How should I play an angel? They say I'm the perfect person for the role, but I don't understand what an angel should be like.
He picked up the script he had barely skimmed and lay down on his bed so he could comfortably read it. He wasn't just going to read his scenes; he wanted to read the whole thing and understand the story he was about to be part of, the world he would be acting in, and the role of the character he would be playing.
The story began with a car accident. Then, everything faded to black. Quick cuts showed bodies in black bags as the ambulance arrived. A black screen appeared with the film's legal information. A girl on a hospital gurney was being rushed to the operating room, life slipping from her body. Then, the girl's voice began to narrate her story.
"That day was the day I died," a girl's muffled voice said, and cuts of scenes from the surgery and her in the operating room flashed across the screen.
Evan's fingers trembled as he gripped the pages of the script. They felt too heavy. They felt too alive.
He remembered for a split second that he was driving home from work when a car sped through a red light on the street he was crossing. The car hit the passenger door, and the airbag deployed. His head slammed against the steering wheel, and when he tried to open his eyes, a thick red liquid blurred his vision.
Then, everything went black.
His skin trembled as he remembered the phantom pain that shot down his spine, and then came the sound of Liam's frightened voice and his tears soaking the hospital gown that day he hugged him as if he feared it might tear or vanish at any moment.
"Damn it. If I'd had better reflexes, that car wouldn't have crashed into me. I'm sure I had a green light."
He let out a heavy sigh, trying to overcome the grief left by that stupid accident, and returned his gaze to the pages of the script.
In the next scene, the girl was already on a hospital gurney, bandaged, but alive. She was alive, but her empty gaze was lifeless. Then, she left the hospital, and a sequence showed her walking home alone. She stopped in front of her front door and began to cry.
In the next scene, the same girl was looking out the bus window, a scarf around her neck. She gets off the bus at the stop with some other students and enters a university campus. She attends classes, but everything seems foreign to her. She walks alone and returns home alone.
The house phone rings in the darkened living room, and she turns on a light to go to it and answer. A lawyer calls her about her parents' inheritance and tells her that, being of legal age at 21, she doesn't need a legal guardian and that she should think seriously about her future. The lawyer tells her that her parents left a savings fund for her and her twin sister's university studies, so she doesn't have to worry about that, but that she should start thinking about how to manage the rest of her expenses and not depend solely on her deceased parents' inheritance.
How tragic... This girl really has it tough.
In the next scene, the protagonist is working in a flower shop. Cut to the university hallways, where everyone is whispering about the tragedy of the accident she was in. They mention her twin sister, whose personality was the complete opposite of hers. While Amelia was shy, her sister Anne was the most beloved girl in the entire school. Despite being physically identical, Anne dazzled with her charisma and energy, while Amelia was usually the shy girl who hid behind her books.
"I wish Anne had survived instead of Amelia," someone said in the hallway, and that phrase stuck in the heartbroken girl's mind.
When she leaves the building, a brown-haired boy stares at her with melancholy in his eyes.
She drops out of university, leaves a farewell letter for the woman at the flower shop who gave her a job when she needed one, and goes upstairs to the top of a building. The wind whips against her back; she leans against the railing that prevents falls and looks down. Tears stream down her face.
"Anne would surely have done things differently," she thinks and closes her eyes.
A voice speaks behind her after the screen fades to black.
A yellow Post-it note marked that page, showing it was his first scene.
"I'd recommend you don't jump," says a blond boy behind the girl.
His mere presence seems to shine like gold. His hair reflects the light beautifully, and his pale skin seems otherworldly.
"This is none of your business. Get out of here."
"Of course it is my business," The girl turned to look at him, her gaze blank, and the blond boy gave her the biggest smile. "I'd be in trouble if you decide to jump into my work area."
"This guy is crazy," Amelia thought.
She turned her back on him again.
"Seriously, I don't recommend you jump. There's always a better solution."
The girl got angry and turned to look at the blond stranger one last time.
"You don't know anything to be spouting that motivational shit!"
And without taking her eyes off the blond guy, the girl decided to jump backward.
The moment her feet touched the void, she felt fear. She was terrified. She wanted to cry and scream, but she wasn't going to regret it, because that was the decision she had made.
"It's really scary, isn't it?" the blond guy asked with extreme kindness, diving to catch her. "I told you not to jump, but don't worry, I won't let you fall alone," and he hugged her as they both fell.
The girl cried and screamed in those seconds that felt like an eternity, and enormous white wings rose to envelop them.
"An… Angel" was the last thing the girl thought before falling unconscious.
"It's okay, you're going to be alright," the angel whispered, and his white, shining wings appeared in all their splendor.
Wow, so I have to become an angel who can save a suicidal person.
He slumped onto his bed, his gaze lost on the white ceiling.
I'm not someone who can save others when I can't even save myself.
Evan believed his face, blond hair, blue eyes, and thin lips earned him the role. Physically, he was the angel described there. Physically, he could be that angel. But… he would never become that angel. He would never become someone who could save others when he couldn't even save himself.
But what he would do was jump up and hug someone who was about to fall. Even if he couldn't save that person from the fall, he would accompany them and hug them tightly so they wouldn't fall alone, and he would comfort them, waiting together for their end. At least that way, it would be a less painful, less lonely end.
He was so lost in thought that he almost fell out of bed in surprise when he felt his phone vibrate. He unlocked the screen. He had just received a message.
"Are you busy after 5 pm?" said a message from Liam.
Involuntarily, a huge smile spread across his face. He really liked that guy.
"Sure. Can we meet at your apartment, or should I pick you up?". He sent the message.
"Come get me, just put on your snowman costume to avoid your fans."
He almost threw up his phone when he saw that nickname, "snowman." But somehow, it also made him laugh a lot when he remembered seeing Liam a few days ago in the cafeteria and him calling him that. The word "snowman" felt familiar. It felt warm and familiar.
He dressed in a black beanie to cover his blond hair, a white scarf, and his favorite gradient sunglasses, along with one of his oversized dark blue sweaters. He wore baggy black jeans and black sneakers.
"Perfect, no one will recognize me like this!"
Looking at himself in his bedroom mirror, he remembered his friend Kyle telling him he dressed too over the top.
A beanie, a scarf, a sweater… Wow, all I need are gloves and I'd be a snowman.
He laughed at the memory of Liam's sweet voice calling him that way. "Snowman". It sounded pretty.
"I'd rather be a snowman than be hounded by paparazzi. So it's okay like this. I like being a snowman."
He grabbed his favorite black bag and packed everything he required, including the script for the movie White Angel and his notebook full of notes. She was going to start studying her character. He had to use his sick days to memorize his lines and not hold up the team.