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“Wow, Allison, that was great.” the casting agent smiled up at her. Allison was proud of herself. She’d only been out of the academy for a month, and she was already in drama school and slaying auditions like a pro.
“Now, there’s just some feedback we have regarding the role,” the agent gestured for Allison to sit. Did they want her for the main role instead? Allison was giddy to hear what she had to say, and nodded to show her understanding. “We had a different... look in mind for Joanne’s character.” her smile didn’t falter, but Allison noticed now how fake it was, almost as fake as her own when she needed to charm people. “Have you ever considered relaxing your hair, and maybe lightening it? With different hair it shouldn’t be too difficult. We’d only need a little bit of work with the makeup department to lighten your complexion somewhat, at least you’re caramel not chocolate.” she let out a harsh chortle “You’re so pretty for a black girl.” she offered her insincere smile again.
Allison could feel the tears filling her eyes, could feel her face flushing with anger and shame. She could just rumor her and end this now, but the night before she left, Diego growled at her that she couldn’t get anywhere without her rumors. By god, Diego was good at getting under her skin. It was like another power of his, she could understand why he and Luther butted heads so much. No, she was doing this without rumors. “Thank you,” she returned her equally fake smile, blinking away the tears “I have another audition to get to, but I’ll look forward to you contacting my agent.” she rushed out of the room as quick as she could without making it obvious she was ruffled.
—
The bathroom was empty, and it gave her some space to steady her breathing and clean herself up. She splashed water over her face and tried to cover her tear splotched face with the concealer in her purse. She hoped it wasn’t too obvious she was distressed, but she knew it was. Her face with puffy and she couldn’t hide the red of her nose and eyes, she supposed it was because she was still on the verge of tears. Walking out of the building, with the attempt to hold her head high, she couldn’t help but think about how bad she wanted a cigarette. She decided against it though, in public. She wanted to be America’s sweetheart, and cigarettes weren’t ideal for that image. She resigned to walk to the taxi rank, trying and failing to hold back her sniffles.
—
Diego left the shoddy YMCA building, secure in knowing he had a bunk in his name for a couple weeks. Enough to get him on his feet. He couldn’t stop himself from groaning when he saw his goddamn big headed sister walking down the street. Could he really not escape his siblings? He’s pretty sure he deserves a break. But wait, shit... is she crying? Allison hasn’t cried in years... at least, not around him, and definitely not in public.
Allison was torn from her wallowing when she was confronted with Diego’s scowl “Did somebody hurt you?” His hand was resting on one of his knives. She paused, initially to get over the shock of seeing Diego, especially when he’d wound her up so much. But on thinking about it, she realised Diego was the only sibling who could somewhat understand... an irritating part of her brain reminded her that Ben would too, but Ben was d- “Allison.” he hit her with a glare “Did somebody hurt you?”, he spoke slowly, dragging his words like he was talking to a traumatised child. “I guess you could say that.” she looked back up from her feet to smile at Diego, a single tear falling from her eye.
—
“I’ll kill her.” Allison groaned. No matter how many times she tried to block Diego he kept pushing her away and storming towards the casting agency. “You’ll kill her?” She gave him a pointed look, “You’re just gonna storm in there and commit murder?” He broke their eye contact to look at the floor, his jaw clenching. “Fine, I’ll just scare her. Shoot a knife half an inch past her head.” he continued to barge on past “No, Diego!” She ordered, blocking his path once again. “We both know I could’ve stopped her myself if I wanted to. I don’t want to deal with it with a rumor.” Diego scowled past her, glaring at the building’s doors. “B-but she treated you like shit, sh-she’s r-r-” he glowered down at his feet again, surely trying to control his stammer. Clearly it got the better of him this time... she knew how embarrassing he found it to be stuck for too long. Eventually he just shook his shoulders and cracked his neck from side to side. Moving his hands from his blades, to crack his knuckles. Frankly, Allison thought it was gross, but if it got him to calm down she didn’t care. Finally, “I’ll walk you to a cab.” he gently offered.