Hidden Gem Short Story Collection (9781301405985) (18 page)

Feeling demoralized and tired of the
audition circuit, Madison didn’t bother giving the callback her
all. She had always prided herself in being confident and composed
and liked that people saw her that way. Confessing to her roommates
that she once had a boyfriend who cheated on her and that she had
ever felt insecure about anything went against the reputation she
had built for herself. Her roommates were sweet to dote on her, but
pity was never the type of attention that Madison relished. After
all, she had spent enough of the past year wallowing in her own
self-pity.

She had thought for a moment that telling
Chrissy and Claire the suspicions she had about Gemma would somehow
perhaps release the bitterness that she had felt for her all those
years. Instead, the girls just about confirmed that she had reason
to be angry and upset and feel the way she felt.

Madison stuffed her sides
into her purse, burying Vanessa’s cheesy words under her wallet and
keys. If the entertainment industry didn’t want her, she would make
it
her
choice to
leave. Madison Lennox wouldn’t grovel for anything, most certainly
not for a daytime soap contract that didn’t even guarantee a whole
season. She put on her sunglasses as she made her way across the
lobby and out onto the Midtown sidewalks.

Within two steps, she heard the faint call
of her name. She looked up to see a man with a camera, wearing a
Pop Dinner t-shirt. Madison sighed, keeping up her stride towards
the street corner in hopes of quickly hailing a cab. She looked out
into the stream of yellow cars and was momentarily hopeful until
she realized every one had on their off-duty lights. She rolled her
eyes behind her shades, cursing her agent for scheduling her
callback at this hour.

“
Madison!” the paparazzo
called with an annoying familiarity. Madison glanced over. It
wasn’t anyone she recognized. “Hey Madison! I hear you’re out here
for an audition.”

“
You heard right,” she
replied, dryly. “Congratulations.” Had she been in any other mood,
she would probably be happy that Pop Dinner was actually once again
giving her the time of day.

“
What’s it
for?”

“
I can’t answer that
question right now,” she replied, looking away from the camera and
willing the possibility of an on-duty cab to come by.

“
Will you be moving back
to New York?”

“
I can’t answer that
question,” she repeated, beginning to like the way the words
sounded leaving her lips.

“
Well, at least tell us
what you’ve been working on since
Carbine.
Didn’t that finish shooting
like, two years ago?”

Ugh
. “Hasn’t quite been two years,” Madison said, trying to
sound unruffled, even chipper as she made her way across the
street. She hoped a different corner would help her at the very
least get away from Pop Dinner, but the cameraman followed, holding
the camera as still as possible as he wove through the
cars.

“
Word on the street is
that you’re having trouble booking new projects, but that’s not
true right?”

“
Of course not,” Madison
said, forcing a smile. Even if she was going to leave the
entertainment industry, she didn’t want to go out in an infamously
bad Pop Dinner interview as many before her had. “I just haven’t
come across the right project.”

“
And it’s not because
Gemma Hunter’s fans have it out for you, right? Because you were
her high school bully?”

“
I
wasn’t
,” Madison flipped her hair,
turning towards the camera to show her nonchalance about the topic.
“Gemma Hunter had a really nice life in high school, from what I
remember.”

“
Because she stole your
boyfriend.”

The smile dropped from Madison’s lips. She
could see the satisfaction spread on the paparazzo’s face.

“
Not that you can be
considered a journalist, but where do you get your facts?” Madison
laughed, desperate to hide her shock. Her mind ran frantically,
wondering who had perhaps overheard her confession.

“
From a
very close source,
” the
paparazzo sneered. “So Gemma Hunter stole your boyfriend and
cheated on Damian Evans? Then cheated on your ex with Tyler Chase?
Did she cheat on Tyler with Liam Brody? Weren’t you close to all
three of them? Shouldn’t you know?”

Despite the busy rush hour, a crowd began to
gather around Madison and the paparazzo. She felt panicked and
unprepared for such an encounter. Pop Dinner’s guerilla interviews
were once a weekly occurrence back in L.A. but their persistence
had tapered off significantly in the past months. There were no
cabs and the subway entrances were too packed for a quick escape.
She knew that every moment longer with Pop Dinner meant that they’d
catch a reaction worthy of analyzing to death on all the stupid
gossip blogs.

She looked at the entrance of the nearest
subway once again. It wasn’t the line that she needed to get back
to Chrissy and Claire’s, but anything that would put some distance
between her and Pop Dinner was now her goal. Madison turned on her
heel, pushing her way into the crowd. She looked over her shoulder
once to see the paparazzo still filming from a distance, waving at
her with a smug grin on his face. It didn’t even matter if any of
the rumors were true, Madison’s reaction would be used as proof of
her dramatic history with Gemma Hunter.

She was done talking about
Gemma and she wanted to be done forever so she could just put it
all behind her. Madison wanted a career, a life, her own fame that
had
nothing
to do
with Gemma or Tyler or Liam. She had gotten so close to the A-List
only to learn that it was all just a mirage. Madison felt tears
well up as she let the rush hour commuter crowd lead her
underground. She could feel the heat rising to her face and her
lips crimp into an expression of hopelessness. But the paparazzo
was now far behind her and the tired commuters that surrounded her
paid her no attention. For the first time ever, Madison was
relieved to be one of many.

~

Stumbling out at Atlantic Terminal, Madison
found herself in what appeared to be an underground maze, twisting
and turning and filled with the hurried buzz of people as desperate
to get home as she was. She was just one transfer away from the
safety of her roommates’ home. She wondered if either one of them
had said something to the wrong person. They meant well, but had
the propensity for that kind of thing.

Following the sign towards the red line,
Madison pondered over the thought while batting away the stray
tears that had clung to her eyelashes and ignoring the occasional
catcalls that the less weary commuters threw her way. When she got
to the platform, she was relieved to find it less congested than
the one in Midtown but still struggled to find a spot that was a
safe distance from the ledge. Madison walked the length of the
platform until she was at the end, sighing and leaning against a
column for support. Her thoughts had exhausted her.

As she tucked her sunglasses away in her
purse, she could feel a set of eyes looking in her direction.
Madison kept her glance down, rummaging through her bag for her
headphones in hopes of deterring anyone from approaching her.
Despite being well aware of how stupid it was, the last thing she
wanted was to be recognized while taking the subway.

Popping in the earbuds, she turned away from
the stranger’s glance. To her dismay, the gesture wasn’t enough.
She felt a tap on her shoulder. Madison shot a quick glare behind
her before walking away, hoping the train would come so she could
once again disappear into the crowd. Without any music playing, she
could hear the footsteps following her.

Madison swallowed, suddenly nervous. She was
used to the aggressive male pursuers in the city and the occasional
fan, but there was something about the decisiveness in his
footsteps that made her worry.

“
Madison?” his voice
called out. She stopped suddenly, pulling the buds from her ears
before turning slowly. She didn’t recognize the person standing in
front of her but he appeared just a fan – a young, rugged type that
sported a full beard and wore a simple white t-shirt over jeans,
the type that definitely went to see
Carbine
the day that it opened.
Madison exhaled, walking towards him with a closed-lipped
smile.

“
Hi. I’m not really up for
a photo today if that’s okay,” she said, trying to sound as
friendly as possible. The man smiled, his hazel eyes sparkling with
a familiar warmth and friendliness. Madison cocked her head as she
looked up at him.

“
It’s fine,” he replied.
“We have more than enough pictures together.”

Her hand quickly flew to
her open mouth. “
Lucas?”

“
Did you not… recognize
me?” Lucas laughed, squinting at her with true confusion.
What the fuck
, she
thought, squeezing her hands over her mouth so the words wouldn’t
slip from her lips. He’d always looked and acted mature beyond his
age, but now Lucas looked just about the manliest man alive. The
material of his shirt stretched over a chest much broader than the
one she remembered. His frame appeared to bear an extra inch or two
of height and his facial hair was probably the envy of every guy in
the world. And in a very characteristically Lucas way, he appeared
as if he had put no thought or effort into his look. It was just
one that he’d grown naturally into. After all, he’d been surprised
by her inability to recognize him.

God
. Madison couldn’t help but wonder what the past few years
had been like for him. They had apparently groomed him to look more
relaxed, wiser. And she had to admit, sexier than ever before. She
shook her head, realizing that it was and had been her turn to
speak. “No, I definitely didn’t recognize you.”

Lucas cracked a grin. “Alright. For a second
I thought you were running away from me because you were still
upset with me. But I figured a big shot like you has better things
to think about these days.”

“
Right,” she exhaled,
wishing that that were true. She blushed, embarrassed that he
actually played a part in the drama that had plagued her for the
past twenty-four hours.

“
So what’re you doing in
Brooklyn?” Lucas asked, rubbing his beard.

“
I’m in town for an
audition. My old roommates live here and would kill me if I tried
to stay anywhere other than their new place,” Madison replied while
studying Lucas’s bearded face. She remembered the days when he was
clean-shaven with a youthful mop of dark, wavy hair that would get
matted to his forehead in an irresistibly adorable way after
basketball practice. She remembered how hard she had first fallen
for him and how little she cared that he was a whole year younger,
back when a year felt like so much more than it did
today.

“
You look exactly the
same,” Lucas said, his eyes flicking across her face. “Which is a
good thing, of course.”

Madison felt a smile touch
the corner of her lips. “You look
nothing
like you used to.” She
wanted to reach up and run her hand over his hair. It was cropped
short enough that she couldn’t see even a hint of the waves.
Slipping her hands behind her back, she clasped her fingers
together, restraining them from reaching to curiously touch Lucas
in any way. She let out a little laugh. “I think your beard might
be longer than your hair.”

“
I know,” he said, running
his own hand over his head. “How’s it look?”

Madison gave it another
look. “It’s alright,” she shrugged, laughing. “Just don’t
expect
anyone
to
recognize you.” She let her hands drop back to her sides as she
stepped back. In the distance, she could hear the train rumbling
towards the platform. Madison felt her hair whip behind her as the
cars barreled out of the tunnel.

“
You getting on the 3
train?” he asked.

“
Yeah,” Madison yelled
over the clacking of the tracks. “You?”

He nodded, smiling. “Guess we’ll have some
more time to catch up.”

~

It turned out that Lucas lived a mere five
blocks from Chrissy and Claire, a move he made about a year ago
after he returned to the states. He’d apparently toyed with the
idea of living in the southwest where his parents and sister had
since made a home but couldn’t handle the dry Arizona heat.

“
I thought I’d prefer that
over humidity,” Lucas said, taking a bite of his curried shrimp.
“But after two years living in Southeast Asia, dry heat feels like
your skin’s going to crack if you move the wrong way or
something.”

“
Sounds lovely,” Madison
laughed. She poked at her vegetable dish, largely untouched since
the food arrived at their table. Lucas had chosen a Caribbean
restaurant midway between both their destinations. Madison felt
strangely nervous. It had been close to four years since she’d last
seen Lucas. She watched his now bearded face sprout stories of his
international travels while eating spicy seafood when he once ate
nothing but pizza. The quiet, reserved boy she once dated and loved
was very much a different person now – a man with a lot to say,
apparently. His adventures made Madison’s pale in
comparison.