Fame, Fate, and the First Kiss(65)

Thirty-One


I slid my key into the lock at home, but my dad swung open the door before I even had to turn it.

I took several steps into the room before I saw Leah sitting on the couch. “Hi.”

“Hi, Lacey.”

I hadn’t talked to her since the firing, and I still felt bad. “I’m sorry he fired you.”

She rolled her eyes. “It’s not your fault. Remy and me . . . well, I’m sure you know by now.”

“I heard.” I went to the kitchen and filled a glass with water.

“Why the disappearing act today?” Dad asked.

“I just . . . I needed to get off set.”

“You need to tell me these things. How am I supposed to feel when I show up and you aren’t there and nobody knows where you are?”

“I don’t know. Worried . . . I guess.”

“You guess?”

“I mean you could just not show up, then it would’ve been fine. I would’ve been home by curfew.”

“That’s not how it works, Lacey.”

“Believe me, I know.”

“You’re not helping your case here,” Dad said.

“If I apologize, can I go to bed?”

“Not with that attitude.”

I glanced over his shoulder to Leah. “By the way, that missing zombie section. It was in Amanda’s trailer. Maybe if you tell Remy, you can get your job back.” Then I looked at my dad. “I will text you my every move from now on.”

I walked into my bedroom and did something I hadn’t done in years, I slammed the door.

Thirty minutes later there was a soft knock on my door. “Dad, I don’t want to talk right now.”

“It’s Leah.”

I didn’t want to talk to anyone, but at least I wasn’t angry with her. “Come in.”

She opened the door and sat in the chair at my small desk. “So Amanda took it?”

“I found it in her trailer.”

“I’m sorry, Lacey. I know you two were friends.”

I sat up and leaned against the wall. “If you want to go in and talk to Remy, I’ll tell him where I found it.”

She shook her head before I even finished the sentence. “No, I don’t. I already have another job lined up. It’s not me I’m worried about.”

“You don’t need to worry about me. Now that I know it’s her, I’ll watch my back.”

“I’m more worried about your future.”

“Did my dad send you in here to tell me to do my homework and go to college?”

She laughed a little. “No. And even if he asked me to, I wouldn’t tell you that. I mean, you should definitely do your homework and graduate from high school. But you’re an amazing actress, Lacey, you’re getting a lot of experience if this is what you want to do with your life.”

“It is.”

“Good.” She clasped her hands and let out a breath. “I read that article.”

I sighed. That article was never going to go away. “That’s what you’re worried about? Do you think people won’t like me because of it?”

“It’s not that. You need to be less concerned about what the public thinks and more concerned about what Remy thinks. You need to talk to him.”

“I should tell him I didn’t do those things? That Amanda did?”

“Maybe. But you really need to convince him that you are a professional. He is the one other directors will call when deciding whether to give you a job. He is the one who might have a role come across his desk in the future and think you would be perfect for it. He will play a part in your career, and you have to make sure that article, that the drama on set, isn’t making him think twice about your abilities.”

“You’re right.”

“I know.”

“Thank you . . . for that advice.”

“You’re welcome.” She stood but stopped. “Can I give you one more tiny piece of advice?”

“Yes.”

“Take everything your dad says and put it through the ‘I’m extremely worried about my daughter who I love so much’ filter.”

“He’s being unreasonable.”

“I know. It’s partially my fault because I’ve told him way too many horror stories. So forgive me for that. But it’s also that you’re growing up. That’s hard for parents.”

“I’ll try to apply that filter, but he needs to apply a couple filters of his own.”

She smiled. “Good night.”

“Good night.”

As I approached Remy’s trailer the next day I heard loud voices coming from inside. I stopped and waited. I couldn’t make out what they were saying, but after a few minutes the door was flung open and Aaron came storming out.

When he saw me, the scowl dropped off his face and his eyes went to the gravel that made up the parking lot.

“You okay?” I asked.

“Fine,” he mumbled, and kept walking.

This might not have been good timing after a fight with his son, but I pressed forward. I knocked on the wall outside Remy’s trailer because Aaron had left the door open. Remy sat at a desk flipping through what looked like some revisions on the script because the pages were blue. He looked as stressed as I felt. He glanced up with the knock and dropped the pages to the desk when he saw me. He beckoned me in with a wave of his hand. “Lacey, come in. You’re my third visitor already this morning.”