Every Summertime - Part I
Summary: Fresh off a breakout role, Y/N is cast in the yearās most anticipated romcom. Sheās ready for the spotlightāuntil she finds out her on-screen love interest is Harry Styles, and the lines between fiction and reality start to blur.
Part II
Content Warning: none :)
Word Count: 4,311
This is a 5 part story that I've started writing last year and finally had the courage to post lol, I hope you guys like it š¤
The kitchen smelled faintly of orange peel and clean linen. Y/N stood barefoot by the sink, towel-drying her favorite mugāthe one with a tiny chip on the handle that she always used anywayāwhen her phone rang.
She nearly didnāt answer. It was past noon, and sheād promised herself a day off: no emails, no self-tapes, no endless doom-scroll through industry chatter. But then she saw the caller ID: Miriam Klein ā Agent.
She grabbed it immediately.
āHey,ā she said, balancing the mug on the drying rack. āWhatās up?ā
āI hope youāre sitting,ā Miriam said, too calm in that way she only got when something big was about to land.
āNot yet,ā Y/N replied, already walking to the kitchen table.
āOkay. Hereās the deal. Youāre being asked to read for Every Summertime.ā
Y/N sat down hard. Her heart did the exact thing it always did when something sheād dared to want actually started to happen.
āYouāre serious?ā
āIām very serious,ā Miriam said. āItās happening. Big studio, full greenlight, same producers from Before the Fall. Sadie Bloomās doing the script.ā
Y/N blinked. āAs in Sadie Bloom, the Sadie Bloom?ā
āYes. She adapted the novel herself. Itās been buzzing for months. Everyoneās been asking whoās playing Ivy. Theyāve done weeks of auditions already, but apparently theyāve been holding off on final callbacks because the director wanted to take a look at a few new names. Youāre one of them.ā
Y/N leaned forward, elbows on the table. Sheād read the book a year ago, cover to cover in two days, sobbing over the last few chapters and immediately texting Mara to do the same. It was that kind of storyāsummer and heartbreak, family and longing, slow-burn romance and two people who find each other just as their lives are unraveling in opposite directions.
She had loved Ivy. Had quietly imagined playing her, though she never said it out loud. The role was delicate. Not easy. The kind of part that asked for both lightness and real emotional weight. She hadnāt seen a female lead written like that in a long time.
āWhatās the catch?ā she asked, finally.
āNo catch,ā Miriam said. āJust that the room is tight. Theyāre only seeing three people, total. Youāre one of them.ā
Y/Nās chest felt tight in the best possible way.
Then Miriam added, as an afterthought, āOh, and Harry Styles is already attached. He auditioned a few weeks ago and got cast as Theo.ā
She blinked again. āWaitāhe auditioned?ā
āYep. Just like everyone else. He read three times. Apparently, he worked his ass off for it.ā
āOh wow,ā Y/N said. āI mean, I figured itād be someone big, but I didnāt thinkā¦ā
āI know,ā Miriam said, ābut I donāt want that to throw you. Youāve got just as much shot at this. They asked you. That means something.ā
Y/N nodded, even though Miriam couldnāt see her. āOkay. Okay, yeah. Send me everything.ā
She spent the next two hours reading the sides, walking through the scenes quietly in her living room, letting the language settle into her skin. Ivy was just as rich and warm on the page as she was in the bookāwitty and careful and emotionally bruised but still hopeful. She understood her immediately. Not just as a character, but as a person.
By the time Mara and Gia showed up at her apartment uninvitedāwith iced matchas and a chaotic playlist of "songs you can fake-date to"āY/N had already color-coded the script, flagged three emotional beats she wanted to dig deeper into, and made a Pinterest mood board for Ivyās wardrobe.
āYouāre disgusting,ā Mara said, watching her set up a ring light for practice. āYou just got the call and youāre already in prep mode.ā
āYou donāt understand,ā Y/N said, breathless, holding the script to her chest. āItās Every Summertime. Itās Ivy. And they asked for me. They didnāt even make me chase it.ā
Gia threw herself on the couch. āWait, and Harry Styles is Theo? Like, officially?ā
āYes. But thatās not the point.ā
āThat is absolutely the point,ā Gia muttered.
Mara leaned forward. āDo you think heās going to remember your name? Or like⦠do that thing where he knows way too much about your performance in something you did three years ago?ā
Y/N rolled her eyes but couldnāt help smiling.
āI donāt care if he remembers me,ā she said, and she meant it. āI just want to walk into that room and be Ivy. Thatās the only thing I care about.ā
And she meant it. This wasnāt about him. It was about her. And if there was even a small chance that this roleāthe one everyone in the industry was quietly circlingācould be hers, she was going to show up ready.
No matter who else was in the room.
The studio was quiet in that specific, clinical way only casting buildings managed to beāsterile, over-air-conditioned, and filled with soft voices and the occasional sound of someone clearing their throat in a hallway.
Y/N arrived fifteen minutes early.
She always did, not because she wanted to impress anyone, but because she hated walking into a room while her heart was still racing. She liked having a moment to breathe, to ground herself, to flip through her pages one last time and pretend that this was all normalāthat she wasnāt sitting in a casting office about to read for the role every young actress in the industry was dreaming about.
She kept her headphones in while she signed in at the front desk, though no music was playing. Sometimes she liked the illusion of noise, the space it gave her from being approached or spoken to. Her hair was pulled back in a low bun, clean and simple. She wore a soft cream knit top tucked into well-tailored navy trousersācomfortable, but confident. She hadnāt overthought the outfit. Sheād learned the hard way not to try and look like the character. The work had to speak louder than the styling.
She sat down in the holding area, a sleek gray couch pushed against a glass wall. There were no other actresses waiting outside. That meant they were being seen one by one. Intimate. Focused. Possibly recorded.
Her heart thudded softly against her ribs.
She reread the scene again, even though she didnāt need to. The one where Ivy and Theo were walking through a parking lot at night after an argument they didnāt totally finish. It was quiet and tentative and messyāfull of unfinished thoughts and sideways glances, two people trying not to say the thing they were thinking. The kind of dialogue that lived in pauses, in breath, in what wasnāt said.
She loved it.
āY/N?ā a woman called gently, peeking her head out from a side door.
She stood quickly, smoothing her pants as she walked.
The room was bright and white and warmer than she expected. A camera on a tripod faced the taped floor marks, and a few people sat behind a folding table covered in notebooks, iced coffees, and half-eaten snacks. The directorāElaine Kim, a sharp, perceptive woman Y/N had read about in interviewsālooked up from her notes and smiled.
āHi, Y/N,ā she said, warm but professional. āThanks for being here.ā
āThanks for having me,ā she replied, stepping into the light and placing her water bottle gently on the ground beside the mark.
And then she saw him.
Harry Styles sat on the folding chair just behind Elaine. He was relaxed in that effortlessly casual way some people managed to beāwearing dark jeans, a light blue sweater, sleeves pushed to his forearms, his hair a little messy like he hadnāt tried to fix it before walking in. He was holding a copy of the sides in one hand, a pen tucked behind his ear.
He looked up when she walked in.
And smiled.
It wasnāt flashy. It wasnāt flirty. It was quiet. Just⦠acknowledgment. Recognition. Maybe even a little curiosity.
She gave a small nod backāprofessional, polite, but not overly familiar.
Elaine gestured to the center mark. āSo this is the parking lot scene. Letās start from the top and just run through it once. No pressure. Weāll play with it after.ā
Y/N nodded and shifted into place.
Harry stood, moving to his own mark opposite her, flipping his page to the correct scene. Up close, he looked exactly like youād expect him toābut also not. Less glossy. More present. There was something focused in his expression. Something serious.
They locked eyes for the first line.
And something clicked.
It wasnāt fireworks or electricityānot yetābut it was ease. He listened, which was rare in reads like this. He responded, didnāt just deliver lines. He watched her mouth when she spoke. He took a second before replying. His body language changed with hers. And when she shifted her tone halfway through a sentence, he adjusted like heād already lived in this character for months.
When the scene ended, there was a beat of silence. Not awkward. Just thoughtful.
Elaine leaned back. āThat was great,ā she said. āWeāre gonna try a version where you lean into the frustration a little more, Y/Nālike Ivyās holding in a thousand things she doesnāt want to say. Can you try that?ā
āAbsolutely,ā Y/N replied, already feeling her body recalibrate.
Harry stayed quiet, letting her take the lead.
They read again. Then again. They tried new beats, changed pacing, added a half-second pause in the middle of a breath and watched the tension stretch out like taffy between them.
It was the most fun sheād had in weeks.
When they wrapped, Elaine stood and clapped her hands once. āThatās great, guys. Thank you so much.ā
Harry turned to her and gave a small, genuine nod.
āYou were really good,ā he said simply, in a soft voice that made her want to double-check if sheād imagined it.
āThanks,ā she replied. āYou too.ā
They exchanged one more look. Just a moment of eye contact. No lingering. No flirtation. Just⦠mutual awareness. Two people who understood what this scene could be. Who knew that if they ended up doing this together, it would work.
It wasnāt chemistry in the clichĆ© way.
It was trust.
And that, she knew, mattered more than anything else.
The moment she stepped outside the studio building, the sun hit her straight in the face. She hadnāt realized how long sheād been inside until the daylight made her squint.
She didnāt rush home right away.
Instead, she walked three blocks up and sat on a quiet bench tucked next to a tiny bakery she used to visit when she was still auditioning for short films and background roles. It felt like a good place to land for a second. Familiar. Neutral.
She took out her phone and opened the Notes appānot to write anything in particular, just to look busy, to give her hands something to do while her body caught up with what had just happened.
The read had gone well. She knew that. Not in the arrogant, self-congratulatory way. But in the honest, I-was-present-and-I-did-the-work way. She had hit the beats she wanted. Had felt the tension she built in the back of her throat as Ivy. Had watched Harry adjust and lean into the shifts in energy, the kind of give-and-take that felt real.
She hadnāt felt that kind of scene partner chemistry in a long time. Not the fake āoh my god we just clickedā type people always said in interviews, but the real kindāthe kind that made you breathe differently when the camera was rolling.
Still, callbacks were a strange kind of limbo. You left everything in the room and walked out with your hands empty, unsure if what you gave was the version they wanted.
Her phone buzzed with a message from Mara.
MARA:
Did it happen?? Did you cry? Did he cry?
She smiled but didnāt reply yet.
She wasnāt ready to open the door to speculation and āwhat ifs.ā Not yet. Not when her heart was still beating in callback rhythm, not regular rhythm.
Instead, she ordered an iced tea, sat with her thoughts, and let herself do the hardest part of the job: wait.
Two days passed. Then four.
By the fifth, she had convinced herself she didnāt get it.
It was ridiculousāhow the brain worked. She could feel confident one minute, and then in the next, be absolutely sure sheād imagined the connection, that the casting team had probably already offered it to someone else. Someone with a bigger name. A better following. A longer rĆ©sumĆ©.
She went about her days normallyāpilates, meal prep, overdue errandsābut there was a thin string of tension running through everything she did. An invisible thread tied to her phone, which she kept just slightly too close. Just in case.
Mara and Gia didnāt help.
GIA:
I keep checking Deadline for a casting announcement like I work there. Do you think youād know before they publish?
MARA:
Should I casually follow the director on Instagram or is that too obvious?
Y/N replied only with a gif of someone staring out a rainy window.
She wasnāt trying to be dramatic. She just didnāt want to break the spell.
The call came on a Friday afternoon.
She was folding a blanket over the back of the couch when her phone rangāand this time, unlike before, her stomach dropped the second she saw Miriamās name. Her breath caught in her chest.
She answered slowly.
āHey.ā
āHey,ā Miriam said, a smile already in her voice. āYou ready?ā
Y/N didnāt speak. Couldnāt.
āYou got it.ā
It took a full second for the words to land.
āWhat?ā
āYou. Got. It. Ivy Carter is yours.ā
Y/N stood still in her living room, one hand still holding the corner of the blanket.
āYouāre serious?ā she whispered, barely able to say it.
āIām serious. They just called. Elaine saidāand I quoteāāShe is Ivy.ā You nailed it, Y/N. Itās yours.ā
She sat down, knees folding underneath her like they couldnāt hold her up anymore.
A full breath left her chest. A real one. The kind that only comes when something youāve wanted quietly, patiently, for longer than you let yourself admit⦠actually becomes real.
āOh my god,ā she said softly, tears springing to her eyes before she could stop them. āOh my god.ā
āIām so proud of you,ā Miriam said. āStart wrapping your head around it. You leave for pre-production in two weeks.ā
Y/N laughed through the tears. āYouāre really just gonna say that like itās nothing.ā
āIām saying it like itās everything.ā
She hung up and sat for a long moment, letting her body catch up to the news. Letting the weight of it settle gently, instead of crashing.
She didnāt need to scream. Or jump. Or call everyone she knew.
She just needed to sit there, quietly, hand over her heart, and smile like she hadnāt in a long time.
Because she had done it.
Not because someone asked for her. Not because of luck. Not because she was āsomeoneās pick.ā
Because she earned it.
She didnāt text them. She couldāveāGod knows theyād been obsessively waiting for an updateābut this felt bigger than a three-line message or a gif. This deserved real faces. Real reactions. Real yelling.
So she told them to come over.
No context. Just āPlease come by tonight, I made dinner. And wear something cute.ā Which, in their language, was code for something is up and weāre not taking it lightly.
By seven oāclock, her tiny apartment smelled like garlic and lemon and the fresh rosemary sheād tucked into the sauce just because she could. She wasnāt a show-off cook, but she liked the rhythm of it. Stirring, chopping, laying the tableāthings that made her feel grounded when everything else was floating.
Sheād even lit candles. Mara was going to be suspicious the second she walked in.
When the buzzer went off, her stomach jumped. Nerves, again. Not the kind from auditions, but the kind you get when something good has happened and you finally get to say it out loud.
She opened the door before they even knocked.
Mara walked in first, hair piled up in a claw clip, carrying a bag of chips and a bottle of prosecco. Gia followed, dramatically overdressed in a vintage floral maxi dress with a belt that jingled when she walked.
āOkay,ā Mara said, eyes scanning the apartment. āWhat is this vibe?ā
āWhy are there candles?ā Gia added, narrowing her eyes. āAre we mourning something? Are we casting a spell?ā
Y/N grinned. āSit down.ā
Mara raised an eyebrow but dropped onto the couch without another word. Gia flopped down beside her, kicking off her boots and reaching for the chips before the bag was even open.
Y/N took a deep breath.
Then she grabbed the script off the counter, walked over, and dropped it gently on the coffee table in front of them. No words. Just the bold-font title staring back at them:
Every Summertime
FINAL SHOOTING DRAFT
CONFIDENTIAL
There was a pause.
Mara leaned forward slowly. āNo. Way.ā
Gia blinked. āYou got it?ā
Y/N nodded, and just like that, the room exploded.
Mara let out a shriek so loud she startled herself. Gia screamed into one of Y/Nās throw pillows. Someone knocked over the chips. Y/N just stood there, laughing and trying not to cry again while her two best friends lost their collective minds.
āYOUāRE IVY?!ā Mara yelled, grabbing her by the shoulders.
āYouāre fake-dating Harry Styles in a movie based on that book?ā Gia yelled right behind her. āDo you understand what youāve done to me emotionally?ā
āI canāt believe it,ā Y/N said, the words still tasting new. āThey called this afternoon. Itās mine.ā
Mara paced a circle around the living room like she needed to walk off the adrenaline. āIām so proud I think Iām going to vomit. This is not a joke. I might actually cry.ā
Gia was already pouring prosecco into mismatched glasses. āTo Ivy Carter! To our girl! To the woman who is going to be impossible to sit next to in a movie theater because I will be whispering āthatās my best friendā the whole time.ā
Y/N finally sat down between them, letting their joy fold over her like a blanket. Her cheeks hurt from smiling. Her stomach still fluttered every time she pictured that moment on the phoneāYou got it.
āDid he say anything to you?ā Mara asked suddenly, already fishing for gossip.
āAbout me getting the part?ā
āNo, about like⦠your aura or whatever. Your essence. Did he cry when he looked into your eyes?ā
Y/N laughed. āWe just read the scene. Nothing dramatic. He was focused.āĀ
Gia sipped her drink. āSo youāre telling me he wasnāt completely in love with you already?ā
āIām telling you he was doing his job. And so was I.ā
āBoring,ā Mara muttered. āBut fine. Weāll allow it. For now.ā
Y/N rested her head on Giaās shoulder, letting the room go quiet for a moment. She watched the candle flicker on the coffee table. The script sat between them, the pages fanned slightly from being flipped through too many times already.
This was real.
No more waiting. No more wondering. She was Ivy. She was going to spend the summer fake-dating a man half the world was obsessed with while bringing to life a character sheād secretly been carrying in her chest for months.
And she got to share that momentāwith them.
āThank you,ā she said, suddenly serious. āFor making this feel⦠big. Itās easy to pretend itās not. To try and act like itās just another job. But itās not. It means something.ā
Gia reached out and gently clinked her glass against hers.
āWe know it means something,ā she said. āWeāve always known.ā
The building didnāt look like much from the outsideājust another converted studio space in the middle of a quiet block in West Hollywood. The kind of place youād walk past without thinking twice unless you were part of it. Inside, though, it was buzzing. Quietly. Like a hum under the surface.
Y/N was greeted by a production assistant with a headset and an iced coffee in one hand, who led her down a hallway lined with framed posters from past films and into a bright, high-ceilinged room that smelled faintly like paper, Sharpie ink, and someoneās very expensive cologne.
The long table was already half-filled when she walked in.
Labeled name cards sat in front of every chair. A stack of fresh scripts lay at each place setting. Crew members milled around the edgesāproducers, assistants, someone from hair and makeup who gave Y/N a small, polite wave as she walked past.
It was her first table read for a major studio project. And even though she had already been castācontracts signed, emails exchanged, fittings scheduledāit didnāt quite feel real until now.
She spotted her name about halfway down on the left side. Y/N Y/L/N ā Ivy Carter. Seeing it printed, so simply, gave her a little jolt in the chest. She ran her hand over the card before sitting down.
She glanced to her rightāand there he was.
Harry Styles, sitting just one seat away, wearing a soft gray hoodie and black trousers, flipping through the top pages of the script like he hadnāt already read it a dozen times. His hair was slightly damp, like heād just showered. He looked relaxed but alertāattentive in that calm, still way he had in the callback room.
He looked over when she sat and gave her a warm smile.
āMorning,ā he said.
āHey,ā she replied. āNice to see you again.ā
āYou too. Congratulations, by the way.ā
She blinked, a little caught off guard. āFor what?ā
āFor getting the part,ā he said, matter-of-factly. āI heard they saw a lot of people. Said you were the easiest decision they made.ā
It was such a quiet, sincere compliment that it took her a second to respond.
āThanks,ā she said, smiling back. āThat means a lot.ā
Before she could say more, the room began to settle. Elaine, the director, took her spot at the head of the table and greeted everyone, her voice calm and no-nonsense, but not cold.
āThanks for being here,ā she said. āThis is going to be a long day, but a good one. Weāll read straight through, pause halfway for a break, and then meet the department heads after. But for now, letās just live in the story.ā
A few people clapped quietly, and then the rustling of scripts filled the air as everyone turned to page one.
The table read began.
The first scene was a quick oneāan establishing moment in Ivyās flower shop, full of overlapping dialogue and neighborhood energy. Y/N found her rhythm quickly, her voice soft at first but steady. It was strange, hearing the lines spoken aloud by real people instead of looping them over and over in her head. They lived differently in the air.
Then came the first scene with Theo.
It was early in the scriptāscene eightāa chaotic rental pickup gone wrong. Ivy arriving to find out the place she thought sheād have to herself for the summer had been double-booked by a tired, borderline-annoyed journalist who couldnāt believe she still arranged flowers for a living.
Y/N delivered her first line.
Harry replied in character, voice a little lower, a little dryer than his usual one. It was subtle. American, but not distractingly so. Wry, but not smug. He nailed the tone. The sarcasm. The guarded frustration. He even underplayed the joke in a way that made it land harder.
Their back-and-forth built naturally. A little sharper than in the callback room. Quicker. Like two people who had known each other long enough to know exactly how to get under the otherās skin.
By page twenty-four, someone at the far end of the table laughed out loud during a bickering scene.
By page thirty, they were all leaning in a little closer.
They broke for coffee halfway through.
Y/N stood in the corner of the room, quietly sipping a too-hot green tea and listening to the murmur of conversations happening around herācrew members catching up, producers on quick phone calls, someone from casting laughing softly near the door. She felt out of place for exactly forty seconds before Harry walked over.
āHowās it feeling so far?ā he asked, nodding toward the table.
āHonestly?ā she said. āLike Iām still dreaming it a little.ā
He smiled at that. āI know what you mean.ā
There was a pause.
āYouāre really good,ā he said. āYouāve got this way of landing emotion without forcing it. It makes the scenes feel⦠like real moments. Not written ones.ā
Y/N raised an eyebrow. āWas that feedback or a compliment?ā
He shrugged. āBoth, I think.ā
She laughed, and he smiled wider.
The second half of the read went even smoother. Their final scene of the dayāthe one where Ivy and Theo slow dance under string lights in the middle of an accidental town partyāended with a pause so soft, no one moved for a second afterward. Not even Elaine.
When she finally looked up from her script, the director just gave her a small, meaningful nod.
The whole room felt different after that.
She didnāt say anything on the way out. Didnāt want to break the stillness. But as she stepped into the hallway, script tucked under her arm and nerves finally quieted, Harry caught up with her and said simply:
āSee you on set.ā
And she believed it. Not just that sheād see himābut that this story, this world, this version of herself she was stepping into⦠it was real now.
And it was only just beginning.


















