“I’m cool. I told you last night. I’m not even trippin’ over him.”
“Tell that to someone who doesn’t know you,” she replied. “But the question is, what are you gonna do about it?”
I fell back across my bed. “There’s nothing for me to do. Like he said, we’re not together, so it’s no biggie. I’m moving on.”
“As well you should,” she said. “But you also shouldn’t let that freak come in and steal your man.”
“Bryce is not my man.”
Kennedi didn’t pay my protests any attention as she kept talking. “I told you I didn’t have a good feeling about her. She wants to be you so bad that she’s settling for your sloppy seconds.”
“Yeah, I’m gonna deal with her, but can we talk about something else?” As much as I wanted to beat Jayla down, that wasn’t my style. But I fully intended to have her fired immediately.
“Fine,” Kennedi huffed. “But you better tell her about herself or I will.”
“Can we please talk about something else?” I repeated.
“Okay, well, I have some news that will make you smile.”
“What?”
“I may be coming back to Miami.”
That made me sit straight up. “What?”
“That’s right,” she squealed. “My dad is opening a branch for his bank there and said we may move back and be based out of there.”
“Oh my God! That is so awesome.” I stood and walked over to the picture of Kennedi and me at a party last year. We’d had the best time, and I’d gotten in so much trouble because I hadn’t come home until six in the morning. “On second thought, I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing,” I corrected.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“You and me together on a regular basis? That’s nothing but trouble.”
“Trouble is my middle name.”
We both laughed.
“Well, let me get out of here,” Kennedi added. “I have to get to school. I just wanted to call and check on you.”
“Thanks, Ken. But I’m cool.”
“You need to be. Remember, you’re in the big leagues now. A-list. Bryce is C-list. You don’t need him. But I tell you what, I’m definitely going to need you to handle that chick.”
“Yeah, you’re right. That’s the first mission this morning.”
I hung up, then hurriedly got dressed. On my way to school, I whipped out my new phone and called Tamara.
“Hey, Maya,” Tamara said, answering on the first ring. “What’s going on?”
“It’s Jayla,” I said, cutting straight to the chase.
“What about her?”
“I want her gone. I don’t want to work with her anymore.”
“Maya, what are you talking about?”
“I just want her gone. Today.” I didn’t want to go into details, because I didn’t want Tamara telling me how trivial I was being.
“Okay, I understand,” she slowly said. “But it doesn’t work like that. So what happened?”
I thought about what I should say, then just decided on telling her the truth. “I just caught Jayla with my ex.”
“Caught her doing what?”
“Let’s just say she was with him at her house, only wearing a robe, and he bragged about them being together. I’m not trippin’ over him. He’s a stank dog. But I can’t work with someone I don’t trust.”
“Wow. I hate to hear that,” Tamara said.
“It is what it is. But I’m not working with her.”
“Whoa. I need you to slow your roll, Maya. And think about this.”
I slammed my palm on the steering wheel. “There’s nothing to think about. I want her gone!”
“Maya, I understand that you’re emotional. But I’ve been in this business a while, and no one in the whole station, in the business, knows this social media and Internet stuff like Jayla.”
“And?”
“And the reason you have a fan club with 200,000 members, the reason you have over a million likes on Facebook, the reason you have all of that, is because of Jayla.”
“No, that’s because of me.”
She took a deep breath. “I’m not taking anything away from you, but my point is, half of those people wouldn’t know about you if it weren’t for Jayla. So we can’t just up and let her go.”
“Well, it’s my show, and if I don’t want to work with her, I shouldn’t have to.”
“Yeah, it’s your show, but it’s our investment. That’s number one. Number two, the girl has a contract, which you insisted on by the way. So we can’t just up and fire her without cause.”
“We have a cause. Cause she’s messing with my man.” I quickly caught myself. “I mean, my ex-man, and she lied about it. And that makes me not trust her.”
Tamara laughed. I didn’t see anything funny. “My point is, we can’t let personal beefs get in the way of business,” she said. “I told you, you keep that personal stuff out there in the streets. What we do at this station is all about the Maya Morgan brand. And we’re about bringing in the best people to build the Maya Morgan brand. And sorry, Jayla is the best.”
“So, I’m just supposed to continue working with her?”
Tamara was quiet for a minute. Then, she said, “Okay, I’ll tell you what. You can go through my assistant, Kelly. Anything you need from Jayla, or vice versa, will come through Kelly.”
I wanted to protest some more, but I knew Tamara; nothing I said would get her to change her mind. “Whatever.”
“Maya, I’m going to need you to understand, we are heading places. We just got syndicated. We can’t be making changes now.”
I didn’t like it. But I understood. Jayla was the best. And Bryce was a buster. Why should my career suffer because of him?
“Fine. She can stay on. But if she says a word to me, it’s on.”
Tamara laughed. “You’re not a violent person.”
“Let that trick try me, and I might just become one,” I couldn’t help but add.
Chapter 24
“Ugggh,” I said, tossing my phone back in my purse. I promised myself that was my last time trying to call J. Love. I couldn’t come across as some stalker chick. Usually, I would’ve completely blown him off, but I just couldn’t stand the fact that he thought I had sold him out. Not only was it messing with me personally, but I didn’t need that getting around the entertainment industry; if it did, people wouldn’t want to come on my show.
“Hey, Maya,” Ava said, coming over to me as I got my book out of my locker for my sixth-period class.
“Hey.” I really wasn’t in the mood for Ava’s bubbly personality.
“You are really going in, huh?”
I stopped and turned to her. “What? What are you talking about?”
“You tell me. I’m trying to figure out what’s going on because of these crazy tweets.”
“Again, what are you talking about?”
“My fans suck. So tired of this biz,” she read, then held the phone up so I could see. The tweets were coming from MayaMorganGossipGirl. That wasn’t my Twitter handle. But someone had created a fake Twitter account in my name. My problems just seemed to keep snowballing.
“Here comes your mini-me,” Ava said as we saw Jayla walking down the hall.
“Maya, can I talk to you?” Jayla said, approaching me like nothing was wrong. She had on a brown BCBG warm-up that was just like my pink BCBG warm-up. I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing it at school, but I had worn it when she came by my house one day. Had she run out and bought an outfit just like it? Oh my God, my friends were right. Jayla Cooper was trying to be me.
“If you know what’s good for you, you would not be talking to me.” I slammed my locker—hard—to emphasize my point.
“Maya, please . . . ?”
I turned to face her directly. Obviously, she was hard of hearing, so I got right up in her face. “Do. Not. Talk. To. Me.”
She folded her arms defiantly. “No,
I need to know what I did to you. I told you, you were reading too much into that Bryce situation. He only said we were messing around to make you mad.”
I glared at her, then just began walking away since I was about six seconds away from punching her in the throat.
She jumped in front of me, blocking my path. “Seriously, tell me what I did to make you so mad.”
This girl was some kind of special, and not in good way. “Are you like seriously asking me that question? Where do I start, you freak?”
She looked shocked.
Oh no, she wanted me to talk. I was about to talk. In front of a hallway full of people. I stepped back toward her. “You are a psycho stalker. And I’m not going to rest until you’re gone.”
This chick had the nerve to look appalled. “All I’ve ever tried to do was be your number one fan.”
“With fans like you, who needs enemies?” I flicked her off and started to walk away again.
“You are so lowdown,” she said to my back.
By now, we had an audience, and I wasn’t about to let her punk me. “And you are such a freak. My friends were right. I should’ve never let your obsessive, creepy behind in my personal space. Get a life, and stay out of mine.”
She looked like some kind of madwoman. “Ooooh, you are so gonna regret that.”
“Whatever, loser. Go find someone else to harass. I hear Rihanna is in need of a fan club president.” Several people laughed as I walked off. I hadn’t intended to have such a vocal altercation. But just seeing her pushed my buttons. I had been jumped, dumped, denied entry into a party, and accused of stuff I hadn’t done.... All of that in less than a month of knowing this chick.
“We’ll see if you come off your high horse once you lose your precious little job,” she spat.
I looked back over my shoulder. As if. She might be on the way out, but Maya Morgan was here to stay. There was no Rumor Central without me.
Chapter 25
It was taking everything in my power to just put my run-in with Jayla out of my mind and focus on my work. I’d been so caught up in all the drama that had become my life that I was way behind on digging up stories for the show. And my story for today had fallen through. I had exactly thirty minutes to find some juicy gossip for the Gossip Girl segment.
I sifted through the blogs, went through my contacts, trying my best to come across something that would spark an idea, but so far, nothing. I was just about to give up and tell my producer, Dexter, that I couldn’t come up with anything, when Ariel walked in. She’d obviously come to her senses, because she’d apologized for her outburst and had been working extra hard.
“Hey, Maya, got a call when you were out.” She looked at her notepad. “From Daysia McKinney’s sister.”
“Daysia McKinney, the reality TV star?”
“Yeah, it seems like they don’t get along too well, and her sister was all too happy to let us know that Daysia has been arrested for shoplifting and got into a serious fight with the store clerk.”
“Shoplifting? Daysia is rich.”
“I know, but her sister says she has a serious cocaine habit, and her people had cracked down on her finances, so she took to shoplifting at a jewelry store, trying to support her habit.”
“You talked to her?”
“I talked to the sister. I got the number for you. But she really doesn’t want to talk because she’s scared. She said she’s emailing you the mug shot from Daysia’s arrest so you can see her face all beat up from when she tried to fight the security guard. I’ll give you the sister’s number if you need to talk to her still.”
“Let me see.” I jumped back onto my computer and checked my email. “Yeah, it just came in,” I said, seeing the email. I opened it and started reading. “Oh, this is good stuff,” I said.
Ariel tried to lean over my shoulder and read the email. I looked up at her. “I got it from here.”
She stepped back. “Sorry. Is there anything I can do?”
“I said, I got it. Thank you.”
She glared at me like she wanted to say something more. But if she valued her job, she best to keep stepping.
“Excuse me, but I need to get on set in fifteen minutes,” I said, when she still didn’t move.
She nodded, and walked away, dejected. I let out a long sigh. Maybe I was too hard on her. Maybe I would look at her tape later. Maybe.
I turned my attention back to Daysia’s story. This was major. Daysia was a breakout reality star who had crossed over to mainstream TV.
I called the research department and had them verify the arrest record. They were able to confirm it within five minutes, but they didn’t have any other details. So, I couldn’t go in-depth and run all this other stuff about the drug addiction, but I could use the picture and tease that viewers could find out more details later on the Rumor Central website.
I picked my phone up and dialed my producer, Dexter’s, extension. “Hey, Dex. I found something to replace that story you pulled.”
“Dang, girl. You’re good. What is it?”
“It’s a story on Daysia McKinney, the reality star. She was arrested for shoplifting and apparently has a drug habit.”
“Wow, when did you find this out?”
“I just got it a minute ago.”
“Did you get it vetted?” Even though it was gossip, our research department had to confirm that there was some element of truth to make sure we weren’t running a bunch of lies.
“I haven’t had time to confirm all the details because I need to get on set, but research did confirm the arrest, so I’m just going to run with that and the picture and tease the rest.”
“Cool. I’ll get an intro typed and let you take it from there and do your thing. See you on set in a few minutes.”
I hung up the phone and reread the details of the email. If this stuff was true, Daysia was some kind of act. But I didn’t have time to verify everything, so I would just go with the basics—for now.
I quickly touched up my makeup and headed to the set to do my thing.
Chapter 26
I saw Bryce and his teammate, Walter, walking toward me as I stood in the hallway in between classes. I immediately turned my head and pretended I was interested in what my friend, Chastity, was saying. I expected Bryce to keep walking past me, and I was actually shocked when he stopped right in front of me.
“You know, Maya, you always want to talk about somebody being foul and dirty. You’re the queen of dirt.”
I cut my eyes at him. “Bryce, why are you talking to me?”
“Because I’m sick of you and your harassing emails.”
“Excuse me?”
“I ignored them the first few times, because I was gonna let you have your moment, since you’re much more of a diva in your head than you actually are.”
Part of me wanted to clean go off on him. But the other part was still stuck on “harassing emails.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
“I’m talking about your emails.”
“I haven’t emailed you,” I said, crossing my arms and giving him major attitude. “I don’t have anything to say to your janky behind.”
“Whatever, Maya. All I know is, email me again, and you’ll see how much of a fool I can be.”
He stomped past me. Oooh, he was making me so mad, but right now, I needed to put that aside.
“Bryce!” I called out after him.
“What, Maya?” He stopped, but didn’t turn around.
I walked to catch up with him. “Would you turn around and listen?”
He slowly turned around.
“What are you talking about—what emails?”
Bryce huffed. “I don’t know why you’re trying to play all innocent.”
“Think about it, Bryce. You claim to know me so well. Do I look like the type to harass anybody?”
He looked like he was thinking.
“Seriously, can I see these emails, Bryce?”
He g
ot his phone out, tapped the screen, and then handed it to me.
You are such a nasty dog, I read. And you know how I do it. I don’t get mad ; I get even, and I got some dirt on your dad.
“What kind of dirt, Maya?” he asked, getting in my face. “What do you think you know? What kind of lies are you trying to spread on my pops?”
I held the phone out. “Are you for real, Bryce? Do you really think I wrote this?”
“It came from your email address.”
“I don’t care where it came from. I didn’t write it. Someone has been hacking into my accounts and creating major havoc. You know I always text you. I don’t send emails to you.”
“Why would someone send this to me? I’ve been getting these for the last two weeks. And you seriously want me to believe that you didn’t have anything to do with them?”
I was astonished. “The last two weeks? Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I figured you were just being your usual bratty self, so I just deleted them. But now, you’re pulling my dad into this, and I know what you did to Shay’s dad. You know I don’t get down like that.”
“I didn’t post the story about Shay. I didn’t send you one single email. Matter of fact, the last time I said two words to you was that day you were over there hooking up with Jayla.”
He turned up his lips, then let out a long sigh. “Jayla and I weren’t doing anything. She offered to give me a ride to drop my car off at the shop. The only reason I said yeah was because we still needed to work on this science project. Then, she claimed she needed to go by her house to get something. Next thing I know, I look up, and she’s talking about she needs to take a shower.”
Bryce must think I’m Boo-boo the fool. “Really, Bryce? That’s the best you can do?”
He shrugged. “I really don’t care if you believe me or not. But that’s what happened. Yeah, maybe I could tell what she was trying to do. And maybe I did think about getting with her, since I had just gotten an email from you talking about all the times you cheated on me. I was mad, so I maybe would’ve gotten with her, but then you showed up.”
“Bryce, I didn’t send any emails.” I was beginning to wonder how well he even knew me. Because the one time I did cheat on him, that would go to my grave with me. I wasn’t one of those confession type of chicks. “Jayla’s doing all of this,” I mumbled. “I know she is. She has to be behind everything.”
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