Someone I Used to Know - By Blakney Francis Page 0,13

bony hand pressed a Bluetooth closer to her ear as she continued, “We want that job, Grady! It’s just what she needs to add a little sex appeal to her persona!”

Her rant never ceased as she stormed past me, apparently forgetting that I was there and leaving the trailer’s door open in her wake. I figured that was as close to an invitation as I was going to get.

More skittish than ever, I entered the sleek living room with cautious steps. My ears were still ringing from the Mom-ager’s outburst, but otherwise, the room was quiet. It smelled new, like a car fresh off the assembly line, and as I assessed my surroundings, it was easy to guess the flawless, smooth leather coating the couch and chairs was to thank for the aroma.

I was just starting to relax when the door leading to the bedroom opened, and Madeline stepped out, seemingly unsurprised by my appearance in her personal space. It was like she’d expected me to show up all along, and if I was hoping for outcries of thanks, I was sorely disappointed by her unaffected attitude.

Behind her came the rest of her entourage, and by the time I counted four (plus her scary looking bodyguard who counted as at least three people all on his own), I was starting to suspect the back room was like one of those little, magic cars at the circus, that managed to hold dozens of clowns inside their tiny interior. What had they been doing back there?

She didn’t say a word as she stared at me, coming closer than I’d let her since the first day we met. Raising a hand, she commanded silence from her followers, and for a very long moment we all fell quiet.

Even without make-up, she was one of the most genuinely stunning people I’d ever seen. It was hard to believe they’d chosen her to play me, not because I was naïve enough to think she was supposed to look like the Adley Cam had created. I knew enough about the book to know that he had described Adley with my same basic physical attributes; blonde hair, blue eyes, slender.

Through Madeline, I could see something about the book that had never occurred to me though. Cam had made me beautiful in a way that deserved to be portrayed by someone who looked like Madeline.

In that moment, for the first time, I actually wanted to read it. Even if it was just to glimpse at the girl he’d seen in me, the one he’d loved so desperately, and thought so much of.

Her gaze mimicked mine, tracing my body up and down, but I knew she was seeing more than just the simple depiction of my outer shell. Her eyes were starving as they glazed over the slant of my hip where I stood, the nervous itch that begged to pull at my lips, and the directness I forced into my shoulders. She wasn’t just looking at me. Her goal was to be me.

“Fuck,” her dry curse broke the hush of the room.

It thrust me back into the reality of the situation, and how this was the last thing I wanted to be doing.

“Excuse me?” My tongue felt as sharp as a sword, on guard, ready to whip out and slice someone in half.

“I can’t find it.” Frustration mashed her lips together, but her eyes never ceased their journey, continuously running over every unpolished surface of my face and wrinkled clothes. Her glare was so forceful; I’d bet she would have been able to paint a halfway-decent rendering of me if she wanted.

“Adley is young, naïve, and open, but then she goes and makes all these decisions that completely contradict who she is as a person! How am I supposed to portray that when I don’t even understand it myself? There’s no connection with me at all.” Her cry was weighed down by all the dissatisfaction that had been building up long before I’d arrived. I was momentarily taken aback by her forcefulness. “I mean, she’s the perfect all-American-girl one minute, and then after meeting a boy one time, she travels across the country to have sex with him! She just gives her virginity to a guy she barely knows!”

“Stop!” The strength of my exclamation was so powerful that I swear her bodyguard took a protective step towards us. “Adley Adair might just be some character in a book to you, but if you’d take two damn seconds to think