Page 220 of My Five Daddies

“Damn actors,” he says to me in his heavy accent. “Damn stinking actors. No good stinking damn shithead bastard actors. I hate them all, Tara, yes? You know this? I hate all the fuckers.” He slams his fist down on hisdesk.

“They’re the worst,” I say in response but my heart’s not init.

Lionel gives me a strange look. “Are you okay?” he asks me. “You’ve seemed… off. Sad, maybe. Mopingaround.”

“I’m fine,” I say, looking away. I’m surprised he evennoticed.

He steps toward me with a strange expression. “Sometimes life fucks you. But listen to me, Tara. You must fuck it back. Yes? You must always fuck itback.”

I meet his gaze and I can’t help but smile. That sounds so profound and so hilarious coming from him. “Okay,” Isay.

“Good.” He pats my head like a little kid, which normally would be weird, but I let it slide. “Let’s get towork.”

And so I do. I get to work. We film a few scenes of extras, a few tracking shots and scenery things, basically whatever we can do that doesn’t involve Jackson. Holly goes through a few sequences and we do a few shots of the villain and hiscrew.

And for a little while, I forget about Jackson. Or at least I don’t feel the hurt so deeply inside of me for a little bit. I can lose myself in work and invest myself in what I’m doing, because I’m damn good at what I do. Maybe my title is lame, but I’m important on this set, and I earned thatspot.

Lionel calls lunch and I find myself eating alone in a remote corner of the set. There’s fake wreckage strewn all around me, since we’re filming a plane crash sequence this afternoon. I’m sitting on a big piece of luggage that’s filled with rocks, so it weighs a damnton.

As I’m eating, I spot Holly picking her way through the wreck. I look down, hoping she’ll pass me by and ignore me, but I’m not thatlucky.

“Script girl,” she calls out. “I want to talk toyou.”

I groan and look up. I force a smile on my face, because I still have to work with her after all. “What’s up?” Iask.

“Where’sJackson?”

I shrug a little. “I don’t know. I thought youdid.”

“Nope. I figured he just went on a damn bender, but it’s been three days now and he’s notback.”

“Jackson doesn’t go on benders,” Isay.

“Whatever. Aren’t you his girlfriend or someshit?”

“No,” I say softly, shaking my head. “We were just friends a whileago.”

She makes a face. “That’s not what he said.” She sighs and stares at me. “This is annoying as fuck, you know? He said he had a script for me and now he’s justgone.”

“I don’t know what to tellyou.”

“This is your fault,” she says. “You scared him away somehow. Jesus Christ, you know, you’re such a fucking pathetic bitch. Now I’m not getting that part, all because you couldn’t hold on to yourman.”

I stare at her and slowly put my food down on the ground beside me. I get up and walk over to her. Holly is about three inches taller than me, but anger flows through me like I’ve never feltbefore.

“What?” she asks, sneering at me. “Did I piss youoff?”

I swing my hand back and slap her right across her smug, stupidface.

“Fuck you,” I say. “You’re the psycho bitch here. Everything Jackson’s been doing has been to get away from you. Leave him the fuckalone.”

She stares at me, wide-eyed and shocked. “You hitme.”

“I’ll do it again if you come near me, you cunt.” I don’t think I’ve ever called a woman a cunt before, much less slapped someone, but damn does it feelgood.

I’ve wanted to hit Holly for a while now. I hate her smug face and how crazy she is. She’s the epitome of entitled bitch actress and I’m so tired of dealing with her shit. I wish I could hit her some more, beat the crap out of her, really take my anger out on her, but I know this is probably a huge mistake. I probably just ensured I’d get fired from this set. Holly can easily complain about me and get me thrown off set, maybe even destroy mycareer.

She backs away from me. “You’recrazy.”

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