Dream I Almost Missed

~ Alice ~ I woke up particularly determined. The first thing I did after opening my eyes was mentally remind myself of what I wanted to accomplish while letting out a heavy sigh, and stretching my hands over my head, making my bones c***k. I had decided that was the day I would tell my parents, and my older sister by default, that I was going after my dream of becoming an actress, and I was moving to England for it. I had dreamed of being an actress ever since I could remember, but I never thought it would actually come true. Being from Costa Rica, I was constantly being denied possible opportunities, as most of the real, big, and important auditions were in other countries, despite it I had prepared myself the best I could. I did everything you could think of regarding the drama club in high school, I did gymnastics since I was three years old, and I also went into cheerleading. I did all of it, thinking of the physical advantages I could have over other actresses in an eventual audition. I even started to practice my singing, and posted myself on YouTube and t****k to try to give myself some public image, which ended up working out in my favor, as my videos were fairly popular on both platforms. Knowing my possibilities and limitations, I had dedicated the months since graduating from high school to working to have my own money, and I also messaged pretty much everyone I could think of on social media in search of an opportunity – I know, not very conventional – and to my surprise, Dominic Davies, the father of my all-time favorite actor responded to me, with genuine interest in helping me. He was a screenwriter, so he knew people in the industry, and with the help of a friend of his who was working on a new project, they got me an audition, which was via invitation, and after a long and tedious process of virtual auditions, consisting of several videos of my performances, they came to the conclusion that I could play the protagonist’s sister in the film, but the final audition was in person, in England. That was the first ever real chance I had, and there was no way in hell I would not take it. I was eighteen, so I didn’t need permission to get out of the country. I had already coordinated with Dominic for the hotel and the flight. I also picked up more shifts at work and started selling pretty much everything I owned to make extra money. Yes, I was going for the audition, and there was a real chance I would get cast, but I wasn’t planning on returning to Costa Rica, let alone my parents, but I still had to tell them. They believed every career related to the entertainment world, such as a dancer, singer, or actress, was nothing but a joke, that you had to sell your soul to the devil to be successful, and become a shallow, dumb person to do everything you were told. For them, there was nothing worse than working as an actress; it was a waste of time, of money, and a waste of my talent elsewhere. They would have killed for me to become a professional gymnast, but I couldn’t handle it emotionally or physically, and they reminded me of it every time I opened my mouth to say something like ‘I would like to have more time to dedicate to dance’ or ‘I wish I had been born somewhere with real acting possibilities.’ Just because I didn’t need their permission didn’t mean they would be happy about what I was going to do. So I decided to kill some more time before facing the truth and grabbed my phone to go to i********:, where Michael Davies usually posted a bit more often. As soon as I opened it, I saw a cute selfie of him with his dog, Judith. I liked and commented on the picture, and then saved it in the ‘Michael Davies folder.’ So yes, you’ve figured it out, Dominic Davies – the person who had helped me with the audition – was the father of my all-time favorite actor, Michael Davies. Just knowing that was surreal, but thinking of even the smallest chance I might get to meet him almost sent me into a heart attack. I have to admit I was pretty much fascinated by him; he was really attractive with that pale skin and freckles, some people from England have, and his hair was somewhere between light brown and dark red, but I didn’t just like him because of his looks. There was something in his acting that drove me mad and had me obsessed with him since day one. The first time I saw him act was when I was twelve, and he was four years older than me. He acted in a historic movie that, for some reason, we watched at school, and as soon as I got home, I searched his name and started following his career. By following him, I learnt pretty much everything you could think of about him and his family, because I followed him before he became super famous and before he started being careful with what he posted online. I even got to interact with comments and likes with one of his brothers, John. A knock at my door pulled me out of the lovestruck bubble I was in, and I opened it, finding my amazing, lovely, and beautiful older sister. Please read the sarcasm. “Breakfast is getting cold, get down, would you?” She informed me before turning around and going down the stairs. I rolled my eyes at her. I never liked her; she was the kind of person who thought she was perfect when, in reality, she was anything but, yet my parents adored her. She was the apple of their eye, I’m pretty sure she was the only daughter they wanted to have, therefore I was ‘the bad daughter.’ After mentally insulting my sister, I went down to the kitchen and sat in my chair. “You took your sweet time coming,” said my mother with her annoyed voice. “Good morning, dear daughter, how did you sleep?” I said imitating her voice to annoy her, which made my father and my sister give me the side eye. “You know how much I hate it when you do that,” growled my mother, annoyed. I simply shrugged, knowing I had to tell them before I lost my nerve, just spit it out and worry about the consequences afterwards. “So, I’m moving to England,” I said quickly, my eyes fixed on my plate. The three of them stared at me with their mouths wide open, their eyes practically popping out of their heads. “I’ve been speaking with Michael Davies’ dad, and he got me an audition, so I’m leaving for England in four days,” I explained and waited for the explosion. A few eternal seconds passed before everything blew up. “Absolutely no, there is no way in hell you will go anywhere for an audition of anything.” Said my mother, standing up from her chair, which made me shrink in my seat, expecting her to hit me. “Confirmed,” piped up my sister cheerfully, “My sister is an absolute moron who wants to spend her life selling herself, have fun being poor!” “Do whatever you want, since you decided to start working instead of going to university, and you think you are adult enough for it, as of right now, you are no longer my responsibility.” Concluded my father, without even lifting his eyes from his cellphone. None of the things they said surprised me; if anything, I was expecting screams and offensive and angry shouts, but what surprised me was how much it hurt me; deep down, I thought they would be worried for my well-being and cover it with anger, because for some reason, they were unable to speak to me without anger, but they didn’t even bother with that, they truly didn’t care about me, at all. “Just because you’ve never taken me seriously, it doesn’t mean I can’t make it. For once, I have a real chance to go for it, and I don’t care what any of you have to say, I’m actually happy I have to go to another continent, I can’t stand being here anymore.” I stood up with the intention of taking my breakfast to my room and having some peace, but my father stopped me. “I want you out of the house by tomorrow. Whatever is left after you’re gone will go to the trash or be sold.” He said, staring at me. “And don’t even think about grabbing breakfast, you didn’t pay for it, did you?” I stared back at him, put my plate down on the table, and went back upstairs to my room. For a second, the anger and unfairness of the situation started to bubble up inside me, but I couldn’t allow it to cloud my mind. I still needed to get some things ready, and now I had to figure out how to protect my stuff from my parents while I did it.