My father was a legend in these parts.
He was a legend back home too, but for different reasons. There, he’d been Frank MacMillan, the hometown hero. Here, he was known for his acting. For being one of those rare stars who wasn’t born into a Hollywood family or who used connections and money to get where he got.
Nope, he’d landed there on sheer talent.
Not me, though.
I eyed the bustling set around me, the hotter than hot actors, the professionals on the crew who all knew exactly what they were doing…
I wasn’t complaining about how I got here—I was lucky to be here. Lucky to be away from my mom and fortunate that Lila had been at my side every step of the way.
The girl wasn’t perfect, but the more I got to know her, the more I realized that she wasn’t nearly as bad as she wanted everyone to believe.
She wasn’t even as bad as she believed.
Which was exactly why Jack needed to stick around. I’d been so wrapped up in my own anger and misery back in Pinedale that I hadn’t fully realized what I’d been asking of Lila when I’d begged her to take me with her back to LA.
But I’d had a month now to watch that girl have my back in every way. She single-handedly took care of Amber and handled her own creep of a dad…
But most of all, she’d given up Jack.
I felt a pang of regret. Of shame. For not having left on my own. For letting her handle everything on my behalf.
“Stick around,” I said to Jack, clapping him on the shoulder but not waiting for an answer before I set off to meet up with Amber to run our lines together.
Amber. Now there was a girl I could do without. She was waiting for me with that sweet little smile, the one I now knew was as fake as she was. She’d been weirdly nice to me ever since she’d arrived, and we’d never really had it out.
I didn’t care to hash it out now.
So she’d used me. So she’d been digging into my family’s financials and had sabotaged Lila’s plans and blackmailed me…
What did any of that really matter now? It had gotten me here, and that was all that mattered. What was done was done. I didn’t have to like the girl to work with her.
I gave her a nod and sat down across from her, grateful when the woman who was playing Amber’s rival love interest joined us and started talking a mile a minute about some gossip that didn’t interest me in the least.
As she talked, I ignored Amber’s not-so-subtle glances and smiles.
She wanted to be friends again. I knew that.
But that wasn’t happening. I supposed it was a testament to how good of friends we weren’t that I wasn’t more pissed off than I was.
When it came to Amber, I could be professional, but I wasn’t about to get sucked back into her games. She’d fooled me once, but thanks to her, I’d finally learned my lesson. What you see was almost never what you got. There was always more to a person than what they showed you.
I supposed I should have learned this lesson before, but better late than never, right?
I ignored Amber’s ingratiating smiles and got to work. We got the line reading underway, and I did my part. Like riding a bike, acting had come back to me, and Amber, I was happy to report, wasn’t awful. She wasn’t as good as Lila, of that I had no doubt, but she was still good.
See, that was another thing I’d learned this month. Lila was a great actress. She’d fooled everyone around her into believing she was a shallow snob. A flakey, heartless witch.
She might have even fooled herself.
Amber, meanwhile, had fooled everyone in Pinedale into believing that she was a sweetheart with a heart of gold. But really, she was pathetic. Sad. Pitiable, really.
But the only reason everyone was so fooled was because in Pinedale, people tended to see what they wanted to see.
Maybe that was true everywhere, I didn’t know. But in Pinedale, I knew for certain that all Amber had to do was smile and everyone saw the girl they remembered.
I’d done the same. I’d bought into her smiles, and I’d believed my mother’s lies, and I’d let the town convince me that my father was some kindhearted hero who’d lost his way when really he was a weak coward who’d taken his own life rather than face his troubles.
“Brandon,” Amber said when the last line was read and I’d started to get up out of my director’s chair.
I ignored her. The anger was back in full force now because… he’d known.
Jack had known it was a suicide, and he’d never told me. Did he know about my mom’s affair too?
I thrust a hand through my hair. Did it matter? What mattered was that my best friend had let me go my entire life believing my mother’s lie about how my father died.
“Brandon, please wait,” Amber said.
I hadn’t realized she’d followed me until she spoke, and I turned back to her with a sigh. “What is it?”
“Did you find Jack?” She nibbled on her lower lip like she was nervous.
I didn’t buy it for a second. “I did.”
“And… did you forgive him?” she asked.
For a second there, I found myself wondering how much she knew…but then I realized I didn’t care. I stared at her for a long moment. “What’s it to you?”
She shifted. “I just…” She pursed her lips and glanced away, and for a second, I thought I caught a glimpse of the girl I knew, uncertain and vulnerable. When she looked back, I was faced with the new Amber. The one with hard eyes who’d weaseled her way onto this set by selling me out. “I just wanted to say I’m sorry, okay?”
She sounded so defensive it was hard not to laugh a little. “Okay.”
She threw her hands out to the side. “I know it won’t do any good—”
“It won’t,” I agreed.
She huffed and continued as if I hadn’t interrupted. “But I still wanted to say it anyway. All this… it wasn’t about you,” she said. “I never meant to hurt you.”
I stared at her for a little while longer. Watching her squirm was kind of fun. Lila would’ve loved this. I looked away with a sigh as I said, “I believe you.”
“You do?” She looked so hopeful only someone way crueler than me could crush that.
“Yeah, fine,” I said with a wave of my hand. She grinned and the saccharine smile turned my stomach. “I’m not saying we’re friends again,” I clarified. “But we have to work together so… let’s just move past this, yeah?”
She clamped her lips together tightly and nodded. It was the best she was gonna get, and she knew it.
I headed back to where I’d left Jack and caught sight of Lila waving me over. “Hey babe,” she called out for the benefit of everyone around us. She went up on her tiptoes to kiss my cheek, and I knew for a fact that I was the only one who could see past that bubbly smile to the heartache underneath.
She hid it well. Too well. That was how I knew she was dying inside.
Jack was a topic she avoided at all costs, and I knew why. Whether she wanted to admit it or not, she’d fallen for the guy.
And because of me, she’d left him.
Lila tilted her head to the side as she leaned into me like we were a couple sharing a quiet moment. “Do you mind if I bail?” she asked. “I’m not really much use around here, and I’ve got some school work to catch up on.”
I arched my brows. “School work? Really? That’s the excuse you’re going with?”
She wrinkled her nose. “You don’t buy it?”
I let out a short laugh. “Not for a second.” I squeezed her tight, whispering in her ear, “But if you need to go, I get it. I’ll see you later, okay?”
She nodded, and when she pulled back to give me a grateful smile, I caught it. The pain, the hurt, the heartache. There and gone like a flash of light before she hid behind a cocky little smirk as she patted my cheek. “Work hard, babe. I’ll see you at home later.”
I watched her walk away along with every other guy in the vicinity, and when she was out of vi
ew, I set off to find Jack.
I might have been pissed with him, but she deserved more. She deserved better.
Only problem was, Jack wasn’t where I’d left him. He was in a trailer reading lines, according to the third crew member I asked. I got to the trailer right as Jack was leaving, his brows pulled together in confusion.
“You’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto,” I teased.
He came down the steps and stopped short. “They want me to take over that guy’s role.”
“What?” I stared at him because… what the what? “What guy?”
He waved in the direction of the horses. “The guy who was terrified of horses.”
I blinked a few times as it registered. “The guy who was supposed to play the gay cowboy sidekick?”
He still looked confused, and I… I burst out laughing.
I burst out laughing so hard it hurt. I was doubled over with it, and Jack patted my back. “I know, ridiculous, right?”
He had no idea. The fact that I was the gay cowboy playing the gruff, tough Colt Ranger. And Jack was the gruff, tough cowboy playing the gay sidekick struggling to come out to his family…
It was too much.
“I’m gonna say no, obviously,” he said.
That had me sobering quickly. “What? Why?”
“Why?” His brows arched high. “I’m not an actor, man. You know that.”
“Are you sure?” My pent-up rage found its way out in snarky bitterness. “Could have fooled me.”
He froze. There were still people around, but whatever vibe we were giving off… no one came near us. I had a feeling the tension was palpable.
I took a step closer, my jaw tight. “You lied to me, man.” And there it was. Out in the open.
He flinched, but he didn’t look away. He didn’t even try to do the whole, ‘I didn’t lie, I just didn’t tell you’ routine, which was good. If he had, I would have punched him.
Jack took a deep breath. “How’d you find out?”
“I found the suicide note.”
He nodded, the only sign of his distress was the muscle working in his jaw.
“You knew.” Before he could ask how I knew that he knew, I added, “My mom gave it away when I confronted her. She seemed to think that you were the one who told me.”
His head dropped and his shoulders too, almost like… almost like he was relieved. When he looked up, his gaze met mine and held. “I’m sorry.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
He shook his head, and the torment in his eyes made it impossible to hold onto anger. It was there, but I could feel it weakening.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I should have, it was just… how do you tell someone something like that?”
I stared at him, waiting for him to explain.
“At first, when I was a kid, your mom told me not to and that was reason enough. I mean, she was your mom…”
I nodded. He didn’t need to say any more as far as she was concerned. She could be terrifying, especially to a kid.
“Yeah, okay,” I said. “So, that explains why you kept your mouth shut back then, but it’s been nearly ten years, man. I’m not a kid anymore, and neither are you.”
“I know, and I’m… I’m so sorry,” he said, his voice low and gruff, the words stilted but genuine. “I’m really sorry. I guess I just didn’t know how, or even…” He let out a loud exhale as he shoved his hands through his hair. “Or even if you’d want to know the truth.”
I opened my mouth to say that of course I would, but I couldn’t quite get the words out. Since I’d found out, I’d been struggling. Up until a month ago, I’d been able to say that while my dad had his faults, at least he loved me.
But now…
Well, I knew he loved me. But not enough. Not enough to be there for me or to shield me from my mom’s insanity. Not enough to face his addictions like a man.
Not enough to stay alive.
So I didn’t say it because maybe ignorance was bliss sometimes. And maybe if I were in Jack’s shoes, I would have kept my mouth shut too.
I looked away with a sigh because I honestly didn’t know what I’d have done in his position.
“I really am sorry,” Jack said.
“I know.” I met his gaze as the silence between us grew too long and too thick. “Is that what you came out here to say?”
“Yeah.”
I felt a knowing smile tugging at my lips because I’d seen the way he’d watched Lila walk away. “Is that the only reason?”
He stiffened and kept his mouth shut. But at least he didn’t try to lie.
“You want to make it up to me, Jack?” I said, an idea already forming.
“Of course.” The hope that lit his eyes was sweet. Unlike Amber or even Lila, Jack wasn’t a natural-born actor. He didn’t wear masks, and that was one of the things I loved most about him.
“Then stick around,” I said.
His brows arched high. “What?”
My mind was filled with Lila as I said it again. She deserved this. She deserved him.
And he needed her, whether he’d admit it or not.
I nodded toward the trailer behind him. “Tell them you’ll do it.”
“What?” His brows were nearly hitting his hairline now. “You want me to act?”
I started to laugh at his obvious horror. “Yeah, it’s not all that hard. And I know your part, dude. You barely have one line an episode. All you have to do is look brooding and hang out with horses.” I clapped a hand on his shoulder. “You were made for this role.”
His mouth gaped open, and I kind of wished our friends from Pinedale were here to see the too-cool-for-school Jack flap his lips like a guppy.
“Besides,” I added. “The pay is good, and don’t try to tell me your dad wouldn’t appreciate the extra income.”
He jerked back as the reality of that struck him. Yeah, my family wasn’t the only one struggling financially, and we both knew it. His eyes darted around in a panic, and I could basically see him scrambling for an excuse.
“But school is still—”
“They’ll hook you up with a tutor,” I said, jerking my thumb over my shoulder in the direction I’d come from. “That’s what they’re doing for Amber.”
His brows drew down, and I could see the questions forming. “Yeah, about Amber… how is she here? When did that happen and—”
I held up a hand. “Another time, man. There’s a lot you need to get caught up on.”
He stilled, hearing something in my voice, I was sure. “Like what?”
Like the fact that I’m gay. Like the fact that Lila loves you…
I sighed. There was a lot to say, and this was so not the place to do it. Truth be told, it was one thing to admit I was gay to Lila as she and I discussed my crush on Richard.
It was something else altogether to tell my oldest friend. I glanced around. And I sure as hell didn’t plan on coming out in the middle of a crowd.
But Jack was waiting for a response, and I could see the intensity in his eyes. The desperation.
He wanted her. He needed her. But he thought she’d ditched him… for me.
It would have been laughable if it wasn’t so sad. I clapped a hand on his shoulder. “You’re being too hard on her.”
His eyes hardened, and his mouth thinned into a fine line, but at least he didn’t play dumb and ask who I was talking about. “She’s your girlfriend now, I get it.”
Now I did let out a huff of amusement. For some reason, it hadn’t occurred to me that Jack would be fooled. I’d thought he’d known both of us better than that.
I leaned in close. “Look, I can’t explain everything right now.” I glanced around meaningfully. “Right here. But just trust me, okay?”
Jack’s brows drew down in confusion, and I sighed.
“She and I… it’s not what you think.”
“Then what is it, exactly?”
I licked my lips as I thought of how best to expla
in. Finally, I met his gaze and held it. “She saved me, bro. She knew I was in trouble, and she saved me. She hurt you, and she broke her own heart…” His eyes flashed with surprise, and I squeezed his shoulder in return. “But you should know that she only did all that to look out for me.”
He stared me down for a long while, and whatever he saw there had his eyes softening, a flash of hurt mixing with hope that made my own heart twist in response.
It was a rare thing to see my best friend in love.
It was actually kind of sweet.
“Will you trust me?” I asked.
He nodded slowly. “Yeah. Okay. I trust you.”
I grinned and wrapped an arm around his shoulders in another bro hug. “Good, man. Then welcome to the show.”
Six
Lila
It was official. I was in hell.
“I don’t understand,” I said.
Brandon was walking next to me and he wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “Smile, Princess.”
I elbowed him in the ribs. “You know I hate that nickname.”
It was what my dad called me when I was in his good graces, so, you know… it had been a while since he’d used the term of endearment. At least, not without an edge of mocking sarcasm that left me cold.
And then, Jack had called me that when he was annoyed with me or teasing me, which, come to think of it, had made up the majority of our non-existent relationship.
But even so, the use of that nickname now only made me more tense, because… “He’s still here?” I was hissing now because Brandon’s arm around my shoulders and the nickname were his not-so-subtle reminder that we had roles to play, and as we were currently striding through the halls of Beverly Hills Academy, we were officially ‘on.’
Brandon lowered his voice and spoke without moving his lips. “Ex-boyfriend alert, two o’clock.”
I froze, enough that I stumbled over my steps, and Brandon and I lost our easy stride.
Princess of Hollywood (The Glitterati Files Book 2) Page 5