Someone I Used to Know - By Blakney Francis Page 0,78

me, and duck your head. And, Adley, whatever you do, don’t let go…Do you understand?”

I nodded, once again incapable of more.

The crowd was happy when he was standing there, letting them leach off him, but subtle hostility rolled through the room as we began to shuffle towards the door. All it took was one look at a girl’s face, her crazed eyes narrowing intently on where Declan’s hand clasped mine, and I was happy to follow his instructions, dropping my head and wishing more than anything I could bury it in his back and pretend none of it was happening.

The car was silent. I didn’t know whether neither of us had anything to say…Or maybe, there was just too much for even words to express.

It was a long time before I spoke.

“Why did you let me take you there? You knew that would happen, didn’t you? Or, at least, you knew it could. That’s why you were acting strangely.”

He turned away from me, but it didn’t matter. I didn’t need to see his face to hear the haunted melancholy of his words.

“Sometimes I like to forget, too.”

Chapter Thirteen

Declan

There would be no need for the cover set. They’d been working on a reserve set in case the weather acted up, but there was no way an Arc Light could come close to matching the brilliance of the real sun on this fantastically clear day. The three hour drive to a more isolated spot on California’s coastline was one hundred percent worth it.

The only people on the beach were the crew and hired extras, which did a lot to eliminate another incident like what Adley had experienced. She was skittish enough as it was, without throwing in a thousand screeching females, and I wasn’t all that terribly surprised she’d been avoiding me ever since.

Bloated white tents bloomed unnaturally in the sand like fat mushrooms, and a dolly was being assembled closer to the shore. The moving camera would be used later to capture a romantic walk along the coast between our two leads at sunset. It was my only scene scheduled for the day, leaving me a good six hours to dodge autograph seekers, while Georgia, Madeline, and the fake Adairs filmed footage for the opening sequence of the movie. Scenes are rarely shot in order. It’s all about convenience. Two scenes called for a beach setting, so there I was.

The water crested over bulging rocks in the distance, but it was only a soft foam by the time it nestled the sand. I was drawn to it, my eyes on the horizon.

I had to be careful to stay out of the shot that played out further up the beach between Madeline and the actors playing her family, but I knew it was worth it the second my toes squished into the gritty sand beneath the sea. I was homesick, horribly so. The realization hit me violently, taking me by surprise.

As little waves soaked the ends of my trousers (I would definitely be on the receiving end of a scolding from the wardrobe department), I indulged in the smallest most inconsequential connection I had to Australia. The same water that touched me, through many oceans and kilometers and currents, also brushed against the shore of the Lucky Country I called home.

“Don’t feel bad. Boys fall in love with me all the time.”

I spun in the surf to gape at Adley, whose dry toes tittered just beyond the ocean’s grasp.

The alarm must have shone on my face, because she kicked sand at me, her expression clear with annoyance.

“The scene you’re filming today with Madeline…” she trailed off pointedly, expecting me to understand something. “That’s the first line.”

“What makes you think I’m in love with you?” I rattled off Cam’s line, the memorized words stumbling over themselves as I jerked my gaze back to the horizon that was missing the setting sun the script called for.

“People only gaze out over a landscape like that with such brooding concentration for two reasons; either you’re in love or you’re posing for an anti-depressant ad,” Madeline’s line slipped easily from the real Adley Adair’s lips. She pulled it off like a pro, but then again, it wasn’t really acting for her.

I applauded her effort anyways, breaking character and shaking my legs free of salty residue as I joined her on the dry sand.

Adley sank into a mocking curtsy that was graceful even if done in jest.

“Did this actually happen – you and Cam discussing your forbidden feelings