Page 32 of Merciless Prince
“Oh, god no,” I said with a groan. “Twitter is the worst. I deleted it.”
“Trust me. Check it,” Cori insisted. “The tide has totally turned in your favor. One of the SNS showrunners tweeted about the episode a few days after it aired, and they took full responsibility for the messed-up skit.”
I sat up a little straighter. “Really?”
“Yes. She said she never should’ve signed off on someone going on the show without attending any of the rehearsals. She also said she should’ve made sure that her staffers knew which scripts to send out. Everyone knows it wasn’t your fault.”
“Well… part of it was,” I said. “I should’ve just gone with the flow onstage, but I totally froze instead.”
“Maybe, but people are still defending you. There’s like, a hundred actors in the comments talking about how they would’ve been so embarrassed that they would’ve just walked right off the stage. But you stayed and did your best. And like I said before, you were good at the end. Even Theo Stanley said that.”
My forehead wrinkled. “Seriously?”
“Yes. Check it!”
“Okay, fine. I will.”
“Good. This whole thing was the studio’s fault, and also Kelsey’s fault for letting you think it would be okay.”
“She apologized for pushing me to do it after it happened,” I said. “But I have a feeling she’s about to ditch me as a client anyway.”
“What? Why?”
I sighed as I fingered the cream knit blanket on my lap. “Well, this week has been a huge one for commercial auditions. I looked at all the casting sites, and six different directors were looking for someone who fits my exact description. Kelsey didn’t put me up for any of them. There’s nothing for next week, either.”
“Well, she probably knows how shitty you’re feeling and decided to leave you alone for a while.”
“That’s not like her, though. Remember when Rumer’s grandma died and Kelsey still put her up for three auditions the next day?”
“Hm. Yeah.”
“Has she givenyouany this week?” I asked. “Or next week?”
“Umm…” Cori sounded embarrassed. “I have one tomorrow afternoon, so I’ll be coming into the city for that. We can totally hang out afterwards, by the way, if you’re still there. I have three commercial auditions next weekend, too. I’ve been trying to make sure that Kelsey only gives me weekend ones so I don’t have to go back and forth between here and the city on weekdays. It messes with my classes too much.”
She was talking very rapidly now, and I knew it was because she wanted to get off the subject of auditions. She probably didn’t want to say what we were both thinking—Kelsey didn’t think I was worthy of representation after my live TV fail.
I blew out a deep breath. “Be brutally honest with me. What do you think I should do? Should I just accept that I’m done in this industry?”
“No! I think you should put your head up high and come back to Bellingham, like I was saying before,” Cori replied. “This SNS thing will blow over eventually, and you’ll start getting auditions again, even if you have to get a new agent. But call Kelsey before you start to worry about that. See what she has to say.”
As she spoke, I nodded slowly and took a deep breath. “Okay. I’ll take the train back in the morning.”
“Promise?”
“Yes. I’ll even get the seven o’clock train so we can have breakfast at Trattoria Ilaria.”
Cori squealed. “Yay! I’m so glad!” she said. “Promise me you’ll call Kelsey too. Okay?”
“I will as soon as we hang up.”
We ended the call, and I dialed Kelsey’s number.
As I waited for her to answer, I stared at a family photo on the accent table next to the sofa. It was taken on my sixteenth birthday at my family’s Long Island vacation house. I was standing between my parents in the backyard, grinning from ear to ear with one wrist extended to show off the engraved silver bracelet they’d just given me.
I closed my eyes. Sometimes, when I concentrated hard enough, I could convince myself that they were still here with me in the apartment—Dad in the kitchen, experimenting with yet another recipe he’d found online, and Mom on the other side of the couch, peeping at me over the top of her latest favorite book. It wasn’t real, but it was comforting all the same.
My eyes snapped open when Kelsey finally answered. “Hi, Shay,” she said. “I was just about to call you. How are you doing?”
