◊◊◊
At lunch, Pam and Tracy grabbed Lisa, and the three of them ate at a different table. Our conversation was about me turning down the Star Wars movie. Frank had sent me a text because the Variety article had hit the web. It was now featured on the various Internet news aggregators. The lunch crowd had all seemed to have read it. That, and I’d told the group at Monical’s.
They’d named the final three, now that I’d turned it down. Aden Reich, the man I’d met in the UK, was on the list, along with Adam Trimble and Micah Phelps. Adam had been in Transformers: Age of Extinction, and Micah was in Kingsman: The Secret Service and Eddie the Eagle. The story revealed that more than 2,500 actors had either met with those in charge of casting or put themselves on tape. That made them part of one of the broadest casting calls ever.
“You’re going to become one of those trivia questions,” Alan said.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“It’ll be one of those questions about who turned down a huge role.”
That made me pause for a moment. Had I made a mistake? No. I’d made the right decision.
◊◊◊
We’d lost our baseball game on Wednesday. Jim told me that without me to spark them, the team had seemed to just go through the motions. We were now 2 and 2 for the season. I felt bad that I’d be missing this Saturday’s game for personal reasons. I’d never missed a game for something personal before but really did need a vacation.
Moose wasn’t at all happy about it, but there wasn’t much he could do because I’d told him what was going on in my life. He had understood my need to talk to the movie people face-to-face; he was a huge believer in taking personal responsibility. I’d also warned him about my vacation plans, but it was unfortunate that the athletic department had planned a game during what was essentially spring break.
I found myself working with Yuri and Justin at one of the batting machines when the Lisa Felton matter took an ugly turn.
“Did you read what that bitch said about me?” Justin asked.
I could guess. Justin wasn’t my favorite guy when it came to how he treated girls. Jan, Yuri’s girlfriend, was a prime example. Once she’d slept with him, he’d dumped her. He’d also bragged about what he did to Piper, which got his ass kicked.
“Who?” Yuri asked.
“Lisa Felton. The bitch said I tried to force her to have sex. Everyone knows she wants it,” he suggested.
Yuri was aware of what Justin had done to his girlfriend.
“You’re a real jerk sometimes,” Yuri said.
Justin’s face turned red. I stepped forward to get between them.
“Settle down,” I said.
“Screw you, and screw you,” Justin said, pointing at each of us in turn. “I suppose you enjoy my leftovers,” he said to Yuri, crossing the line.
Yuri tried to take a swing at Justin, but I hit Yuri on the bicep. It’s one of those pressure points that Cassidy had been teaching me; my hit caused Yuri to cry out in pain. Justin must have been brain-damaged because he lifted the bat to use against Yuri.
I punched the back of Justin’s hand with my left and followed up with a right to the underside of his arm, into his triceps. Both of those were pressure points that hurt like crazy. Justin dropped the bat and stumbled back. Moose saw the whole incident and rushed over.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“Breaking up a fight,” I said.
Yuri was rubbing his arm, and Justin was shaking his own and clenching his fist. I knew he’d have a dead arm for a few minutes as his nerves regrouped. Cassidy was big on teaching by example.
“Okay, you two with me,” Moose said to them before turning to me. “You, go work with Coach Haskins on stealing bases.”
I suspect Moose just wanted to run my butt off. After a while, Yuri and Justin came back to practice, but it was clear they weren’t happy. Justin had better watch himself because I was sure Yuri could take him.
◊◊◊ Friday March 25
My Google Alerts notified me there was an article about Brandon. He’d been found late last night, beaten in an alley. He and his two accomplices had been let out on bail. It was reported they’d been seen at a local Boston restaurant with their attorneys. Brandon had been the last to leave, and his two friends were persons of interest.
I wondered if Tony had arranged it. At least someone got to kick his ass. I forwarded the story to Tami and then called her.
“Hey, I just sent you an article. Someone beat the shit out of Brandon last night,” I said.
“Is he dead?”
“No, they expect he’ll survive,” I said.
“That’s too bad.”
“You okay?” I asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just over that jerk and wish he’d die.”
“Did you see Lisa Felton’s blog was exposed?” I said, trying to get her mind off Brandon.
“Yeah, Alan gave me access. You mad?”
“No. Why?” I asked.
“You haven’t read it,” she said as if it was obvious.
Okay, I hadn’t read it. My teachers had piled homework on me because I’d missed the first three days of the week, and they all had threatened quizzes the day before spring break. I called bullshit; surely, they wouldn’t do that to us. I would bet a quarter of the school would take off early to get a jump on our week off.
“I was busy. Why, what did it say?” I asked.
“Hang on. I want to quote Lisa accurately,” Tami said, and I heard her phone hit the desk.
Perhaps I should read it. I heard Tami fumble with the phone, and she was back.
“‘Call me traditional, but for some weird reason, I like keeping my number as low as possible. Somehow, I expected David would understand that and what losing my virginity meant to me. I’d had a crush on him for what seemed like forever. Well, maybe since he walked into school freshman year all grown up. I’d liked him before because he was funny and one of the best guys I knew, but when he walked into school all buff, oh, come to mama!’”
“What the …?” I began.
“Please, let me just read it so I can get through it,” Tami said, giggling.
“‘I know that Bill Rogers and his group of friends ruined my reputation. It didn’t help that people started spreading rumors that I gave blowjobs for money. I imagined if I became David’s girlfriend, all that would go away. I hate high school and all the petty cliques and hateful things people say. In retrospect, I guess it was too much to expect from him.
“‘I’d waited until David was finally single. I’d missed my chance before, but wasn’t missing it this time. Looking back, throwing myself at him was probably a mistake. It played right into what everyone thinks of me: that I’m a slut. For David, I was willing to be his slut. I mean, seriously. We’ve all seen him with his shirt off.
“‘Getting him into bed was no easy feat. Apparently, all his friends warned him off. Then he got it into his head we were related.’”
“I wonder if I can get a restraining order or something and have that taken down,” I said out loud, which was a mistake.
“Oh, please. You’d deprive us of having fun at your expense? Let me read you the rest,” she begged.
“Might as well get this over with,” I said.
“‘I still can’t believe we did it and I’m crying about it. I can’t go into detail right now. Maybe I’ll be able to write about it later, but my plan fell apart. I’m not David’s girlfriend. Now everyone will know I really am a slut, that is, if you consider willingly having actual sex with one guy a slut.
“‘David was nice but firm that he wasn’t ready to have a relationship. I guess I’m happy he didn’t play any games with me.
“‘Oh, I almost forgot. He named his penis. He talked to it like it was his best friend Mr. Happy,’” Tami said.