<🎧 Song Recommendation: i like the way you kiss me by Artemas>

...

After Von was done with his makeup, the first thing he did was to step out and find Chloe.

He walked out of the dressing room looking exactly like how Aiden would usually look, except he was wearing different clothes for the indoor scene.

He found Chloe down the hall. She had finished with her own makeover too. She was wearing different clothes now, just simple house wear and a different hair style.

Her face seemed a bit tired but expectant as she chatted with some of the lighting crew.

"Hey, Chloe!" Von interrupted the conversation she was having. He apologized briefly to the staff she was talking to before gently grabbing her arm and dragging her down the hallway into a quieter, empty corridor.

Chloe got a little flushed seeing Von drag her away so suddenly. She didn’t know why, but she had been falling deeper and deeper into him as the movie progressed.

Every time he looked at her with those intense violet eyes, her heart skipped a beat.

"Did something happen?" Chloe asked, looking up at him with a slightly nervous smile.

"How do you feel?" Von asked.

"Well, I’m a little nervous. I’ve kissed several times in the past, and even on set, but yours feels different."

Her eyes naturally dropped to his lips as she muttered that, and drawn by an invisible pull, she leaned in a bit closer to him.

But Von pushed her away immediately.

"Huh, a kiss? What are you talking about?" Von’s voice suddenly turned cold. "You said I should never talk to you, Camila, so do the same. I’m not getting back with you, and have you forgotten you have a boyfriend?"

Hearing Von’s harsh words made Chloe’s mind instantly drop into a state of pure shock.

"What are you talking about?" she wanted to ask, but instead, her mind was more stuck on what she was actually feeling.

She had a boyfriend, Xander, and yet she was eager to kiss some other guy right now. Since when did she become like this? Why was she feeling guilty?

Chloe entertained that guilty thought for a while before her head suddenly snapped out of her daze.

’No... What am I thinking? Xander is not real. It’s just a movie. Xander is a character!’

She looked back at Von, her eyes wide with confusion. "Aiden, sorry, Von... I don’t understand what’s going on with you. I don’t understand what’s up with myself either, but we’re confusing the film for real life."

Von didn’t listen to her one bit. His expression remained incredibly guarded and bitter.

"Oh, that’s your excuse now?" Von scoffed coldly. "Okay, that’s fine... I just hope you don’t forget how you’ve been using me and what it means for me to finally leave you."

Without saying another word, Von turned around and walked away, leaving Chloe completely stunned in the middle of the hallway.

"Aide—!" she tried to call out after him, but she stopped herself, realizing what was going on and facepalming herself lightly. ’Something is really wrong.’

In the minutes leading up to their shooting, Chloe tried to clear her head by drinking water and resting in her chair.

But regardless of what she did, her mind was still fixed on how badly she had messed up and what she was doing to Aiden.

She also got mixed feelings thinking about her boyfriend and how she was meant to be loyal to him.

’What’s happening to me!’ Chloe scratched her head in exhaustion. She couldn’t understand why she was being bothered by the thoughts and guilt of a fictional character.

It bothered her deeply, but at the same time, Chloe didn’t think it was anything too major. She felt more worried about Von and how distant he was acting.

Von, meanwhile, knew his plan had worked perfectly as he watched Chloe from afar. To deliver the perfect kiss and get his Scene Score to 97, he needed Chloe to truly believe she was Camila when they kissed.

He needed her to feel that real guilt and that real tension.

The scene they would be acting was their emotional reunion. After Scene 29, when Aiden snapped at Camila in the hallway, it took just seven scenes for things to build back up between them.

Now, they would share a very intimate kiss that meant a lot more because Camila was technically still dating Xander in the storyline.

He had watched enough kissing videos and award-winning kiss scenes over the past few days to be fully prepared.

Now all that was left was to nail it perfectly. Von steeled himself, dismissing the System screen, and prepared for the moment.

***

(31st July, 2020 — Perfect Ruins | Act 2 | Scene 36 | Take 1)

Aiden had just returned from another stressful day of classes. It was a bad day, but it wasn’t his worst. At least he felt more at peace now... those were the perks of not having to be a friend to someone who didn’t deserve him.

Aiden tried to free himself of those bad thoughts and pulled out his keys. But as his hand touched the knob, it turned effortlessly.

The door was already unlocked.

Aiden frowned, and caution immediately washed over him. He pushed the door open slowly, fully expecting to see that he had been robbed. But the moment he stepped inside, he completely froze.

The apartment was smelling... incredible.

He closed the door behind him and took a few steps in, his violet eyes scanning the room in pure shock.

The usually messy living room was spotless. His clothes that were usually piled up on the couch were gone, properly washed and folded.

The sink, which had been overflowing with dirty plates that morning, was completely empty and shining clean.

And coming from the small kitchen area was the scent of actual, home-cooked food. Aiden could tell it was baked macaroni and cheese; his favorite!

"Did you...?" Aiden trailed off with confusion.

A figure stepped out from the small kitchenette. It was Camila.

She was wearing an oversized sweater and her blonde hair was tied up in a messy bun. She was holding a dish towel, looking nervous and out of place in his apartment.

"I’m sorry," Camila said quickly. "I know I shouldn’t be here. But you left the door open when you left this morning, and... I just came inside."

Aiden didn’t say anything. He just stared at her, then looked at the steaming pot on his small stove.

"I remember you mentioning you didn’t like to cook," Camila continued. "You said you usually got food outside. So... I took some time to prepare food for you."

For a moment, the silence in the room was heavy. Aiden’s mind raced, and panic suddenly took hold of his chest. He ignored her completely, walking right past her and heading straight for his desk.

He frantically checked his things. But his notebooks and his pens were sitting exactly how he had left them that morning.

"I didn’t touch any of them," Camila said from behind him. "I promise. I just cleaned around the desk."

Aiden slowly turned to face her. His expression wasn’t grateful. It was guarded, frustrated, and slightly annoyed.

"Why, Camila?" Aiden asked with a low voice that sent shivers down her spine. "Just why? What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to apologize—"

"By doing my laundry?" Aiden cut her off, taking a step toward her. His eyes searched her face, looking for the trick.

"Are you trying to buy off your guilt? Do you think cooking a meal and doing my dishes erases how you treated me? You told me we were done. And I agreed with you, it’s over."

"I was angry!" Camila shot back, her voice finally breaking. Her eyes began to well up with tears.

"I was angry because you were right! You were right about everything! I do take advantage of people, and I am selfish, and I don’t know how to be a real friend because no one has ever been a real friend to me!"

Aiden stopped. The intense anger in his chest wavered, overcomed by the desperate vulnerability in her voice.

Camila’s voice was very heavy, and a tear even began rolling down from her eyes.

"Everyone wants something from me, Aiden. Xander wants a little bitch. My parents want a perfect daughter. My friends just want my status. You are the only person in my entire life who ever looked at me and just... saw me. And I ruined it. Because I ruin everything."

She dropped the dish towel onto the counter, covering her face with her hands as she continued to sob quietly.

"I’m sorry," she whispered into her hands. "I’ll leave."

She took a step toward the door, but she didn’t even make it past the kitchen counter.

Aiden moved.

He didn’t think about it. He just reached out and grabbed her wrist, stopping her in her tracks. Camila gasped slightly, turning her tear-stained face to look up at him.

The tension in the room instantly skyrocketed. It was filled with all the unsaid words and the lingering anger that was rapidly turning into something entirely different.

Aiden looked down at her. His eyes darted from her wide, beautiful eyes down to her parted lips. He stepped closer. The space between them vanished, leaving only an inch of air.

Camila’s breath hitched and her chest rose and fell rapidly against his.

"Aiden..." she whispered in a trembling voice.

"I can’t leave you, Camila... Your words mean everything to me, I forgive you."

"Aiden..." Dry tears remained on Camila’s face as she called out one more time, but Aiden didn’t give her a chance to say anything else.

He reached up, his hands trembling in the air as they traveled to grab the side of her face.

He couldn’t control himself, and Camila didn’t want him to stop either. She looked up at him with expectancy, and time seemed to stop for a while.

"Ai..."

Aiden didn’t even let her finish before he allowed their faces to crash into each other. What started as a faint, desperate kiss quickly devolved into their mouths consuming each other and their tongues intertwining.

Camila lost herself completely into him as she grabbed his face and met his intensity. Aiden kept going without stopping, and it felt like their tongues were simply fighting for dominance.

She was completely out of breath, but it didn’t matter to her as long as she could die right there on him.

Aiden’s hands slid from her cheeks down to her waist, gripping her tightly and pulling her body flush against his, completely eliminating whatever tiny space was left between them.

Camila’s hands instinctively flew up to tangle deeply into his messy hair in equal desperation.

She clung onto his hair with her soft lips still struggling to handle Aiden’s roughness that threatened to consume her, but she did it exceptionally well, showing almost equal intensity.

But Aiden wasn’t done. He lifted her up simply by holding her waist like she was completely weightless and carried her backward to the kitchen counter.

He set her down, and she sat there. All that while, his lips never left hers. She also didn’t stop consuming him. It seemed like they would never stop kissing, and soon she was already lying backwards on the counter.

Without Aiden breaking his lips away for even one second, he followed her down, determined to consume every single drop of saliva she had.

***

As they kissed, the entire crew and even the director became completely lost in what was happening.

Some of them got sexually aroused watching the raw display... while some others were simply too shocked and frozen to continue breathing normally.

Marcus didn’t even dare interrupt the moment that was totally against his original script. It was simply the best, most passionate kiss he’s seen in all his years of being a director!

***

Aiden and Camila stayed locked together for a long, heavy moment on the counter before Aiden finally pulled back, resting his forehead gently against hers. Both of them were really breathing heavily with their eyes closed.

"I love you, Camila."

"I love you, Aiden."

"CUTT!!!" Marcus immediately yelled, cutting the scene after seeing that Chloe was completely out of breath and holding her chest.

Many of the staff members rushed to her instantly to take her to the medics on standby. Everyone could understand the panicked response because this wasn’t something normal. They had all just witnessed cinematic history in the making.

While everyone was panicking and overreacting to make sure the lead actress could breathe properly, Von stood off to the side.

He was ignoring the chaos, completely focused on a System message that had just made his smile light up the room.