Day 27: 46,028 Words

Thank god I only have two more days of writing to go! I'm continuing to bring things together, so that everything will be done at 50,000 words exactly. Here is the scene where James and Isla go into the theatre where The Rock is rehearsing for his one man show, Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Hitting Rock Bottom. The show is, ostensibly, about his sex life. The theatre is empty, except for...

Instead, there was nothing. Except The Rock, sitting on a stool in the middle of the stage, bathed in a single golden light. He was wearing a pleather Speedo and black elbow pads, like in his wrestling days. He was sitting with his head resting on his fist, seemingly staring off into the distance. He was completely still.

“Are we supposed to be in here?” Isla asked, looking around and feeling apprehensive. 

“Just watch,” James whispered, watching The Rock intensely.

The Rock was silent for a moment, but soon began speaking.

“Let’s start from the beginning,” The Rock said. 

Isla was expecting to hear some awkward stories about The Rock’s sexual awakening, or some clumsy story about his teen years or his time in the Canadian Football League. Apparently that was not what was in store.

“It started on a summer day in Niagara-on-the-Lake,” The Rock said tenderly.

Isla spun around to look at the stage. Of all the places for The Rock’s sexual history to begin, she did not anticipate that it would be there. A place that she was confident he had never been before the Celebrity Feud Support Group retreat. 

“The Regency Movie Club was meeting for a viewing of the 1995 adaptation of the Jane Austen classic, Persuasion,” The Rock continued. 

Now Isla was more confused than ever. 

She heard a door swing open at the back of the theatre, and she turned to face whoever had just entered the truly absurd scene.

It was Theo Evans. He was wearing black jeans, a grey sweater, and an extremely confused expression.

“Theo!” she cried out in surprise. “What are you doing here?” 

Theo looked around, taking in the scene, clearly not having anticipated what he had walked into.

“Isla? Is that you?” He called out, walking towards her to get a better view in the very dark auditorium. “Uh, I thought that I was here to audition for The Rock’s stage adaptation of Persuasion,” Theo said cautiously. “Is that not actually happening?” Theo sounded so confused.

Theo continued walking towards Isla and James, looking around the auditorium for answers that were never going to appear.

Isla couldn’t tell how Theo felt, seeing her in London, without any warning. She hadn’t texted him to let him know that she was going to be there, since she wasn’t sure that she would have time to see him even if he did want to see her. And why risk putting herself out there to be shot down? 

Was he happy to see her? Was he weirded out that she had found a way to come to London so soon after he had moved back there? Or was he just disappointed by the realization that he wasn’t actually auditioning for The Rock’s stage adaptation of Persuasion? And to that point, how disappointed was she that the apparently fictitious stage adaptation of Persuasion, produced by The Rock, wasn’t happening?

Both Theo and Isla turned to look at James van der Beek, who was smiling impishly. 

The stage lights turned blue, bringing all of their attention back to The Rock on stage. He was unable to not command attention, even if he tried. 

All of a sudden The Rock wasn’t alone on stage anymore. He was joined by some men that she had seen for the first time only hours earlier: the lab-themed cover band, the Rolling Bones.

Instead of crooning one of their classics, like “Wild Labbies,” they were yowling quietly in unison. It was more beautiful than anything Isla could have ever imagined.

Over the melodic sounds of the Rolling Bones, The Rock started speaking again, in his melodic, soothing voice.

“The bed and breakfast manager was looking for someone to be on her panel for the viewing of Persuasion. The actor was looking for a way to spend an afternoon off. Neither of them was looking for love. But that’s what they found.”

Isla held her mouth open for so long that a fly nearly flew into her mouth. She shut it quickly, to prevent any others. This story was sounding awfully familiar. Awfully familiar, indeed.

Questions were forming in her mind at an alarming rate. What could have possibly been happening? Why was The Rock, who was supposed to be in danger due to a feud he was having with Jason Statham, talking on stage about how her and Theo had met? Why did The Rock know anything about this?

All of a sudden, James was on stage with The Rock in the blue spotlight. He looked minuscule next to the hulking man. 

James started speaking. “They hit it off, and everything was going great. That is, until life intervened. They went their separate ways, with many things left unsaid.”

Isla and Theo looked at each other, confusion on their faces. As things were becoming clearer, they were also getting more perplexing.

The Rock picked up where James left off. “Now they are both in London, face to face. And in facing one another, they can say the things that they should have said before.”

“Who wrote this script?” Theo whispered, with disgust. It just so happened that he said this as the performance was coming to a close. The Rolling Bones fell silent, and the lights all went out. It was totally quiet, aside from some shuffling noises coming from the stage.

“I’m an actor, not a writer!” James whined defensively, who was easily able to hear the slight in the empty auditorium. 

“As much as I appreciate getting to see this exclusive performance by the greatest duo of all time, The Rock and James van der Beek, I really wish that someone would tell me what’s going on!” Isla shouted into the pitch black auditorium.

The lights came on in the auditorium again, as if the show was over. The Rock and the Rolling Bones were suddenly gone. Only James van der Beek was standing in front of Isla and Theo, with a proud look on his face.

“James,” Isla said, pleadingly. 

James began to explain, while smiling. “When I was in Niagara-on-the-Lake, I observed the early stages of your relationship. I loved your Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy vibe.”

Isla and Theo looked at each other and smirked. Had James been talking to Mary and Dwayne, somehow?

“I got to know both of you. I loved working with you, Isla, at the Picton Street Bed and Breakfast with the Celebrity Feud Support Group. And Theo, you were an amazing high school teacher who does not think that sleeping with students is a good idea, regardless of one’s gender. When I saw you together, it was easy to see that you were into each other.”

Isla was surprised to hear this. “I had no idea that you had been paying all that much attention to me,” she said. “The entire time that you were in Niagara-on-the-Lake with your support group, you seemed overwhelmed and focused on confiscating mini sticks.”

“Well, that did take up a bunch of my time,” James confessed. “But I’m never too busy to care about those around me. Or too busy to try to persuade people to do the right thing.”

James van der Beek was clearly an amazing person, but he was not amazing at subtlety.

“Theo,” James continued, “when we were working together on that episode of Dawson’s Creek: Legacy, you had mentioned to me that you were getting ready to move back to London once the run of Portman’s Complaint was over. I thought that your relationship was off to such a promising start, and I was saddened to hear that you would probably be breaking up soon. After observing both of you, I knew that you just wouldn’t be honest with each other about your feelings. I started to become distressed with this knowledge, which was part of the reason that I was so stressed during the retreat.”

Isla had just assumed that James had been stressed because he was barely keeping a lid on the feud between The Rock and Vin Diesel. She had no idea that her crumbling relationship contributed so much to his stress.