No Stone Unturned

by India Lee

  “Desiree!” she shouted over the music, tapping hard on her bare knee. Desiree ignored her, continuing to dance on the table and knock over drinks. With irritation, Gemma wiped a splash of sugary cocktail off of her dress. “Desiree, stop. You need to sit back down now.”

  To her surprise, Desiree stopped dancing immediately. However instead of sitting down, she licked her lips and crawled over to Gemma on her hands and knees. “Desiree, come on, get down,” Tyler said, exasperated.

  She ignored him. “Little Bee,” Desiree lilted, her strong vanilla perfume wafting up Gemma’s nostrils as she got closer and closer. She took a sip of Tyler’s drink before leaning over to whisper in Gemma’s ear, her long hair grazing her bare thighs in her blue feather dress. “Little Bee,” she repeated, her voice husky and her breath stinging Gemma with the smell of vodka. “Let me take a guess on something, okay?” She swung her legs around, sitting on the edge of the table, planting her heeled feet onto Gemma’s knees. “Here’s my guess,” Desiree whispered into Gemma’s ear. “You had zero… okay, maybe one. One partner before you met Tyler. Some shitty, high school boy from your other life. You’re… inexperienced. Amateur.” She paused to let Gemma respond. When no words formed on her lips, Desiree smirked and continued. “You… have no idea how to please Ty, and when you look at me, you think about how much better it was for him when he was mine. About… how you can’t really live up to your image. He thought you would be killer in bed, but you were nothing. A baby. I can see it in your eyes – you can’t handle him, and it hurts. It kills you that you’re just not good enough.”

  Despite being frozen in her seat, Gemma felt her heart pounding. She was furious with herself for letting Desiree continue, for wanting to hear what more she had to say. Even more, she hated herself for being so transparent, so easy to figure out.

  “Poor girl,” Desiree pouted, touching Gemma’s face as she murmured into her ear. “You have the name. You look good with him on paper. But even if he stays with you, he’ll always go somewhere else to be satisfied.” Her tongue practically grazed Gemma’s skin as she whispered hoarsely. “He’ll start coming back to me. Why else do you think he looks so fucking scared right now?”

  The fascination in her words quickly morphed into fury. Only then did Gemma realize that Desiree was kneeling over her lap, practically on top of her now. She pushed her away, disgusted. Just as the table sprang to action, Desiree stood up on the booth to leave.

  “Fuck you,” Gemma seethed, immediately wishing she could take it back. She didn’t want to look so ruffled, so affected. But she was, and even more so as she caught Desiree’s smirk of satisfaction before she sauntered off.

  ~

  “Don’t worry about me, okay? I’m just hung over.”

  While she wasn’t, it was a convenient excuse. A hangover would explain Gemma’s foul mood that morning. Not only that, it would imply that she had drunk a lot at Smythe the night before, which would excuse her for forgetting all the despicable things that Desiree had said to her. Of course, she hadn’t forgotten – the words were practically burned into her mind at this point. But she didn’t feel like answering Tyler or Zoe when they asked about the volatile conversation, so she opted to fake a massive hangover.

  “Eat something,” Zoe said, plopping down on the chaise in the hotel suite. She examined the exquisite Grecian draping on the dress that was sent over for Gemma from Armand. “You can’t be hung over for today. Especially when we’re down a man.”

  Damian was in Arizona to face off against the Phoenix Suns. While he would be absent during the day, his agency made sure Elizabeth would be present to make statements on his behalf.

  “At least I get a break from Nicki today,” Gemma sighed, sitting down to let Penelope do her makeup.

  “Oh God. You’re not honestly letting some random chick upset you, are you?” Zoe asked.

  Gemma blinked. She hadn’t expected that reaction from Zoe. “Well… I’m not upset upset. Just disappointed. She’s someone important to Damian, and Damian is someone important to me.”

  “For all you know, they’ll break up next week. He’s an NBA player, for God’s sake.”

  Gemma frowned. “First of all, Damian’s not like that and – ” She opened her mouth to continue, but both Zoe and Penelope dropped everything they were doing to stare incredulously at her.

  “Oh come on, Bee. You’re being good friend, but don’t let it blind you,” Zoe said. “It’s just like… a natural part of being a professional athlete.”

  Penelope snorted. “I have to go with Zoe on this one. You’re in total denial, Bee, if you think he’s some sort of exception.”

  “Whatever.” Gemma rolled her eyes so she wouldn’t have to stare into Penelope’s smirking face as she did her eyeliner.

  “Stop moving,” Penelope scolded.

  “Alright.” Gemma ground her teeth together. Be calm, she told herself, clenching her jaw to refrain from retorting. Her eyes wide open, she stared at the ceiling as Penelope dragged the hard pencil across her lower lid. Through the corner of her eye, she could see Zoe still preoccupied with the dress, stripping down to try it on.

  “That color looks good with your skin tone, Zoe,” Penelope observed.

  Zoe sighed. “I think I’m in love with it,” she murmured. “Armand is so talented. I need him to send me something for the Bond premiere. Something glittery!”

  “Never gonna happen,” Penelope shook her head. “Armand doesn’t do glitter. We’re both staunchly against it.”

  “Well, boo,” Zoe pouted. “Then I’ll just let him throw me whatever he doesn’t want. He’s too busy to custom design for me at this point, right?”

  “Maybe. Probably. He is moving up in the world,” Gemma said. She tried to peek over at her dress on Zoe, but the moment she moved, she felt the pencil point slip over her eyelid and pierce into her tear duct. “Penelope!” she shrieked, jerking away to cover her face with her hand.

  “Jesus Christ!” Zoe yelped, jumping to her feet. “What happened?” She rushed over, holding Gemma’s face in her hands. “Are you okay? Let go of your eye.”

  Gemma let go of her eye to see nothing but light spots. She felt warm liquid trickling down her cheek and quickly wiped at it, breathing a hard sigh of relief upon seeing only tears on her hand. The pain convinced her that it could easily have been blood. Once the relief washed over, she flashed Penelope a cold look of accusation.

  Penelope crossed her arms. “Well, you moved,” she said defensively.

  “Are you kidding me, Pen?” Gemma almost laughed. “How many times have you done this stuff in a moving car? Or while I was getting dressed? You’re a professional makeup artist, you should know how to do these things without blinding people.”

  Penelope stared hard at Gemma. “Wow, I made a mistake. Can we get past this and not act like children?”

  “I’m reacting to having a pencil shoved into my eye. Sorry for being upset.”

  Zoe heaved a sigh. “Okay, guys. Stop and just take a breather.”

  Gemma and Penelope obliged, though not without glaring at one another throughout.

  “Can we continue now?” Zoe asked tepidly, glancing back and forth between the two.

  “Yes,” Penelope said, taking the pencil back in her hand. Gemma stared at the sharp point and shook her head.

  “I’ll finish my own makeup,” she said.

  “Bee,” Zoe protested tiredly.

  “That’s fine.” Penelope put her hands in the air. “Good luck with that,” she said tersely, walking out of the room. Gemma watched her exit completely before picking up the eyeliner to continue her makeup.

  “Are you serious? You’re going to do your own makeup?” Zoe asked.

  Gemma nodded. “I don’t trust her,” she said simply.

  ~

  “Before we start, let me just say that you ladies look beautiful this afternoon,” Bryan Waterbury said as Gemma, Zoe, Elizabeth and Tyler sat across from him at his L.A. radio station.
“Along with, ahem, the very handsome Tyler Chase, we have here today the stunning Queen Bee and sexy new Bond girl Zoe Mercury.” The girls said gracious “hello”s into their mics as Bryan continued. “And I won’t leave out our equally gorgeous special guest, Elizabeth Clarke of the Hoerner Group, here to represent Golden State Warrior Damian Evans. Welcome to the show, you guys.”

  “Thank you for having us.”

  The radio station had large, open windows facing outside. Gemma could see the hordes of paparazzi on the sidewalk, planted at the entrance of the building. Directly across the street was another building with similarly large, clear windows. Gemma couldn’t help but feel a little strange, as if she were sitting out in the open for anyone to watch. It was distracting. It made her actually thankful to Elizabeth for overstepping her grounds and taking the reigns on the interview. It was unlikely that a random PR intern would upstage three megastars during an interview, but it was happening, and Gemma didn’t care. As irritating as she found Elizabeth, she had to be impressed with her tenacity and fearlessness – and the push-up bra that she wore under her flowy silk blouse. Her girl-next-door radiance combined with plunging cleavage had Bryan absolutely charmed. He was too smitten to remember that he was supposed to be interviewing three celebrities while throwing lesser questions to the no-name intern, not the other way around.

  “Too funny,” Zoe mouthed to both Gemma and Tyler. Gemma laughed, glancing at Tyler for his reaction, but he wasn’t looking at them. Like Bryan, he was watching Elizabeth. She was animated as she spoke. Her wavy hair tumbled down from her ballerina bun as she waved her hands about, gesturing and laughing. Her cheeks were rosy, her makeup minimal. Gemma watched Tyler watch her. Indeed, Elizabeth was as irritating as she was impressive.

  “Hey. Wow, Bryan, can we get a glass of water over here?” Zoe suddenly interjected, nodding towards Gemma as well. “Our throats are just so parched from all the talking we’ve been doing.”

  “Ouch!” Bryan laughed good-naturedly. “Someone just called me out. Alright, let’s talk about you, Miss Mercury. How excited are you about graduating onto more mature roles after leaving D Network?”

  “Very excited,” Zoe answered happily. “It’s a dream to be a part of such a legendary franchise in film. I couldn’t be more grateful for it.”

  “You’re certainly growing up and moving onto some more interesting roles. But still, how does it feel to be hanging around such heavyweights all the time?” Bryan asked, nodding towards Tyler and Gemma. “You were once the bigger star when you were running around with Harper Gunn, but now that you’re best friends with Queen Bee, how does it feel to suddenly be the one who is by far less famous?”

  Bee and Tyler blinked in shock at Bryan’s question. Even Elizabeth’s head snapped to him in surprise. There was a moment of brief but tense silence.

  “Honestly,” Zoe began calmly, though Gemma detected the icy look in her eye. “No one is more famous than Bee. It’s not hard to be the less famous one around her, so why would I care?”

  “I apologize, Zoe, I didn’t mean to upset you – ”

  Zoe rolled her eyes. “You didn’t, Bryan. Moving on.”

  “Hey, I think your reaction is totally natural. Jealousy is natural,” Bryan said. Gemma rolled her eyes at his passive aggressive attempt to get more of a rise out of Zoe. He dared to continue, “If it’s any consolation, Zoe, I’m as big a fan of your work as I am Bee’s.”

  “I really couldn’t give less of a shit, Bryan,” Zoe said deadpan. Gemma cringed.

  “Okay, then.”

  A silence fell over the room. Even the show’s crewmembers shifted their eyes and shoved their hands into their pockets awkwardly. Gemma could feel instinctively harsh words brewing for Bryan, but she did everything she could to suppress them.

  “Zoe, in my opinion, has a much more important role in this industry than I have,” she said, surprised at her own even tone. “She’s a real role model. Let’s be honest here – Queen Bee is an identity of mine. I have another, and I have it so I can be so-called normal. So I can escape the criticism and the pressure when I can’t handle it anymore. That’s probably not the best message to be sending to my fans. Zoe and me – our fans are young, and they’re impressionable, and any mistake we make is a mistake that they might follow us in making. Parents get upset at us because every misstep is watched and photographed and published. And people forget that we’re learning as we get older too, that we’re only teenagers, that we don’t have a special guide book just because we’re on television.” Gemma took a breath, chewing her lip. “The fame is as incredible as it is terrifying, and the difference between me and Zoe is that while she gets the same amount of pressure and criticism, she is always Zoe Mercury. She can’t escape from the negativity, which comes hard at her from every direction. She’s a girl, she was D Network’s biggest star, she had a bad streak, and she’s owned it. All of it. She can’t escape it like I can, but she doesn’t care to. And she doesn’t care about the lack of credit and recognition. She just keeps going and let’s everything roll off her back, and I admire her every day for that.”

  THE OTHER SIDE OF QUEEN BEE – NO, NOT THAT ONE

  The Pop Source

  November 30th

  Not to go against her word, but we have to be honest: Queen Bee is the best role model the industry has at this very moment. While last year she was one of the worst, the young popstar has clawed and fought back to the top of her career. She has rebuilt her image from that of a reckless, careless party girl and gone as far as to share her story with her fans. On top of that, she’s doing it for the cause against bullying – something that she seems to be conveying that she is rather familiar with.

  At this point, the entire world knows that the superstar singer is one of the most private celebrities in Hollywood – her birth name and undisguised face have been two of the most coveted secrets in the past two years. And while we at TPS don’t condone the movement working to out her secret identity, we’re more than happy to enjoy the other side of her that she has been sharing throughout her media tour for the Kick Bullying charity – the disguised yet undeniably honest, real and human side of the chart-topping singer.

  Since her debut as a pop artist, Bee has been mysterious and flawlessly secretive about everything from her offstage life to her offstage emotions. Being nothing but a performer was part of her persona. However since starting her charity work this year, Bee has opened up and on many occasions, shown her vulnerable side – the one that gets scared, hurt and intimidated by the chaotic life of fame in which she lives. Sitting atop the list of Bee’s fears seems to be the existence of angry anti-fans who are desperate to stalk the singer’s every move and uncover her secret identity. And to be fair, who wouldn’t be afraid of people who desperately aim to make you even more stalk-able?

  The teenaged star was most candid during a radio interview with Bryan Waterbury this afternoon, speaking movingly about her admiration for best friend and “real” role model, Zoe Mercury. Said Bee, “Queen Bee is an identity of mine. I have another, and I have it so I can be so-called normal. So I can escape the criticism and the pressure when I can’t handle it anymore. That’s probably not the best message to be sending to my fans… People forget that we’re learning as we get older too, that we’re only teenagers, that we don’t have a special guide book just because we’re on television.”

  It seems that unwittingly, Bee has risen to the role of Hollywood’s Best Role Model – and a humble one at that.

  Gemma dropped her bags in the front foyer and immediately threw herself face first onto her living room couch. She sighed into her overstuffed throw pillow, relieved that she had no makeup on to smudge. The absence of being poked at by brushes and pins was relieving. The silence was music to her ears. And as much of a treat as it had been to spend so much time with Tyler, Zoe and Damian, Gemma was even relieved to be free of their company. They had seen enough of each other in the span of one week. It wasn’t as if she weren’t al
ready incredibly close to each one of them.

  What Gemma had really wanted was to get closer to Nicki. She hadn’t realized how much worth she had put in the idea of a double date – it felt like something that every girl should experience at least once as part of teenaged normalcy. Unfortunately, it appeared that if anyone, Nicki had latched onto Elizabeth. Gemma had seen them start to walk and sit next to each other towards the end of the tour, which probably counted as big steps for someone as shy as Nicki. As disappointed as Gemma was, she understood that they were the only truly “normal” teenagers among the group. It only made sense that they would find the most in common with each other. But with Zoe becoming increasingly busy, it disappointed Gemma that she wouldn’t gain another girlfriend in Nicki.

  Enough, she told herself. Her thoughts were tiring, and she had promised herself some quality rest upon arriving home. However, only a couple minutes of silence went by before Gemma began to feel antsy again. The quiet of her house was somehow more distracting than it was soothing, and as groggy as she was, she couldn’t seem to doze off.

  She grabbed the remote and switched on the television. It wasn’t quite late enough for the slew of infomercials that she enjoyed falling asleep to back in high school, but she figured something similar would be on at such a late hour. To her surprise and dismay, the first image that popped up was of Desiree Silver’s face. She was giving an impromptu interview while walking on the street with a couple cameramen from Pop Dinner’s late night program. Desiree appeared happy and obviously intoxicated. Gemma turned up the volume.

  “Who are you dating these days? Tell me you upgraded from Tyler Chase,” one cameraman said as he shoved a mic in Desiree’s face. She smiled and looked off-screen before stopping completely.