Followers

by Raziel Reid

Sean turns off the barbecue and goes down to the basement with a plate of steaks. He opens the cages and holds out the plate with the meat but the dogs just tremble and refuse to come out.

  lillianrhode

  27.5k followers

  tashaa_eve @sofia_prophet she’s my new goals

  sofia_prophet @tashaa_eve Her hair is kinda bad tho

  tashaa_eve @sofia_prophet needs to b me

  asya_itatli No puedes ser tan perfecto, estoy casi segura que te crearon en un laboratorio.

  imogenrosecord My heart is broken what does Joel see in her? @thejoelstrom @lillianrhode

  janetsocvuet Did you stan hailey growing up? That’s what I heard

  Lily’s been shooting scenes for Platinum Triangle all week and hasn’t had a minute to herself. There’s a camera on her every time she goes for a swim in the pool or makes herself a sandwich. (She did that only once, because the Paleys’ housekeeper, Ana, was offended and insisted she finish making it for her. Lily is too shy to ask, so most of the time she just starves—on camera.)

  Sam explained to Lily that they need as much “Real Home” footage of her as possible to edit into the final episodes of season 2. They shoot Lily swimming in the pool, sunbathing, hanging out in the pool house. At first she felt pressure to perform for the cameras, but the more she shoots the more she realizes that they’re just waiting for that one natural moment to happen, like Patrick running out of the house in his Kang makeup and doing a cannonball into the pool to wash it off, splashing an unsuspecting Lily as she sits on a chaise lounge flipping through a magazine.

  As horrible as it sounds, Lily’s getting used to ghosting the cameras. The more you think about the presence of the cameras the crazier you start to feel. But sometimes they’re unavoidable.

  When Lily steps out of the shower that morning, she’s greeted by a Platinum Triangle camera. Sam is standing off to the side and gives Lily a wink. Evidently they want to get Lily changing into her Los Angeles County lifeguard uniform.

  Lily tightens the towel around her body and changes in the privacy of the bathroom. She can tell Sam is disappointed she’s not wearing a Baywatch-style swimsuit. Lily zips up her bright orange jacket and pulls her baseball cap low to cover her eyes.

  “We’re going to join you at Zuma,” Sam says as Lily’s getting mic’d for a breakfast scene in the kitchen with the Paleys. “I can’t wait to see you in action!”

  Lily previously agreed to letting production film her at work, but she’s regretting it. There’s a look in Sam’s eyes that Lily distrusts, like she has something planned for Lily during her lifeguarding shift. Lily wouldn’t put it past Sam to orchestrate a drowning scene to film Lily running into the water and “saving” someone. An extra hired by the Platinum Triangle production. It’s obvious that things are fake AF in the reality TV world. Hailey has been ghosting Lily around the house ever since Brandon’s party, but when they’re on camera, it’s like she’s pretending to be Lily’s mentor.

  Lily’s about to tell Sam that, on second thought, she can’t be filmed at the beach while she’s working. But she doesn’t want to be ungrateful to the Paleys. They’ve brought her into their home, and being on camera is a part of the deal. Maybe they won’t film her entire shift.

  “Just please stay out of my way,” Lily says. “I have to do my job.”

  It only gets worse when the camera follows Lily into the main house. There’s a second camera already filming the Paleys.

  Patrick is on the phone with his agent, Ana is blending celery juice (which is all Lily’s seen Whitney eat, and which Whitney swears is the reason for her dewy skin), and Hailey is leaning against the kitchen island scrolling through her phone as she talks about the Dress for Success charity fashion show she’s hosting next week.

  Hailey always has a project. It was her idea on the first season of Platinum Triangle to get Greta, Valeria, Bea, and their moms to all come over to the Paleys’ house for a tea party and bring old dresses to donate to underprivileged girls in need of something to wear to prom. In another episode Hailey volunteered at an animal shelter—and showed up wearing an alligator-skin backpack.

  Lily is trying not to be cynical as Ana passes her a glass of celery juice. Lily’s stomach grumbles for real food. She just wants to get to the beach. Maybe hit a hot dog stand?

  Whitney is in a somber mood. Lily saw on Instagram that it was her and Patrick’s wedding anniversary last night. Patrick was on set all night, and when he got home, he totally forgot what day it was. Whitney wrote a cryptic tweet about it that’s getting picked up on all the gossip blogs.

  Lily downs her juice, jumping as Patrick snaps at his agent. He’s not happy with the latest rewrite of the Avengers script.

  “I have to go,” Lily says, checking the time on her phone as she brings her glass over to the dishwasher. Ana takes it from her before she can load it herself. “My Uber’s pulling up.” She’s lying. She’s not checking the Uber app on her phone. She’s hitching a ride with Sam and the crew. She just wants to get out of the kitchen, out of this scene.

  “I was thinking maybe we can find a time to all have dinner together?” she asks before she goes, looking from Hailey to Whitney. “I’m no chef but I learned how to make a mean risotto while I was on my own. I’d like to cook a meal to show my appreciation for letting me stay here. It’d be good to spend some real time together without the…” Lily glances at the prying cameras. “Just as a family,” she says.

  “That’s a terrific idea,” Whitney says. “How about this weekend? Patrick won’t have to be on set.”

  Lily smiles. Maybe she’s being too hard on the Paleys. Maybe they aren’t completely fake and just need to spend some genuine time together.

  “I love the orange,” Hailey says, looking Lily over in her lifeguard uniform. “It matches your bleach-out.”

  And there it is. Hailey just can’t help but blow her own cover and show the viewers who she truly is. No amount of charity projects can conceal it. Hailey is a bitch. Lily hasn’t said anything about the story on Radar. She knows Hailey will deny being behind it and find a way to make Lily look hysterical and insecure on camera. Hailey has Lily exactly where she wants her—trapped behind the lens.

  “Before you go, Lily,” Whitney says, “I talked to Shapiro this morning.”

  The Paleys’ lawyer had better come through for her.

  “He had good and bad news,” Whitney goes on. “The good news is that he got the charge dropped to a misdemeanor. The bad news is that Chris Taber is refusing to budge. He’s standing behind his statement that you were in on the break-in. He’s even been telling the press it was your idea.”

  “That liar!” Lily snaps. She’s furious. “He dragged me into it and he knows it!”

  Hailey looks up Chris on Instagram. Lily sees the camera zoom in on his photos.

  “Dude does more steroids than Zac Efron!” Hailey laughs at a photo of Chris showing off his guns.

  “I bet he heard that you’re staying with us.” Whitney shakes her head as she sips her celery juice. “And now he thinks he can get money out of you.”

  Lily wants to track Chris down, even if only through DM, and convince him to stop running with this Bonnie and Clyde story and admit that it was all his stupid idea! But she’s under strict legal advice to avoid all contact with Chris or risk it being used against her in court.

  “Well, Lil,” Hailey says, all smiles as she hoists herself up and sits cross-legged on the kitchen island. “The way I see it, you only have one option. You have to rise above! Show Chris and the world that you are not defined by your arrest. Do something that gives back. Maybe by being in my fashion show?”

  “Oh, that’s a wonderful idea!” Whitney exclaims.

  “As a model?” Lily asks.

  “Not just a model,” Hailey says, raising her glass of celery juice. “The showstopper.”

  thejoelstrom

  1.8m followers

  thejoelstrom I was catching some waves and I had some ti
me to reflect…I was thinking a lot about “value”. What has value in my life? What is my value? Being unable to find an answer was kind of an answer of its own. I could spend the rest of my life trying to figure out the value of things, constantly trying to figure out how much time or energy something would take, if I’d enjoy it or not, if it really adds value to my life. But the truth is we never really know if something is going to be of value until we’ve experienced it. And how can you even begin to figure out your own value? You are INFINITE because you are LIVING and an embodiment of ENDLESS POSSIBILITY. The happiest moments of my life have been the moments where I’ve just dived in, no fear…. Those have been the moments where I’ve experienced real beauty and growth. There is no such thing as failure if you learn from all of your PERCEIVED failures and mistakes. That’s how I want to live…free of any kind of restraint or limitation. Just free to be who I am, who I’m becoming, who I’m meant to be. I’m not going to try and assess the value of each and every moment, I’m just going to live it.

  Joel can see Lily sitting at the top of the lifeguard tower at Zuma as he rides to shore and tucks his surfboard under the arm of his wet suit. There’s a Platinum Triangle crew on the beach—two cameras and Sam up the beach taking calls.

  Lily smiles down at Joel as he walks up to the lifeguard post, her blond ponytail blowing in the wind. “I didn’t know you were going to be here!” She jumps down and gives him a hug.

  Joel’s cheeks are red from the sun and the smell of Lily’s hair. The last time they were on the beach together was amazing.

  Sam was the one who told Joel to be at Zuma for the shoot. She said she wanted footage of him and Lily together, and at first Joel said no, but then the more he thought about it…Joel trusts Lily. She dodged the cameras with him at Hailey’s milli party, so maybe she’s not like all the other girls hoping to get close to him to be on the show. And maybe it’s not a bad idea for them to have a scene together this season. Joel’s a moth to the flame. All he knows is how to catch fire and burn. A scene with Lily is the exact right play after Hailey kissed him at her party. Joel’s sick of letting Hailey call the shots and catch him in her web of storylines.

  “Funny you’re here,” Joel says. “I was thinking of you today.” It’s one of the rules of the show. Never break the fourth wall. Don’t look at the cameras and don’t reference anything related to the production. Pretend you just bumped into each other and cameras happened to be there to capture it all.

  “I actually have a break right now,” Lily says. Another lifeguard is coming over to take her post. “You wanna walk?” she asks Joel.

  They walk along the shoreline with the cameras, one walking backward in front of them and the other filming them from the side, framed against the ocean.

  “It’s official,” Joel says. “I’m not leaving the beach for the rest of summer. It goes so fast.” Just under a month until the new school year starts. But Joel knows the real end of summer will be the premiere of Platinum Triangle. It’ll be a circus, and Joel will have to do the red carpet and interviews; he’ll have to be “on” and pretend.

  “When did you start lifeguarding?” Joel asks.

  “This is my first summer,” Lily says. “But I’ve always been drawn to the water. I taught beginner swimming lessons last summer, and I’m on my school’s swim team.”

  “Maybe you’ll try out for New Beverly’s team in the fall,” Joel says. New Beverly High School might actually be bearable if Lily is around for junior year. School is like everything else in Beverly Hills: just another playground full of drama…

  “If I’m still here,” Lily says. “The Paleys may not be a permanent state of surreality.”

  “How’s it going so far?” Joel asks.

  Lily stops and stares out at the water, considering how to answer. Joel can tell she’s self-conscious on camera. It’s the beginning of the end when you realize that people are watching you and that your thoughts are immortalized and so it’s dangerous having them. You can lose everything because of a single thought, and so you have to measure them. Thoughts become lies.

  “I just don’t know if I can trust it,” Lily finally says. “I don’t know if it’s real…”

  Lily starts to pace up the beach, as if to get some distance from the cameras that follow anyway, and Joel is right with her.

  “This morning at breakfast I felt like I couldn’t speak. My Aunt Whitney brought up my court case and I just don’t feel like I can explain myself at all. Like it has already been explained for me. Do you ever feel like you’ve been cast and are just playing a part instead of living real life?”

  “All the time,” Joel says. Joel is on a billboard advertising the new season of Platinum Triangle near the Chateau Marmont. He wants to blow himself up.

  “It’s not that I won’t talk about my arrest,” Lily continues as they keep walking along the beach. “I want to talk about it. I want people to know the truth. But it’s like there’s no room for the truth in the narrative…. If I’m not the bad cousin from the wrong side of the tracks, then I’m the victim abandoned by her mom and falling in with a wild crowd. No matter how it’s written, every time we’re in a room together it ends up the same. With Hailey and Whitney acting like only they can save me.”

  Joel knows that by “in a room together” Lily means “filming together” because that’s what it starts to feel like for every family on the show. At a certain point you realize that you’re never together as a family unless there’s a camera on you.

  “I don’t want to sound ungrateful,” Lily says. “But it wasn’t terrible on my own, you know? I wasn’t scared. I realized I could do it. That said, it’s kind of nice to not have to do it. To have people who want to take care of you…or at least pretend to.”

  It’s like once Lily starts opening up she can’t stop. Joel knows how dangerous that can be. If being on camera doesn’t make you censor yourself, then it has the opposite effect—it makes you think there are no consequences, that you can say and do anything because you really are just a character playing a part.

  “There’s a part of me that thinks I’d be better off if I were still in the Valley,” Lily says. “I don’t think Hailey really wants me around. It’s like I’m the equivalent of the fashion show she’s planning, like I’m her new project or something.”

  “Hailey’s a puppet master,” Joel says. He knows it’ll be a line that goes viral when the episode airs, but Joel doesn’t care. He doesn’t owe Hailey his loyalty. Joel heard Hailey laughing in the background of Brandon’s video. He knows what’s up. Hailey isn’t there for Greta when it counts. She’s more interested in the drama of the moment than in a real friendship with his sister. It’s taken Greta so long to learn that. He doesn’t want Lily to fall into the same trap.

  Joel reaches for Lily’s hand. He feels her thumb delicately tracing over the scab on his knuckle from the fight.

  “You should stick around,” Joel says. He remembers the first night they talked in the pool house. “You can survive here. You can make yourself.”

  realvalerialeon

  3.3m followers

  robertaalistair @RealValeriaLeon Are you even real?!

  amyhayyter U so perf

  amyhayyter Like wtf

  amyhayyter How can anyone be that much perf

  jillsami_ Your dad is crazy @realvalerialeon

  krista_kahn_ Has been ! No one will ever care again

  ellelkools Beta kitten programming

  Valeria lets herself into Patrick’s suite at the Montage Beverly Hills. Patrick gave her a key in his trailer on the Avengers set after he gave her the Cartier earrings. She took precautions, including oversize sunglasses and a blond wig her mom once forced her to wear for an audition.

  She didn’t get the part.

  Maybe she should keep the wig on. Patrick might like it. But no, he has enough blonds in his life. Isn’t he meeting her because she’s different? Or is it just because she’s young? That’s why she agreed to this arrang
ement with Patrick: because if she didn’t, there might be another man willing to help, a man who likes them even younger. Valeria has to protect Sophia. As long as her mother’s claws are sunk into Valeria, her little sister is safe.

  Valeria will meet Patrick, but she draws the line at the hotel room auditions her mother has tried to set up for her. Her talent is the one thing Valeria still has. She won’t meet a producer in private, no matter how powerful.

  Her phone rings. “Dr. Seuss” appears on the caller ID.

  “You in the suite?” Patrick asks as soon as she answers.

  “I’m here,” Valeria says.

  “Good girl. Wearing the earrings?”

  “Yes. Where are you?”

  “I’m still on set. Get naked. Leave the earrings on.”

  “When will you be here?”

  “Get naked,” Patrick repeats. “Lay down on the bed and wait for me.”

  He hangs up.

  Valeria isn’t going to strip right away. The air in the suite is kind of cold. How long does he expect her to wait?

  A text comes into her phone. Naked?

  She lies and says yes and asks for his ETA.

  Send a photo, he replies.

  Valeria’s about to refuse, but her mother told her to take this as an acting job, and in acting, when a casting director asks you if you can do something, you always say yes. Can you horseback ride? Yes. Can you samba? Yes. Can you fly? Yes. Of course. You say yes, and figure out how to grow wings later.

  So Valeria takes off everything but the Panthère de Cartier earrings, and once she’s completely naked, she lies back down on the bed and takes a photo. She’s never sent a nude before. She’s always been aware of the Twitterstorm if it were to leak. But she trusts Patrick. If she goes down, he goes down harder.

  ETA? She asks again.

  He doesn’t respond for fifteen minutes. Valeria just lies there, naked and cold, staring up at the ceiling.