Ch 35: Taking Things Slow Isn't So Bad

Sunday, 6th April, 2008

{1st Person POV}

It was raining.

And I mean raining. Like, it was pouring down so much and for so long that I thought the city was going to get flooded and submerge underwater like Atlantis or R'lyeh.

At one moment I was enjoying myself, walking down the busy streets of New York, looking around here and there at the shops, buildings restraints and cool advertisements, and the next moment it started raining like there was no tomorrow.

God damn rain didn't even let me enjoy myself for even a day on my brief time off from work! Who the hell knows when I'll get my next vacation!

Now, I'm a rain person, aka someone who loves rain. I hate sunny days for a living and if I had that as a job, I'd happily do it for the rest of my life.

But my God did this rain ruin everything for me.

I got drenched to the brim, water soaking my jacket, shirt, socks and shoes wet as fuck. And that too so quickly and away from the hotel I was staying at that I had to take shelter inside a small café.

Which, to be fair, was a nice experience. The food was good and inexpensive, and the vibe was nice too. But that's not my point.

My point is that I had to wait for FOUR HOURS before it stopped pouring, which meant that the remaining time I had for exploring the city and enjoying myself was snatched away from me.

Thankfully, I had my laptop in my bag, which was waterproof too (Thank God). To not die from boredom, I decided to write my first novel, of which I wrote the first chapter of.

If you're wondering what novel it was, I decided to go with a science-fiction classic; 'Dune'.

Yes, I'm going straight for a heavy hitter from the start. After all, what will holding my punches do to me other than wasting my time?

In all honesty, it was either this or 'The Hobbit', which is a lot different than this, but again, a classic in its genre; fantasy.

Of course, it was never about writing either or; No. It was about which one would be written and published first.

And in the end, 'Dune' won, for the simple fact that it wasn't a children's story. This is not to say that I won't write children's stories, but right now, I'm going for a style that people will know me for, and I want that style to be about character-driven, emotional and dark (or realistic) stories; Something which 'The Hobbit' isn't.

Now obviously, I'll also write 'Messiah', 'Children of Dune' and 'God Emperor' and all the others by Frank Herbert.

What I'm not so keen on writing are the sequels to the five 'Dune' books by Herbert. Because let's be honest, twenty books after the main five, and then the short stories and encyclopaedia ON TOP of that? HELL NO!

If I did that, I'd be stuck writing Dune for the rest of my life! And that's something I do NOT want!

Anyway, where was I again? Oh, right. The rain. That damn rain. I only one thing to say to the clouds who peed on New York and me:

Go fuck yourself.

Now that my anger has been settled, let's move on to my current circumstance, shall we?

I was at JFK Airport. Well, technically, I was already inside of the plane, waiting for the plane to leave at any moment now.

I gazed at my watch for a second, which read '9:58 A.M'

In other words, the plane would be taking off any moment now.

And sure enough, it did. And as it started moving, I looked out from the small window, looking at the grey clouds consuming the sky and casting a large shadow onto the city.

'Will it rain again?' I asked in my mind. 'Meh, not my problem anymore. Cool city though.'

As the aeroplane conjured the strength to lift off the ground, I adjusted my position on the seat.

Speaking of my seat, I was sitting in the Business Class.

Not to brag or anything, but if I wanted to, I could have chosen and bought a First Class ticket.

The only reason I didn't is because I didn't want to sit amongst complete strangers, and strangers who were most likely snobbish rich people.

That's why I went ahead and bought Business Class tickets for both me and Emily, who was surprised at first and against the idea.

Speaking of Emily, she was seated next to me. Her long blond hair tied up into a ponytail, wearing a bumblebee coloured blouse and Arctic blue jeans.

Oh no, my poor heart may falter at the beautiful sight in front of me!

I'm kidding, of course.

I don't have time for 'love' and shit. That'll just be a hindrance in achieving my goal; a roadblock, a distraction that'll drive me insane by trying to juggle between my work and my love-life.

And while I may have acted all flirtatious with Scarlett Johansson, I think we can all agree that none of us would have given up on that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Maybe when I'm at the top, I'll look for love and marry someone, but for now, I'll be focusing on my work.

And speaking of work, I took out my laptop from the bag and continued writing 'Dune'. Every minute counts, and that's why I couldn't waste it away sleeping or something.

As I started writing down 'Dune', Emily looked at me curiously. She leaned towards me and asked, "What are you writing? A script?"

"Nope. A novel." I replied straightforwardly.

"Wait what?!" She exclaimed, and then quickly lowered her voice so as to not disturb the other passengers. "What the hell? Why are you writing a novel?" Emily asked, flabbergasted.

"Because I felt like it." I again replied with a straightforward but vague answer.

"But the structure and layout is different from that of a script. Isn't it a bit hard for you to write?"

"Nope. Super easy, actually." I answered uninterestedly.

Realising that I wanted to be left alone and not disturbed, Emily stopped asking me questions and closed her eyes, trying to sleep.

I glanced at her from the corner of my eyes, and thought. 'She looks tired.'

I went back to writing 'Dune', but a thought occurred to me.

'Maybe I should take a nap after I'm done writing this chapter too.'

Like that, I spent the rest of my six hour journey writing 'Dune' half the time and the rest of the journey was spent sleeping, which was quite a comfortable experience.

The food was also really good, so there is that. Overall, I'd rate the flight an 8/10.

Why not 10? Because I never rate anything above a 9, 'cause nothing in this world is perfect. And I follow that thought to a T.

If anyone calls or rates something a 10/10, then I immediately think 1 of two things:

1) They're overrating

Or 2) They don't care about or know how the world works.

***

{1st Person POV}

We arrived at the L.A International Airport around 4 P.M or so.

I had to be woken up by Emily because apparently, I was sleeping like a log. Guess all that fatigue is really catching up to me. Maybe I should go to a massage parlour or something.

'That would be nice.' I thought.

We got all our stuff and walked out of the airport. I was about to say my goodbye for the day, but I was instead surprised and confused by Emily's words.

"Um, Oliver." She began.

"Yeah?" I tilted my head.

"Thank you for choosing me back then and even now." She murmured.

'Back then? Oh, 'Halloween'? I got it.'

"No need to thank me. After all, you're a good actress." I said, trying to uplift the heavy mood that was created a moment ago.

"Thank you for believing in my ability." She looked down at the ground and continued. "But, I'm sure you know that none of the cast of 'Halloween' have been able to get a decent job offer. All we get is offers to act in horror films. Because of that, I left for New York to perform in stage play. I felt that I could get the acting job I wanted by performing on stage and making a name for myself. But, it wasn't really working as well as I had hoped for. I was still only getting offers for horror movies and nothing else."

She quickly brought both her hands up and shook them. "Oh, I'm not saying it's your fault or anything for my circumstance or anything. It's just that… I wanted to thank you from the bottom of my heart for choosing me over other actresses for Sarah's role. So once again, thank you very much." She bowed sharply.

'I see.'

*Sigh* I put my luggage down on the ground and walked closer to Emily.

"Come on, you don't have to do that." I said and grabbed her shoulders, lifting her up. "You're a good actress, and that's all that matters. There is no reason for you to thank me. I only chose you because you fit the role; that is how this industry works. You HAVE to build yourself up as someone who can play any role, from a screaming extra in a horror film to a charismatic main character. Do that and people will be thanking you for acting in their films. Got it?"

Emily was stunned (I think). She just stood there, looking at me with hopeful eyes.

'Hey hey hey hey!'

Seeing as she was not moving, I waved my hand in front of her. "Hello? Are you okay?"

"Well, guess I gotta do that." 'That' is my secret weapon of sorts; something so dangerous that it's repercussions will haunt you for the rest of your life.

What is 'that'? A flick on the forehead, of course.

Generally, it's not at all a dangerous thing, that is, if you're doing it to your homies. But it becomes dangerous when you're doing it to someone of the opposite sex, aka a woman. I've tried it in my previous life on my mom, and I know what doing this forbidden technique enthrals.

Taking a deep breath, I brought my fingers near her forehead, still deciding whether I should or should not flick her.

In the end, I flicked her, and immediately jumped back.

"Ow!" That sound that Emily exclaimed left me scared shitless. I was cowering in fear, waiting for my judgement.

But it never came.

"Eh?"

I looked at Emily, who, instead of being angry at me, was instead rubbing her forehead.

"Ar-... are you okay?" I asked, still terrified.

Emily looked up at me when I called out to her. "O-oh, yes! Definitely!"

Seeing as she was acting a bit strange, but still not angry at me, I decided to ask her. "Are you not angry?"

"What? Why would I be angry? You flicked me to bring me back to my senses, right? That's no reason to get angry. Infact, I should be thanking you instead."

I stood there, eyes wide, flabbergasted to my core.

'Is… is this girl an angel?' I asked.

Compared to basically every woman I had personally known, Emily was the nicest out of them.

While I was thinking about my terrible luck with women, my smartphone started ringing.

"Hm?" I took my smartphone out of my pocket, and looked at the caller's name. "Uncle?' I muttered the name.

"Oh, you got a call? Who is it?" Emily asked curiously.

"It's my uncle. I'll talk to him, and you can return to your home in the meantime. You haven't been in L.A for a while, right? Go meet your family and friends."

"A-alright." And with that, Emily left for her house, while I picked up the call.

"Uncle? What happened?" I asked.

-What happened? Does there need to be a reason for me to call you, someone who is basically my second son?-

"Well, not really..." I muttered.

-Exactly!-

"*sigh* Uncle, get to the point, will you?"

-Oh, how impatient, haha.- He chuckled.

-Anyways, your aunt wanted to have you over for dinner tonight. She said that the both of you haven't met in a long time, and you've just come back from New York, so it's perfect. Can you come?-

'Aunt, huh.' I thought, as a smile formed on my face. 'Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt anybody.'

"Sure. I'll be there in a half an hour."

-Half an hour in THIS city? That's not possible, y'know?-

This time, I was the one who let out a chuckle.

"Alright, alright. I'll be there in an hour, just tell Aunt that, alright?"

-Sure, sure-

And with that, I cut the call, putting my smartphone in my pocket. I then looked up at the Sun, which plastered the city with its orange hue.

'Maybe taking things slow isn't so bad.'

~~~

A/N: I like this chapter, a lot.

I wanted to have a more slower chapter with not much happening plot wise, but in the end, quite a lot actually happened. Of course, the way I envisioned this chapter was not how it turned out, but the end result is like 99% the same, so it doesn't matter.

This is also the 3rd largest chapter with 2.4k words, and the 4th chapter in a row above 2k words. I need to calm tf down.

Originally, I wanted to have more romance, but that kind of dropped as I was writing the two's conversation. Probably for the better, tbh.

After I finished writing this chapter, I noticed that Oliver goes from being super angry at the start, to being calm but indifferent in the middle, and then happy in end. Not something I was going for, but It is something nice. I also changed the title to what Oliver says at the end, which I think is also a nice touch.

Oh yeah, I have a SERIOUS question.

The Batman or Batman: Begins?

Comment with the highest likes from either paragraph will be the film Oliver does.

The Batman <--- Vote here< p>

OR

Batman: Begins <--- Vote here< p>

Anyways, see ya later!