Absolutely Famous(77)

“Bye Allie.”

I head into the bedroom and change my clothes, throwing on a pair of distressed jeans and a turquoise tank top. I flip through a takeout menu for a nearby Indian place, my stomach growling in hunger. Before I can decide what to get there’s a furious pounding on my door.

“Syd? Are you home?” It’s Leah.

I open the door and see a disheveled Leah standing on my doorstep. She flings herself at me and hugs me tight.

“What the heck Leah? Have you finally just gone and completely lost it?” I stare at my best friend, her blonde hair twisted into a messy topknot with pieces falling out around her face in a frizzy mess.

“You didn’t see it,” she says flatly, watching my face for a reaction.

“See what? You’re kind of freaking me out here.” Leah grabs my hand and tows me to the couch.

“Is Drew here?”

“No, not yet. He’ll probably be back soon though. What’s going on?”

She hands me a bag and I peek in. It contains several magazines and a folded up newspaper. I glance at her worried face then back at the bag. “What is this?” I ask her in a low voice. From the look on her face I know exactly what’s in there. “I don’t read crap about me anymore, Leah. I deleted the Google alerts and everything.” I try to push the bag back at her but she won’t allow it.

“It’s about the eavesdropping, Syd. The story is out and it’s freaking huge!” Her eyes are bugging out and she’s bouncing around nervously on the couch. I swear, sometimes I think she’s hyperactive.

“It’s out? I thought that it was being kept under wraps by the authorities until they could catch everyone involved? They said it could take months considering it spans three countries and two continents. No one called to tell me.”

“No, they figured it out already. And you’re not going to believe who was involved,” .”

I pull out the stack and glance at the headlines. My heart begins to race so fast that I feel like it might explode out of my chest, and my hands are so shaky that as I read each cover I can barely keep a hold on them. Leah puts her hand over mine and tries to calm me down. I need to swallow but my mouth is so dry that I can’t seem to be able to move my tongue.

“Syd? You’re freaking me out girl.”

“I … it was … all this time? On purpose …” I can’t make the words come out right.

We hear the lock deactivate and Drew bursts through the front door, calling my name in a panicked voice. “Syd? Syd!” I hear him scramble into the bedroom looking for me.

“Drew! We’re in here,” Leah calls to him.

He comes into the living area and sees my face and the stack of magazines in my lap. Leah jumps up and gets in front of him, her tiny body blocking him from me. “Drew, calm down and let her process this.”

His face darkens. “Move, Leah.”

“I’m warning you Forrester, let her figure this out before you fuck it up!” She get right up on him, a scowl on her pretty face.

He exhales, clenching his jaw to rein in his hair-trigger temper. Spinning on his heel he stalks over to the windows and stares out.

Leah sits back down next to me. “I’m going to leave so you guys can discuss this, okay? But call me if you need me to come back here. I’ll just be down the hall in my room.” I nod and she hugs me while I sit there, on the verge of becoming catatonic.

I hear the door click shut. Drew is still standing in front of the wall of windows, his hands fisted in his hair. I stand up, put the magazines on the couch and walk over to stand behind him.

He flinches when I put my arms around his waist, then turns and sags into me, pulling me close. “Syd, I’m so sorry. I had no idea.”

“I know. You’re just as much a victim as me.”. He stiffens at my words and releases me, walking over to the couch and grabbing the magazine on top.

“This? This is completely my fault Sydney!”

Drew holds up the cover so I can see it. On it is a picture of Kiera Radcliff on one side and me and Drew together on the other side. The giant yellow headline reads “Studio PR Machine Tries to Break Apart Couple to Market Film”. He grabs another one and holds it up, “Studio Exec Records Tannen and Forrester to Promote Movie”. Then another, “Radcliff in on Attempt by Studio to Tear Apart Forrester and Tannen”, and another, “Media Manipulates Hollywood Couple to Sell Film”. He throws the rest of the stack on the floor in disgust.

“How is it your fault that a marketing executive at the studio hired CelebCast to do stories painting you and Kiera Radcliff as a couple?” I ask him.