Someone I Used to Know

chapter Five

Declan


The morning still smelled fresh as I rolled down the window of the limousine to stare at the petite blonde girl currently sitting on the curb outside of C.A. Peterson’s sizable home.

“Need a ride, little orphan Annie?” She looked pathetic. It almost dissuaded my desire to ruffle her feathers…almost.

“That’s pretty insensitive considering my situation,” she shot back climbing gruffly to her feet. “What are you doing here?”

“Cam called me, said you’d be in need of ride.”

Adley didn’t put up a fight, instead walking around to the other door and letting herself into the car without another word. Her lack of feistiness was disconcerting. She was most entertaining when she was all riled up.

“I have five sisters. I’m the youngest,” I said as the car smoothly exited the neighborhood. I wanted her to bite back, but I couldn’t make my intentions too obvious either. The trick was to quietly pour the gasoline, and wait for her to light the match.

“Why are you telling me that?” Her eyes slid seamlessly over the California landscape as we passed, never turning to me. Her tone perfectly emulated one of bored nonchalance.

“Well I know everything there is to know about you, and I thought you might like to know something about me…You know, even out the playing field.”

“You don’t know anything about me.” Her eyes snapped to me as she refuted my claim fervently, an ugly scowl fitted over her mouth. “You know one side of a story, from a fictional perspective of things, that may or may not be accurate.”

“So you’re saying that you never got pregnant the very first time you ever had sex? Bloody bad luck by the way…And you didn’t have a baby? I guess that clears up all my questions about the whole adoption thing.”

For a second I’d thought I’d gone too far. Her entire body tensed, and I was sure she was going to slap me. Maybe I even deserved it.

And then she gave me one hard look over, and relaxed…just like that.

She took a deep breath. Her eyes returned to their former attention beyond the tinted glass, and she spoke, “five older sisters, huh? That sounds…colorful.”

“If by colorful you mean I’d worn more eye-shadow by the time I was four than a hooker working the Valley does in a decade, then…yes, it was quite colorful.” I could feel my face becoming unintentionally animated as memories of my family sparked life into my eyes, but I found solace in the fact Adley wasn’t even looking at me to see it.

“What happened after you turned four? They realized you made a prettier girl than they did?”

I looked at her with exaggerated, wide eyes, mocking her with beguiling shock. “You think I’m pretty?”

“Sure.” She shrugged. Her focus was still elsewhere. “And that’s great news for your career considering how preteens just love a pretty boy.”

Pretty wasn’t a compliment on her lips. Her implication was clear, and I didn’t appreciate it one bit. I scowled at her, irritated.

I wasn’t some fame-hungry fruit-loop signing on to any script that fell into my lap just to make a buck. I wasn’t trying to build a fan base. Acting was a career for me. It was the only thing that had ever really challenged me, and I was fueled by the thrill of conquering new characters.

“I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.” But I could tell that she did from the muted gratification bottled up in her face.

I openly watched her as she continued to look fixedly out the window. My stare dared her to meet my eyes. She liked getting under my skin too.

Once again, she’d presented me with the unexpected.

A taciturn muteness hung over us until the driver pulled the car to a soft stop.

Another thought occurred to me, and I tried to restrain the impressed realization that took hold of my features.

“I know what you did back there.” The driver had made his way to my door, and it lingered open beside me. “You distracted me on purpose, so I’d stop pestering you about the book.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

She slid gracefully off the leather seat and out her open door with a small, secret smile I thought I might like even better than her bite.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Her smile was long gone by the time she noticed me shadowing her path.

“Well, since we didn’t get to have that heart-to-heart I was so keen on earlier, I thought it’d be a good time for you, me, and Madeline to all spend some time together.” There was no hope of me being able to fake innocence. I might’ve been nominated for an Oscar at nineteen, but I wasn’t that talented.

She rolled her navy eyes, and I thought that spending so much time with Madeline was having more of an effect on her than she knew.

“Good luck with that,” she said over her shoulder, condescension hanging to every word. “Madeline won’t let you anywhere near her precious acting process.”

“Ha! Madeline actually likes me,” I told her confidently.

“No,” she belittled again, “you like her. That doesn’t automatically mean that your fondness is reciprocated. Madeline doesn’t like anybody. I doubt she’s even capable of it.”

We’d reached the trailer, and Alfred stood tall and intimidating, guarding the door.

“We’ll just see about that,” I challenged, letting a cocky swagger creep into my footsteps as I entered ahead of her.

Madeline was in the middle of some visualization technique with her acting coach Ms. Louna that we both knew better than to interrupt.

“Ten bucks says you’re out of here in less than five minutes,” she hissed through of the side of her mouth.

“You’re on.”

Madeline had already been through hair and make-up. The cherry strands of her hair were braided back, away from her face until they intertwined at the back of her head. She looked fresh faced, lacking any visual signs of make-up, which usually meant we were going to film a sequence when Adley was supposed to be young and innocent, still living with her family.

“Your call time’s not for another three hours,” the young actress’ greeting lacked warmth, but I took it as harmlessly as it was intended. It was all part of her charm, though my beliefs might have been in the minority on the subject.

Out of the corner of my eye I caught Adley’s silent snicker.

“I thought it might be nice to spend a little time together, ankle biter,” I said, making absolutely no headway at all. I began again with a new tactic, “we’ve got the adoption scene coming up, so I thought it would be good for both our crafts to really get in some bonding time.”

Madeline looked distrustful, but nodded, allowing my request. Anything for her craft.

I was eagerly forgotten as she clapped her petite hands together and zoomed in like a beaming spotlight on the girl to my right.

“We’re leaving our parents today!” Her green eyes brimmed with jovial exhilaration at the emotional carnage awaiting her character that would allow her to access the full range of her talent. “So, at this point in the script, you’re about a month away from being an episode of I Didn’t Know I was Pregnant and instead of telling your parents that you’re five months knocked-up, you’re pretending to go off to your freshman year of college, like nothing is out of the ordinary.”

I even flinched a little at Madeline’s cold recounting of the scene.

“…Oh…Well, I can think of so much to tell you about what I was thinking through all of that,” Adley responded quietly, her head bowed in a suspicious way.

I scoffed doubtfully. She should leave the acting to the professionals.

“…I just don’t know how comfortable I feel sharing such intimate details about my life in front of strangers,” she continued with the same soft air that didn’t suit her at all.

Then with one quick exaggeratedly ashamed glance in my direction, I watched her plan fall into place as Madeline rapidly followed the trail Adley had intentionally led her down.

“Get out, Davies.” Madeline dismissed me with away a flick of her wrist, as easy as that.

She turned her back to me, automatically assuming I’d do as she told me. She went to retrieve her script and a pencil, and Adley’s face shined with triumph. The victorious smirk was eerily familiar, leaving me to question whether it was just Madeline that she was picking things up from.

I left, shaking my head and feeling highly impressed with Adley Adair for the second time that day.

I was actually looking forward to the ride home. Not because Adley was exceptionally charming. She wasn’t. Actually she was refreshingly lacking in charm. It was just another quality that made it difficult for me to see her as the Adley Adair who lived through the pages of The Girl in the Yellow Dress.

She didn’t match anything about that past. Not the girl Cam had made her, or the environment she’d been raised in.

People of Los Angeles oozed charisma, their desperate eyes shining greedily at anyone who looked their way. It was hard to believe that in only four years, the east coast could completely baptize her of the Californication found so potently in her peers.

“All your call times have been moved back a few hours, Mr. Davies.” The scrawny director’s assistant was draped with so much hardware, a helmet-like headset, an iPhone in one hand, a walkie-talkie latched to his belt, and a stack of clipboards nestled into the crook of his other arm, it was a miracle he didn’t collapse under the weight of it all.

I bobbed my head in understanding, and started back to my trailer with a sigh.

I was already bored shitless at the prospect of spending the next hours cooped up alone. I considered finding a pretty extra to flirt with, but even the idea of her fawning gaze was a turn-off. Inside, my area was nearly identical to Madeline’s, with two exceptions; my television was double in size, and the mess scattered about rivaled that ratio as well.

Opening the full-sized fridge, I found there was one good thing about the filming delay. I was going to get to bog in the mouthwatering dish my housekeeper had left for me earlier that week.

My gaze wandered as I waited for the oven to preheat and faced with the disaster of the space, I reminded myself to check if Aurelia would sort this place out for me like she did my home.

Funnily enough, the first weeks I’d lived in the studio rented house, I had been completely unaware the lease included a maid. After a while, I’d realized the strangeness that, despite the fact I was gone all day and never lifted a finger to clean up after myself, the laundry was always done, bed made, and the dishes I left in the sink somehow magically appeared sparkling clean in the cupboard.

Of course, I’d eventually come to suspect there was someone cleaning up after me, but I never saw the person responsible. It was kind of like having a fairy godmother that didn’t mind folding my underwear. Or, at least, I hoped it was a maid. The alternative was I was one of those nongs who couldn’t take a sleeping pill without a delirious hassle they couldn’t remember anything about in the morning.

Although, I supposed there were worse things I could be doing in an Ambien haze than cleaning my house. One of the hairstylists on set had told me when she took sleeping pills, she’d end up on the internet, posting weird and inappropriate things for all her friends, family, and anyone with an internet connection to see. In the mornings, she’d never have a clue what she’d done.

I couldn’t even begin imagine the media shit storm if I got on Twitter and started bashing my family.

Adley’s laughing face materialized in my mind. Yeah, she’d have gotten a kick out of that.

The oven buzzed, signaling it was ready and also reminding me of the one person who might be more entertained by my public embarrassment…Aurelia.

Remembering the day, weeks ago, when I’d wrapped early and barged in on my squatty housekeeper for the first time, I couldn’t help but laugh.

We’d both frozen. I hadn’t even had time to close the front door behind me, confronted with my elusive and possibly mystical housekeeper, where she’d stopped mid-swipe with a mop in the foyer. She already had rounded, expressive features, but with her eyes and mouth both hollowed into ovals, she looked cartoonish.

I recovered first, taking a cautious step towards her. “Er…G’day. I feel like a real yobbo for not meeting you sooner. Your work is spiffy.”

Her face contorted with confusion, a pinkish flush still visible on top of her olive skin.

I struggled to lace together the little bit of Spanish I knew, hopping I was saying something both welcoming and nonthreatening.

Her spine straightened at my sloppy attempt at communicating, and even though she stood as tall as she could, it still didn’t bring her head taller than my torso. How did someone so small drive? I remember thinking, distracted.

“I speak English, you racist,” the little lady replied in a perfect American accent. “And I’m Italian, not Mexican.”

I’d chortled once before giving in to the full throttle of laughter revving in my belly.

Ever since that day, we’d developed a love/hate relationship. I loved her, and her brash and honest grandmotherly disapproval of my life. And she pretended to hate me, scolding me whenever she could.

I kept finding delicious premade grub that she claimed to know nothing about, with strict heating instructions attached. She always went out of her way to leave sweet nothings at the bottom like, ‘try not to kill yourself with salmonella,’ and ‘better find someone to share this with or you’ll get fat and no one will want to see your movies anymore.’

When the timer finally went off, I ate until I felt sick and then reclined on the couch, hitting play on the remote to resume my place on the DVD I’d been watching the day before. I turned the volume up, letting the familiar heaviness of my native accent pour over me. I closed my eyes, and tried to soak up what little bit of home I could.

California would never be home to me, but knowing I had Madeline, Aurelia, and even Adley, to keep me on my toes, the future didn’t seem quite as dull as before.