Unlucky Break (10 page)

Andie felt tears on her cheeks and dashed them away with the back of her hand.
What sort of an idiot cries at a fake coffin?
she thought.

She backed up the golf cart and turned into another side road.
This place is a maze,
she thought, finding herself in a pretend park, complete with fake pigeons.
A fake girl in a fake world
.

Everyone knew she was fake – that she had no idea about anything. She took on Cameron’s opinions because she didn’t have any of her own. She wore fake sunglasses and other people’s clothes from vintage stores because she didn’t know how to find a look of her own.

That was why they all left her. Why her mother died. Why Cameron and Marissa broke her heart by sleeping together so she had no-one else left in the world. They did it because she was a dirty fake.

Andie felt like she was going to vomit. She pressed the accelerator hard with her Doc Martens. The golf cart sprang forward with a jerk and picked up speed, going twice as fast as Andie thought it would. She drove through the park and into a side street where walls with huge doors towered above her on either side. Andie swallowed the bile that was building in her throat and felt tears burning in her eyes. She let out a huge sob and squeezed her eyes shut, willing the pain to go away.

A violent thump rocked through her body and the golf cart stalled suddenly. Andie was jolted forward and her eyes flew open again in shock.

She didn’t see what she’d hit straight away. Jumping from the cart, she immediately spotted the body of a man on the road, face down. His foot was stuck at an odd angle under the wheel of the cart, and he wasn’t moving.

‘Oh my god,’ she said. ‘Oh my god.’ She looked around for help. There was no-one. They were alone on the empty road.

Andie felt the vomit rise in her throat and she couldn’t stop it. She held on to the wall for support as the vomit splattered her boots.

And then she ran.

7

Rene picked up Andie from the Chinese Theatre after she called him saying she was lost. She didn’t say anything on the way home and he didn’t ask.

Upstairs, she wiped the vomit off her boots and brushed her teeth, twice. She sat on the edge of the bath looking at herself in the mirror. What sort of person knocked someone out with a golf cart and just left them there?

A bad person, that was who. She was a monster. A fake, hit-and-run monster. She stared out at the bookshelf in her room. The spine of
The Catcher in the Rye
caught her eye. It was one of her favourites. The main character, Holden, hated phonies. He would have hated her, she thought. Like everyone did. Like everyone
should.

Andie vomited again and then cleaned her teeth for a third time.

‘Andie?’ she heard Cece call from outside the bathroom door.

She didn’t answer but Cece opened it and came in anyway.

‘You didn’t come to the set today?’ Cece asked gently. ‘Jess said she rang you after her audition but you didn’t answer. What happened?’ Cece sounded so much like her mum, Andie wanted to cry.

She wanted to break down and tell Cece everything – not just about today, but everything before this. But the words wouldn’t come.

What sort of a writer was she, if the words wouldn’t come?

But how could she ever admit what had happened?

Andie wanted her mum more than ever. The pain of missing her was overwhelming and she thought she was about to vomit again, though there was surely nothing of her meagre breakfast left to throw up.

Cece’s phone rang. She frowned as she looked at the caller ID. ‘I’m sorry, I have to take this,’ she said, leaving the bathroom. ‘I’ll be back in a minute.’

Andie splashed water on her face and ran her wrists under the cold water for a few minutes. Cece walked back into the bathroom. Andie thought she’d gone pale.

‘We have to go,’ Cece said abruptly.

‘Where?’ asked Andie although part of her already knew.

‘To the studio,’ said Cece, her voice flat and emotionless.

Andie felt like she was in a daze as she followed her aunt downstairs and out to the car. Neither of them spoke as they sat beside each other in the backseat of Cece’s car. Andie felt strangely calm all the way to the studio.
This isn’t happening
, she told herself.
It’s just a weird dream, like in a movie.

Rene drove them to the gates and the security guard waved them through. He pulled up outside an impressive-looking office building.

Cece got out of the car. ‘Let’s go,’ she said to Andie in a voice that made Andie do as she was told.

She followed meekly behind Cece as she walked inside the building and hung back as her aunt spoke to the receptionist. The receptionist nodded and Cece turned to Andie as the opened the large double doors to the right of the desk.

‘Stay here,’ she said to Andie and walked inside, shutting the doors behind her.

Andie sat on a chair that was so uncomfortable it felt like it was the start of her punishment.

I’ve killed a guy,
she thought. It was starting to sink in.
And I’m going to have to live with that for the rest of my life. I’ll be sent to jail, and I deserve it.

After the longest twenty minutes of Andie’s life, the doors opened and Cece stood there. She looked like she had been crying.

‘Come in,’ she said flatly. She looked exhausted. Andie felt even worse.

Andie found herself in a spacious office. A man stood with his back to them, looking out the huge window. He turned to face Andie and Cece. Andie swallowed a gasp as she realised it was the man in the white suit from the Skyhigh Club.

‘Barry Rosen,’ said Cece, her voice shaky, ‘this is my …’ she paused for a moment and gave Andie an odd, pained look that made no sense. ‘My niece, Andie Powers,’ finished Cece.

The man looked at Andie closely, his eyes narrowed. ‘Have we met? I mean, recently?’

Andie swallowed. ‘I met you at the Skyhigh Bar.’

Barry frowned. ‘The Skyhigh Bar, yeah?’

‘Just before Nikki Morgan kicked me into the pool. I was wearing a blonde wig.’

Barry laughed suddenly, throwing his head back. It was an entirely mirthless laugh.

‘Oh, this is priceless,’ he said, but he wasn’t smiling. ‘James tries to pick you up, Nikki kicks you onto the pool, he leaves you to drown so you run him over in a golf cart for revenge. The press will have a field day with this one.’

Andie gasped. ‘That guy was James Hawthorn?’ she cried. This was a whole new layer of awfulness.

Cece shot her a look. ‘You didn’t know it was James Hawthorn that you ran over?’

‘No!’ Andie turned to her aunt, willing her to believe her.

‘So,’ said Cece, weighing her words carefully, ‘you didn’t do this on purpose? To get back at him?’

‘My god, do you think I’m insane?’ sobbed Andie. She felt herself turn hot and cold in turn. ‘It was an accident.’

‘You left him on the lot like a piece of roadkill.’ Barry’s voice was low and laced with menace.

Andie started to hyperventilate.

‘Deep breaths,’ said Cece, her voice soft. She looked searchingly at Andie. ‘Why didn’t you get help after you hit him?’

‘I panicked,’ said Andie. ‘I was lost and then I saw a coffin and it reminded me of Mum and I started to cry and then I started to feel sick,’ Andie’s words came in a rush, all jumbled together.

Cece and Barry were still looking at her, waiting for more.

Andie took a deep breath and tried to slow her words down. ‘I had closed my eyes because I thought was going to be sick and the movement was making it worse. I didn’t see him, I swear! And then I’d hit him and I was vomiting and I just wanted to get out of there. I wasn’t thinking straight. I wanted to be home again, with Mum.’ Tears were running down her face. She knew she sounded like a little girl now, all small and lost. She felt pathetic.

Cece looked at Barry, who shook his head and turned to look out the window again.

‘Sweetie, it’s really bad,’ Cece said, her eyes filled with tears.

‘I know,’ cried Andie. ‘I’ve killed someone. I’m going to jail.’

‘You didn’t kill him,’ said Barry, turning back to face them. He looked surprised.

Andie looked up at him, hopeful for the first time. ‘I didn’t?’

‘He has a broken foot and a mild concussion,’ said Cece. ‘We’re not looking at murder! But it doesn’t lessen the fact that you left him, Andie.’

Barry turned to Andie. ‘The only reason you are in this office right now, and not in police custody for leaving the scene of an accident, is because of Cece.’

Andie reached for Cece’s hand without thinking and held it tightly. ‘Thank you,’ she said. She looked from Cece to Barry. ‘What can I do? I don’t really have any money, but …’ she trailed off, not really sure what to say. ‘Please tell me how I can fix this.’ Her voice was barely audible, even to her ears.

‘I don’t know that you can,’ said Barry. ‘I have the CCTV footage. It’s probably just a matter of time before the insurance company steps in to investigate.’

Cece’s face was pained. ‘Please Barry, you have to do some-thing. You owe me.’

‘I don’t owe you shit, Cece,’ he spat at her.

‘Yes, you do, and you know it,’ said Cece, letting go of Andie’s hand and standing up.

Andie looked up at them and wiped her eyes. What the hell was happening between them? She tried to concentrate, but thoughts of James lying on the ground filled her head and she had no room for whatever was going on between Cece and Barry.

‘Does James know it was me?’ asked Andie.

‘No, he has no memory of the –,’ Barry was interrupted by his mobile ringing. He looked at the screen and then at Andie. ‘Here’s your victim’s manager now.’

‘Pete!’ Barry said smoothly into the phone. ‘How’s our boy? He paused as he listened. His eyes moved from Andie to Cece as Pete spoke. After a moment, a hint of a smile seemed to emerge on Barry’s face.

‘No problem,’ Barry said. ‘Leave it with me. Of course we’ll cover expenses!’ Another pause. ‘All quiet, yes. Sure.’

Barry hung up. ‘It’s your lucky day,’ he said to Andie.

Andie looked up him. She certainly wasn’t feeling lucky.

Barry sat back down, a determined gleam in his eye. ‘James has asked for an assistant to help him while he’s on crutches. To do all his running around. I’ve said I’ll cover the costs for one, since it happened on my lot.’

Andie nodded slowly. She didn’t quite know where this was leading.

Barry looked at her expectantly. ‘Okay?’

‘Okay what?’ asked Andie.

‘Okay, you’ll be James Hawthorn’s assistant,’ Barry said impatiently, as though it was that simple.

Andie felt the colour drain from her face.

‘You don’t have a choice,’ said Barry shrugging. ‘James needs an assistant. I said I’d pay for one, so you can do it for me, for free. Since you broke him, you can fix him.’

Andie swallowed her tears. ‘I can’t. Not after what happened at the Skyhigh Bar.’

Barry laughed and slammed his hand on the desk. ‘You think he’ll remember you? Not a chance. He can have any girl he wants, and he usually does when Nikki isn’t in town. You’re in a long line, girlie.’

Andie glanced at Cece, who avoided her eye.

Andie brushed away her tears. The man was a complete pig, but it didn’t seem like she had a choice. And anyway, she’d done the wrong thing, obviously. If there was one thing her mum had taught her, it was to always try and fix her mistakes. She took a deep breath.

‘When do I start?’

8

The next morning, Andie stood on James’s doorstep and rang the bell. She looked down at herself nervously. She’d dressed in the outfit least likely to give herself away, just in case he did recognise her from the Skyhigh Bar.

A plain black crepe dress from the 1950s, but without the lace petticoat. Her Docs, worn with a pair of green-and-black striped stockings. Her long hair was hanging loose down her back and she had no make-up on. She caught a glimpse of her reflection in the glass of the door.

I look like the Wicked Witch
, she thought to herself. Sort of fitting, except instead of a broomstick, her chosen mode of transport was a golf cart. She nearly smiled at the thought as she waved goodbye to Rene, who had dropped her off for her first day of work.