Chapter 87: Jealousy

{Rink | 4th, January 2018 | Act 3 | Scene 2 | Take 9}

The rink had long since begun emptying out, parents and guardians ushering their children toward the exits, while other younger skaters chatted excitedly amongst themselves as they untied their skates.

The Zamboni idled patiently by the far end of the rink, waiting for the last few occupants to clear the ice.

Elias sat quietly on one of the benches to the side, slowly loosening the laces of his skates.

As usual, his right leg throbbed, one he was doing a good job of suppressing by not letting it show on his face. Clearly, today’s session had been particularly unforgiving to him.

Then he heard a familiar voice that caused his hands to stop.

"Still untying your right skate first?"

For a brief second, Elias continued to unloosen his skates without responding.

Then, he let out an almost imperceptible sigh as he looked toward the spectator stands.

There, seated comfortably a few rows up with one leg crossed over the other, was a man dressed in an immaculately tailored charcoal coat.

Though age had introduced the faintest streaks of silver into his dirty-brown hair, his deep-green irises and his smile remained every bit as confident as the tabloids had made him seem over the years.

Titus Burn. Four-time World Champion. Olympic Gold Medalist. The man whom everyone remembered as the skater who defeated Elias Mercer.

"You’ve got some nerve showing up here," Elias finally responded, his tone layered with a clear disdain.

"So I’ve been told," Titus chuckled in response.

Ignoring the comment, Elias resumed untying his skates as he asked;

"What do you want?"

"You."

"...to leave." Elias bluntly added as he went through the motions.

That earned another laugh from the man whom had already risen up from his chair as he walked down and said;

"Oh, how I’ve missed that."

"I didn’t." Elias replied yet again in typical fashion.

For a moment, Titus said nothing.

Then, upon eventually reaching the barricades, he leaned onto and rested his forearms on it.

"I heard you accepted,"

"I did. Now if you’ll excuse me--" Elias finally stood, slinging his bag over one shoulder as he proceeded to leave, only for Titus’ next words to cut him off.

"I’m competing."

Slowly turning around to look back, Elias’ gaze flickered, clear annoyance in his features.

"The exhibition championship. I entered." Titus on the other hand continued, and then said a moment after as he adjusted his stance;

"I figured it’d only be fair, you know. We’re both retired with bad knees, afterall."

"I don’t need your pity," Elias harshly replied.

"Pity?" Titus scoffed, clearly offended as he clarified;

"Elias, I came because I owe myself this."

"For twelve years," the man began, all of the humor vanishing from his face as he continued;

"I believed I’d beaten the only skater I’d ever believed could rival me."

Then his gaze drifted toward the empty rink below, the man standing to his full height as he tucked his hands into his pocket;

"I built my career believing that victory proved I deserved to be champion,"

"But then the investigation happened, and suddenly, the biggest victory of my life... the one I’d prided myself so much on, was just a farce." Titus remarked with an almost deprecative laugh.

"Something that only happened because some idiot favored me," he added, as he looked up to the ceiling for a brief instant.

"I didn’t ask for that corruption, Elias," Titus returned his gaze to his former rival, his words honest.

"I... I never knew," Elias managed to reply, the hostility in his tone fading away.

"I know, and neither did I," Titus nodded, to which he then said;

"But ignorance doesn’t make it hurt any less,"

"So no, I’m not pitying you in the least. I’m just here to defend my legacy. I’m here because I need to know whether I could’ve beaten you for real."

For a while, the words hung heavily between them and for the first time in years, neither man felt like a champion or runner-up.

Just two athletes who’d had the defining moment of their lives stolen by someone else’s dishonesty.

Soon, Elias adjusted the strap on his bag and said, an almost imperceptible smile tugging on his lips;

"You always did have terrible timing."

"Eh, I’ve heard worse," Titus waved him off as he turned to take his leave.

Just before he’d taken his second step, he suddenly stopped and said;

"Oh, and one more thing,"

"I never meant what I said. The pressure comment, I mean." Titus clarified.

"I just knew you wouldn’t come back... not unless someone gave you a reason to at least." Titus casually looked over his shoulders, a smirk playing on his lips.

"I figured if I publicly called you out, it would give your stubborn pride one more push to ultimately drag you back onto the ice."

"And here we are." Titus followed up with a small shrug as he continued walking up the stairs.

Elias stared at him in disbelief. Then his expression darkened.

"I’d do it again, you know." Titus said, almost as if he knew the reaction he was getting without looking back.

"Because if that’s what it’d take to get the only skater I was ever truly afraid of back onto the ice... then yes, I would."

To that, Elias didn’t smile. Instead, he began limping towards the exit as Titus called out;

"Don’t die before the finals, Mercer!"

Without responding to him, Elias simply made his way out, as did Titus himself.

"And... Cut!"

-

Considering Murray had been checking the cameras already as they acted out the scene, it didn’t take long before he gestured with a thumbs up;

"Alright. That was perfect. Let’s move on to the next site."

This time, Louis Hoffman, the actor whom was playing Elias’ rival looked genuinely relieved, though a sense of underlying frustration still lingered.

The man was just as his fictional counterpart looked, giving him that sophisticated air.

That said, considering he’d had to do the scene over nine times, he was already starting to get tired of Murray’s constant corrections.

At first, he’d assumed he was the one at fault. Afterall, it had been a couple months since he’d stepped onto a film set so his skills were a bit rusty.

However, after the fifth take, he’d completely dropped that assumption. With all of Murray’s constant reminders and nitpicks, how could he not?

His scenes weren’t even all that much in the movie and yet, he was already starting to regret signing up for the role.

Honestly, if it wasn’t for the fact that the judges frequently favored Murray’s movies and his manager advised him that an Emmie award would be good for his image, he probably wouldn’t have sent in an audition tape.

In any case, as he slowly moved out with the crew whom were starting to pack up and relocate to the office in the center where another scene would be filmed, his deep-green irises travelled over to Matthew whom was currently listening to Murray as he spoke, the man nodding attentively.

To that, Louis inwardly scoffed.

He just couldn’t help but fathom how someone so renowned could be so subservient to another, just because they wanted to get some piece of mineral handed to them on a stage.

He, personally, couldn’t be that. He believed himself to be far too much of a star to be bowing and kowtowing to one man’s whims.

Afterall, wasn’t he the lead star in one of Hollywood’s bigger movie franchises in recent memory, [Syndicate]?

Simply opting to ignore the duo though, he soon bumped into another actor on the set... one whom he’d made a mental note of from the moment he’d found out he’d be starring in the movie.

Ever since the news had blown-up a couple months back, with his name practically everywhere, Louis, much like several other individuals in the industry had been genuinely ticked off.

This wasn’t because Niall had offended them previously, or because he had said or done anything untoward.

Rather, it was simply as a result of one thing.

Jealousy.

Jealousy of his youth.

Jealousy of his talents.

Jealousy of his easy charisma, values and virtues.

Jealous of the sort of influence he’d began garnering from the public.

Jealousy at the fact that a young actor like him existed without having to go through all the loops they had to, just to become famous and renown.

Louis was exactly the kind of people Niall and Victor had talked about just last year on the set of [Silver Comets].

In any case, despite being the clear party whom had wrongfully bumped into him, Louis had expected Niall to be the first to react.

Maybe even apologize and introduce himself to him while he was at it.

Considering Louis hadn’t been ’chanced’ to attend the script-reading session a couple weeks back, he figured it was only natural that a younger actor would want to pay their respects to an older one.

What he got instead, was a man who simply looked at him, gave him a curt nod with a cordial smile and then went on his merry way.

Whiplashed by the gesture from Niall, one that seemed completely uninterested in him, Louis’ ego took some serious damage.

Then, with an internal laugh that was clearly full of annoyance and disdain, he inwardly remarked;

’I really, really don’t like him.’

Louis’ disdain aside, the crew had finally arrived at the office. Following that, it didn’t take long before they began shooting the scene.

The one scene that stood out amidst Elias’ and Noah’s growing relationship.

"Begin!"

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/Caer07