Page 48 of Romance Is Dead
“Shit is right. I was late for a handful of meetings and made one single fuss about my storyline and they axed me. I spent years trying to break into the industry after that first bit part when I was little. And when I finally achieved my dream, I had it snatched away from me the day after my family threw me a huge congratulations party.” Her hands curled around the arm of the chair like claws. “It made me. So. Angry.”
“I’m sorry. This industry is the absolute worst.” At least I could agree with her on that.
“But hey.” Chloe’s face brightened. “It was a chance to work with my idol again, so I figured maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.
But then day after day, as we got closer to filming, I became more and more disappointed.
I’d been so close to my dream. But I still tried to be nice to you the first day.
And you were nothing. . . but a huge. . . bitch.”
“I’ve been nothing but nice to you! I let you eat lunch with me. We went to get coffee!”
“Oh, and it’s such a privilege to be allowed to eat lunch with you.”
“That’s not what I meant! I — ”
“Can we stay on task, please?” Teddy asked, sounding pained.
“Anyway.” Chloe tossed her head. “I thought maybe I’d been wrong all those years.
You weren’t my idol. You were fake, and now you were standing in my way.
We’d only done one day of filming. If something happened to you,” — she mimed holding a knife and dragging it across her throat — “it’d be so easy to put me back in the role.
We’d have to reshoot what, one scene? A scene that wasn’t even that great, thanks to that one over there. ” She motioned to Teddy.
“He wasn’t that bad,” I insisted. “Better than you.” Teddy glanced at me, grateful, and I gave him a small smile.
“Please.” Chloe laughed. “I knew that if I got rid of you, we could start over like nothing happened. I wouldn’t have to tell my family I’d fucked up the one opportunity I’d had in almost twenty years.
My career would be back on track! So I decided to take matters into my own hands.
” She frowned. “Too bad that PA looked so much like you in the dark.”
“You didn’t mean to kill Trevor?”
Chloe shrugged. “It was an accident. I just wanted to hurt you, bad enough that you’d have to quit the film and I could take your place. I’d seen you walking around base camp earlier that night so I hid behind a trailer and waited for you. Bad luck for Trevor that he walked by first.”
I gaped, shocked at her lack of remorse. “And Brent?”
“More collateral damage.” Chloe rolled her eyes. “When Brent started raving at the bar about you suspecting him, I knew you were doing exactly what I needed you not to do: poking your nose in my business. I had to stop you.”
“Brent stealing my lunch was just a coincidence?”
Chloe’s eyes filled with tears. “I’d saved some peanuts from craft services in case I found the chance to slip you some.
And then catering left the food unattended, giving me the perfect chance!
So I planted the peanuts, satisfied that they would get you once and for all.
” She choked back a sob. “Until he decided to be a jackass.”
There was still one thing I wasn’t clear on. “What about Audrey? Why did you attack her that day?”
“Oh, her. Walking onto set that first day, I knew I recognized her. Something about her face, and her voice. And then I finally put my finger on it! She was in that terrible movie a few years back. God, it was bad. I just told her I knew who she was and she freaked out.”
“That’s all?”
“Well. After Brent died, she also saw me coming out of the food tent holding the EpiPen I’d swiped from the first-aid kit. She asked me about it later and I told her if she told anyone, I’d blow her cover and tell everyone who she really was.”
“What about Trevor’s friendship bracelet?”
“I took it on a whim and gave it to Audrey as a sign of our ‘friendship.’ Wouldn’t do very well for me to hang on to it, would it?”
“You’re a psychopath.”
Chloe shrugged. “Call me what you like.”
Seething, I looked around the room, just to have something else to look at besides her. It was grotesque, the posters with my face in various expressions of horror staring down at me. Maybe I should have been scared, as scared as I looked in those photos. But all I felt was rage.
“What’s all this for then? If you hate me so much?” I nodded my head toward the memorabilia, which — I suddenly noticed — included Jacques, my beloved stuffed raven, down on the floor near my feet.
Chloe looked confused. “What do you mean?”
“All these posters! And this stuff you stole from my trailer! Why hang it up and put it all down here if you can’t stand me?”
“I. . . I don’t know.”
I forced a laugh. “You’re pathetic. You’re just an obsessed fan having a tantrum that you’re not getting your way.”
“I’m no fan of yours,” she spat. “I despise you.”
I shrugged. “Call it what you like.”
She glared at me. “You have no idea what it’s like, trying to make it in Hollywood.”
“I have no idea what it’s like? I’ve been making movies since I was eight! And now I’m quitting — did you know that? Because I know exactly how hard it is for women like me and you and Audrey. It’s soul-sucking.”
“Please. You didn’t even have to try to get your first role. It all fell in your lap.”
I opened my mouth to retort, but then snapped it closed. She wasn’t exactly wrong.
“I’ve been struggling for almost two decades!
” Chloe spat. “Do you know how mean casting directors can be? I’ve gotten rejected because my ear lobes were too flabby.
My ear lobes!” Rising from the chair, she pointed at the side of her head.
“I had surgery to pin them back, and I still couldn’t book jobs. ”
“I’m sorry.” She wasn’t wrong. I did have it easy getting jobs. And casting directors could be assholes. Once one told me that in order to book a lead, I had to swear I wouldn’t eat carbs for the duration of filming. Bizarre. “No one deserves that.”
“No. No one does. And now, I finally get to have my revenge.” Chloe raised the gun. “Teddy will just be more collateral damage.”