Page 25 of Such A Bad Girl

I dug into the bookkeeping for the next few hours, occasionally haunted by flashes of Everleigh popping up in my mind — her brilliant green eyes, her slow smile that lit up her entire beautiful face…

It'd been over a decade since I’d kissed her and the tension between us hadn’t subsided at all.

I’d been waiting all this time for it to fade.

Sitting next to her in her car this afternoon while she bitched at me, and the subsequent boner I’d been plagued with ever since, told me I was going to be waiting forever for those feelings to dissipate.

Chapter Twelve

EVERLEIGH

After stopping off at the studio for a few hours for rehearsal, I met up with Violet and Kaylee for happy hour at my favorite bar, the Lemon Grove, atop the Aster Hotel. From the rooftop bar, the iconic Capitol Records building loomed in the distance.

Seeing them always made everything better. I was so thankful they’d let me into their circle. Kaylee was amazing and she’d been great for my brother. Violet’s wild and adventurous life left me full of envy for how easy it was for her to let her hair down and enjoy herself. I was hoping she’d rub off on me a little. I felt like I was always looking over my shoulder, always making sure whatever camera snapped near me got my good side.

I used to be carefree, I think. In the ‘before’-time. Before that night in Austin that still haunted me. Everything changed that night. Not just inside of me, but my outward life too.

I’d had plans to go to the University of Texas and try to get into med school, in defiance of my mother’s twisted, life-long plan for me to become some sort of permanent beauty queen.

But after that late summer night, with only a year left of high school to go before I was supposed to go away to college, I lost all of my motivation. All I wanted to do after that was get the hell out of Texas.

Everything seemed to remind me of Avett. I saw him everywhere I went. My friends were all talking about his murder. They glamorized him, imagining out loud his last few moments at the hands of some evil serial killer. It took all my strength not to scream the truth, to expose Avett as the rapist he’d intended to be. But I had no choice but to stay silent and be grateful for the cover the serial killer had provided for Theo and me.

I made it through my senior year by the skin of my teeth but those first few years of college were torture.

When West told me he could get me an audition in Hollywood after my sophomore year, I jumped at the chance to drop out of school and move to California.

A fresh start was just what I needed. I knew that without a doubt.

A new state. A new life. A new career.

A new identity, leaving all my troubles far behind.

I never expected I’d find as much success as I did. After I was cast in my first big role, I was singing to myself in my trailer one day, and the producer heard me. He insisted I sing a song on the film’s soundtrack.

My music career took off after that.

Five platinum albums later, and I was selling out arenas. I couldn’t go anywhere without being recognized, but losing my privacy was a tradeoff to having financial stability, and being able to do what I loved every day. It was a difficult and challenging life in a lot of ways, but I was grateful for it every single day, too.

The fact that I’d made it this far and now someone was trying to mess with me just infuriated me. I had too much to lose now.

“You sure you’re okay?” Violet asked, nudging me with her elbow as I stared up at the clouds.

“Uh, yeah,” I mumbled, sipping on my martini. “Just thinking about work.”

“You’re shooting Invincible, right? I’m so impressed you got the lead role in that film. I think every starlet in Hollywood auditioned. How’s it going?” Kaylee asked.

“We’re still in rehearsals. It’s going fine, a slow start.” I replied. “Making movies is much harder than making music. So much sitting around….” I trailed off as I contemplated telling them about the texts. I desperately wanted to discuss them with someone besides Theo, but I knew I couldn’t. Kaylee used to be a cop, for fuck’s sake. And I would never betray Theo that way.

“Maybe you can find a boyfriend on the set,” Violet said, winking at me.

“Ugh, please no,” I replied, wrinkling my nose. “That’s the last thing I need. I just want to concentrate on my career. Men are bad news. At least the ego-driven ones you’d find on a film set are. If you ever see me dating an actor, please slap some sense into me.”

“Hey now!” Kaylee protested, laughing. “West is an actor.”

“My brother is an exception, I suppose. But he definitely has a humongous fucking ego, don’t be fooled by that, Kaylee.”

“He’s treated me so well, despite that ego,” she replied, with an earnest laugh.

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