Grapejuice // Harry Styles

The sidewalk on the next block is packed with onlookers, cameras aimed right at us as expected. Our production has a total of six blocks shut down on L.A.'s museum row. I'm standing in front of the Museum of Art waiting for the crew to gear up for the scene and sweating bullets even though it's still in the low 50 degrees. I'm fucking nervous. I wish Char was next to me. Just her presence calms me down. But the woman is wiped out from all of her travel and crashed in my trailer the second we got to set.

"For the love of Pete's Sake can we get this shot set up already!" Our director, Bryant Gooding, is losing his shit left and right. But it's taken forever to get the cars in the right spot for some unknown reason.

"Stewart, where the hell did you go?" he shouts.

"Still right behind you, man." I keep the irritation out of my voice because I'm too fucking scared to be irritated. I've been following him like a puppy while trying to stay out of his way. He tends to shout for me randomly and I don't want to be the guy he has to hunt down.

Bryant whips around when I answer him. "Good. Good." He grabs my shoulder and guides me to the car I'm supposed to be driving. In this scene, Emily's character is being held against her will by her evil father. My character is in pursuit trying to free her.

"We'll start with the walk up. Then you hop in the car, say the line and gun the engine. I want burning rubber, got it?"

"Uh, I thought the stunt double does that part." My palms start sweating. I mean, more than they already were.

I'm a fucking mess.

"Later. I need a shot of you pulling away from the camera, so you'll drive it down the street." A shot is code for a hundred takes so he can have it from every angle possible. We're going to be here for a while and I'm going to have to drive this thing more than once.

The only thought running through my head is that I'm going to crash the car. I drive a junker. So does Zack. I've never had access to a car with guts. I've never 'gunned it' my entire life. I didn't train for this. All this time I've been killing myself to get shredded for the fight scenes, but I should have been taking driving lessons.

Fuck me sideways.

I rub the back of my neck then stop abruptly, remembering that make up added some darker color to my skin for these outdoor shots. Apparently, I'm too washed out in the sunlight. Like a fucking vampire.

"You good?" The transportation guy drops the keys to my new arch nemesis into my open palm. "She's easy. Just turn the key, drop it into drive and go. You'll be out of camera range in point 5 seconds."

"Thanks," I tell him, though it doesn't make me feel any better. Images of me crashing the car flash through my mind. I try to swallow away the lump in my throat, but my mouth is dry. I look around for a bottle of water. There has to be something to drink close by. This is a fucking high-profile movie set, not some low budget B movie. Obnoxious bottled water is a Hollywood staple.

"Can I get some water?" I croak out the words, hoping I sound more parched than freaked out. Not two seconds later, a set lackey I don't even know the name of shoves a bottle of water into my hand. I mumble an awkward thanks and guzzle half of it.

Great. Now I'm going to have to take a piss in the middle of the scene.

Movement down the sidewalk catches my attention so I glance in that direction. Only to be met with the exact antidote to my current freak out.

Char.

She's smiling at me, standing next to my assistant who gives me a nod, pats Char on the shoulder, then turns around to head back to wherever he goes when he's not assisting me.

I need to pay him more.

Keeping eye contact with her, I call Char over subtly, curling two fingers toward me twice. Char smiles brighter before sauntering my way, taking her time like this is just a normal afternoon for the two of us. My girlfriend visiting me at work is nowhere near normal. It's not a thing I've been known to do or have happen. Date.

But if it isn't the best fucking feeling in the entire world.

"You have no idea how much I needed you here," I whisper in her ear as I pull her to me.

"David said he thought you could use a calming presence on set."

"I guess I should be worried that I was so obvious." I laugh at my own expense but it's the truth. I'm being watched by the powers that be as well as the public today. I need to keep it together and at least fake that I can handle the pressure, not crack under it with the world watching in real time.

"Not at all. He's just really good at his job." Char tightens her hold on me before leaning back, looking up into my eyes. I love our height difference. It's just enough for me to tuck her under my chin but not so vast that she needs to stand on a crate to kiss me.

Fuck. Now I'm thinking about kissing her. But I shouldn't do that here, with so many eyes on us.

"What?" She tilts her head. "What just ran through your head? I can tell it was something bad."

"Not bad, no. Just wishing I could kiss you right now."

She shrugs. "You can." Her tone tells me it's no big deal which stuns me.

"Wouldn't that send a message?"

"That we're together? I thought that was the plan?" Char winks, trying to play this off but I see the hurt in her eyes.

I lean down closer to her, my forehead touching hers. We might as well be kissing with our intimate positions at this point. "Baby, that is the plan. But what about the message it sends about management with talent? Wouldn't that look bad?"

Char stares into my eyes, drops her gaze to my lips then back to my eyes.

"I'm thinking I don't really care what message it sends. The truth is the only thing that matters."

She looks at my lips again. I can't take the need anymore, so I close the distance between us. As far as kisses go, what the world sees in this one is probably chaste. A tame pressing of lips. But what I'm feeling is anything but tame, far from chaste. There's no passionate mauling or devouring of one another happening, but kissing her here with a tender, familiar kiss means so much more than if we were to go at each other. We just told the world this is serious. This isn't lust and animal attraction. This is feeling. This is connection. This is trust and vulnerability.

We just told the world we're in love.

I pull away from her but keep my body close, my arms around her and my forehead touching her. I look in her eyes and say the words I've been feeling in my soul for a while now.

"I love you." Saying it should freak me out, my history tells me so. But these words do the exact opposite. The chaos of our surroundings melt away, edges fuzzy and distant. It's just the two of us and our universe is each other.

"I love you, too." Her voice is quiet, but her words are loud. She's the only sound I hear. This moment is life changing.

"I'm a better man because of you."

"You've always been a good man."

I laugh. "You lie. I've been a mutt, a scoundrel, a scallywag."

She laughs. "Where did you get those words? 1942? Give them back. You are no such thing."

"Baby, before you I was a mess, not the man I should have been. But with you I'm more."

She shakes her head. "Who knew you'd be so deep."

"I think you knew," I say with a wink. I kiss her again quickly, knowing that Bryant is probably about to yell for me to stop sucking face with my girlfriend and get in position. I release her from my hold and smile as she returns to her position on the sidewalk.

Suddenly I'm ready to burn rubber in my arch nemesis. I've got this. I can do it.

"Are we done playing kissy boo boo?" Bryant says. He's like a kitten with a lion complex. He can't quite pull off the big scary brute the way he's attempting to.

Although I was ready to piss my pants five minutes ago, so I should just shut up and act.

"Ready," I say.

Seconds later he shouts 'action' and the scene rolls out. I saunter to the car the way my character tends to do, all swagger and inflated confidence. I slide into the driver's seat and close the door, window down of course because they want a clear shot of my expression when I say the line. Before I speak, I start the car, gun the engine and look off into the distance

"I have a feeling his day is about to get wrecked." The words are meant to be inner monologue spoken out loud, pointing to the fact that I'm planning to fuck up the bad guy's plans and save the girl. I pause to give the line more weight, then peel down the street leaving a layer of rubber on the road just the way Bryant asked me to. When I come to a clean stop ten feet later, I scan the sidewalk for my girl, finding her in the background of some of the support crew, smiling so damn big my heart hurts.

Fuck yeah. This is what I've been looking for. Not the role, not the success. The woman. The other person who gets me like no one does. The one human on the planet that lowers my blood pressure and makes the bullshit fade away.

I've been looking for Char all my life and didn't even know it. Thank God I found her.

"Cut! Set the scene back up and let's do it again."

I hop out of the car so crew can get it back into place and run over to Char. I give her a peck on the lips because I can't help myself. I need to touch her.

"Love you," I say again before heading back to my mark. It's going to take a while to reset the scene, but I don't want to be the guy holding things up.

"Not bad," Bryant says as I take my spot. "This time I'm getting a close up of the line, the camera will be set in the dashboard for the full face. Keep the pause, that worked, but add some gravel to the line, and maybe a scowl." He waves at me. "Whatever it is you do when someone is threatening your girl."

I nod, then look at Char and imagine it. Someone, maybe Curt, trying to hurt her. What sucks is I don't have to imagine it. I heard the guy basically threaten her at the last hotel. I saw the look on his face. I read his body language. Channeling everything I felt when I saw the look on Char's face as she stepped off the elevator and witnessed Curt in the flesh, I'm ready for the scene.

I hold on to that feeling until the shot is ready. Bryant shouts 'action' and I do my saunter and get into the car. I start it up with vengeance on my mind. I picture knocking the smug fucking look right off Curt's face when I say my line.

"I have a feeling-" I pause, thinking of the sound of Curt's jaw cracking, "-his day is about to get wrecked."

Then I lean back in the driver's seat, allowing the dark emotion to pour from me as I gun the engine and peel out.

"Cut! Perfect. Let's go again!"

Hours later, after we've shot the scene from a thousand different angles, I realize the hardest part about acting is turning the emotions off. I've been picturing kicking Curt's ass the entire day. I'm fucking ready to hop on a plane and follow through with the fantasy in my head, I'm so worked up with adrenaline. Instead, I call Clinton and tell him to keep tabs on the guy. Maybe it's the method acting getting to me, but suddenly I'm worried that life's about to imitate art and I'm going to be running to Char's rescue.

And to hell with anyone who gets in my way.

I'll admit, I kind of love the alpha side of Jacob. So hot! AND THOSE 3 LITTLE WORDS FINALLY HAPPENED!! Some more hot Hollywood nights are up next, and hopefully I'll have them for a Friday Feels instead of a Saturday Whatever-You-Call-It (I don't have a good alliteration.)

Also, if you hadn't heard, California (and literally right exactly where I live) is about to be hit with its first hurricane since the 1930's. I'm not worried about too much destruction where I'm at, but we are a desert, with hard, dry soil. Water isn't absorbed quickly. It tends to sit on the surface for a while which is really bad in heavy rain because we end up with flash floods. That is a real possibility. People make stupid decisions in flash floods, like trying to drive through it not realizing how deep or strong it really is and then getting washed away. That won't be me! I'm staying inside as much as possible!

I'll give ya'll and update next chapter to let you know if we all washed away in a flash flood ;-)

Grapejuice never really means grapejuice with Harry, haha! I like the cheeky vibe to go with a cheeky chapter 🥰

https://youtu.be/95pX92cUwV8

Check out Charmer on Kindle Vella! The first 6 chapters are now posted, with many edits from the Wattpad original!