Someone I Used to Know - By Blakney Francis Page 0,62

although his size told a different story), and my efforts to force him to talk to me were all epic failures. If I didn’t know better, I’d think he was secretly hearing impaired. It would explain a lot, like how he was able to put up with Madeline on a consistent basis, and why my attempts at getting him to like me hadn’t even put a dent in his staunch armor.

“This scene never happened in real life,” I informed him, squinting against the sun’s glare as I pointed my attention in Madeline and Declan’s direction along with him. I don’t know what prompted me to share the piece of information with him. It just slipped out. There was a harmless ease to my admission, knowing that he ignored everything that came out of my mouth.

Going over the script for the day earlier with Madeline, she’d realized I wasn’t going to be much help with the unfamiliar content, and the spirited teenager had been none too pleased with it either.

“Cam and I were more stay at home kind of people.” The words kept pouring out. “I don’t suppose you’ve ever read The Girl in the Yellow Dress, have you?”

The most I could say for his reaction was that I knew he wasn’t dead, because his lungs kept right along pushing air in and out of his strained mouth.

“Yeah, me either,” I answered as if he’d spoken.

Alfred might have been the only other person in the world who hadn’t read Cam’s book. A sense of camaraderie tingled up my spine. He didn’t seek any answers from me, and the irony was that it made me want to give them to him.

Suddenly my mouth turned against me, spewing out more facts about the truth behind The Girl in the Yellow Dress. I wished he would have stopped me. All it would’ve taken was one word, and the spell would have been broken. His silence seduced me with the power of a hundred seasoned psychologists.

“…I never met the family that adopted the baby. I didn’t want to. If I knew what they looked like…” I trailed off. Not because I’d regained any sense of control, but because Alfred had abruptly stood and walked away from me. I hadn’t even noticed the scene had wrapped. Madeline’s bodyguard was already at her side.

Well, alright then. I wobbled to my feet, feeling very much like I’d just been violently ill. In a way I had. I’d just emotionally projectile vomited all over Alfred. What the hell was wrong with me?

As if she could sense my uncertainty, Madeline looked up, meeting my eyes across the set. Her lips were pinched together as she paused, and then with a slight shake of her head, I understood my dismissal. I had nothing to offer her and, therefore, was undeserving of a place at her side. In the back of mind I knew it was nothing personal. It was just Madeline. Taking any of her actions personally was a good way to destroy my self-esteem, and do it quickly.

I tried to brush it off, falling back into the chair. As much as I hated to admit it, without Madeline’s demanding attention, I was kind of useless.

“Who is that? Is she somebody?” The whisper did nothing to keep the words from floating to my ears. Two girls that were dressed like all the rest of the extras lingered a few feet away.

I felt the other girl’s eyes on me in a quick belittling sweep.

“She’s nobody, probably just part of the crew.”

An unexpected burn rumbled inside of me, begging me to tell them exactly who I was and how important it made me. Surely they wouldn’t dare call me ‘nobody’ then. Just as quickly as it had come, the acid rush fizzled away, leaving me empty and berating myself. What the hell was wrong with me? I didn’t even want to be Adley Adair.

Besides, even if I’d wanted to pitch a fit, the girls had already walked away to go join the flock of extras surrounding Declan. Unlike Madeline, he didn’t rush away from the admirers the first chance he got, instead he let them fawn over him as he chatted and signed autographs.

I needed to clear my head.

I abandoned my spot and went in the opposite direction of Declan.

For a second, I paused at the border of the temporary production area, lingering at the line where Hollywood ended and reality began. And then I remembered. I was nobody, just as those girls