Starboys

by Jeremy Jenkins

  “Oh, so you’re trying not to get attached,” I snapped, continuing walking through the village.

  Mason followed. “Of course I’m trying not to get attached. In this business, you never know what’s going to happen day by day. You never know who’s waiting to ruin your reputation.”

  “Ruin your reputation? Please,” I said, thinking of Reese and how he was afraid of Rachel’s husband leaking some big secret. “Reputation doesn’t matter…”

  “Don’t lie to yourself,” Mason sneered. “Reputation is everything. You know this — I saw your Instagram post with Crim and Oliver. Doesn’t it feel good? That rush of fame? That’s the feeling of your reputation rising.”

  “I don’t care about that,” I said.

  “Oh stop being so self-righteous. You love it; we all do,” he said.

  “Oh really?” I asked, tilting my head to the side. “And what’s your reputation, Mason? Seems to me like everyone thinks you’re a gossip, and that you stir up drama where there doesn’t need to be any.”

  His face fell. I’d struck a nerve. “Who’s saying that?”

  “Reese,” I said simply.

  Mason’s face curled into a look of loathing.

  Even so, he was still stunning.

  “Let me tell you about Reese Riley,” he said, his words coming out carefully now. More pronounced. “Surely you’ve found out by now that me and Reese used to be a thing.”

  I hesitated, then nodded. Still filled with anger, I taunted, “What, did he break your heart?”

  “On the contrary,” Mason said. “He did something so… so bad that I didn’t even recognize who he was anymore. And now he’s wandering around the set, acting like the world’s most perfect director, pretending like nothing ever happened.”

  “What happened?” I asked, my curiosity chomping at the bit.

  “It doesn’t matter now,” Mason said quickly, regaining himself and looking around for eavesdroppers.

  “It’s important for me to know,” I said, standing my ground. I thought of the video Alina showed me -- the one where her director took advantage of her. Even though I knew in my heart that Reese would never do that, I had to prepare myself for anything he might try. “Who else knows?” I asked, searching for more entry points to this secret.

  Mason tilted his head back for a moment, thinking. “Alina, Rachel, Leo, probably Oliver,” he said. “But they don’t know the whole story.”

  “Then tell me the whole story!” I said impatiently.

  “Not here,” Mason said, looking left, then right.

  The streets were empty.

  “Come on, let’s get ice cream or something,” he said.

  I was stunned by this change of pace, but I’d take it.

  A few minutes later, we were at the local gelato place.

  “What flavor do you like best?” Mason asked me.

  “I like strawberry, but I don’t know if I want that today… all of these flavors are new to me.”

  “Ok,” he said, then turned to the server. “We’ll get one of each.”

  I scrunched up my face. “Isn’t that wasteful?”

  He shrugged. “I’m paying for all of them. I might eat all of the ones you don’t. Who cares?”

  I was openmouthed as it dawned on me: Mason — and myself now, were the kind of people that could afford to buy all of the flavors of ice cream in a shop if we wanted to. Money was no longer an issue; I could live a life of complete indulgence.

  We took a seat at the back of the rustic little shop. It was chilly in here — almost as chilly as Mason’s bright blue eyes as he looked at me.

  “So what were we saying about Ree—”

  Mason cut me off with a look, then he pointed his eyes at the server.

  “Oh, right. Um.. What were you saying about —”

  The waiter brought out the first flight of small gelato cups: green Pistachio, beige creme brûlée, tawny tiramisu, and rosy Amarena cherry.

  “About Ross?” Mason murmured, the pseudonym filling the air between us.

  “Y-yeah. About Ross,” I said, picturing Reese.

  Even though the waiter was out of earshot, Mason leaned in closer and whispered. “I used to call him Ross when we were out in public together. So that no one would recognize him, you know?”

  “Wouldn’t they recognize you first before him?” I asked.

  “Depends on the age. Ross used to be a big name actor back in the eighties when he was a teenager, so older people know him. Younger people would recognize me. I had a fake name too, but it doesn’t matter. What matters here is what he did,” Mason said, stabbing a tiny spoon into the pistachio gelato.

  “What was that?” I asked, leaning in.

  “I’m only telling you because everyone around you already knows, and since you’re part of the cast now, you should know too.”

  My mind felt like an avalanche as I pictured every worst-case scenario.

  Mason leaned forward, his eyes hard and serious. “He had a bunch of guys in his basement.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  “What?” I whispered, frowning. “What do you mean?”

  Mason shoveled another spoonful of green pistachio gelato into his mouth, taking his gaze off of me. “I mean one time I came over to his house, and he wasn’t home, and there were a bunch of fucking dudes in his basement!” Mason said.

  “Wait wait wait,” I urged, trying to wrap my mind around the situation. “I don’t understand.”

  “What’s not to get?” Mason asked, raising one of his dark, sculpted eyebrows.

  “Were they trapped in there or something?” I asked. Then I thought of Alina. “How old were they? Was he… was he sleeping with them?”

  “I don’t know. I never found out,” Mason said, his voice hollow.

  My mind was trying to shift to disbelief; making the image of Reese I had in my head somehow fit the version of Reese Mason was telling me about was painful.

  “How did you find out?” I asked breathlessly, hungry for details. “How did the media not find out?”

  “Well, I found out like I told you. When we were together, I went over to his house one day to surprise him. He wasn’t home and it was our three-month anniversary…”

  His face curled up into a half-smile as he poked at the tiramisu gelato.

  “I heard a noise in the basement. For a bit, I thought it was Reese, so I went down to investigate. Then I heard the noise again, and it sounded like it was coming from a closet.”

  “He had guys in his closet? How many?” I asked, my eyebrow rising.

  “Well that’s the thing,” Mason said, leaning in further. “I parted some clothes that were hanging there, and there was a secret door behind them.”

  I put my hand to my mouth as my eyes went wide.

  “Yeah. And I opened the door to find five dudes, all looking like they were eighteen, staring at me.”

  “No way,” I said breathlessly.

  “Yes way,” Mason said. “Anyway, that was enough for me to put two and two together. He was obviously cheating on me.”

  “What was his side of the story?” I asked.

  Mason narrowed his eyes at me. “You’re willing to give him the benefit of the doubt?! You don’t believe me?”

  Mason stood up, the chair screeching the floor as it jutted out behind him.

  “No one believed me!” he hissed.

  My eyes were wide, surprised at his sudden outburst.

  “No, I just want to know the whole story,” I said, watching him carefully.

  “Well. You’ll just have to ask Ree— Ross for that!” he said with a frown.

  And just like that, he turned on his heel and stormed out of the gelato place.

  The waiter brought another flight of gelato out while I was stunned. He asked me something in Italian— I’m sure it was something about asking if Mason was going to come back. I didn’t know how to tell him no.

  The green lump was melting around Mason’s spoon.

>   For some reason, I felt an overpowering sensation to talk to Oliver about all of this. I longed for that feeling of camaraderie between us when we shared drinks at the secret bar…

  I pulled out my phone and composed a message to Oliver.

  “Take a break from work and meet me at the gelato place,” I said.

  I half-expected him to ignore me, but the gray bubble popped up almost instantly.

  “Not in the mood,” he said.

  “But I have gelato. Lots of it. I need you to help me eat it,” I typed back.

  “Have to work,” he typed back.

  I paused, thinking. Then I typed, “I have tea.”

  “You better mean the good kind,” he said.

  “It’s extra spicy,” I typed back.

  Five minutes later, Oliver was sitting in the chair across from me and digging a tiny spoon into the creme brûlée gelato.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” he said, his green eyes boring into me.

  “That’s what he said!” I urged. “Did you know anything about this? You always seem to know what’s going on…”

  Oliver sat up a little taller. “The only thing I knew about this was that Reese’s lawyer paid off some guy to keep quiet about something. I knew there were some younger guys involved, and Reese said it was a party or whatever. But that whole thing about Mason finding them in a closet? That’s just weird.”

  “I thought so, too.” I agreed.

  Oliver finished the creme brûlée, then stared off into the distance.

  “You still thinking about work?” I guessed, trying to tiptoe around him asking me to leave last night.

  “How did you know?” he asked, returning his attention to me. “Someone keeps taking my time away from it.”

  I frowned, feeling that same pain of rejection as when he asked me to get out of his bed. Instead, I crossed my legs and changed the subject. “I saw the scene between Lady Bryn and Princess Valentine today. Their dresses looked stunning.”

  His cheek muscles twitched as he fought back a prideful smile. “I’m glad you think so, but they only took me two days to make, each. They’re probably my worst work, but I wouldn’t expect you to know good from bad, Farm Boy,” he said.

  I scowled, but softened when I recognized the mischievous glint in his eye.

  We were back to banter.

  “At least I know that the kind of fabric both actresses were wearing were far too heavy to be believable,” I fired back.

  Oliver put his hand to his heart and looked at me in a scandalized way.

  “You should have known that this scene took place in Kabrae in the book which is described to have a hot, Mediterranean climate,” I finished, digging the knife in as I popped a spoonful of tiramisu gelato into my mouth. “Not realistic for them to be wearing literal drapes.”

  “It’s fantasy!” Oliver declared, but there was a glint of respect in his eye. “What do you know about fabric, anyway?”

  “I’m a stylist, remember? That includes more things than hair,” I winked. Secretly, I was referring to the few summers when I’d briefly attended college that I spent working at Macy’s, but he didn’t need to know that.

  “Well well well, looks like the Farm Boy has some class,” Oliver muttered, drumming his fingers on his arm. “But you still have no work ethic. Which is surprising since you come from some middle-of-nowhere town in the midwest. Aren’t you guys supposed to be known by your silly workaholic ways?”

  A twinge of annoyance flickered within me. My father had gotten on my ass throughout my teenage years for “work ethic,” which in his mind meant insane hours. According to him, if you weren’t spending every moment of your life toiling away on something in the most difficult possible way, you weren’t working hard enough.

  “I don’t have a job right now,” I faltered.

  “Oh, that’s right,” Oliver said, his face twisting into a smile. “Alina fired you. But it’s all good because Reese hired you. What a wild twist of fate!”

  I couldn’t tell if he was joking or bantering or what anymore. I was about to say something to defend myself, but Oliver cut me off.

  “…her hair looks awful since you stopped handling it, by the way,” he said.

  I was taken aback by his concession. He was giving me footing.

  “Wait, really?” I asked, poking at the cherry flavor.

  Oliver nodded. “That bish needs to get her house in order. You heard what happened, right?”

  “I don’t know, but I have a feeling I’m about to find out,” I muttered. Even though I was trying to act like I didn’t care that much, I was hungry for scraps of gossip about Alina. Maybe this was what it felt like to be Mason…

  Oliver leaned in and whispered, “Her and Rachel had some sort of falling out.”

  “Wait, you know about that?!” I cried.

  “Of course I know about that,” he snapped. “Who do you think she came crawling to be her new Gay Best Friend after she ditched you?”

  I pursed my lips. I didn’t like that I could be so easily replaced.

  “Anyway, yeah she told me. And she also told me that she and Rachel had some kind of fight. Rachel threatened Alina with some video or something… I don’t know, I wasn’t really paying attention.”

  “You’re a bad friend,” I said dryly.

  He shrugged. “Bish came knocking on my door wanting to be friends with me! I didn’t agree with it — I had to work.”

  I re-crossed my legs. “So Alina and Rachel are over with. Got it.”

  That explained the weird tension in the scene today.

  Then, things began to knit together in my mind. Rachel’s husband had something on Reese — some evidence that he was using as blackmail. Could that be about the guys in his basement…?

  “I… I have to talk to Reese,” I said suddenly, standing up.

  “Wait, what? What the hell Charlie, you can’t just ask me out and then leave—”

  “Just go back to work where you want to be!” I snapped, then stormed out of the gelato place.

  The only thought that was on my mind was finding Reese. There had to be some misunderstanding with this whole thing; some sort of missing piece of information that would re-color the whole thing.

  Reese wasn’t a monster; he couldn’t be.

  “Charlie, wait!” Oliver cried from behind me.

  I picked up my pace.

  “Fine, don’t slow down!” he complained as he caught up. “I’m coming with you.”

  “Why? Don’t you have work to do?” I snapped. It may have come out of my mouth harsher than I intended…

  “Not right now. I want to get to the bottom of this with you,” he said. “I work for Reese too, remember?”

  I nodded begrudgingly. So we were both going to confront him at the same time; this could only go so well.

  But Oliver did have a point; he deserved to know, too. We all deserved to know the truth.

  When we arrived at Reese’s trailer though, we could hear a charged discussion happening inside.

  I raised my hand to knock on the door.

  “Charlie, wait—!” Oliver hissed.

  But it was too late. I was done eavesdropping; I was done hearing about information from different sources; all the gossip and rumors and lies. That’s the kind of thing that made my high school self miserable.

  I knocked on the door.

  The voices inside went quiet. A few seconds later, the door opened to reveal Reese standing there. Mason was on the couch behind him.

  I narrowed my eyes.

  Reese looked from me to Oliver, then stepped aside to let us in. It was like he was expecting us all along.

  “I think I know what this is about,” he said sharply, his tongue dancing around the words.

  I was quiet as I stepped up into the trailer, then took a seat on the couch across from Mason. Oliver sat next to him, looking uncomfortable.

  Reese turned to Mason and asked, “happy?”

  Mason nodded slow
ly, looking like his mind was a million miles away.

  “You know what, I might as well call the others in here, too. Let’s just announce everything to the whole bloody cast, shall we?” Reese said, running his hand through his hair.

  Mason didn’t say anything. He was watching Reese with a strange curiosity on his face. Though, there was an edge missing from it.

  He wasn’t trying to create drama. For once he was watching it unfold without being the puppet master.

  Reese typed on his phone for a bit as we all waited in silence. A few minutes later, there was another knock on the door. Reese opened it to reveal Crim and Leo standing in the night.

  “Thanks for coming on such short notice,” Reese said cordially. “I was hoping Alina could make it too, but we’ll have to make do without her.”

  I shifted in my seat as Crim and Leo sat on either side of me. Here I was, surrounded by all of my crushes. Blush rose into my cheeks; I couldn’t help it.

  Crim snuck his arm along the back of the couch so that it was draped over the pack of my seat.

  I began picking my thumb nervously. In a way, it felt like I was about to get yelled at or something; like I was the one who’d been caught doing something wrong.

  Reese straightened his tie, regaining control of the room. “I’m sure you’ve all heard the rumors,” he snapped, glaring at Mason. “So I invited you all here to set things straight. As many of you know, Mason and I used to date.”

  “Worst mistake of my life,” Mason grumbled, though there was a look of longing in his eyes whenever he glanced at Reese.

  “Your perception of what we had isn’t my responsibility,” Reese said cooly. “But what is my responsibility is your perception of me as your boss.”

  I bit my lip, watching Reese as my respect for him increased a little. Maybe he wasn’t a monster after all; maybe this was all a huge misunderstanding.

  Leo leaned forward and rested his chin on his hands. His legs splayed and one of his knees grazed mine. I was suddenly lost in the memory of him kissing me against the cliff…

  Reese cleared his throat, regaining my attention.

  “It’s not well-known, but I’m Hispanic.”