,” Orlando laughed as he picked up some nuts out off the bowl on the table and started throwing them at Elijah. 

Elijah grabbed some from the bowl in front of him and started throwing them back at him.  Orlando grabbed some more nuts and chucked them at Elijah, some of them going wide and hitting Dominic instead.  Dominic sat for a moment with his mouth open in shock before he quickly reached forward and grabbed the bowl in front of him and Elijah and Billy grabbed the other bowl and all three of them started pelting Orlando with the rest of the nuts as he shielded himself with his arms.

Quickly the ammunition was depleted and Orlando emerged from behind his arm, laughing along with his friends.  He began to casually look around the room but his eyes quickly returned to Tess.  He chewed on his lower lip as he looked at her back, trying to see through her shirt to the skin underneath.  Her mini skirt was short enough to be sexy but still decent, leaving just enough to the imagination which he ran with for a minute as he wondered if there was any chance with her.  As he turned back around to see what the others were talking about he decided to wait and get to know Tess first before he thought any more about asking her out.

CHAPTER 2            FEEDBACK                BACK