Young Adulting - Christina Benjamin Page 0,19

stop me. But I’d do it the only way I knew how, the way someone like Henry Landon couldn’t even begin to imagine.

I’d work my butt off.

When the bus came to a stop in front of me I blinked in surprise because...there he was. Henry Landon, King of the Jerks. His huge head was plastered on the side of the bus in a promo for Hermosa Beach.

The bus doors opened and closed but I turned away, already heading in the direction of my temporary home.

I’d rather walk.

Chapter Five

Henry

I ducked into my trailer and collapsed onto my couch. Finally, I had a moment to myself. I’d spent all morning blocking reshoots for Hermosa Beach because our incompetent framing crew hadn’t done their jobs adequately the first time. Like any of us wanted to be back here reshooting the same cheesy scenes over again.

I certainly had better things to do than reprise Max Harding’s horrible one-liners. The only silver lining was that Elena wasn’t in my scenes today. I wish I could say I’d been that lucky all week, but yesterday we’d had to film more footage of our romantic beach scene.

To say my heart wasn’t in it was an understatement. It had been much easier to make out with Elena when we’d been a couple off set as well as on the show. Call me crazy, but I found it beyond my acting abilities to pull off swoon-worthy boyfriend vibes with a girl who’d admitted she’d only been using me.

At least I’d been able to escape to the solitude of my set trailer while everyone took a lunch break. I decided to distract myself by scrolling through my Instagram feed.

Big mistake.

Complaining about kissing Hollywood’s hottest actress wasn’t going to get me much sympathy. There were pictures of me and Elena at my father’s premiere plastered everywhere, which did nothing to dispel the rumors that we were on-again. But still, Elena Rhodes was my ex-girlfriend. And having to shoot in such close quarters with her all week had pushed my already foul mood into uncharted territory.

I was still stewing over my run-in with that fraud, Isabelle Ellis. Tomorrow would mark a week since the party where she dashed all my hopes and dreams. I’d yet to figure out how to respond to her. I’d opened up her email to Leo a dozen times but continued to oscillate between pissed and humiliated, unable to find the right words to reply.

I debated whether to tell her I was Leo, but then I felt like too much of a hypocrite to hang onto my anger, which I still had an abundance of when it came to the bossy little blonde. I may have lied about my name, but she lied about her title and in this instance, that was much worse.

Not being who she said she was brought any progress I thought I’d made with my script to a screeching halt. Which was even more frustrating considering I’d managed to swallow my pride long enough to objectively study her notes. Some of them actually had merit and would make Beyond Sunset shine even more.

Too bad none of that mattered since Little Miss Fake-it-till-you-make-it didn’t have enough clout to get a business card made, let alone a film.

Still, I found myself pulling up her email again. My finger hovered over the reply icon, Isabelle’s words from the party floating back to me like it was only yesterday.

You wouldn’t know how to survive in this world without your last name and all the perks that come with it.

She’d singled out my worst fears in one eloquent sentence; that my only true talent was being related to those with the real talent. And even though it might be the truth, it was why I couldn’t let go of my anger.

How dare she judge me so harshly when she herself was doing the same thing, deceiving others to get what she wanted. Besides, when it came down to it, weren’t we both the same? Just two people trying to carve out a place in the world. A place we’d earned and could call our own…

My warring emotions had me closing the email again. I knew I wasn’t able to communicate objectively yet.

Wait.

I paused, pulling up the email again. Why was I the one who had to take the high road? Yes, I might have said some unflattering things in the heat of the moment, but she’s the one who started this whole thing.

Besides, I could reply as Leo. He