It was as the new season of Extracurricular was airing that Trevor got notice that he had gotten the part for the dystopian trilogy. This would completely change the trajectory of his career, and came with a huge paycheck too. Plus, after reading the books, Trevor was excited to take on this part. It started off with his character coming off as someone who could very well be a villain, but the main female romantic lead would learn he was on her side before the climax of the first movie.
The first thing the studio did was hire a personal trainer to get Trevor to where he needed to be physically for the part. He had to add on muscle and bulk up more than he was, as well as grow a beard. His changing body and looks was commented on in interviews, but once it was announced he would be in the part, everyone knew why he was making the changes.
Those interviews sometimes had to include Paul, but the others were good about making sure he wasn't alone with Paul for it. And halfway through the season, nearing the end, Paul seemed to have found a new twinky victim he brought with him to some of the interviews. He was a younger actor, around twenty years old, by the name of Noah Carmen. Trevor felt a little bad for the guy, but he lost some of his sympathy when Noah was aggressive towards him behind the scenes.
Of course, Trevor knew why he was. Paul was making Trevor seem like competition, so the man wanted to mark his territory in front of Trevor. It didn't stop him from being annoyed with the guy though. Every time they had to be on a set together, Trevor did what he could to stay away from Paul, but that didn't seem to matter.
"The best twinks are so possessive," Paul commented once when they were in the waiting room to go out to the set.
Trevor let out a breath and shook his head. "If your goal is to make me jealous, it won't work. I'm seeing someone else, and I'm happy, Paul. I don't care what you get up to anymore. Go fuck all of Hollywood. Have fun with it."
Paul frowned at him. "I know you, Trev. You're the type that needs to be owned, possessed. You haven't even announced who this new relationship is, and you're about to travel for work. Let's see how that will work out for you."
Trevor didn't comment further. He got up, straightened his suit, and went to the doorway to wait for their call.
All the while, Trevor was seeing Alex regularly. Both of them were still working, with Alex working with other shows in the same warehouses, as well as the theater, and Trevor working out and going to interviews, as well as table reading for the new movie. All of their off time seemed to be together though, most of the time at Alex's place but sometimes they would retreat into the basement bedroom at Naomi's home. Trevor was still trying to find a place to buy a home, but he had been stalling because he wanted the place to work for Alex too but it felt too soon to ask him to move in.
The studio gave Trevor four months to get ready for the beginning of filming, which would happen in the Chicago area. His time was running out now, though. He was holding onto Alex in bed one night, his mind wandering to the idea of being away from him. "I have to leave in two weeks. Part of me wants to ask you to come with me, but I know you well enough to know that you wouldn't leave your jobs. Still, it's killing me to go."
Alex snuggled a little closer. "I'm not generally fond of long-distance relationships, but it isn't every day that you get the chance to date THE Trevor Lars, Gay Icon," he said in response.
Trevor snickered into Alex's ear. "Is that what they call me? So if I wasn't famous, would this be goodbye? I've never been so glad for the fame then," he teased.
Alex rolled his eyes, even though Trevor couldn't see it. "If you weren't famous, you would have gone on ghosting me for the rest of your life, so it's hard to separate our current circumstances from your career," he responded.
Trevor sighed and buried his face in Alex's neck. "That's not what I wanted. I thought about contacting you so many times. I kind of imagined that you would have gone on to college and fallen in love with someone and moved on with your life by now. Like...maybe I romanticized how much we meant to each other back then. Maybe it was easy to forget about me after some time and the hurt had worn off. Plus I felt like...choosing me would be risky for you. It might still be, honestly."
Alex knew that Trevor probably considered himself cursed or something, but the best way to get to the bottom of his fears was to confront them head-on. "How is that, exactly?" Alex asked in a friendly tone.
"Well, there's Paul for one, though he might put all of his focus into his new boyfriend soon, or so I hope," Trevor replied, using his fingers against Alex's back to count it out. "I travel for work, a ton. That whole wandering actor thing you were talking about, even if I return to your small theater for more shows. And I always worry that one day the medications may not work as well as before, or something will go wrong, and then I'd be putting your health at risk too, which is...unconscionable to me. Plus, who likes to think about their boyfriend selling his body as a teen?"
"Well, Paul isn't a special case. Everyone with empathy ends up in a relationship with one of his kind eventually. There are ways to deal with them. Long distance relationships suck more than they don't, but life changes fast and sometimes things work out and sometimes they don't. I'm not going to pass on potentially the greatest experience of my life over some discomfort, but I do refuse to be lonely while in a relationship. As far as medications ceasing to function or whatever, every sexual encounter with anyone is a health risk. It's a matter of doing what can be done to reduce risk to an acceptable level. Don't borrow trouble, Trev," Alex responded point for point.
Trevor let out a groan and hid his face again. "I'm trying not to. I'm usually not this neurotic or nervous in a relationship, I swear."
"Aww," Alex said sympathetically, "that's too bad, I was just starting to find it quirky and adorable."
Trevor chuckled and pulled Alex closer. "I mean, I can stay needy and clingy if you want."
"Nah, I'm good. A little clingy is fine, but I didn't sign on to raise you," Alex said while chuckling.
Trevor wrinkled his nose at that and sat up enough he could lean on his elbow and see Alex's face. "Nah, no raising here. Naomi did that for me, and I'm only ever doing it for babies with four paws."
"Good," Alex said, "then stop worrying about things that aren't an issue yet. I don't know how I'm going to handle the distance, but we are going to have to figure it out."
Trevor nodded, knowing that was true. He wanted to promise he wouldn't take parts like this going forward, but he also knew he couldn't promise that either. Two weeks seemed to fly by and soon enough Trevor was packed and ready to go. He lingered just a little longer than he meant to saying goodbye to Alex, but eventually he was boarded on the flight out to Chicago.
The first few days were a whirlwind of activity, while they tried on clothes to make sure they fit, altered what didn't, tested makeup, and did some test shots of photos as the characters. They also got a chance to really start to get to know each other better than they could when they were just doing the table readings.
Trevor got to meet their fighting choreographer and start working with him to get everything down, and Trevor was coming back to the hotel exhausted each night. That didn't stop him from doing video chats or phone calls with Alex, though, talking about what they had done and how they wished they could teleport to each other.
It was killing Trevor not to be there with him, but he tried not to put that on Alex, though he did tell him how much he missed him. Alex, meanwhile, was busy putting together the sets for the theater's next production and looking for his next stint as PropMaster or Set Boss with the studio. He had been considering moving out of the city, but that would mean the added expense of getting and maintaining a car and he wasn't sure he was ready for either that kind of responsibility or the temptation to just get in the car and drive to wherever Trevor was.
Once they got into filming, Trevor was working sometimes close to seventeen to nineteen hours a day. Alex could see how tired he was when they would talk some days, but even when Alex would tell him he should go to bed as soon as he got back to the hotel, Trevor would say he would be more productive if he had at least an hour of time with Alex.
The director of the community theater pulled Alex aside as they were rehearsing for the opening day of the latest production. "Alex, I've been offered a position at my alma mater as a drama director. I wanted to let you know that I'm taking the job and the board for the theater has decided not to continue producing shows. The viewership has been down since the pandemic and even with the influx of interest we got over Rent, they don't feel like they can keep the doors open without me here to keep things moving."
Alex just sat there for a while, staring at Bill in disbelief. He had not managed to pick up another gig at the studio and now he wasn't sure how he was going to keep up the exorbitant rent on his miniscule apartment. He mentioned it to Trevor that night when they talked, musing aloud that he supposed he had better start looking for something he could pursue part time or for as time to keep the lights on.
Trevor was troubled by all of it, especially the theater. He was more than a little upset that the board just gave up rather than trying to find someone else to spearhead keeping it open. He even called Rodney the next day to see what was going on with the studio, but all Rodney could tell him was that while the studio could make some decisions, a lot of directors choose their own teams.
"Though, as a lead actor, you have some sway there," Rodney pointed out. "You could speak to your director and find him something."
"I feel like Alex is a little too proud to take handouts from me," Trevor replied.
"Sometimes connections are the best ways to get jobs," Rodney commented. "I'll see what I can do on my end, but keep your eyes and ears open for something that is perfect for him."
For a little bit, Rodney would give him some odd jobs to do on the sets he was working on, but Trevor had an opening when one of their main Prop Designers collapsed on set. They took a break to get him EMS help and have him transferred to the hospital, but they couldn't stop work completely. Two days later, he had to put in notice that he had gotten a diagnosis from the doctor that meant taking time off all of his sets. Alex might end up angry at Trevor, but he took the chance to speak to the director to say their lead set designer of Extracurricular was looking for work and was amazing on set and with crews.
