AllFreeNovel
Share Us
KYLA — TWELVE MONTHS LATER
No matter how many movie premieres I went to, I could never see myself getting sick of walking the red carpet.
I climbed out of the limousine and waved to the cheering crowd as cameras flashed, striking my sexiest pose in my new red William de Costa dress. Dean, Isaac, and Wyatt were ahead of me: Dean had brought his younger siblings, Wyatt had brought his mother, and Isaac posed alone, giving the cameras his usual smoldering gaze. Dean was great with the kids and held his youngest brother on his hip as they posed together.
He’d be a great dad, I thought, until another flash from a camera pulled me back to the present moment.
As for me? April was my date, and she waslovingit. She climbed out of the other side of the limousine and gave a radiant smile. I waited for her to join me and we linked our arms together and only managed to take a few steps along the red carpet before we were stopped by photographers.
It had been twelve months since we’d finished filmingPushing Daisy, and it was finally ready to be released. The movie had received terrible reviews from advanced screenings, but Dean, Wyatt, and Isaac assured me we had nothing to worry about.
I wasn’t so sure.
Someone had tipped off the paparazzi about our four-way relationship and they’d developed the habit of ambushing us as we went about our lives. Every time I went to the gym or to my auditions, they were there. I’d tried out for multiple roles and while the guys had a steady stream of work, I’d been rejected from every part I’d tried to get. Gossip articles had become a daily part of our lives, and both Bronwyn and Tonia kept warning us that if we continued living together, our careers would crash and burn.
Walking the red carpet separately didn’t seem like a great solution to me.
“Kyla! Kyla! Over here!”
More cameras flashed as I pivoted, trying to figure out where to look. April was better at this than I was — she wrapped her arm around my waist to steer me in the right direction. I signed a few autographs and then, as we moved along the carpet, the attention on us faded, replaced by excitement for whoever had climbed out of the car behind us.
I hung back from the three men until we were safely inside the cinema.
“Is it always that hectic?” I asked, as I took my place in the front row, along with the rest of the cast. April moved toward the back of the theater, where she joined Dean’s siblings.
“Yep.” Dean gave an exasperated look. “I love being an actor, but this part of the job’s tough.”
“Especially when they won’t stop asking whether we’re all sleeping with you,” Isaac said. “It’s been relentless.”
“How do they even know?” I wondered, as I watched more people stream in. Brooke was one of those people, and she ignored us entirely as she found a seat to the side of the screen. I wondered whether she still hated me for taking her role. “We’ve been so careful. It’s not like we’ve been making out in the middle of the street.”
If anything, we had gone to great lengths to be extra chaste as we went about our day-to-day lives outside of the mansions that we rotated between. I tried not to be seen with more than one man at a time, and we never touched each other. In the interviews we’d done, we maintained professional smiles and insisted that rumors about our relationship were just that: rumors.
But still,someonehad been leaking more information than we were willing to share.
Once all the seats were filled, Preston stood at the front of the theater, his face lit by a spotlight that shone from the projector room, and he gave a speech to thank the entire cast and crew, encouraging the four of us to stand up and take a bow while the audience clapped and cheered.
And then, the lights dimmed, and the movie started. I squeezed Wyatt’s hand as my name appeared on the screen and the camera panned around the apartment that Daisy was supposed to live in.
“Yes, yes, I’m almost ready,” my big-screen counterpart said into a phone as everyone in the audience clapped and cheered. “Just give me five more minutes.”
I grabbed my bag and stuffed a few items of clothing inside it. As I left the apartment, the camera kept panning around to a toolbox in my kitchen, foreshadowing the lack of resources we would have when the car broke down.
It was a magical experience. I’d seen hundreds of movies in my lifetime, but this was the first time I’d ever seen myself on the big screen.
Halfway through the movie, Brooke filed along her row of seats and left the theater. I stood up and Wyatt touched my wrist.
“Where are you going?”
“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “Keep watching the movie.”
Brooke had disappeared by the time I reached the foyer. I paced around, trying to figure out where she might have gone, when she emerged from the ladies’ bathroom.
“What are you doing out here?” I asked, and she gave me a withering look.
“What does itlooklike?”
“I need you to stop spreading rumors about us.”
