Chapter 7 A jerk Or maybe Not

SEVEN🍁

She fell silent as she watched him say he wasn't going to allow her touch his face for the rest of the day.

She bit her lip in shame and felt really hurt that she thought she was going to cry.

The director pulled her to the side.

"Hey, I know you just got a new job but you're good at what you do that's why you were given in the first place. Quit fidgeting and get your shit together. You can do this, okay?"

He talked in a calm, polite tone and then he was off again. She inhaled deeply and rubbed her palms together bracing herself for whatever was to come next.

She tried as much as possible to focus on being herself rather than making a mistake and surprisingly she was able to attend to the others without any mistakes.

The day dragged on and when the shoot for that day was over, she located Hardin. He was seated, talking with a few guys.

Most people had gone back to their various homes already and only few peoples were around.

She approached him cautiously and asked if they could talk. The other guys present excused themselves to give them privacy.

"I'm really sorry for messing up your face earlier today," she looked away from his face as her fingers were twisted together.

"It really wasn't intentional. I was overwhelmed with the new job and I just couldn't handle it."

He stared at her for a long time that she was forced to look at him.

"Do it again," he said simply.

"Sorry what?"

"The makeup.. Do it again. You have the tools with you right? Do it now.Make it right this time,"

She swallowed hard and nodded as she went over to grab the makeup box containing all the tools she needed.

She started with cleansing his skin with cleansing cream and then applied some primer. Next, she used blotting sheets to keep excess oil at bay.

She reached next for the brow gel to keep unruly arches in check and proceeded to brush his eyebrows and plucked them of the stray hairs. His brows were already full and in good shape so it made her job easier.

Next, she used the eyelash curler to curl his long lashes and at one point he held her hand suddenly.

"Hey relax and breathe for a second. You're not breathing well. I'm not gonna eat you,"

His face had softened and his tone was gentle. She realized she needed to calm the heck down and took a moment to do that before resuming her work again.

She finished with the rest of his make up with the lip balm on his lips being the last thing, taking full note of how his pink heart shaped lips were so inviting.

Hardin glimpsed himself in the mirror and was satisfied.

"You see, you could actually do it. You were just getting worked up for no reason at all,"

She managed a smile and few minutes after she was removing the whole makeup with a cleansing cream lotion.

As she gathered her things together, he started speaking again.

"I'm sorry though, for the way I spoke to you. I overreacted and I didn't mean to scream at you that way."

She turned to face him with a bit of surprise on her face. He was apologizing. To her? She didn't think he was gonna do that but happy he did.

"I have this bad habit of transferring aggression to people so please forgive me?"

His tone sounded genuine and she couldn't help but relax fully now.

"Its okay, " she said. "We're all good. Your barks made me keep myself in check for the rest of the day. So I guess you even helped me."

He smiled a little and then asked, "So are you headed home?"

"Yeah the set today isn't far from my home so I'm gonna walk home" she replied him.

They both walked out together having a little chat. One of his cars were parked outside and the chauffeur seemed to be a bit worried while making a phone call.

He explained that the car suddenly became faulty and he couldn't fix it by himself so he was asking for some help.

"Its okay, get it worked on or send another car to wait here before I get back" Hardin calmly said.

"Okay sir," the man replied, visibly relieved.

"So, let's go" Hardin turned to Khloe, draping an arm around her shoulder.

With surprise, Khloe asked, " Um.. Where are you going?"

"With you of course," he replied. "We're walking to your home together."

"Are you joking?"

"I'm dead ass."

"Why would you wanna walk with me?"

"Because I can. And I feel like it. I want to"

"Aren't you scared of being recognized on the road?" She folded her arms still looking up at him.

"First of all, its kinda pretty late. Second, I have my perfect disguise"

He wore his hoodie over his head, drew out a face mask from his pocket and huge dark sunglasses to cover his eyes.

Khloe laughed softly. "I would still recognize you from a mile away with that"

"How can you ? Do you see me in your dreams every night now?".

He gave a smirk that she couldn't even see from under the face mask.

She rolled her eyes. "You wish"

"So, where did you grow up?" He was suddenly asking.

A few seconds passed as if she was trying to process the question. "Well I was born in Las Vegas and grow up there. When I was thirteen and my dad died, we moved here to L.A and I've been here since then."

"I'm really sorry about your Dad," he said apologetically.

"Ts alright,its been a decade already." She paused. "How about you?"

"Born and brought up in Los Angeles and sometime in high school, I had to move because I was going to New York to continue."

"Yeah yeah I know that,"

"What?"

"Because we attended the same high school."

He paused to look at her, obviously shocked at the information. "We attended EverDale High together?"

"Yep." She nodded.

"How come I didn't remember you?Wait, what's your family name?"

"Miller"

He clicked his tongue and dug his hands into his pockets. "Doesn't ring a bell."

"Of course it doesn't. I was on a scholarship so I always had my head buried in books. And you were the outgoing popular kid even as at then and I just couldn't fit into your crowd."

"Wow. So you were like a nerd?"

"Not really."

"A hot bookworm then if you don't wanna call yourself a nerd."

"Ha ha," she laughed."I definitely didn't look like this back then.Puberty hit me in all the places when I was well over sixteen. And by then, you had just gone."

"It hit you in all the right places. Except that you're still kinda short."

She snorted with laughter. "Tell me something I already don't know"

"What was the first thing that came to your mind when you saw me on set?" He asked while looking to the sides briefly to dodge away from a group of girls that were walking by. Their stares were too serious and he thought that they might be trying to figure if it was actually him or not.

She hesitated a little."Well I thought.. You were looking really good. You were okay"

"Just okay?" He scoffed. "Just okay? You didn't have butterflies in your tummy?".

She covered her mouth with her palm to suppress her quiet laughter. "Of course, I had no insects whatsoever in my tummy"

There was no way on earth she was going to admit to him what she actually thought of him after seeing him for such a long time.

He twisted his lips to a corner. Which, again she couldn't really see.

"Okay tell me something," he cleared his throat. "List four of your favorite male american celebrities"

She didn't even think for a second. "Justin Bieber, Chris Brown, Chris Hemsworth and Noah Centineo"

"Ha! I see what you did there. No Hardin Hall huh?"

"Nope," she shook her head and bit her lil to hide her smile.

"So what do you think about my movies?" He tried again.

"I haven't really seen much of your movies."

She was such a freaking liar. She had watched all of his movies. All of them.

"Huh? You're such a liar,"

"I don't really watch movies all that much Hardin," she said hoping she sounded convincing.

"So what do you watch then?"

"Anime." She responded coolly.

"For reals?" He asked and pulled his shades down to look at her for a few seconds.

"Yes. And don't you go about saying how dumb it is or that its meaningless because I would fight you with the last drop of my blood."

"Relax," he chuckled. "I wasn't going to say it is stupid. We're all allowed to watch whatever the eff we want."

Actually he loved anime too! Not a die hard fan or anything but he still watched it whenever he came across one. But there was no way he was going to admit that. Only Arthur knew that detail about him.

Before she knew it, they were few blocks away from her house and she stopped him right there not wanting him to know where exactly she lived just yet.

He was actually great company and talking just felt nice.

He had his hand stretched out, "Gimme your phone,"

She didn't even ask any questions and handed it over. He punched in some numbers and then said, "Now, you have Hardin Hall's number."

She smiled a little and then he placed his phone in her palm and asked her to put in her number which she did.

"So, goodnight I guess. And thanks for walking me home," she told him.

"Don't mention. And I'll text you later, Khloe Miller."

Khloe waited for his text all evening though but it didn't come.