HDU #2: Dirt (35 page)

Pausing, Amanda
wishing her last sentiment could be applied to herself.

“I don’t
know.
 
I’m still in school.
 
I’m doing well — I don’t want
Casey to find anything out and screw with what I have going on here.”

Amanda shook her
head, in disbelief of the chokehold Casey had on so many different lives.
 
Her game of manipulation was truly
mesmerizing.

But since she
had yet to give up on the game herself, Amanda persisted.

“What if I find
something to prove that Casey stole everything from you? Will you come back
into Jake’s life? Go see him or at least
talk
to him?”

The other line
was quiet for a good few seconds.

“You said you
loved him,” Amanda reminded.

Quinn’s voice
returned.
 
“Yes, I will.
 
And I’ll give you whatever information
you need as long as you can find something on Casey that’s cold hard proof
— or I’m not going to risk getting her angry by talking.
 
I guess I don’t have to tell you how
that really isn’t worth it.”

~

The next ten
days consisted of much trying but failing.

Though it had
already informed her that the number she was calling was no longer in service,
Amanda called Jake incessantly.
 
Ian had failed to locate him on any sort of social media website, so
without an email address, it was all she had to try and reach him.

The days also
consisted of looking with Ian for more Quinn-related dirt on Casey, of which
they found none.

Just to keep
tabs on any news surrounding her, Amanda kept the television on and tuned to
entertainment news programs.
 
And
in that way, she also tried but failed not to think of Liam.
 
There was more news about him than
there ever had been in his career thanks to the near perfect reviews that
A Soldier
was garnering throughout its premier
week.
 
After a stellar New York,
Los Angeles and London premiere, he had been scheduled last-minute appearances
to interview in Germany, France and Switzerland due to the overwhelmingly
positive reviews of his performance throughout the U.S as well as Europe.
 
The reception and attention on his role
alone was a clear indicator of new things to come for Liam.
 
He was shedding the role of an actor
known for his personal life and embarking on a new type of fame — one
that most actors could only dream of.

So as difficult
as it was to watch him look devastatingly handsome in his new suits, giving
faint half smiles down the various red carpets, Amanda reminded herself that
her decision had been nothing but right.
 
He deserved the success he was finally seeing.
 
He deserved the respect and the honor of having sacrificed
his body multiple times for his role.

And he deserved
to have nothing to do with whatever aftermath would come of the script Amanda
was writing.

While she failed
at everything else that she’d made her mission for the week, Amanda’s fingers
were somehow flying at lightning speed as she wrote
Leadoff’s
season finale
 
in the comfort of her dark studio apartment, feeling no remorse as she
assigned every last detail of Casey’s childhood and personal life into the
character of Milo — a history of being spurned by a mother, the initial
dreams of a simplicity over fame, the addiction spurred by the trauma of taking
life and happiness from a younger sibling.

It was a
shameless adaptation indeed.
 
But
if Casey was going to unleash hell on her after the premiere of the finale,
Amanda figured she might as well make it totally worth it.

Chapter 23

RAISE
YOUR HAND IF LEADOFF’S SEASON FINALE ROCKED YOUR PANTS OFF

(And stay seated with your
poor taste if you watched Legacy tonight)

Pop Rock Gossip

October 12
^th

Posted by Jessie O.

THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS — YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

So how about tonight’s season finale of
Leadoff
? That was written by Amanda Nathan by the way?!? (With, yes, a wee bit
of help from Tom Vogel himself as well as story editor Joe Fish, whom Amanda is
rumored to now be dating — wtf?!?)

Official numbers for ratings have yet to come in but according to
social media,
Leadoff
shocked viewers tonight while
Legacy
had viewers changing the channel
mid-episode as it continued its downward spiral and quality and viewership
since its season premiere.

Yep, while
Legacy’s
ratings have slowly
dwindled over the course of the shockingly lacking and poorly written season,
Leadoff
has been consistently stepping their
already-solid game up.
 
And while
audiences have been taking their sweet time to notice, it’s likely that the
show will attract new viewers following tonight’s flawlessly produced and
already much talked-about episode.

In tonight’s final hour, audiences were thrown a bit of a change-up
upon discovering that their lovable Milo wasn’t at all the person he’d fooled
us into believing he was for the first five episodes of the season.
 
And here I was fawning over him like he
was the perfect, humble role model who just needed a little guidance and TLC.
 
Turns out the dude was just an
impressively high-functioning alcoholic and drug abuser with a history of
MURDER.
 
Of his own LITTLE
BROTHER.
 
AGHHH.

Now, all the seemingly benign things Milo (Kyle Laurie) did throughout
the season suddenly appear a little darker since he’s actually been a tortured,
drug-addicted brother-killer.
 
What
does this mean for his finally-on-again romance with the beautiful Gina (Zoe
Mercury)? Are we going to find out how exactly the horrible accident happened
and if his hometown police ever closed the case? What does this mean for Milo’s
stardom — all his endorsements and new friends and fans? WHAT DOES THIS
MEAN FOR EVERYTHING?

Guess we’ll have to find out next season because — shocker!
— this ass-kicking show has been picked up for another six episodes as
well as a second season.
 
“You’re
welcome,” says my girl Amanda Nathan.

FAMILY
OF JOHN PARKER CAMDEN RELEASES STATEMENT ON LIAM’S PORTRAYAL IN ‘A SOLDIER’

The Pop Source

October 13
^th

After attending the Los Angeles premiere of the Terrence Rambis biopic,
A Soldier
, the Camden family released a statement on
actor Liam Brody’s portrayal of the late John Parker Camden.

“Some may know that we were initially resistant at the idea of
approving a biopic about our beloved John, whose energy, light and beauty we
knew would be impossible for even an Oscar-winner to embody.
 
Some may even know that we were
disappointed upon hearing who Terrence selected to honor our John in the
starring role of his film.
 
Unfortunately, we had been some of the many people who had allowed
rumors and media to influence our opinions on someone whom we have since
discovered is not only humble and kind but exceptionally talented.
 
For anyone who has believed in any of
the negative rumors that has surrounded Liam’s career, please believe us when
we tell you to dismiss those predispositions the way we did.

Because on and off set, in film and real life, Liam is in fact an
exceedingly good and caring person who like our John, is a man of peace, love,
and integrity.
 
This is a man who
deserves to be seen a different way than he has been seen in the past few years.
 
He is nothing but honorable and
deserves every award that comes his way this Oscar season.”

Kind words from an incredible family.
 
We know Liam’s currently on a flight home from London but
hopefully he’s gotten the lovely message along with our own wish of
congratulations — good job, Liam! We can’t wait to see more of your
incredible performances for years to come!

LEADOFF
RENEWED FOR SEASON 2, ZINC PRESIDENT: THANK AMANDA NATHAN

The Pop Source

October 13
^th

Following last night’s finale of
Leadoff
,
ZINC president Lyle Simon had the following to say about the Tom Vogel-produced
drama and the stellar episode that apparently prompted the network to renew the
show for a second season:

“Admittedly, despite the great respect we have had for Tom Vogel over
the years, we had our doubts about
Leadoff’s
survival on ZINC.
 
But like other
audiences, we were greatly pleased to see a decided change in direction for the
show after last night’s season finale and are as excited as the viewers to see
what happens next with Milo and the great characters developed by Vogel and his
writers — specifically our newcomer, Amanda Nathan.
 
They certainly have her to thank for
the continuation of their show.”

RUMOR
CONTROL: IS AMANDA NATHAN LEAVING LEADOFF TO START HER OWN SHOW? AND HOW MUCH
OF MILO IS BASED OFF OF CASEY MULREED?!

The Durt

October 13
^th

According to some inside inside sources, ZINC network president Lyle
Simon is looking to pluck Amanda Nathan from the
Leadoff
writers room and stick her in a brand new and empty one for her to
fill on her very own.
 
That’s right
— our girl Amanda is being commissioned to develop her own one-hour
drama!

Good move, ZINC.
 
Wherever
she goes, news does seem to follow so it’s a win-win for all — new young
viewers for the network and a cool,
very
well-paying job for Amanda, who basically jumps straight to the A-list after
this move, no?

But anyway, on the topic of rumor control, a good handful of TV
watchers in the Twitterverse have been making a few interesting points about
the Amanda Nathan-written season finale of
Leadoff
…

Were the new developments to Milo’s character, er… based off a certain
blonde buddy of hers whom we all know to be a very high-functioning alcoholic
and addict? I mean, Milo’s addiction is almost to a tee the way Casey’s was
— hidden under well-functioning talent and the likely product of broken
family life.

Sooo… could any of the other new developments from Milo be actually
based on Casey as well? She
did
also move
from the Midwest to New York to become famous and she
does
also have a little brother who is four
years younger — but to her credit, he is very much alive and not murdered
by her hands like Milo’s kid sibling.

But it does make you wonder — what the hell happened to Casey Mulreed’s
lil’ bro? We only ask because a quick Google search of the name Jonathan Jacob Mulreed
yields about zero results, which is weird because, well, nothing yields zero
Google results anymore.

Hm.

Figures.
 
They’re never around when the news on me is good for once.

Peering out her
window, Amanda smirked.
 
Her
sidewalk was completely empty — not a paparazzo in sight.
 
Perhaps they’d heard the news that she
had had alluded to her the previous night.
 
With
Leadoff
renewed, she was being called into work a little earlier than usual for some
“special news,” according to her phone call from Tom.

All I’ll say is you can actually believe the
gossip magazines on this one, Wendy had texted Amanda.
 
And you deserve it, girl.

Whether it was a
promotion within the ranks at
Leadoff
or a commission to develop her own show as reported by several media outlets,
Amanda was utterly flattered and wholly unfamiliar with the feeling she’d woken
up with.
 
It was an airy lightness that
she hadn’t felt once in the past few months and certainly not the past two weeks.
 
She had a hunch it was relief, which
had simply forgotten the sensation of.

There wasn’t a
whole lot to smile about lately but a season finale that led to the pickup of
Leadoff’s
second season certainly
deserved emotional acknowledgment of some sort.
 
Amanda allowed herself to briefly celebrate the news
considering the rest of her week would be spent anticipating Casey’s
post-finale wrath in some form or another.

Hopefully, she’ll spend today scheming so I
can just enjoy these next twenty-four hours
, Amanda thought as she pulled
on a pair of fitted jeans to go with her blazer.
 
All she wanted was a day with her little victory, with the
news that she was being credited in some way with saving an entire show and
several dozen jobs.

And though she’d
do it alone, she wanted the day to celebrate Liam’s big victory.
 
His performance in
A Soldier
had yet to receive a single negative review and even the
generally private family of the man he portrayed, John Parker Camden, had come
out to commend Liam as both an actor and a man.
 
She was fairly certain there was no higher praise.
 
So as she slipped her feet into her
ankle boots and pulled on a coat, Amanda imagined Liam on his plane ride home
to the city, in his comfortable, boyish hoodie and jeans, smiling from ear to
ear as he and Terrence read one stellar review after the other.
 
That was her somewhat pathetic way of
celebrating Liam — allowing herself to think about him for even a few
seconds.
 
Allowing herself to
fantasize about the fact that might be thinking of her too at that very
second.
 
Simultaneous thought was
about as close as they were going to get anymore — which was fine, Amanda
reminded herself.
 
Because look at all that’s happened for us
since being apart
.
 
Their
careers had both skyrocketed since the breakup and that was a fact that
couldn’t be denied.

Pulling her
jacket tighter around herself as she stepped out of her building, Amanda felt
herself delight in the wintery cold.
 
The cold season had seemed to spring up out of nowhere on her since
she’d spent basically the past year in New York either indoors or in a cab or
car, generally too swarmed with paparazzi to go walking for long.

For once free of
followers, despite the cold, Amanda decided this morning to forego the usual cab
and walk to the subway, savoring every step that she took without sensing
someone close behind.
 
Even Casey’s
green-capped paparazzo — Amanda could feel that he was nowhere close to
her as she walked to the train, and that was enough to put a bit of skip in her
step.

“I loved the
season finale so much, thank you for that episode,” a smiling woman in her
twenties said in passing as Amanda swiped her MetroCard into the subway
turnstile.
 
Amanda returned a smile
of thanks, feeling her heart swell with pride as she took a seat in the mostly empty
train which was populated with readers and music listeners, none of whom even
looked up let alone at Amanda.

Amanda couldn’t
help but marvel at the peace — yet another sensation that she hadn’t felt
in a very long time.
 
Maybe this is a sign
, she thought.
 
Maybe
I’m being granted this day of calm so I can appreciate what I have and figure
out how to deal with Casey, so she can’t take this incredible peace away.
 
It was as if the universe was showing her
the way things could be.
 
It was a
new day, after all, and she was on her way to accepting a new job in a city
that she finally felt comfortable and familiar with after a full year in its
buildings and on its sidewalks.
 
There had been no paparazzi outside her building and she had just had a
positive exchange with a normal stranger.
 
Those existed, apparently.

Closing her eyes
as the train hummed along the tracks, Amanda felt as if she were
meditating.
 
Harper had it right all along
, she thought with a little laugh to herself.

Feeling oddly
rejuvenated, Amanda let out a long, steady breath as she climbed up the steps
and out of the subway station, the wind nipping at her cheeks and the crisp air
waking her up more than she already was.
 

But the second
she reached the sidewalk, she felt her bag buzz with what felt like a thousand
text messages that had been sent while she was underground and without
service.
 
Fishing it out of her
purse, Amanda felt herself stop in place upon looking at the screen.

Missed calls,
voicemails and text messages — all from Liam.
 
Unsure of what to click first, Amanda’s thumb jabbed at her
text message inbox, her eyes scanning the most recent message despite having no
context.

My plane just landed I don’t know whose
number is sending me these messages but I’m not risking it Amanda I’m sorry I’m
coming

She shook her
head, utterly confused.
 
What? What number?
Amanda looked closer
at the message, which was time-stamped from almost twenty-five minutes ago.

Immediately
looking up, Amanda’s frantic eyes now scanned the square in front of the Waltman
Global building, scanning the constantly moving stream of suited men and women
as they entered and exited the tower.
 
Liam didn’t appear among them.
 
She paced forward till she was in the middle of the square, able to do a
three-sixty turn to better observe the busy Monday morning rush around her.
 
Still no Liam.
 
What
the hell is he talking about?

To her relief,
her phone suddenly rang.
 
She
picked up before it could even reach a second ring.
 
“
Liam
, what’s going
— ”

“Not Liam,
doll.”
 
Casey’s singsong already
lilted with a laugh.

Amanda froze,
her eyes suddenly unblinking as she kept her phone pressed to her ear.
 
Standing still, her gaze shifted about
the busy square, now looking for a head of pixie-like blonde hair.
 
“Where are you, Casey?” Amanda demanded
between her teeth, her eyes wild as her body began turning again, whipping
every which way in hopes of spotting her.

“Wanted to
congratulate you semi-in person, doll, for the finale and the promotion,” Casey’s
voice drawled.
 
“Super glad my
personal life was of some sort of gain to you,” she added with a bit of a
giggle.
 
Amanda frowned with
immediate confusion, her gaze drifting as she stood still in the square.
 
Casey didn’t sound fazed let alone hurt
by last night’s episode of
Leadoff
.
 
She had been expecting much more of a
reaction considering the type of traumatic personal details in the script.
 
What
the hell is going on here?
“What’s going on, Casey? What do you want?”

“Well.
 
I did promise you that I’d hit you
where it hurt if you decided to fuck with me, which obviously, you decided to
– because honestly, where else does a talentless girl get such
interesting character development for her little finale episode besides say, my
brother? Even when I told you explicitly to stay the hell away from him?”

Amanda
swallowed, silent.
 
“You can’t hit
me where it hurts anymore,” she said.
 
“I’ve got nothing for you.”

A giggle came
from the other end of the phone.
 
“Oh God.
 
I wasn’t born
yesterday, doll.
 
I know you broke
up with your poor boy, I know you haven’t seen him in weeks.”
 
The smile in her voice was
audible.
 
“But I also know that
he’s still where I hit to hurt you most.
 
I’m not stupid, Amanda.
 
Even if you
were
dating one of
those ugly little boys from Vogel’s writing staff — which you’re not
— I’d still know very well who to hurt to get to you.
 
Honestly kind of disappointed you
thought I was so easy to trick.”

“Liam and I are
no longer in each other’s lives,” Amanda said between ground teeth, her head
dodging about, trying to see through the wall of people as they swished past her.
 
Still no sight of Casey.
 
“Do what you want with him.
 
I don’t care,” she lied.
 
“Not after what he did to me,” she
added, hoping to sound all the more convincing.

“Well, thanks
for the permission but I already went ahead and let your boy know that you
might need an eye kept on you this morning.
 
You know how the super fans get.
 
They hear some exciting news about their favorite celebrity
and they just need to be a part of it.
 
They’re so creepy and obsessed,” Casey giggled.
 
“But it’s nice that you have nothing to
worry about as far as, you know, any of the
crazier
fans.
 
‘Cause at least your boy is
here to protect you in case anything gets — I don’t know — out of
control today.”

Shit
.
 
Her head whipping around, Amanda tried again to locate Liam.

“On your
right.
 
His Mercedes is double
parked on the northwest corner in front of the bank.”
 
Casey’s smirk was audible.
 
“Your boy’s on watch, doll.”

Damn it
.
 
Turning slowly, Amanda spotted Liam’s Mercedes, indeed double
parked on the northwest corner.
 
God, go home, Liam
, Amanda tried to
silently will him.

“Anyway, cutie.
 
Gotta go.”

“Casey! Tell me
what the hell it is that you’re planning to — ”

She hung
up.
 
Shit
.
 
Tearing her
phone from her ear, Amanda started toward the front doors of Waltman Global,
certain she could no longer serve as bait to Liam if she was inside and out of
his sight.
 
As her feet paced
forward, her nervous fingers tapped about to dial Liam’s number.
 
But before she could, she heard a
gravelly voice shout her name.

“Amanda! Give me
a smile over here!”

Turning, Amanda
spotted the green-capped paparazzo, wearing a backpack and actually holding a
camera, standing a few yards behind.
 
Lifting it, he snapped a few pictures of Amanda’s frozen expression
though she soon gathered herself, doing her best to pretend he was yet another
paparazzo so Liam wouldn’t be startled into leaving his post in the car.
 
She eyed the corner in which his
Mercedes illegally parked, continuing her way toward the front doors of the
tower.

“God, you look
good today, sweetheart! Turn around — let me get another smile!” When she
didn’t, he gave a hoarse little laugh.
 
“That’s fine, I’ll just get a picture of you walkin’ away from me, that
works too.
 
Especially when you’ve
got your feet in those
heels
,
sweetheart.
 
Mm
mm
.”

God, not the weird shoe talk again
,
Amanda groaned inwardly, her pounding heart at least taking relief in her
proximity to the front doors.

“Wait, gorgeous,
you dropped something,” the paparazzo’s leering voice called from behind.
 
“Come here, Amanda, sweetheart, you
dropped something!”

She ignored him,
walking faster when she heard his feet speeding up behind her.
 
But in no time, he reached her, letting
her know by tickling her palm with his overgrown fingernails.

“I said you
dropped something,” he repeated, tapping Amanda’s shoulder with something that
felt too sharp and heavy to be a finger.
 
Spinning around, Amanda stared at the paparazzo, whose smile was full of
satisfaction as he handed over a nude stiletto — the other half of the
heels she had worn on the night of
Leadoff’s
premiere at Metropolis.
 
The shoe
that she had lost while scrambling out of the elevator and away from the odd
man with no floor to go to.

You
, Amanda froze once again, not as
stunned as she was furious.
 
But
she couldn’t react because she needed to convey that she was fine, so fine that
Liam would stay in his car.