AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You could even get together with Ashley and make a strategy,” Stephen continues, almost as if he’s taking my silence as an agreement. “Be seen out together. Then people will be even more excited. I’m not saying that you have to go far enough as to hold her hand or kiss her or anything, you don’t need to be blatant. Just titillate and suggest. That way your movie will be a box office smash which I’m sure you want.”
“Not like that,” I shoot back coldly. “I don’t want to trick people in to seeing the film.”
“It isn’t like that, Lance.” He sounds weary, like I am making him frustrated which is a clear joke since he’s pissing me off. “You’re acting like I am asking you to commit a crime or something…”
I stop listening to him. Stephen tries to defend what he’s saying to me but I’m barely hearing a damn word coming out of his mouth. Instead, I’m focused on the picture of me and Ashley, one of the promo shots of us for the movie, which is now being used to make it look like me and her are an item. It’s making me angrier by the minute. I don’t know if I can have this conversation anymore, it’s getting too much for me.
“Stephen, I don’t want to talk about this anymore,” I bark. “I don’t want to entertain the idea of me and Ashley doing anything. I just want this story stopped before it can spiral. Can you do that?”
“Er, well now that it’s on the Internet, I might not be able to stop it… I can see what I can do, but you know how it is. I can’t stop websites from saying certain things. I can’t stop stories being published. There isn’t anyone policing the online world I don’t know what I can do about it. It might spread whatever you want…”
I scoff. It’s funny how he can do whatever when it benefits him but when I need him to do something for me there are a million and one excuses flying at me that I really don’t want to hear. I spit out a goodbye and hang up the phone before I can say anything else. I don’t want to fall out with Stephen about this, but I can’t deal with it now either. I would much rather just pretend that this isn’t happening. It’s feels awful to me to have this out there in the world, I mean anyone could see it, people who I don’t want to see it…
Like Millie. Oh God, I don’t want Millie to see this. I don’t want to lose my shot with her. Not over Ashley. It makes me feel sick to think of her seeing this and knowing that I can’t change her opinion of what’s been written about me. Not until I see her, and by then she might be so mad at me that she won’t even be my friend anymore. She won’t even want to talk to me, so I won’t get a chance to give her my side of everything.
My chances with Millie are skating on thin ice as it is, she’s already not agreeing to immediately go on a date with me and a lot of that is because of my fame, so this story about Ashely won’t help anything. It will only upset her further. I can already imagine her pissed off face as she sees all of this…
“God damn it.” I check my watch and realize that I need to get going because I’m needed on set. I’m going to have to face Ashley and everyone else which is freaking annoying. If Ashley has done this then she’s going to be over the moon about it. She’s going to be loving it and I’m sure that she’ll be pressuring me to date her in public as well. Especially if that’s how she works. If this is what she normally does. “Fucking hell.”
I’m not in the mood. It’s going to be very difficult for me to get in to the role of Jayden today, especially if I have to be romantic with Veronica, but I suppose I’m a professional and I shouldn’t bring my personal life in to work. I have to push all of this to one side and get myself in the game once more.
***
I huff loudly on the side of the set, trying to blow all of my irritation out in one fell swoop because I don’t have my head in the game right now. I’m not acting as well as I should be doing. I’m not giving Michael my all. It doesn’t help that Ashley continues to make snide remarks about the article, to really wind me up. She might as well have told me that she fed the media the article herself, which will only make it harder to deny if I need to.
