Page 12 of Agony

“So, still wanna go to Vegas,babe?” he asked loudly.

“Stop that!” I hissed.

Matt started to laugh and Arsen leaned down and planted a kiss on the side of my head. My body stiffened. I wasn’t expecting that but at least it wasn’t on the lips; I might have punched him out of sheer reflex.

“Here you go, guys,” he said at the other end of the counter.

I slid away from Arsen’s arm and went down to the register. Arsen handed me two drink cups and I went over to the soda machine. I filled mine with a Cherry Coke. I glanced over at him and waved his cup.

“Um, Mountain Dew is fine,” he said, grabbing the bag of subs and saying good-bye to Matt.

I slammed his cup down and filled it partially with ice, before moving over to the soda button.

“That was angry,” he remarked.

“You’renotmy boyfriend. I barely know you!”

He just shook his head and laughed again. After I secured the plastic lid on his cup, he took it and walked out of the shop. I followed him back to the car and waited while he opened my door.

I sat down and placed my cup in the cup holder before I pulled on my seatbelt and looked out the window. The street was crowded with people. Parents with their children, people having business meetings, and college kids going by on skateboards.

“Neve, it was a joke,” Arsen said as he put the key into the ignition.

I didn’t respond. Honestly, I didn’t know why it had gotten under my skin the way it did. From what I could gather so far, he was just a friendly guy that loved to laugh. What was so wrong about that?

“Sorry,” I mumbled.

Arsen sighed and drove us to the Devil’s Den lots an hour away. By the time we got there I was so hungry I could’ve eaten my own hand.

Once the guard flagged us in, he drove to a parking lot designated for the Den employees and parked. I grabbed my cup and got out of the car. I smiled when I saw him tripping over himself to get to me in time to open my door.

I stuck my tongue out at him and he grinned. He held out an arm and I looped mine in his as we started to walk toward the different city sets. When we walked passed the house in San Francisco, I cringed. Someone in there was gettingrailedand she wasn’t shy about it.

“I thought you were sick?” a voice suddenly said.

We turned around and saw a beautiful raven haired, thin girl with big blue eyes and, as per usual with these female actresses, huge fake boobs and tiny waist.

“I am,” Arsen said faking a cough.

“Max had to scramble to replace you, you know,” she said accusingly, crossing her arms over her chest.

I wonder how she can do that without popping them.

“Yeah, well, I didn’t feel like it today,” he replied edgily.

Her eyes wandered over to me. She raised an eyebrow at Arsen.

“Trista, this Neve. Neve, this is Trista. She works for Max as one of his film stars,” Arsen said, introducing us.

I gave her a tight smile, which she returned. Arsen and I started to walk away, when Trista grabbed his arm.

“Just because you have a girlfriend now, doesn’t mean you can just bail on the scenes we need you for,” she said quietly.

Scenes?

“I get that,” he replied through clenched teeth. “I’ll see you later.”

“Scenes?” I asked.

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