The Journalist and Her Actor

Chapter 38

When your life suddenly becomes a reality tv show, you have three choices. One, pretend that your sanity is fully intact, and having people watching you in your rawest moments is completely normal, two, freak out on the watchers and try to snatch the evidence of your breakdown away, like Carrie Underwood in her music video Before He Cheats.

Or when neither of those options feels right, you can do my personal favorite. You run. Run away as fast as you can, hoping to outrun your problems, the camera crew, the gingerbread man, and try to get a moment alone to talk yourself off the emotional ledge of heartbreak you got yourself into.

I shoved past the camera man and the boom mic operator, tears streaming down my face, heartbroken and embarrassed. How do I keep making things worse?!?  

Bolting down the hall, I wiped angrily at my eyes, trying to keep myself from falling into uncontrollable tears, my makeup leaving streaks across my fingers, becoming gloppy warpaint across my cheeks. 

Footsteps followed mine. "Leave me alone," I said, voice tight.

They moved faster, and I began to run, tears streaming unbidden. "Please," I said, my vision swimming, my head spinning, my heart pounding as I thought about Luke, about everyone I had hurt with the decisions I had made to protect my brother. Decisions that had harmed him in the end anyway.

The camera man and the boom mic operator continued after me, a game of emotional cat and mouse. But as I took the corner, unaware of where I was, or where I was going, I heard a loud yelp and turned to find both Dalton boys blocking the camera man and the boom mic operator. 

The boom mic operator was holding his nose, a flash of red on the front of his shirt that made me wonder if Aiden had "accidentally" blocked him with an arm... or fist. 

Tate tsked, shaking his head with a mischievous smile as he stared down the two men. "For a man in charge of sound, you really have a terrible time listening. The lady said to leave her alone. She even used the word please. I suggest you back off before Aiden here gets creative and adds a matching set to your camera man friend here."

"You okay?" Aiden asked, surprising me as he shook out his hand, glancing my direction.

I nodded, wiping my face. Aiden's sharp focus returned to the men, making them pale. "Go."

At the one word command, the men bolted. 

Aiden watched them vanish down the hall, eyes distant, fingers flexing before curling back into a fist. "Delle will snatch the tape," he said with certainty.

I shook my head at the Dalton's. "Why did you—"

"Because no one should get bullied like that," Aiden said quietly. Then he turned and left without another word.

Tate watched his cousin leave, eyes thoughtful before turning back to me. "I'll walk you back to your dressing room."

The silence was heavy as we walked, leaving me wondering what would have happened if they hadn't found me. "Aiden has a soft spot for people who get bullied," Tate said by way of explanation as he opened the door to my dressing room. "That's why he was so angry about... your other job. Laliana has been harassed a lot."

I turned to look at Tate, blurting out information before I could chicken out. "I wrote the love triangle articles about you, Aiden and Laliana." After what he and Aiden had done, how they had helped me, they needed honesty. "I didn't know there was any truth to it... But I wrote it anyway."

Tate sighed, brow wrinkled in frustration. "Why tell me? I didn't need to know."

"Because I'm tired of being afraid of the truth."