Ryan Mills - 18 (2 in 1)

"My mom asked if you'd be coming over today?" William asked Gabriel, ignoring the murmuring, staring and pointing from around them, clearly used to it.

Gabriel hummed in thought, running a hand through his hair. "Sure." He gave William a lopsided grin. "Still owe you a rematch in Brawler after all."

He wiggled his eyebrows tauntingly at the end to which William responded with a roll of his eyes.

"Right, let's talk about my 1 loss in Brawler, you sure you don't want to work on your 4 in Legend's Glory?" William raised an eyebrow at Gabriel.

Gabriel coughed before mock cleaning his ear. "Sorry didn't quite catch that, ears not the same as it used to be, you know?" He said, giving William a look of fake confusion.

William chuckled, shaking his head. "Riiiight."

"Really! I should get this checked out, who knows if it's something serious! In fact, I'll go to a clinic tomorrow. It's decided!" Gabriel nodded with a serious look on his face, seemingly reaffirming his decision.

William laughed at that, raising his placatingly. "Alright, alright, we'll look into your hearing issues later. Let's just go to class already, don't want Willow's screams to make your hearing even worse."

A grimace crossed Gabriel's face and he nodded before his face shifted playfully. "Hey, maybe she is the reason!"

William smirked. "Wouldn't surprise me, the woman screams like a god-damned banshee." A grimace crossed his face as he said that, seemingly hearing said voice in his head.

Gabriel hummed, bringing a hand to his chin, looking to be pondering something, before turning to William. "I don't know Will, I think a banshee might sound better."

William turned to look at Gabriel and opened his mouth when he felt someone running into him, having to take 2 steps back to keep his balance due to the impact.

As soon as he regained his balance he looked to his front, frowning slightly, trying to figure out who ran into him, and immediately saw a girl with black hair on the ground, grimacing with tearful eyes. Gabriel standing at the side looked to and from the girl and him with an amused look.

William shook his head with a sigh, unconsciously relaxing his features before walking up to the girl helping her up. "Are you alright?"

The girl looked at him with wide eyes and a bit of a blush. "Y-yeah, t-thank you…" She seemed to remember something and glanced to the sides quickly paling and backing away nervously. "I-I-I gotta go!" She shouted, clearly panicked.

William looked at her rapidly disappearing figure, stunned for a moment, before turning to Gabriel. "What the hell?"

Gabriel shrugged uncertainly before looking off to the sides as well, trying to find what had made the girl so squeamish.

Unfortunately, he only managed to see the usual crowd of people, with a bunch looking at them, talking to each other, probably about the two of them, just like always.

He looked back to William and spread his arms, unsure. "Maybe she's afraid of crowds?" He offered.

There was a clap at that moment before a shout right after "Cut! That's it! We're done for today people! Well done!

Snow paused at that, blink a few times rapidly before shaking his head, his body posture shifting ever so slightly as he did so, he took a few awkward steps to the side and off the scene and his steps rapidly turned natural, the awkwardness now gone.

Beside him, Zack, William's actor stretched his arms be patting Snow on the back. "I liked that, Ryan, nice job."

Snow nodded to Zack with a smile. "Thanks, Zack, you as well, I hope everything continues going this well."

Zack nodded back. "Couldn't ask for anything else." And walked off to the dressing rooms.

Snow let out a weary sigh and decided to walk to the coffee vending machine just outside, getting some fresh air while he was at it.

He put in a coin and looked at the buttons, clicking his tongue at how few options there were, after a few seconds he finally settled on coffee with milk and extra sugar.

After selecting it he took a deep breath and brought his arms above his head, stretching while relishing in the familiar sound of his backbones cracking.

He heard the noise from the machine stop and stopped himself from deliberately cracking the rest of his bones in favor of drinking his coffee.

While he did so he absently looked at the road, watching the cars go by, as his thoughts slowly turned back to the night before, prompting Snow to release another weary sigh, this one containing more than a hint of annoyance, however.

Not wanting to think about it he drunk the rest of the coffee all at once and threw the plastic cup in the trash, going to his dressing room and changing from the school uniform he had on for filming and into his clothes.

Once he finished getting changed he made his way outside the studio, not wanting to make Paul wait anymore than he already had.

When he arrived outside he looked around for a bit trying to find the black car he was expecting to be waiting outside but failing to spot it anywhere.

Right as he was about to pull out his phone and call Paul to ask if anything had happened he heard a car stopping next to him and turned to look at it, prepared to go inside, thinking that it was Paul arriving late as it had sometimes happened.

The man was only human after all.

Only to freeze when he turned and saw Emma's car.

Snow closed his eyes, whispering a curse as he did so before resignedly opening his eyes and getting into the car.

After he got inside he turned to Emma who was in the driving seat with a practiced smile. "Hey, did something happen? I thought Paul was supposed to come to get me?" Snow asked, a mixture of fake cheer and genuine doubt in his voice.

Emma glanced at him a slight frown on her brows as she did so before she turned to look to the front, ignoring him in favor of driving.

Snow continued looking at her as she drove, not minding the fact that she ignored his questions. He narrowed his eyes slightly at her fingers tapping on the wheel, recognizing it as a habit of hers. Since she was doing so she was either thinking… or annoyed. Which one was it though?

He wasn't sure. But if she was annoyed, well, she wasn't the only one.

"Is there something urgent going on?" He continued probing.

"Cut it out." She suddenly said just as he finished talking, annoyance evident in her tone.

So it was annoyance, she's annoyed at what though? Me? Does she remember last night? She shouldn't…

Snow tilted his head in confusion at her. "Cut what out?"

They arrived at a red traffic light at that moment and she stopped the car before turning to him with a narrow glare.

They stood there like that for a while, Emma pinning Snow with a glare while he looked at her with confusion.

A few seconds later however Snow couldn't help the twitch of annoyance in his face and turned away, clicking his tongue, while Emma humphed and turned back to the front.

"What happened for you to come to get me?" Snow asked, no longer concealing his annoyance.

Emma stayed silent for a few seconds. "I want to talk to you."

Snow raised an eyebrow at her. "Couldn't we talk at home?"

She tapped her fingers on the wheel. "We could, I just thought you'd avoid it."

Snow narrowed his eyes at her when he heard that. "So you do remember."

Emma tensed slightly at that, before nodding slowly. "I do."

He nodded a couple of times. "You do, right, mind explaining your reasoning at the time? Cause I really don't fucking get it. You know besides it being drunk logic" A cheer that didn't match his words on his voice as he said that.

Emma pursed her lips without looking at him, staying silent.

Snow continued looking at her for a few moments before slumping against the seat. "I don't get you, I wasn't expecting to, to be honest. I understand that you are willful, at least that's the only reason I have for you to pull me into work for you that seems to make sense. But I also know that you don't like me, you have a favorable opinion of me, but you don't like me romantically, you're too guarded for that."

Snow turned to look at her with apparent confusion on his face. "So what gives?"

Emma kept looking forward but opened her mouth to speak before closing it moments after. She repeated this a couple of times before finally saying something.

"I need your help."

Snow raised his eyebrows in surprise. "MY help." He nodded a couple of times before shaking his head in confusion and looking at her skeptically. "What help can I even give you?"

Emma took a deep breath. "With something you're good at, acting."

Snow looked even more confused at that. "It's not like like I can teach you acting, you're not that worse me."

Emma shook her head and parked, looking outside Snow saw that they were in front of a restaurant.

She looked at him in the eyes. "I need you to act out a role."

Snow slowly nodded, skepticism apparent. "Okaaay. What role do you need me to play?"

Emma continued looking him in the eyes. "My boyfriend."

Snow deadpanned at her words staring at her in silence for a few seconds before his mouth slowly dropped open when she didn't speak. "You're serious?" Incredulity in his voice.

She nodded.

He opened his mouth to ask why, but before the words came out of his mouth it snapped shut and he slumped back against his seat, the pieces fitting together in his mind.

The words she said the night before echoed in his head. Parents, Business, arrangements.

Now it seemed to make sense. Parents, her parents, her parents were also in that room yesterday, as was James. Business, they were discussing business, the Swift family was a giant which had its hands in various industries, maybe they were trying to get into the entertainment industry through James? Arrangements, Business arrangements? Or romantic arrangements? Were they looking to get James and Emma in a relationship? Was that why she wanted him to act as her boyfriend? It answered some of his questions at least.

Maybe that was where the rumor Ryan had heard had come from as well.

But why would her parents get into the Entertainment industry through the RSA and not the YTA, which Emma was a part of? Had they already started begun dealing with the RSA before Emma entered the YTA and couldn't back out? Was that why she entered the RSA in Ryan's memories?

Then because of him, she entered YTA? No, that also didn't make sense, she wouldn't favor him over her family. Why then?

He kept thinking about it but he couldn't find a reason and shook his head. I'm still missing something...

"You only need to do it in public. In private we can continue as we were." Emma prompted, a faint tone of worry in her voice at Snow's prolonged silence.

Snow snapped out of his thoughts at her voice, lifting his head to look at her with a searching gaze.

Emma's breath hitched at his gaze, a rarely seen look of worry on her face.

Snow opened his mouth thinking to ask why she wouldn't ask someone else but closed it just as he opened it.

In the last 2 months he had never seen her hanging out with someone regularly, indicating that if she had any close friends, she couldn't talk to them regularly, not to mention that it should preferably be a guy friend for this. Maybe they were abroad? So she couldn't ask another friend…

There was also the option that she really didn't have friends… Snow couldn't help but frown at that thought.

"Do you not want to?"

Snow's gaze turned back to Emma, taking in the nervousness on her face as she looked at him.

He almost wanted to let her worry for a while more, keeping his silence for a bit longer, but couldn't bring himself to do it to her, closing his eyes and nodding at her.

"I'll do it."

Snow opened his eyes as he said that, taking in how her face lit up with a relieved smile at his words, a helpless smile on his lips.