Runaway – Ch 7

Pairing: Jared x Reader
Tags: Jared’s on the struggle bus
WC: 2,269

Masterlist

“You’re late,” Cassie snapped as Jared rushed into her office, ignoring the exuberant ‘hello’ from Charlie as he ran past the reception desk outside the tall glass doors. He looked sheepish, in a way only Cassie was able to make him look. 

“Sorry, I got caught up talking to Y/N/N.”

“Ah, yes. How is the little harlot?” Cassie sighs, aggravated, flipping through a file of papers. 

“Don’t call her that, Cassie, she’s a good kid and she does her job well.”

“Yes, yes, we all know she’s a good little housekeeper, but I still think there’s something off about the whole thing. You know I worry about you Jared.”

“It’s been almost a month,” Jared rolled his eyes, now equally aggravated with Cassie. “If she was some undercover pap I feel like she would have had plenty for a story by now. She wouldn’t bother keeping this up. Plus, I can just, tell, I guess. I don’t know, but she’s not the kind of girl that would do that.”

“Mmhmm,” Cassie looked at him skeptically over the brim of her glasses but she could tell she wasn’t going to be getting anywhere with that discussion. “Well, anyways, the reason you’re here is because we’re in a bit of trouble at the moment.” 

Jared cringed, he knew that ‘bit of trouble’ meant much more than that. “I didn’t get the last one either did I?” He’d been back and forth to auditions for the past month and nothing was happening for him. 

“No,” Cassie shook her head apologetically. “They decided to go with some blonde, British kid,” she scoffed. The Brits were really closing in on her rom-com market and it was getting beyond annoying. 

“Damn it,” Jared sighed and leant forward across his knees, steepling his fingers in front of his lips. “Is there anything else out there right now?” 

“Not things I would normally recommend you for.” Cassie shakes her head, looking just as disappointed as Jared. “All our standard production companies are really into sponsoring musical films and shows at the moment. That’s not really your scene is it?”

Jared grimaced, shaking his head. He would definitely not be getting a singing part anytime soon. He had what his sister called a ‘parent voice.’ He sang in tune enough to carry a lullaby or blend in with a group, but he was not winning a Grammy or a Tony anytime soon.

“And there’s nothing else coming out soon?”

“I promise I’ll let you know as soon as I see something.”

“Okay,” Jared stood up and headed for the door, clearly disappointed in the lack of offers. He didn’t even say a proper goodbye to Cassie, and brushed past Charlie’s offer of tea without a second glance. 

On the drive back, Jared only got more and more frustrated, going over minute details of each audition in his head, trying to figure out where he had gone wrong this time. By the time he got home he was seriously angry with himself. He snapped a quick ‘hey’ at Y/N/N as he walked past her wiping down the counters in the kitchen and ran up to his room to change. Maybe a run would help him calm down and clear his head. 

“I’ll be back later,” he shouted on his way out the door, barely even checking to see if Y/N/N was listening, before he bolted down the street. 

Mindlessly running around the streets of L.A. wasn’t usually Jared’s scene. He was much more comfortable at the gym, with his trainer and the machines there telling him exactly what he was doing right and wrong. Their guidance kept him on the track he’d set out for himself. But maybe what he really needed right now was to get lost. Clearly, he was stuck in a rut and he wasn’t going to get another job unless he figured out how to pull himself up by his bootstraps. He’d managed it before, he could do it again. 

The houses and sparse palm trees Jared was passing now were certainly unfamiliar but everything still looked the same to him. He was running through the streets of the city’s über elite, a place he’d always hoped would be in his reach someday. Running through here should have been motivating, awe-inspiring even, but now all he felt was a pang of disappointment. 

In his tired state, the house fronts morphed into horrible taunting faces. The shiny waxed cars bounced blinding reflections into his eyes and the heat radiating up from the pavement was starting to make everything more than a few feet away from him go hazy. As he squinted against the sun, he thought he saw something strange appear out of the heat in front of him. 

His baby sister seemed to glimmer, running towards him, as if to comfort him. But his sister wasn’t in L.A., she was… it didn’t matter. It wasn’t her; so he kept running, feet pounding relentlessly into the sidewalk.

Jared ran smack into the figure, because even though she wasn’t his sister, she wasn’t entirely the product of his hallucinatory mind. He had collided with a very real person who was now lying face up on the pavement by his feet. 

“Oh my god, I am so sorry,” Jared panted when he recovered from the shock of the collision. 

“Are you a complete idiot?!” the girl shouted, hoisting herself up on her elbows. 

“Uh, no, s–“

“Well then you must be a great actor because you had me fooled.” She was picking herself up from the sidewalk now, brushing invisible dust from her skin tight running leggings. Jared was momentarily distracted by her long blonde ponytail swinging in his face and his subsequent examination of the rest of her person. She was the epitome of L.A. in a woman’s body: trim and athletic, with a chest that was disproportionately larger than the rest of her body being squeezed into a low cut sports bra. She was the kind of girl he saw at the gym every day hanging out on the treadmills and at the juice bar. 

“I–” come on Jared, pull it together, he cursed internally. “Hey, you didn’t move out of the way either.” 

The girl indignantly tightened her ponytail and scoffed at Jared. “I’m tired of moving out of people’s way.” 

“Ah, I see I’ve run into a raging feminist.” 

“Is that meant to be an insult?” She rolled her eyes and laughed cruelly, “because I have no problem being called a feminist.” Jared was a little scared she was going to hit him. “But you being a guy has nothing to do with it. I don’t let anyone knock me off my course, end of story.” 

“Well, there is such a thing as common courtesy.” Jared shook his head minutely, completely taken aback by her brash personality, his first impression clearly off the mark.

“Says the guy who just knocked me over.”

“Look, I said I’m sorry,” Jared sighed. “I’ve just been really distracted today, and my mind’s been kind of playing tricks on me. I didn’t think you were a real person.” Jared cringed when realised how odd that sounded out loud. He just made himself look like the biggest idiot on the planet in front of this, admittedly, very pretty girl. 

“Are you tripping on something? Druggies don’t normally go for a run to come down,” the girl laughed at her own joke. An undertone of anger lingered beneath her words but had abated noticeably from her irritation of moments before.

“Wh– no, I’m not on drugs,” Jared squinted down at her against the sun. Was this girl for real? “It’s just– it’s hot. And I’m having a bad day, okay? I said I was sorry.” He fought the urge to roll his eyes as he started to turn away from her to head back home. 

“Weren’t you going the other way, genius?” she called from behind him, and Jared turned with an exasperated grunt.

“Yeah, and now I’m going this way. Why do you care?” His patience was wearing very thin, and he regretted the snappy attitude as soon as his response was out of his mouth. “Sorry, I’m having a really bad day.” Jared reached up to ruffle his hands through his hair in an effort to shake out some of the frustration he was feeling and cool down. “See ya round,” he gave a short wave and turned away again, starting a slow jog back towards home. 

A few moments later he heard footsteps growing louder, and glanced down to see his tormentor falling into stride beside him, keeping pace easily. He didn’t know what to say so he didn’t say anything, just kept running. 

“Look, I’m sorry if I was a bitch,” she said sheepishly after a couple blocks of uneasy silence, confusion radiating from Jared the entire time. “I guess I’m having a bad day too.” She offered Jared a small, tight lipped smile that didn’t sit well on her face. She wasn’t suited to looking unhappy, he observed. Faces like hers were meant to be bubbly and smiling, without that she just looked … dull – like a blank piece of paper – full of potential but desolately and depressingly empty. 

“Happens to all of us,” Jared nodded, still jogging. He looked back down at her, the sour expression pulling at her lips telling him that she still wanted to say something else. “Do you want to talk about it?” he offered, knowing that if the roles were reversed he would hope someone would ask him the same thing.

“It’s just job problems,” she huffed, the effort of keeping up with Jared’s mammoth strides on top of talking starting to show. “We’re barely out of the gate with this new project and already had someone major pull out.” 

“Sorry,” Jared nodded understandingly. “That’s always crap.” 

“What about you?” she asked, visibly starting to struggle breathing, so Jared slowed to a fast walk, and she shot him a grateful smile. 

“Job stuff too,” he shrugged, trying not to sound too put down about it. “I’ve been out of work for a while and nothing’s really popping up that’s a good fit.” 

“So, you’re an actor?” 

“Easy guess in this town, huh?” 

“Been in anything I would know?” she brushed past his rhetorical question. 

“Yeah totally, you watch a lot of romantic comedies, right?” Jared laughed at his own expense. 

“Is that a comment on my feminism again?” The girl shot him a stern look and he backtracked immediately. 

“No, not at all, I didn–” but Jared broke off when she broke out in laughter. 

“Calm down, I was kidding,” she gave Jared a light jab on the arm and he looked down at the spot where she had hit, curiously. He wasn’t used to people being so immediately familiar. “But actually, you do look a little familiar,” she mused, stopping mid stride to get a better look at him. “Were you ever in this show called Starchaser?” 

Jared was flat out shocked that she even knew what that was. “You watched Starchaser?”

“Are you kidding me, I loved it,” she laughed joyfully. 

“No one has seen Starchaser, we got cancelled so fast,” Jared laughed too. Starchaser had been his last job, and he had known when he took it that it was a long shot. Space procedurals with a side of time travel were a bit difficult to get off the ground, but he hadn’t wanted to pass up the chance to get made into an alien for his job everyday. It was awesome while it lasted. 

“I was really sad when it didn’t get renewed, I thought it was great,” she smiled remisciently and started walking again. “So you were that really tall red guy? S’amean?” 

“Yeah, that was me,” Jared said incredulously. 

“You were good,” she glanced sideways at him while they walked, wheels very obviously turning in her mind. 

“Thanks,” Jared smiled gratefully. 

“So, you’re looking for work right now?” Jared nodded in answer. “That project I was talking about, the one we had a drop out on? The guy that dropped out was our lead…” she let her sentence trail off, looking Jared up and down again, inquisitively. He froze on the sidewalk, watching the girl suspiciously. “You got a six pack under that shirt?” she asked boldly. 

Jared’s brow raised, caught off guard once again, but then he pulled up the corner of his tank in answer, showing off the muscles that he worked very hard to look after. She nodded, impressed. Reaching behind her, she unzipped a pocket in the waist of her leggings and pulled out her phone, unlocking it and handing it to Jared. 

“Put in your number,” she instructed without question. 

“Why?”

“Because my producer is gonna give you a call later tonight and set up an audition.” Jared blinked down at the phone in his hands, not quite believing his luck. 

“Do I at least get your name before I give you my number?” Jared asked. 

“Quinn,” she smiled, reaching out to her phone and tapping the screen. “Number.” Jared rolled his eyes at her demanding tone but put his contact details in all the same, handing her phone back when he was done. She looked over the new entry and smiled. “I guess I’ll see you around then, Jared.” 

“Uh, yeah, I guess so,” Jared laughed nervously, rubbing at his neck as he watched Quinn turn on her heel and jog back the way they came from.