Chapter Text
The Michael movie set was always loud.
People yelling across stages, makeup artists rushing around with brushes in between their fingers, security guards talking into a radio like we're in some action movie. It smelled like hairspray, coffee, and overheated stage lights.
I always sat off to the side in a shitty folding chair with my knees pulled to my chest, watching everything happening between the mazes of cameras and crew members.
My father was near the monitors again, focused on the playback with the producers. He’d brought me to set enough times to the point where most people recognized me. Some even wave. Some didn't. Some didn't even know my name.
But one person always did.
Jaafar.
I noticed him the second he stepped out in his costume.
The curls, the sunglasses pushed into his messy hair. The way all the attention seemed to shift to him when he walked by effortlessly.
He was laughing at something one of his fellow cast members were saying when his eyes flickered over to me
Only for a second
Still, my stomach tightened.
I looked away first.
“Okay,” a voice said, dropping into the chair beside me.
“You definitely saw that.”
Jermajesty grinned at me like I already knew the answer.
“Saw what?”
“Him looking at you.”
‘He was not.”
“He literally almost walked into the lighting rig.”
I shook my head, laughing quietly.
Jermajesty had been talking to me every time I’d come to the set recently. He was funny in a natural way, always leaning in a little too close when we spoke, and acting like we had known each other for years.
And honestly? He was attractive.
But not in the way Jaafar was,
Jaafar was different.
Quiet, more unreadable.
The kind of person who looked at you once and somehow made you feel something.
“You know”
Jermajesty said casually, stretching his arm across the back of my chair.
“ I could introduce you. Fair warning, he's not as handsome as me.”
“Well, I know who he is.”
“Well, he doesn't know you.”
Before I could answer, Jermajesty's name was called from across the room.
He stood up with a dramatic sigh.
“Duty calls”
He points at his eyes and back at me.
“Don't disappear.”
I roll my eyes
“I'll try.”
But after he walked off, I felt it again.
That feeling
Like someone was watching you.
You looked up.
Jaafar was standing near the cameras now, halfway through taking off one of Michael's jackets from the scene. A makeup artist was talking to him, but his attention wasn't on her.
It was on me.
My breath caught for exactly half a second before he looked away.
__
By the time filming wrapped for the night, the sky outside was dark blue, and the parking lot lights buzzed overhead.
Dad was still stuck in a production meeting, which meant I had another hour of waiting around.
I sat in the passenger seat of the car, scrolling through Instagram mindlessly.
A notification popped up
Private account requested to follow you.
No profile picture.
No posts
Username: j.ckf87
My face made a confused expression
Another notification appeared almost immediately.
J.ck87 sent you a message request
My heart started beating faster as I clicked on the notification
The message read, “heard you were staring at me all day.”
I looked at the screen.
Then looked back at the notification.
Another one popped up.
“Or maybe it was just me staring at you.”
My phone felt dangerously warm in my hands.
I re-read the message again to make sure I wasn't hallucinating.
Then again.
Outside the windshield, crew members crossed the parking lot carrying loads of comically large stage equipment. Everything looked normal while my entire nervous system was completely malfunctioning.
I typed a response.
Deleted it.
Tried again.
Deleted that one too.
I finally pulled myself together and found the words.
“Maybe you were just too distracted.”
The typing bubble from him appeared extremely fast.
A little too fast.
Like he had been waiting for my response.
“Distracted by you, yeah.”
I silently laughed and uncontrollably bit my lip to stop myself from smiling like an idiot.
A knock on the door from the driver's seat almost made me scream as I turned my phone screen away from my dad.
“Ready to go, kiddo?”
He asks with a warm smile.
“Mhm”
I answer as my phone buzzes again with various questions from Jaafar.
“How old are you? Why do u always look so bored when I see you? Why do you always sit in the one shitty folding chair?”
Somehow, talking to him makes time go by fast.
By midnight Id been lying in bed with my brightness all the way down to keep my eyes from the light while I responded to the messages across my screen.
“You coming to set tmrw?”
“Maybe”
“Mysterious.”
“Maybe I don't wanna see you.”
His dots disappear
Then reappear
“Liar”
My stomach flips
Before I could reply, another message came through.
“Jermjaesty talks to you a lot, btw.”
Oh.
So he notices that.
“U jealous?”
“Should I be?”
My heart stops.
I barely knew him, yet I felt like his messages were electric.
__
The next afternoon, the set was even busier than usual.
I walked in beside my dad like , carrying my daily iced coffee, trying very hard to act nonchalant after Jaafar had texted me 20 minutes beforehand.
The second I stepped inside, I spotted Jermajesty.
And unfortunately
He spotted me too.
“There you are”
He said with a grin.
“You disappeared on me yesterday.”
“I went home.”
“Without saying goodbye? Cold man”
I laughed as I sipped on my coffee
Jermajesty leaned in close to whisper
“Come sit with me while they reset the scene. We can make fun of the people who fuck up.”
Before I could answer, another voice cut in smoothly.
“Shes busy.”
I turned immediately
Jaafar stood there in costume again, dark curls slightly messy and sweaty after dancing, his hand slightly fiddling with his sparkly pant leg.
“Busy doing what exactly?”
Jermajesty questions him.
Jaafar's eyes hit the floor as he mutters
“Just watching me work.”
The tension in the room hit so hard you could feel it.
Suddenly, Jermajesty understood that maybe he did have some competition.