Page 9 of Beneath the Fame

“Hey—you okay?”

My eyes popped open at the sound of Alec’s voice.

I turned to find him right behind me, his height forcing me to look up.

Damn, he looks good.

“Uh,yeah, of course.” I nodded. “Just…one of those days, I guess. Got a lot on my mind.”

“A lot like…those interview clips that came out last night?”

My eyes went wide at him bringing it up, and I wanted to deny it, but with those intense brown eyes of his boring into me, I couldn’t bring myself to lie.

“Yes, actually,” I admitted. “I took an unfortunate trip through those comments, and…yeah.”

“Ahh,” he chuckled, reaching out for a quick squeeze to my arm that lit up all kinds of nerve endings. “You know better than to read the comments.”

I nodded. “I do. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“Curiosity, that’s all. I read a few too many myself—people areveryvocal about their feelings.”

I sighed. “Tooinvested. I’m so sorry about that.”

“Sorry for what?”

“Bringing that energy your way.” I shrugged. “You don’t deserve the stuff they’re saying, and they wouldn’t be saying it if it wasn’t for me.”

Alec’s eyes narrowed as he studied my face, confused. “Youdidn’t do anything—I’m the one who clearly can’t hold liquor that well. If anything, I should be apologizing to you, for making it uncomfortable.”

“I wasn’t uncomfortable,” I assured him. “You didn’t even say anything bad—especially not compared toothershit I’ve heard.”

He scoffed. “Nah, we’ve still gotta work together.”

“And we’ll do so just fine. People say all kinds of stuff they don’t mean when they’re drinking.”

Alec frowned and shook his head. “Who said I didn’t mean it?”

My lips parted, but nothing came out.

Before I could pull a response from my head, the PAs were letting us know we were ready to start the scene again, so I had to get it together.

ChapterThree

ALEC

“No wayshe’sthatbad in person, right?”

“Yeah, she’s gotta be catfish.”

“Duh! I bet they put mad filters on her!”

Shaking my head, I gave my best efforts tonotplay into the conversation happening between the teenage boys at the Cartwright Center, where I was volunteering for the afternoon. Not just because I knew it was a topic that could easily veer into more explicit than needed, but also out of respect for the subject.

Vanessa “Vanity” Kirkland was a hot topic for everybody.

“Ay, put the phone up!” I called, making the small group of boys huddled around one screen jump, caught off guard by my presence. “I couldsweary’all are supposed to be running drills, not looking at ass,” I admonished, stifling a grin when they all took off at a mad dash to get into what they weresupposedto be into.

Nobody wanted to be the one to disappoint “Big Alec”—a nickname I shook my head over the first time one of these knuckleheads graced me with it, but I took it in stride. Down here, it was a compliment, meaning I had been accepted by these kids a lot of people had already written off.

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