Someone I Used to Know - By Blakney Francis Page 0,90

me again, reaching out to shake the larger man’s hand with firm appreciation.

I should have thanked him already. Why hadn’t I thanked him?

“Thank you,” I said with all the sincerity of a robot. My mouth fluttered like a fish out of water as I tried to find the right emotions to show my gratitude.

The smallest half smile tickled his lips.

“A ‘ole pilikia. You can tell me tomorrow.”

It seemed that just when I was at a loss for feelings, Alfred had finally found his. My face didn’t respond to the smile I requested, so I had to settle for lifting my hand in a weak wave as he departed.

“An old picnic? What does that mean?” Declan tried to mimic the tangy Hawaiian words Alfred had given me. “You should start a list of Alfred’s words like Madeline does mine. You’d definitely bond if you were the only one who could speak his home country lingo.”

He was trying to divert my attention. Didn’t he want to know how they knew who I was? Couldn’t he see that I needed to talk about the situation?

Actually, he probably couldn’t. My face hadn’t moved, not even a twitch, in at least ten minutes.

“How do they know who I am, Declan?” Once more with feeling.

“There was an article in some rag. They know that you’re the Adley Adair The Girl in the Yellow Dress was inspired by, and that you’re doing some work for the movie.” He seemed so utterly nonplussed by the situation; it was almost contagious.

“What else?”

“There were some pictures.”

“Pictures!” An irrational jumble pooled into my head of nude photos or embarrassing drunken escapades.

Oh God, oh God. Never mind that I’d never taken a picture of me in any form of undress in my life. Anything seemed possible as nightmare after nightmare tumbled into reality.

“It’s just a few shots of us leaving the gelato shop.” He shrugged.

I felt like grabbing fistfuls of my hair and pulling from both sides.

“How are you so calm about all of this?” I demanded.

“Because it’s not a big deal, Adley.” He looked over my shoulder at the sound stage looming behind me. “Look, I’ve got to stay and shoot, but Lazarus is going to take you home. I’ll make sure he stops and gets a first aid kit on the way. You stay in the car. I don’t want to have to sick Alfred on any innocent bystanders…And if things are too weird between you and Cam at the moment, you can always get Lazarus to take you to my place instead.”

It was my turn to shrug. That decision seemed a little too symbolic in my current climate.

The security guard escorted me all the way to the waiting limousine’s door without incident. Had it been fifteen minutes yet? Because I was already ready for my blip of fame to be over.

When we stopped at a convenience store to acquire the necessary items to clean my wounds, I convinced a reluctant Lazarus to purchase a copy of the magazine that had printed the story, too.

I gobbled down the article, inhaling whole paragraphs at a time. The information they had about me was scarce at best. Declan had been pretty spot on about what it was exactly they knew about my identity. They didn’t mention my family, or where I went to college, or really anything that would affect my normal life back in North Carolina. People that knew me might recognize me if they saw it in the magazine, but it didn’t paint a road map for anyone to come find me either.

The pictures (there were three of them) were blurry, obviously taken from a cellphone, but there was one that got a pretty clear shot of my face. The only other concerning image was one of Declan and I walking away, my hand clasped tightly in his, my head borrowed in his back intimately.

The actual gist of the article wasn’t even really about me. It was about Declan…Or more accurately, my relationship with him.

“I am guessing that you all are just as confused by this couple as I am. Declan Davies has been a respected actor for years with his risky roles in off tempo Indies, but with The Girl in the Yellow Dress premiering later this year, he’s about to be launched into a mega-fame stratosphere. So what exactly is darling Declan Davies (of the practically royal Davies Down Under) doing with teen mom, Adley Adair, the real girl that inspired C.A. Peterson’s internationally bestselling novel? From the