LITMIR.BIZ

Скачать книгу

I love you!” Madison had to keep herself from throwing her arms around him and jumping up and down with joy. “So what is it? Am I going to have a new boyfriend or a new job or—”

      “I’ll fill you in after this segment. Now go get miked. We’re live in five.”

      Five minutes later, Madison found herself in front of the PopTV cameras, sandwiched between Jane and Gaby, with Scarlett on the other side of Jane. She blinked into the bright, hot glare of the lights and tried to focus on the task at hand—but it wasn’t easy. All she could think about was what Trevor had said to her. Her own story line! It was a dream come true.

      Then everything began happening at once: Matt, the director, gave the five-second countdown … and the crowd began to cheer … and Jane turned away from the cameras and the teleprompter and toward Madison. “Hey, I think we’re on the air!” she recited, fake-smiling.

      Madison fake-smiled back. Nauseating. “I think you’re right!”

      Jane faced forward again. “Welcome to the L.A. Candy Season Two premiere party, everybody!” she said, stage-clapping. (Cue: more crowd cheers.)

      “I thought it was Season Three,” Gaby said, squinting at the teleprompter. (Cue: crowd laughter.)

      “Oh, Gaby!” Scarlett said, rolling her eyes. (Cue: more crowd laughter.)

      God, who writes this stuff? Madison wondered drily. It’s soooo cheesy.

      “We have lots of surprises lined up for you tonight,” Jane said.

      Madison started to read her next line, then did a double-take at the teleprompter. Were they seriously asking her to say that? “Yeah, lots of surprises,” she recited. “Like what’s going to happen this season with me and my best friend Jane.” The teleprompter then instructed her to “bump lightly into Jane,” so she did. She could feel Jane’s body stiffen.

      “You mean me and my best friend Jane,” Scar read, bumping into Jane from the other side.

      “They sprung this on me,” my ass, Madison thought irritably.

      “We have Aja here with us tonight to sing her brand-new hit single, ‘I Need You Now,’” Jane said, pretending to ignore both girls. Cheers, applause.

      Gaby raised her hand. “I’m gonna sing, too!”

      Madison, Jane, and Scarlett turned to Gaby. “You’re gonna sing?” Scarlett asked, pretending to be shocked.

      “Yeah, I’m gonna channel my inner Aja,” Gaby said. But she misread the teleprompter, pronouncing the word “channel” like “Chanel,” the fashion designer. The crowd laughed, not on cue.

      “Uh, Gaby … you mean channel?” Scarlett corrected her, improvising.

      Jane fake-smiled again. “Stay tuned, because after the commercial break, we’ll be back to talk about—”

      “Who hooks up with who in Season Two,” Madison finished, stage-winking.

      “Really? Who do I hook up with?” Gaby said eagerly. Cheers, laughter, applause.

      “And … cut.” Matt, the director, made a motion with his hands. “Great job, girls. Stand by for the next segment, okay? We’re moving over to the statue garden. You can touch up now if you’d like.”

      The four girls dispersed into small clusters of stylists and clouds of hair spray. Madison scanned the crowd as one of the stylists applied powder to her face. She still felt uneasy thinking that someone might be watching her and having no idea who it was.

      She noticed Trevor standing nearby, talking to Dana and pointing to something on a computer monitor. Madison caught his eye, and he sauntered over to her.

      “Good work,” he complimented her.

      Madison waved the stylist away and tucked her arm through Trevor’s. “Can we talk about my big story line now?” she said in a low, eager voice.

      Trevor nodded and signaled for her to click off her microphone. “Walk with me, and I’ll fill you in. We’re looking to start shooting these new scenes the day after tomorrow….”

      Madison put the blackmailer out of her mind—for now—and listened intently to Trevor’s pitch.

       3 SECOND CHANCES … SECOND THOUGHTS

      Scarlett kicked off her very uncomfortable, very expensive—not that she had to pay for them—strappy gold sandals and leaned back on the couch. The series premiere, which she’d TiVo’d because she’d missed the private PopTV screening earlier, flashed across her TV screen: the opening credits, with Jane at her event-planning job … then Madison shopping … Scarlett walking through the USC campus … Gaby at the gym … then all four girls dancing at a club, goofing around, and laughing. The producers had been forced to dig up some unused footage from early last season, when they could all stand to be in the same room together.

      “I hate these shoes,” she complained to Liam Ferguson, her boyfriend (although she was still getting used to thinking of him that way, since she’d never really had a boyfriend before).

      “Really? You look hot in them.” Liam leaned over to kiss her neck, nearly spilling a bowl of popcorn in the process.

      Scarlett blushed. Liam was just about the only person in the world who could make her blush. “Thanks. Soooo. I missed you at the party tonight.”

      “I’m sorry I wasn’t there,” Liam said sincerely. “Was it fun?”

      “I guess? They rented some insane house on Mulholland Drive for it. Mostly, it was a lot of talking to fans and posing for cameras and telling reporters the same things over and over again. ‘Are you and Jane going to make up?’ ‘You’ll have to watch and see!’ ‘Do you think Jane and Jesse will get back together?’ ‘You’ll have to watch and see!’ ‘Will you and Madison ever get along?’ ‘You’ll have to watch and see!’” Scarlett laughed. “So you didn’t miss a whole lot.”

      Liam laughed, too. “Apparently not.”

      They cuddled closer and lapsed into silence as the episode, called “Second Chances … Second Thoughts,” began. In the opening scene, Jane and Jesse were back together, but things were clearly tense between them as he griped about having to go to yet another one of her “events.” In the scene after that, at a spa, Madison and Gaby discussed Jane and Jesse’s relationship, with Madison remarking that even though they were back together, Jane was still hung up on “the guy she cheated on Jesse with.” Everyone who read a tabloid or had access to the internet knew that “the guy” was Braden James, although he couldn’t be named on the show since he refused to be on the show. Madison also informed Gaby that Jane unfairly blamed her, Madison, for Jesse finding out about “the guy” in the first place. Huh? That made no sense whatsoever. And when did this spa convo even take place? Gaby would have told Scarlett about it—wouldn’t she?

      Of course, Scarlett knew there would be a disconnect between this episode and the girls’ “real lives.” A lot of the early Season 2 footage had been shot weeks or months ago, then edited by Trevor to create a narrative flow. The Season 1 finale, which aired in January, had ended with a teaser about whether Jane and Jesse would get back together or not. In the meantime, Jane and Jesse had already gotten back together, then broken up again. Jane hadn’t confirmed their split with the press because it hadn’t “happened” on Season 2 yet. Similarly, Jane had already moved out of Madison’s apartment and back in with Scarlett. Jane wasn’t allowed to talk about that to the press, either—not until the episode aired.

      Not that any of this was a secret. Everyone in the world seemed to know what was going on in their lives already, thanks to paparazzi and tabloids.

      Liam

Скачать книгу