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“You can start by behaving.”
I snorted. “What am I, five?”
“By the looks of all the tabloids, I’d say that’s a good estimation.”
The muscle in my jaw popped as I clenched my teeth.So Trainer saw the latest. I shouldn’t be surprised.“You can fix it,” I said.
A bitter laugh trickled over the line. “I’m all out of Band-Aid’s, Roberts, and word isThe Soldiers Within Usmight drop you.”
Fear pricked my spine. I closed my eyes and raked a hand through my hair, collecting my thoughts. Surely, they were bluffing.
“I’ve already started filming. They can’t drop me now.”
“You and I both know that’s not true. With your recent antics and all the negative press, you’re in breach of contract, and thanks to breaking your costars arm on that gulf cart, there’s a delay in filming while they figure out what to do. A month-long hiatus gives them a chance to rethink their choices. My sources tell me they’ve already made a call to Jack Damon to see if he’s available.”
I straightened and my pulse beat a little faster. “What?” I barked. “He’s too old for the role. It would be ridiculous to hire him.”
“Old or not, he’s responsible at least. He has the right look, and he can get through ten months of filming without getting drunk and driving a car into a lake.”
“Come on, man. It was a golf cart and a pond at The Greens. It’s not like I drove my Fisker off a bridge. We were just messing around—”
“You’re always just messing around,” Trainer snapped. “When does it end, kid? You’re nineteen, and you scored the film of a lifetime, one that can launch you from the teen movie scene intorealacting. It’s what you’ve wanted, any teen actor’s dream. And you’re going to throw it all away because you can’t get your shit together for five seconds to act like a man. Lose this role and your career will be so far in the gutter, I’ll never get it back out again. And then you won’t even have a high school diploma to fall back on, considering how far behind you are in coursework with your tutor.”
I squeezed my forehead with my free hand, trying to release the mounting tension as I waited for the anger to come, but it didn’t.
Because he was right.
My acting career started eight years ago at ten years old when my fame-hungry mother posted videos of me on YouTube for the world to see. A dozen likewise videos and millions of views later, and one of the biggest talent agents in Los Angeles—Zeb Trainer—discovered me.
All it took was one phone call and a single casting call later, and I was hired for my first film. My career took off from there. I went from middle school to the Golden Globes in the span of a hot minute. School turned into classes on set in between filming and schoolwork with a private tutor. All of my friends eventually cut ties, or we went our separate ways, and they became a distant memory.
When you traveled like I did and had zero time for a social life in between gigs, you kind of lost touch with those left behind. Hollywood was a whole different world, and when my mother bought a place for us in LA, it solidified the fact that I would no longer lead a normal life. Goodbye suburbs of Baldwin Park; hello Bel Air. Now the only people who wanted to get close to me had an agenda, some ulterior motive, which usually involved the press and fame of associating with me.
For years, filmmakers forced me into tweener roles and then teen films as Thorne Roberts became a household name and a teen heartthrob. But I was tired of gracing the pages of teeny-bopper magazines. I no longer wanted to play the typical teen role. I wanted to be taken seriously for a change. So when they chose me for the lead role inThe Soldiers Within Us,a serious film about an eighteen-year-old drafted in Vietnam, I jumped at the opportunity.
And now my role was at risk. All because I continued to screw up.
I needed to get myself in check, I mused. This wasn’t the man I wanted to be, but lately, emotional outbursts and acting out were like a disease, spreading through me and infiltrating flesh and bone, wasting me from the inside out. And I could no further focus on remote learning to finish out high school than I could on filming.
I dropped my hand and clenched it in my lap as my pulse raced. “Tell me what to do.”
There was a pause on the line. I could practically hear Trainer’s faith in me slipping by the second, could feel his questioning thoughts wondering if I was worth it, if I had it in me to change. I was ninety-nine percent positive that if I hadn’t made him an obscene amount of money throughout the years, he would’ve dropped me by now.
“You need to alter your reputation and turn it around, STAT. It’s the only way they’ll keep you on.”
“Right. I got that part, but how?”
“I found a local children’s hospital. I signed you up to volunteer. Visit with the sick kids. Make their day. Get a couple photo ops. It’s not enough, but it might at least give them pause. It can’t stop there, though. This is only the beginning, a temporary fix. One publicity stunt of many. We need to reshape your image entirely. This next month needs to show Hollywood and fans a new side of you. If you want to be taken seriously, then you need to act like it. Prove you’ve changed. That you’re no longer the spoiled, punk-ass brat that’s been partying his way through Hollywood.”
Thorne resented that last statement but didn’t say so. “Fine. I like that plan, the hospital thing. It’s something I can work with.”
“Okay, it’s done then,” Trainer said, his tone clipped. “I’ve gotta jet, but I’ll send you the details, and you’ll go tomorrow. And Thorne?”
“Yeah?”
“Try not to screw up from now ‘till then, will ya?”
I flipped a bird at the phone even though he couldn’t see it. “Will do, Boss.” Then the line went dead, and I flopped back against the sofa, thinking about the hospital gig.
