HDU #2: Dirt (20 page)

Tom cocked a
single thick eyebrow at the word “drama.”
 
“Drama is what we need,” he nodded, rubbing his chin before flashing a
look at Amanda.
 
“Still got your
ex’s number?”

~

“Guess they’re
giving you a break tonight.”

Amanda smiled as
she rounded the corner onto her street, her phone pressed against her ear.
 
She would hug the thing if she weren’t
convinced that despite the empty sidewalk, at least one paparazzo was lingering
somewhere.
 
It had just been days
since she’d spoken to Liam and the mere sound of his voice through her iPhone
was enough to dizzy her with giddiness.
 
Plus, she could hear that he was tired and though she felt badly that he
was, his voice happened to be that much deeper and sexier when he’d had a long
day.
 
Amanda giggled to herself,
noting how ridiculous it was to so thoroughly enjoy the sound of Liam’s
exhaustion.

Perhaps it
reminded her of the last night they’d spent together.
 
Depending on the day, the memory of that night in bed filled
Amanda with either joy or melancholy.
 
Today, it was joy.

Plus, it didn’t
hurt that she’d spent the afternoon saving her own job.

“Good.
 
And thank God it’s the weekend,” she
exhaled, rolling her neck as she fished through her tote bag for keys.
 
She could hear Liam half-yawning, half-groaning
on the other end, probably stretching out on his couch in front of Sportscenter.

“So how much
money did Vogel offer the barista?”

Amanda
smirked.
 
“Brandt.
 
Tom paid him two thousand.”

“Woof.
 
Lowball.”

Amanda shrugged
as she reached her front door, still searching for her keys.
 
“It’s a lot for him.”
 
She made a face and paused.
 
“It’s a lot for
me
.
 
Not everyone can
go around buying houses just because it’s Thursday,” she teased, though her
heart immediately twisted because once the words left her lips, her fingers
retrieved a key from her bag.
 
But
not the one to her apartment.
 
Amanda’s chewed her lip as she stared at the shiny piece of silver in
her hand — the one that unlocked the front door to the house in North
Carolina.
 
Their
house in North Carolina.
 
Liam was quiet on the other end.
 
Amanda wondered if he somehow sensed what she was holding.

“What are you
doing tonight?” He changed the subject once he spoke again.
 
Amanda took a seat on her stairs,
setting her bag in her lap to better search for her keys.

“Relaxing on the
couch,” she answered, trying not to think about how badly she wished she could
do that at Liam’s, so she could wrap his arm around her waist and doze in and
out of sleep against his chest.
 
On
the other end, Liam was silent for a moment.

“Wearing what?”
he finally asked.
 
Amanda snorted.

“Mm.
 
Sweatpants.”

“Oh yeah.”

Amanda
giggled.
 
“I’m sure you love big
grey sweatpants with stretchy waistbands.”

“I do.
 
They’re the easiest to remove.”

Amanda rolled
her eyes, momentarily giving up on her search for the keys.
 
“You really don’t miss a beat, do you.”

“Nope.”

“So, how do you
feel about a ponytail with a big scrunchie?”

“The better to
pull your hair with.”

Amanda bit her
smile back.
 
She squeezed her eyes
shut for a second.
 
This
sucks
.
 
Suppressing a groan, she opened them,
heaving a sigh.
 
“Of course.
 
So, what are you doing tonight?”

“Jerking off to
a mental image of your sweatpants and ponytail.”

Amanda burst out
laughing.
 
“Liam!” she scolded,
though she immediately covered her mouth when she realized she’d said his name
far too loudly.
 
Once again, she
looked up and down the block, confirming again that no one was around.
 
Liam gave a low chuckle on the other
end of the line.

“I’m watching
the Yankees game right now.
 
Or I
was.”

“What are you
doing now?”

“Just listening
to your voice,” he replied casually.
 
Amanda felt her heart wrench again.

“Should I let
you get back to the game?”

“No.”

Amanda rested
her chin in her hand, smiling as she listened to the sounds of Liam stretching
again.
 
She laughed quietly when
she caught herself trying to imagine what he was wearing — probably that
heather grey T-shirt and basketball shorts since he tended to dress adorably
boyish at home.
 
“So, what crazy
shit did Terrence make you do today?” she asked, her voice scratchy as she
stared at her toes, which she wiggled under her Converses.

“Kept me uptown
all day in a pointless meeting with the producers who asked why we were having
this meeting.
 
Pretty sure he’s
just trying to keep an eye on me even on my off days.”

Amanda
frowned.
 
“I’m sorry.”
 
My
fault
, she thought, bringing her gaze up to look blankly across the
street.
 
Her eyes focused on the fluorescent
‘Open’ sign hanging in the deli window, fluttering with surprise when she realized
that the still fixture next to the sign was not the poster or shelf she had
assumed it to be through her peripheral vision.
 
Staring at it, Amanda felt herself scramble to her feet,
realizing with a barely audible gasp that it was a person — a man who was
staring straight back at her, offering a toothy smile upon catching her eye.

“Amanda?” She
could hear shifting through the phone — Liam sitting up on his couch.

“Hm?” she
managed as her hands groped everything in her bag, finally locating her damned keys.

“What happened?”
he asked, his voice suddenly firm and alert.

“Nothing,”
Amanda answered a second too quickly to sound convincing.
 
She peered over her shoulder once she
stuck the key into the front door of her building.
 
She had expected to see that the man had disappeared but
instead, she saw him now leaning against the outside of the deli, toying with a
pack of cigarettes, his head seeming to look downward though she wasn’t sure
because of his low-worn baseball cap.
 
Pausing with her hand on the key, Amanda squinted.

A green Mets
cap.
 
She had seen it before but
she couldn’t remember when — not until she was safely inside the building
and rushing up the stairs to the second floor.

Unless she was
mistaken, the man was just a paparazzo.
 
Right?
Amanda squinted,
jogging her memory as she got into her apartment.
 
She had seen him on her first day of work for
Leadoff
.
 
He had complimented her for making the same pair of shoes
from her birthday work for a day at the office.
 
Something like that.
 
And he hadn’t taken her picture, really.
 
He’d just held his camera at his stomach while talking to
her.

As Amanda headed
to peer out the window, she finally focused again on the sound of Liam’s
voice.
 
Shit
.
 
She had been
ignoring his questions for almost half a minute now.

“I’m here.
 
Sorry.
 
Nothing happened,” she murmured while peering out her
curtain.

“Amanda.”
 
He could tell she was lying.
 
Damn
it, work on your lying
.

“Seriously,
Liam.”
 
She forced teasing
laugh.
 
“Everything’s normal
here.
 
Okay?” she said, even as she
stared out her window, studying the man in the green cap as he leaned against
the deli, camera-less, his head up as he stared right back at her.

Chapter 12

THE REAL STORY BEHIND THE
CONTRACT: AMANDA NATHAN TELLS ALL

Cheated on, bullied and at her
wits’ end — the life that forced her to desperate measures

The Pop Source

August 2
^nd

If you don’t subscribe to
Fleur Magazine, you may want to run out and buy an issue
right this second.

While the publication had
Amanda Nathan’s tell-all scheduled for this month’s issue, readers hadn’t
expected anything relevant or too interesting considering the interview had
been conducted before Nathan’s faked relationship with Liam Brody was exposed.

Well, it seems Fleur
Magazine pulled a fast one on us, redoing their entire interview with Nathan on
Thursday and reprinting the July issue directly before it hit stands.
 
Unfortunately, Nathan wasn’t able to
speak much about Brody himself but she did give the world insight on why she
schemed the whole relationship in the first place — and it
wasn’t
because the girl was looking to land an acting agent.

Fleur’s article goes on an
in-depth into Amanda’s somewhat humiliating past, revealing a girl actually
more
insecure and stepped-on than the one we were introduced to in January.
 
Fleur’s Madeline Riker even interviews
the strikingly remorseless ex of Nathan’s, who apparently cheated on her with
former best friend and NHL cheerleader, Megan Mayer, forcing Nathan to move out
of her shared apartment with Mayer and to a life of verbal abuse at her
hometown of Merit, Missouri.

Sound bad? Well, it’s
actually much worse if you read the article, which includes gems from Nathan’s
cheating ex, Brandt Fulton, such as this:

“Amanda was a good girl but
to me, she was more of a friend.
 
We had fun together but she was not much of an artist or risk taker and
these were things that I came to realize I required in relationships.
 
I like to think of myself as fun and on
occasion, a little wild — maybe even
too
wild.
 
Because of that, I felt much
more of a spark with Megan and I couldn’t help that I felt that way.”

Don’t worry, we’re just as
disgusted as you are.
 
But, wait
— it gets worse! Said Fulton:

“I’m not proud of what I did.
 
I’m fully aware that I hurt her but I
believe in seizing opportunity.
 
I
recently had
carpe
and
diem
tattooed on my inner wrists.
 
That was very much the philosophy I was following true to when I became
involved with Megan.
 
It felt right
for me at the time and I couldn’t pass up the chance to be with someone so full
of vibrant life and beauty.”

But don’t worry, the evil ex
did
include a halfhearted apology to the poor
girl he wronged:

“I am sorry if Amanda is
still hurt by what I did but it looks like our relationship was what inspired
her to better her life and move to New York, so it seems that everything truly
happens for a reason.”

Yikes.
 
We get it, Amanda — we would’ve
done whatever we could to get away from the memory of that jerk as well!

Fake or not, it looks like
the Missouri girl’s time with Brody was a
hell
of
a lot better than whatever she shared with this absolute dud.
 
Good to know this fighter’s keeping her
head up despite her second round of relationship drama.
 
The best of luck to you, Amanda —
keep on trucking!

PRETTY’S EX GIVES HORRIBLE
INTERVIEW, IS A MASSIVE DIPSHIT

HDU via Pop Rock
Gossip/Jessie O.

Posted by R0X1E

August 2
^nd

Have you showered yet?

After reading Brandt
Fulton’s quotes to Fleur Magazine about Amanda Nathan, I’m pretty sure I’ve
showered twice.
 
Not only did this
guy give some of the slimiest and sleaziest quotes in recent interview history,
his Facebook page also shows that his preferred style of facial hair is the
landing strip.
 
And guess what guys
— recent pictures show that he
bleached that monstrosity.
 
Just… dear God.
 
I can’t.

Anyway, I know blogs have
already picked what they found to be the best douche lines from Fleur’s
interview, but you know you clicked on my post to see a few of my own personal
favorites:

“My relationship with Megan
was short-lived because our intensity was cosmic — it was too
overwhelming and too powerful to be meant for the long-term.
 
I firmly believe that all good things
have to end, like a law of the universe.”

“I gave Amanda some of the
best months she’s had in her twenties.
 
I know I’ll always have a place in her heart.”

“I recently had carpe and diem
tattooed on my inner wrists.”

So, yeah.
 
If you haven’t gotten your daily fill
of pretentious douche yet today, be sure to Google the rest of Fulton’s quotes
and overwhelming hipster douchebaggery.
 
Or better yet, run out and support Amanda Nathan by purchasing a copy of
this month’s Fleur Magazine.
 
She
didn’t get the cover but she certainly gave the story that everyone’s copping
the issue for.

Anyway, as you all well
know, I was very much the Liamanda supporter when the world had yet to learn
that they were a sham.
 
And as you
may have assumed (or read in my friend’s guest post earlier this week), I was
pretty Oreo-scarfin’ devastated when I found out that this was all fake —
that Liam Brody wasn’t the tall, dark, reformed womanizer that I may or may not
have fantasized about before going to bed.

But whatever Liam is or
isn’t, Amanda’s still the girl we thought she was.

She was just a little more
desperate to start anew than we were originally aware of.
 
And as a girl who’s been cheated on
before (by a guy with a
soul patch
, so I totally get it,
girl), I sympathize with Amanda.
 
She went through tough times, did something a little batshit crazy to
get past those tough times, and now that everyone’s discovered the moderately
batshit plan that got her here to New York, she’s going through the toughest
times of her life.
 
I mean shit,
what the hell kind of year has it been for the poor girl?

I know the world isn’t as
soft as I am when it comes to the topic of Liamanda but at least
try
to take it easy on Amanda Nathan these days.
 
She did something insane, yes, but according to some, that
insanity
did
at some point become a
real relationship with Liam Brody.
 
But all that aside, Amanda was just a girl beyond down on her
luck and a dreamer who decided to make things happen and change that very
shitty luck.

You can at least admire that
— can’t you?

(Oh dear God.
 
I know I’m one of the mean mods but I’m
kind of with the girl who wrote this article.
 
If I dated a Level 3 douchelord and ended up the one dumped,
I would probably do something a shitload more drastic than blackmail Liam Brody
for my ticket out of Bumblefuck, Nowheresville.
 
Actually, that might just be the exact level of drastic I’d
go for because lbr that was pretty batshit… but I get it now.
 
I get it, Amanda Nathan/PrettyKitty.
You did what you had to do, girl.
 
— R0X1E)

TOP COMMENTS

lies311

fuck it i like amanda. tbh would’ve
blackmailed the shit out of liam myself if i had the chance. with or without a
shitty ex bf/bff

vidabella21

ugh ban this blog.
 
jessie o. has been on amanda’s dick
since the beginning of time i wouldn’t be surprised if they were in cahoots

gggl_frts

TEAM AMANDA IDC.
 
tbh I feel so bad that people are
accusing her of being all this random shit. does anyone else remember that she
used to comment here like 24/7? pretty sure an aspiring actress would have like
auditions to go to sometimes idk

mrstylerchase

Yeah… I know we’re supposed
to be all relieved that she’s not actually some asshole famewhore who thinks
she can be all awkward and quirk it up to land acting jobs but she still lied
and was paid to act like Liam’s girlfriend.
 
just because she didn’t come here to be an actress doesn’t
mean she’s automatically that supersweet super shy girl.
 
ughh I hate that I ever loved her.