The Comeback(34)

I turned and walked out of the bathroom. Alaia followed me as I stumbled down the stairs and out of the sliding doors to the backyard. People were staring as we passed them, but I stopped only when I reached the edge of the pool. I dropped the phone on the ground next to me and then stamped on it, hard. It crunched satisfyingly under my foot, but I still threw it into the swimming pool once I’d finished.

“That’s my phone, you freak,” Alaia said, but I just turned and walked back through the house and out the front door.

I sat on the step outside the house, watching a couple arguing on the lawn while I drank a cup of warm beer that someone had left behind. After a while, the door opened behind me and Elon walked out. He stood in front of me, shaking his head distastefully.

“Where have you been?” I muttered. “You’re a little late to save me.”

He rolled his eyes and then surprised me by sitting down next to me.

“Did you hear what Alaia did to me?” I asked, and Elon didn’t say anything for a while. I pulled away from him and stood up. “What the fuck, Elon?”

“It could have been good for the movie,” he said, shrugging.

“In what way, exactly?” I asked, and even I could hear that I was slurring badly.

“Go home, Grace,” Elon said.

“I know you’re gay,” I said. “Would that be good for the movie too? Is that why you’re hiding it?”

The couple on the lawn in front of us stopped arguing long enough to turn to stare at us, and Elon grabbed my wrist tightly. He pulled me up and dragged me further away from the house. I hoped there weren’t any photographers lurking to catch this special moment.

“It is not your choice how and when I come out,” he said, once he was sure we were out of earshot of anyone else.

“Fuck you, Elon,” I said as I slid down the side of a parked car and slumped against it. My red dress was riding up and I was sitting in the dirt, but I didn’t care.

Elon eyed me with disgust.

“You’re a terrible actress, you know,” Elon said. “You ruined that movie.”

I shook my head. I knew it wasn’t true.

“You ruined that movie,” I said, jabbing my finger at him. “I don’t need this garbage movie. You do.”

“Everyone was tiptoeing around you so that you didn’t shatter,” Elon said, and the look of revulsion in his eyes was so pure that I was silenced for a few seconds. “So what are you, bipolar?”

I stood up and shoved him hard so that he had to grab onto the wing mirror of the car to catch his balance.

“Stupid bitch,” he said before he turned around and walked away. I stood dumbly for a moment, waiting for him to come back or for someone to tell me what to do, how to get out of there. Once it was obvious that nobody was coming, I pulled out my phone and looked down at it.

I called the only number I’ve ever known by heart.



* * *



? ? ?

When Able pulled up outside the house, I picked myself up off the ground and climbed wordlessly into his car. He turned the engine off so that we were sitting in the dark, lit only by the streetlight outside. I felt instantly embarrassed about how I looked—overdone as if I’d somehow believed I would be treated like an adult when I got dressed earlier that evening. I noticed then how dirty my legs were against his clean cream interior, but if Able noticed, too, he didn’t say anything.

“Are you okay?” he asked quietly, after a moment. My eyes instantly filled with tears.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered.

“You don’t need to apologize to me,” Able said. “You never do.”

“I nearly messed it all up,” I said, needing him to understand what had happened because now that I was next to him, I wasn’t angry at him anymore. I just felt ashamed. I was riddled with guilt that I’d even taken the role in the shitty movie in the first place. Able had put his faith in me from the moment we met, and now I’d nearly thrown it all away just because I was always trying to prove something.

“It’s okay. It’s okay. I’ll handle Nan,” he said, once I’d finished telling him what happened, and as he brushed at my tears with his thumb, I thought about how kind it was of him not to say I told you so. I promised myself that I would never expose myself like that again.

“None of this is your fault. You should never have been put in this position,” he said.

“Thank you,” I whispered. Able tapped my seat belt and I fastened it before he pulled off, his headlights illuminating the dark canyon.

“You know, I actually called Mandy before you started shooting,” Able said after a moment. “To stop anything like this from happening.”

“You spoke to Mandy,” I said slowly, trying to understand. “What did you say to her?”

“I made it clear that under no circumstances was she to push you too hard.”

I thought of what Elon had said about people tiptoeing around me on set, and my cheeks began to burn. Able sensed my discomfort and his voice softened.

“I did it to protect you, Grace. I didn’t want her getting frustrated with you.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked before I could stop myself. Able turned to study me, and I could see the indignation building in his face.