Chapter Text
Gina sighed, and scrolled back on the video player again. This one section STILL didn't look right, and she wasn't sure why. The group was executing the choreography exactly the way she'd taught it, but… she hated it. They would absolutely kill her if she changed it AGAIN, but this was her senior thesis. It HAD to be perfect. Never mind that it was only October and she had til the end of the semester. She was determined to have as much time as possible to edit the final product, which meant she wanted the choreography shooting done like, yesterday. She started it again, and between her intense focus and how loud she had the volume up on her ear buds, she didn't notice that someone was standing next to her table, calling her name. She did notice, though, when a familiar looking hand set itself down on top of hers.
Startled, she looked up, and was even more surprised to see a set of green eyes she'd know anywhere meet hers. How was it possible, that out of every coffee shop in Los Angeles, he was here standing next to her in this one?
"Gina Porter, is that really you?" he asked, a smile spreading across his face.
"EJ!" she exclaimed. "What… what are you doing here?"
"I live here. I mean, not here, like in the coffee shop. But here, like in LA."
"What brings you to LA? I kinda figured you'd be halfway to a law degree at this point."
"You and my dad. He wasn't thrilled about film school, but here I am. I started my MFA at USC this fall."
"Wow, SC, really? That's like, a crazy competitive program."
"Then let's hope my admissions reel wasn't a fluke. Even if it did take me a whole year after I finished my undergrad. You're still at UCLA, I'm guessing?"
"Final year, yeah. I'm a dance major…"
"No surprise there," he commented.
"So I'm trying to finish my big final project this semester so I can just focus on performing and auditioning in the spring."
"That's awesome. Is it… is it a video project?" he asked, gesturing towards her laptop where the video was still playing after she had pulled out her earbuds.
"Yeah, we've shot a bunch of it, but I think there's still some more work to do."
"I'd love to see it sometime," he said, with a smile on his face. "I always did love watching you dance."
Gina felt her cheeks flush, and wasn't sure how it was possible, but she immediately felt like she was 16 again. Turns out he still had that effect on her, even years later. Their short but intense romance had clearly left a mark.
"Well, I don't think I'm going to fix it now, so do you have a few minutes to catch up, or…?"
"Oh, I'd love to, but…"
All of a sudden, a woman came up behind him and placed her hand on his shoulder. "There you are! Ready to go?"
Just like that, the butterflies in her stomach stilled. Oh, of course he had a girlfriend. This was EJ Caswell, after all.
"You won't believe it, hon, Gina and I know each other from high school! Such a crazy small world, right? Gina, this is Lacey."
"Nice to meet you," Gina said, with what she hoped was a genuine smile.
"Same. We've really got to get going, though, traffic is going to be a nightmare."
"This is LA, it's always a nightmare," EJ laughed. He turned to Gina. "It really was great to see you. We should definitely have that catch up, though. Any chance you've still got my number? It hasn't changed."
Gina scrolled through her phone, and found his contact, which hadn't been touched in years. She flashed the screen displaying an SLC area code to him. "This still you?"
"Still me," he affirmed. "Talk soon?"
"Sounds great," she said, with a smile that was growing tighter by the second. She watched them walk out of the coffee shop before dropping her head into her hands in frustration and a bit of embarrassment. Who knew a chance encounter with a high school boyfriend would make her feel so awkward. Turns out you never really graduate from high school.
She officially wasn't going to get anything done now, so she sat back in her chair and pulled up another number she hadn't used in a while, and debated texting Ashlyn.
It's not like she'd planned on losing touch with her East High friends. They were some of the first people to make her feel like she really belonged anywhere. But college just made it… hard. Especially when she didn't live in Salt Lake anymore. When all her friends got together over summers or Thanksgiving, she was heading to wherever her mom was living at that moment in time. It got harder and harder to feel a part of things there. She threw herself into life at UCLA, and just gradually faded a bit from the group. They still interacted on Insta, and she still felt a tug of loss when she saw Ashlyn hanging out in New York City with Seb and Carlos when she visited from Sarah Lawrence. The only person from East she still saw regularly was Nini, who was also in LA and trying to figure out life as a singer/songwriter. It was sort of funny that her one-time rival had become a long time friend.
She opened her text thread with Ashlyn, and was sort of embarrassed that it'd been three months since their last exchange, and that she'd left Ashlyn on read that long. She closed it again, figuring asking about EJ wasn't a great strategy to invest in their friendship.
Curiously, EJ had been one of the hardest people to keep tabs on once she had moved away. In a sharp contrast to his high school persona, he barely posted on social media anymore. He would occasionally pop up on a tagged post of Ashlyn's, but there wasn't enough there to really know what was going on with him. Hence her surprise at him turning up in LA and being in film school. Last she knew, he was still trying to keep his dad happy, taking pre-law classes and just doing video production on the side, even though he loved it. She wondered what prompted the shift.
With her phone still in her hand, debating what to do next, a message from EJ popped up.
EJ: Hope this is still you. Really was great to see you today.
Gina sighed, unsure how to respond. Finally, she settled on a friendly but noncommittal response.
Gina: Same. Maybe I will see you around.
EJ: Let's make sure of it.
She put the phone down and popped her earbuds back in. Blast from the past trying to distract her or not, she had work to do.