Rising Star (14 page)

Selena met the rest of the cast the
following day. They were all gathered in the studio, with a big
part of it turned into what looked like the interior of a house.
She couldn’t believe the work the set designers had done. The
beautiful blond had been replaced with a petite dark-haired beauty
named Jennifer for the part of Amanda, the jilted lover. Paul told
Selena the blond girl, Megan, had stormed out of the studio in a
rage when she heard that the part had been given to Selena. “She
was pretty sure she had that part all sewn up,” Paul whispered to
her. “Don offered her the part of the hateful Amanda, but she
refused. She said she wasn’t going to play second fiddle to a
‘nobody.’ Too bad,” Paul laughed good-naturedly. “She was perfect
for it.”

Selena giggled too. She felt bad for the
girl, but none of this was her choosing. She hadn’t wanted to be
here at all.

They rehearsed together the rest of the day.
Don had sent a script to Selena in New Mexico and she had already
memorized her lines. Now she just had to get comfortable with Paul
and the new girl, Jennifer. Paul had an easygoing way of putting
Selena at ease, yet the chemistry between them could be felt
throughout the room. She didn’t know if it was because she’d had a
crush on him throughout her teenage years or what, but when they
rehearsed together, sparks flew. His gorgeous blue eyes and
handsome good looks reminded her of why she’d had such a crush on
him when she was younger, but it wasn’t anything more than animal
magnetism, she told herself. She was in love with Matt now.

The new girl, Jennifer, seemed easy to get
along with. She was a ‘nobody’ too and Paul put them both at ease,
as he helped them to feel more comfortable with their lines. By the
end of the day, the three of them were laughing and joking
together. “Let’s go get a beer when we’re done,” Paul invited both
of them.

“
I can’t. I’m only
eighteen,” Selena answered.

“
Me too,” Jennifer chimed
in.

“
Not in Hollywood, baby,”
Paul said with a laugh. “There’s no such thing as too
young.”

They followed Paul out to his sports car,
where Selena folded herself into the backseat. She felt like a
pretzel as she sat in the tiny space. Paul drove much faster than
Matt had, shifting gears and speeding through traffic. I guess a
speed limit sign is only a suggestion in Hollyweird, she thought.
She felt a little carsick by the time he turned into a drive. She
couldn’t really see where he was going and she was wondering if she
shouldn’t have just returned to her hotel. She could be writing now
instead of hanging out with actors.

Paul had driven them to his house in Malibu.
Selena had an uneasy feeling as she unfolded herself from the tiny
back seat and followed Paul and Jennifer inside. She really should
have just returned to her hotel.

Paul led them through the house to a balcony
overlooking the Pacific, where they each took a seat, while he
brought them both a beer. Selena sipped hers slowly; she had never
cared much for the taste, yet she didn’t want to be rude.

Jennifer downed hers and asked for another.
She seemed somewhat flirty with Paul James, but he seemed to regard
her as a kid sister. They laughed and joked together as they hung
out and Selena began to relax. They were going to be working
together for the next few months and she wanted to get to know
them. She stared at the ocean; the same beach where she’d rode
Catalina at a breakneck pace such a short time ago. Had Matt seen
her from here? How odd, she thought, with so many people in this
huge city, they had been in the same place at the same time. It had
to be fate, she decided. We were meant to be together.

“
What do you ladies think
of the movie so far?” Paul was asking. He was staring at Selena,
making her feel uncomfortable.

“
I’m not sure,” she said
slowly. “I liked the script, but rehearsing the scenes out of order
makes it hard to keep track. If feels kind of
disjointed.”

“
I think it’s going to be
great,” Jennifer said. “And of course, you were just fabulous,
Paul.”

“
I know,” he said, his
roguish smile lighting up his face. Yet he still stared at Selena,
making her feel more and more nervous. She could still feel that
something between them, an electric, tingling sensation whenever
they were together. She wondered how it would be to film the love
scenes with him. Please don’t let me fall down, she prayed
silently.

She was having a second beer herself and
beginning to enjoy herself when two more guys with their dates
showed up. They were both well-known actors and Selena recognized
the blond whom she’d replaced in the movie. As Paul made
introductions, the blond girl said, “Yeah, I know who she is. She
stole my lead in the movie. You’re not sleeping with Don Howard,
are you?”

“
Of course not.” Everyone
laughed as Selena’s face turned red. She couldn’t believe this girl
could be so mean. She hadn’t even asked to be in their stupid movie
in the first place, and Don Broward was old enough to be her
father.

Paul smoothly changed the topic of
conversation as the four newcomers took chairs on the balcony and
each had a beer. It would have been an enjoyable setting if not for
the nastiness of the blond. She looked for any opening she could to
make some dig at Selena for stealing her part. “The way I hear it,
you’re sleeping with Matt Mason too,” she said rudely. “Is that how
you got into the business? I bet Matt got you the modeling gig too,
huh?”

“
Hey,” Paul cut in when he
saw the horrified look on Selena’s face. “I’ve got to drive these
girls home, you guys want to wait here til I get back?”

“
Sure,” one of his buddies
answered. “We’ll just be hanging til you get back, bro.”

“
Come on,” Paul waved at
the two girls and they followed him back to his car. “Sorry our
good time got interrupted there,” he apologized to them as he
drove. “I’ve never liked her, but as long as she’s dating a friend
of mine, what can I do?” He shrugged his shoulders.

“
Do you think she meant
those rude things she was saying?” Selena asked from the back
seat.

“
Nah, she’s just jealous
because Don saw that you’re a better actress than her,” Paul
answered.

“
I doubt that,” Selena
muttered. “But surely she knows none of this was my
doing?”

“
Welcome to Hollywood,
Babe. It’s a ruthless world out here. Sometimes there are hundreds
of people trying out for one part. She figures you must have had a
connection somewhere.”

Selena sat back in the cramped seat, wishing
she was back home, riding Rusty down the trail with Beth.

Paul dropped them both back at the hotel.
Both girls were staying in the same hotel, but on different floors.
It was close to the studio—walking distance even—but Selena hadn’t
got up her nerve to walk it yet. The sidewalks were filled with a
myriad of tourists and strange people. She had even saw a guy
dressed all in black leather, with green and orange hair standing
straight up on his head.

The hotel was nowhere near as nice as the
one she’d stayed in for the photo shoot, but it was still very
nice.

As she lay on her bed, Selena thought about
the nastiness of the blond girl, Megan. She’d done nothing to
deserve the rude remarks and embarrassment from Megan. Paul had
said this was just the way of Hollywood and she finally decided she
wasn’t going to let it bother her anymore. But, it was one thing to
tell herself that, it was quite another to just brush it off.

They began filming the following day.
Shorter scenes that took place in the pseudo-house the set crew had
built. Selena hit her marks very well and the chemistry between her
and Paul worked great on camera. There seemed to be a spark between
them, a physical attraction that hadn’t gone unnoticed by Don.
Selena was feeling more and more at ease with her part and whenever
she made a mistake, Paul was there to help. He seemed to make her
nervous, yet put her at ease at the same time, with his roguish
smile and easygoing manner.

Paul took Selena and Jennifer out for pizza
after they finished for the day. “Good job today ladies,” he smiled
his roguish smile as he stared at Selena across the table. His blue
eyes sparkled with amusement as he watched her. He could see why
Matt had fallen for her. Although Jennifer was a petite,
dark-haired beauty, it was Selena who mystified him, with her
quiet, sophisticated ways and her intelligent beauty. She seemed to
him almost like the mystical goddess she had portrayed in the
magazine layout. He had torn the picture from the magazine and kept
it, staring at it occasionally as he thought of what a lucky man
Matt was. But, he had kept himself to a professional level while he
worked with her and he had treated both girls like just a couple of
pals he hung out with. The three of them were becoming fast friends
and Selena thought about it occasionally; she would never have
dreamed through her teenage years, that one day she would be
sharing pizza with Paul James, much less kissing him in a movie.
Selena and Jennifer watched shyly as a group of teenagers swarmed
on Paul, asking for his autograph and snapping pictures. Paul threw
an arm lazily around Selena’s shoulder and leaned into her as he
smiled for the group. “Smile for the cameras, Selena,” he said.
“Before you know it, it’ll be you they’re chasing down the
street.”

“
No, it won’t,” Selena
said, disengaging herself from Paul’s arm. “I have no interest in
becoming a movie star.”

“
Well, it’s happening,
Babe, whether you want it to or not,” he said
good-naturedly.

Matt called her that night and Paul James
was completely forgotten as she listened to Matt’s sexy voice on
the phone. Her heart thumped against her chest as Matt told her how
badly he missed her.

“
I really miss you too,
Matt,” she said softly. “How long before you’ll be back
here?”

“
A few more weeks maybe. I
know we’re getting close to the end.”

“
Oh.” A few weeks sounded
like an eternity to Selena. She wished Matt was here with her right
now, holding her in his strong arms. Hollywood would probably be a
little easier to take, if she had a true friend here with
her.

They finally said their goodbyes and Selena
hung up the phone and picked up her laptop. She lost herself
quickly in the story of the two young lovers. It seemed so much
easier for her to embroil herself into their fictional lives, than
deal with her troubled feelings in her own life. She missed Matt
horribly and she knew her heart belonged to him, yet why did she
feel this strange attraction for Paul James?

She wrote for several hours, losing herself
in her characters, until she could barely keep her eyes open.

Selena continued filming every day, working
long hours with Paul and Jennifer. They hung out after work,
sometimes going for dinner, other times to one of the girl’s hotel
rooms for a beer. Their picture appeared in more and more
magazines, as the paparazzi learned which locations they
frequented. They were always together in the pictures, the three of
them laughing and joking together.

But Matt saw the look in his friend’s eyes
in the pictures, from his own hotel room in Canada. He noticed that
Paul always seemed to be staring at Selena in the pictures. He
called Selena more and more often, never mentioning his unfounded
fears to her. He was finishing up filming in Toronto, but he didn’t
know yet exactly when he would be free and he hadn’t mentioned it
to Selena.

Selena kept up her writing at night after
talking with Matt on the phone. She was near the end of the story
and she begrudged the time filming took away from her writing. She
was deeply involved in the story of the two young lovers in her
book. They had run away to be together, but were trying to survive
with no jobs and no money. She had an idea of how it would end, but
her stories always evolved as she wrote them; she never knew
exactly what would happen. She was anxious now to finish this story
and see how it would end.

She was typing furiously on her laptop the
following week after having pizza and sodas with Paul and Jennifer,
when there was a knock at her door. She was startled as her mind
was pulled away from the story of the two young lovers. She jumped
off the bed and ran to the door, wearing only pajama bottoms and a
thin tank top. She didn’t think about a robe as she opened the
door, her mind was still deep in the lives of the two young
lovers.

Paul James was standing in her door, a six
pack of cold beer in his hand. His eyes lit up when he saw Selena’s
thin tank top and the roguish smile crinkled his mouth. “Sorry to
bother you Selena, but I could really use a friend right now. My
girlfriend, Sarah, just broke up with me over the phone.”

“
I didn’t even know you had
a girlfriend,” Selena said, her eyes growing wide. “I’ve never
heard you mention her.”

“
She’s been in Australia,
filming a TV show…Please Selena, can’t you see I’m really hurting
here.”

She couldn’t actually see it—his voice
sounded shaky and mournful, but his eyes looked glittery and
excited. Was he high on something? Or maybe drunk? She wasn’t sure,
but she opened the door tentatively and let him in. He brushed
against her as he entered and Selena took a step back. Turning, she
quickly grabbed a robe and threw it around her shoulders, tying the
belt into place as she followed Paul. “Maybe I should call Jennifer
and see if she wants to have a drink too?”