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"Thank you," the casting director says to Gwen. "We'll let you know." Gwen doesn't let her smile falter. She's heard that enough to know she didn't get the part. She hasn't gotten many parts in the last couple of years. She'd thought her first big break would open doors.
The producer touches the casting director's arm. The casting director says, "You were Tawny Madison, right?"
"I used to be, yes." And that's why she can't get a break now.
The producer says, "Dr. Lazarus is my all time favorite character in anything." She knows that breathless sound. She's heard it enough in fans asking for her autograph, wondering what happened between Tawny and Peter, begging her to just read this one story they wrote.
She asks, "Do you have a phone I could borrow?"
Thank God she has everyone's numbers memorized. The phone rings three times and she worries it will go to the machine.
"Hello?"
"Alexander, it's Gwen. I need a favor."
She can hear his sigh from miles away.
The producer takes the phone from her and chats with Alexander. She stands back. When he chants, "By Grabthar's Hammer!" she doesn't let herself picture the disgust on her old friend's face on the other end.
When the phone is handed back to her, she says, "I owe you dinner. Talk later."
"I'm ordering the good wine. Goodbye, Gwen."
She hangs up and smiles at the producer. The casting director is clearly unamused as the producer offers Gwen the part and she immediately accepts. It's not much. Her character doesn't even have a last name and she'll be dead before act two. But this horror flick will pay the rent another few months, and it'll buy a nice bottle to go with the meal she owes Alexander the next time she sees him.
It's how they get by. Fred needed a reference for a job application last month, and on the phone with the HR guy, Gwen threw herself into the part of Fred's previous employer, loved his work, we hated to see him go. Tommy helped cosign a car loan for her, because he's too young for his credit to be destroyed yet, and she drives him places when his parents can't take time off work. They're not exactly friends and not exactly family. They're the only people who get what it's like to be them. Well, and Jason. But Jason didn't understand what it was like for them even when they were all on the show.
When she gets home, she calls Alexander again. "I got the part. Thank you."
"Congratulations." He pauses a beat. "I don't suppose they're still casting."
"If you show up, the producer will rewrite the script to make sure you have a part." She hesitates before telling him, "It's horror."
"Title?"
"The Night of the Living Brain Eaters."
She can hear him think. There's a price to be paid in his dignity for this after what he did earlier today, more so knowing that title will be on his filmography for the rest of his life. She knows he's weighing constant requests between takes to say The Line against his own car payment.
"I'll see you tomorrow."
And that is why, for years later at conventions, fans still ask the two of them how they happened to both appear in a movie only seen by stoners watching cable at two AM (Fred has seen it seventeen times) and die-hard Questies. Or why the cast seems to pop up in walk-on roles on TV in pairs or threes. Last year, Alexander and Fred both voiced characters in the same episode of some Disney cartoon; Tommy just filmed his episode and they have Gwen's number.
"What can I say? We're a great team." She shines her smile and takes the photo, or the VHS tape box, or the doll, and she signs her name. It's not the life she thought she'd have when she moved to Hollywood but she is grateful for the people she's living it with.