by Raziel Reid
Lily goes straight to the pool house, closes the door behind her, and leans against it. She buries her face in her hands. She’s about to let herself break down and cry when a voice across the room surprises her.
“Hey, you okay?”
Lily drops her hands. Idris is sitting on the couch flipping through the Bettina Rheims book on the coffee table.
“What are you doing here?” Lily asks.
“I know we’re done our lessons. But I miss hanging out with you.” Idris looks shyly at Lily.
“You okay?” he asks again. “You look kind of pale. Maybe you should sit down.”
Lily collapses next to him on the couch.
“You wanna talk about it?” Idris asks.
She opens her mouth but no words come out. Her mind is spinning.
“No.” Lily slowly turns her head toward Idris. “I don’t want to talk.”
thejoelstrom
1.8m followers
jkleejk (931) 320-8171 Joel’s number has been exposed!! Call him and ask how he’s doing!!
londonboy99 @thejoelstrom I unfollowed @brandocadogan
raeanne_silvvaaaa Sending you love bb
mscdeb I could be your nurse…
alessiaxtilliana PLEASE lb before you’re dead
mdihx @thejoelstrom Our poor husband!! @staciewasneverhere
annayesir Hope your face isn’t fucked up man! You don’t have nothing else @thejoelstrom
Joel’s doctor prescribed him OxyContin for the pain. Gotta love Hollywood doctors. Joel is lit AF. Joel’s mom wants him to go straight home but he insists on taking an Uber to see Lily.
“I’m fine,” Joel tells his mom. “I’ve taken falls on my board worse than the crash.”
“Your car flipped over!” Kathy cries. It’s been an emotional roller coaster since Greta overdosed. At least some good came of it. Greta’s in rehab. Joel’s too numb from the meds to process it all.
The crash definitely looks worse than it was. He watched a time-lapse video on his phone of his Targa flipping. So crazy. He doesn’t care about the car. It can be replaced. He’s just not so sure about him and Lily.
Joel regrets deleting their photo. He’s still mad that she went on his phone, especially because it kept him away from Greta, but now that Greta’s entered treatment, Joel’s not going to hold on to his anger. It’s over now. And everything turned out all right. Brandon’s getting trolled online and people are saying he’s finally gone too far this time…that’s all the justice Joel needs.
Now what he wants is to see Lily. After almost losing everything, he knows what matters. Lily didn’t mean for any of this to happen. Her only fault is letting Hailey get in her head, but they’re all guilty of that.
Joel had thought it was Lily who came to visit him in the hospital and who he was kissing. He was so out of it from the pills that he only realized it wasn’t Lily mid-kiss when he opened his eyes and his vision cleared. But then the meds took full effect and he passed out. Joel woke up with so much anxiety, knowing something was wrong.
When he gets to the Paleys’ house, Joel doesn’t ring the bell at the front door. He wants to avoid seeing Hailey in case she’s home. He goes around the side of the house and over to the pool house.
He stops when he sees Lily and Idris through the window, kissing.
realvalerialeon
3.3m followers
iamnicola_ Wish I could be u…@realvalerialeon
Valeria sits on Hailey’s bed next to Hailey, who is recounting how she found Greta at Poppy and saved her life. The way Hailey is martyring herself you’d think she’d given Greta a piece of her liver or whatever Selena’s friend did for her. Doesn’t Hailey know that no one’s watching? But maybe that stopped mattering a long time ago. Valeria drowns her out.
She thought she would’ve heard back from the producers of Almost Everything by now. She nailed the audition. It had been just like she remembered when she was a kid, that intuitive feeling that she was everything they had dreamed she would be.
“I’m just glad Greta’s in rehab now,” Hailey says, feigning concern. “She’s at Cliffside Malibu. It burned down in the Woolsey fire and they rebranded.”
“I hope she’s doing okay,” Valeria says.
“Oh, she’ll be fine. You get your phone back after seventy-two hours.”
Hailey sighs, shaking her head. “All of this could’ve been avoided if Lily hadn’t tried to keep me away from Joel. She’s so insecure.”
Valeria listens as Hailey fills her in on how Lily purposely ignored Hailey’s call.
“She could’ve saved two lives,” Hailey says.
“Well, Joel’s being discharged today and Greta’s safe,” Valeria says. “In a weird way, everything worked out for the best.”
Valeria wants to know if anyone has asked Hailey how she really feels about Joel and her cousin getting together. Has Greta? She’s supposedly closest to Hailey—but even now, sitting on Hailey’s bed with her, Valeria knows what it means to be both close and miles away from Hailey at the same time. It’s unlikely anyone has asked Hailey how she feels. What are they so afraid of? Hailey has a way of making you feel like talking about emotions is lowbrow, that it’s embarrassing to even admit to having them.
“Remember last year when you accused me of only wanting to hang out with you on camera?” Hailey asks.
Valeria doesn’t remember. She doesn’t think about the past. It causes her too much anxiety. But she does vaguely recall a particularly icy period in her friendship with Hailey last year when she called Hailey out one episode. That had been fun. And like all things, it had passed.
Valeria used to think she was morally superior to Hailey. Is she being punished?
“So I thought we could hang out today,” Hailey says. “Just the two of us, no cameras. Like old times. We could hit Anastasia. Or we could stay in and eat ice cream in the theater while we sexually exploit Armie Hammer and Timothée Chalamet.”
Valeria smiles. Guy-on-guy fantasies did bond them one Oscar season.
“That sounds fun,” Valeria says. But she’s suspicious. The way Hailey is watching her, Valeria feels like she’s under a magnifying glass. Like Hailey is holding it angled at the sun and trying to set her on fire.
Valeria’s phone rings. It’s her mom. Valeria can barely make out what she’s saying she’s talking so fast. And then all of a sudden Valeria hears it, the words she’s been waiting for. The words that mean so much.
You got the part!
paleyhailey
1m followers
paleyhailey I can make grown men follow me to hell.
As soon as Valeria leaves, Hailey removes a bottle of Klonopin from her Benedetta Bruzziches minaudière and swallows a pill dry.
Such a busy schedule of destroying lives to maintain!
First, a text to Fortune. Her patience has worn thin. Time to play hardball.
Lock down Joel as my date this weekend for the premiere or I will still use the Paley power to influence the producers to have your broke ass fired!!
And look good doing it.
Next, an appointment with Nurse Jamie. While getting a Platinum Lift facial, she reflects on recent events. Joel kissed her, and at first Hailey was so happy, nothing could’ve made the moment better—except maybe if it had been on camera. But halfway through the kiss, Joel murmured that he “forgave” her for ignoring Hailey’s call, and Hailey realized he was out of it from his pain meds and thought she was Lily.
Third on the agenda: dropping a nuke.
But first, snack time! Two dozen chocolate bouchons from Bouchon Bakery. Followed by a good fifteen-minute purge.
Ah.
Now she can decimate Valeria Leon.
Hailey comes out from the back of the house wearing a Milly ruffled bandeau striped bikini top and bottoms.
Patrick is sitting in a chaise lounge next to the pool with his Avengers script. He looks at Hailey through his black Ray-Bans.
“Hi, Daddy,” Hailey says a
s she sits at the edge of the pool.
Patrick lowers his script.
“Hey, princess,” he says. “Heard about the Strom twins. They going to be all right?”
“Oh, they’ll survive.” Hailey dips her toes in the water. Her iridescent pink nail polish sparkles under the sunlight.
“And how’s Lily doing?” Patrick asks. He looks at her intently.
“I’m kind of worried about her, to be honest,” Hailey says. “Fame really goes to some girls’ heads. And it’s all happened so fast for Lily…”
“She isn’t being a negative influence on you, is she?” Patrick asks vaguely. He’s back to his script. Sometimes Hailey pretends she’s an Avengers character so that her father might pay attention to her. She’s Enchantress.
“Oh, Lily’s harmless,” Hailey says. “She’s just trying to fit in. If anything, I hope to be an influence on her. I feel really protective of Lily.”
“That’s great, sweetie.” Patrick doesn’t look up from his page.
Hailey glides into the pool and does a few languid laps before climbing out and wrapping a towel around her waist. She comes up to the end of Patrick’s chaise, blocking the sun with her head. It casts a shadow on him.
A bead of water drips from Hailey’s hair onto the script. Patrick looks up from the wet spot.
“Daddy, I’ve been thinking about getting into the industry. There’s this part on a sitcom that I think I would be perfect for.”
brandocadogan
333k followers
ariffmalamgns03 Brando you’re a piece of shit bro
black_neslii69 I love yr sarcasm , and how you can laugh at yourself , hey shit happens I’ve been there before
jenna_nina17 You are a very evil person. Despicable.
lolliiiiipooopppp Scum of the earth
mannarart Just do the world a favor and die already!
Brandon’s dad isn’t screaming at him. There are no threats of military school. No comparison to his older brother, who happens to arrive home from Chile just in time to throw Brandon’s latest controversy in his face. “Still a homicidal maniac, I see,” Conrad jokes when he sees him. “Some things never change.”
L.Y. sighs and rubs his eyes as Brandon sits across the desk from him in the home office. Brandon keeps waiting for it, the guilt trip—how he’s killing his mother, how it’s all his fault. But it doesn’t come. It’s better when his dad is yelling at him. The silence is worse. It’s the unspeakable.
“Our lawyers are dealing with the police,” L.Y. finally says. “It’ll be a miracle if there aren’t charges brought against you. And you’ll be lucky if the Stroms don’t sue. You know how shameless that family is.”
Morgan hasn’t said anything about the drag race. Brandon’s been holed up in his room, drinking whiskey and smoking Spice all day. His mom is out with Conrad. She’s feeling better today. Before Brandon left for the drag race, he overheard his mom crying to his dad about how selfish he is for not taking more time off of work to be with her while she’s sick. She was acting like she doesn’t have much time left.
The only person Brandon has reached out to is Bea. But she’s ghosting him. She wrote a post about “eliminating toxic people from your life.” Brandon knows she doesn’t have a choice. Her followers are turning on her, trying to force her to take a stand against Brandon. She has to protect her brand.
Brandon’s entire body is kind of trembling and he can’t stop. He thinks he hears someone whispering behind him. You are a very evil person. Despicable. But when he turns around, no one’s there.
The truth is, Brandon choked. He was racing against Joel Strom. The Joel Strom. And Brandon was intimidated. That’s why he kept pushing back the date of the race. He said it was to customize his new wheels, but it’s really because he was afraid. Brandon didn’t try to cause Joel to crash, no matter what people think. Brandon lost control of the wheel. It wasn’t just the possible humiliation of losing. He could’ve handled that. But there was this moment while they were racing when Brandon caught his own eyes in the rearview mirror and saw his mom’s face.
L.Y.’s office phone rings. Brandon sees the name on the call display: Dr. Rick Bancroft.
“I have to take this,” L.Y. says. “It’s your mother’s doctor.” He gives Brandon one last tired look before answering the call.
Brandon slips out of the office but leaves the door open a crack as he listens in on his dad, who has put the caller on speaker.
“What’s the diagnosis, Rick?” L.Y. asks. “Has she lost her mind?”
“She’s aware of what she’s doing, L.Y. She doesn’t believe her own lies…”
“Why the hell is she lying in the first place?”
“She’s lonely. She likes the attention you’ve been giving her. She talked about the trip to Switzerland for thirty minutes without once mentioning the treatments she was supposedly there for. She said it was the first time you two had gone away in years.”
“It’s the show,” L.Y. says. “She was just fine before she got caught up on that goddamn show.”
“The pressure to remain relevant and have an interesting storyline may be playing a part…”
Brandon steps away from his dad’s office door. Rick Morton is one of L.Y.’s golf buddies. They play at the Bel-Air Country Club every weekend. He’s not treating Morgan for cancer. Dr. Bancroft is a psychiatrist.
shelby.b.sanders you poor sick little idiot @brandocadogan
beagetty
11m followers
directordiovoice Instagram models are trash.
The Mentions about Joel Strom are so hysterical. Bea doesn’t care! She likes Joel and everything and she’s glad that he’s not dead but she’s not, like, outraged in the way her followers want her to be. She’s not joining the mob and tearing Brandon down. But there’s no way that she can be associated with him right now. Brandon’s not the look.
So Bea unfollows him.
Thank you. Next. Bea’s moving on. Her career is heating up! Not only did she just launch her own clothing line for @prettylittlething, but her agent wants her to be Sam Mendes’s new beard. It’ll practically guarantee that Bea will be on season 3 of Platinum Triangle. Her role has been vulnerable ever since her mom quit. The show is built on the families. If Bea can bring in a high-profile romance as a storyline, not only will she secure a future on the show, she’ll secure modeling work. Reality TV fame and her Instagram following are directly connected to editorial and runway interest in her. When they did their first campaign together, Marc Jacobs admitted he watches the show. It all started with a follow.
Bea’s followers are trying to demand that she denounce Brandon. Unfollowing him isn’t enough. They want to hear her loathe him. Joel Strom is America’s golden boy and Brandon is, like, Darth Vader. It’ll be interesting to see what route Brandon goes on as a character on the show. Will he take it as far as Spencer Pratt on The Hills and become a caricature of himself, becoming so much the villain that it’s comical? Or will he get dark and become a Hollywood teen tragedy?
Bea’s sitting alone at the bar at the Chateau Marmont drinking a martini; she hasn’t eaten anything all week. When it’s hot out, she doesn’t have an appetite. While she’s drinking, she comes up with a few things she could tweet in response to her followers’ demands for a statement regarding Brandon and the drag race. She could send out her well-wishes to Joel. Thoughts and prayers!! Bea laughs out loud. Or…she could continue to remain silent. No comment. It’s a bit cold, but Bea’s heard rumblings that MKTV is booking some of the Platinum Triangle cast to appear on Ellen next week to promote the new season. Everyone is saying it’s going to be Whitney, Kathy, Hailey, and Greta, but since Greta’s in rehab and Bea is trending over her breakup with Brandon, she might be the right replacement!
Bea orders another martini and slips into Conrad’s DMs. She heard he’s back in town. He agrees to meet her at her bungalow. She’s not contractually tied to Sam Mendes yet! Why not live a little?
Before
Conrad arrives, Bea takes a few pills. The male model she was shooting with earlier gave them to her; she’s not sure what they are. Bea is topless and clicking Like on all her haters’ comments when Conrad shows up.
She’s a pretty little thing getting fucked by her boyfriend’s brother. For more, pick up the latest issue of Vogue!
thejoelstrom
1.8m followers
thejoelstrom My dad always told me “thoughts become things”
After catching Lily with Idris, Joel just wants to forget. He spends the next couple of days ignoring the doctors’ orders for bed rest and escapes to the beach. He doesn’t go to Zuma, to avoid running into Lily. She hasn’t tried to get in touch since Joel’s been out of the hospital.
When he’s not surfing, he’s skating. Joel’s at Venice Beach Skate Park when Conrad Cadogan sends him a text inviting him to a poker game that night at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Conrad’s back in town and offering to cover the six figures to get Joel into the game. Joel knows that it’s probably L.Y. Cadogan’s idea, his way of softening Joel up so that there won’t be a lawsuit over the crash.
If Joel’s being used, he doesn’t care. He doesn’t care about anything anymore. Not just because of the pills he’s on, but because seeing Lily and Idris kissing in the Paleys’ pool house flicked a switch in him. Is everyone fake? He thought he could trust Lily. He thought he was falling in love with her.
Joel arrives at the Presidential Suite of the Beverly Hills Hotel after dark. When Joel enters, his HUF hat pulled low over his eyes, there are eight players total—two Saudis, one of whom Joel thinks might be royalty, a ’90s child star who won an Oscar, a girl who looks like she could be a supermodel or a Russian spy, this socialite who dated a Vanderpump Rules star, Conrad, and his buddy who is coked out AF and who Joel recognizes as a former student at New Beverly. It’s a motley crew, and Joel doesn’t really know what he’s in for.