Fame

by Susan X Meagher

  “I think I was dreaming…”

  “Go to sleep,” Haley soothed, stroking her again. “Tomorrow we’ll get right back to this. Special birthday present.”

  “But…” Weakly, she tried to roll over, but Haley held her still.

  “Tomorrow. We’ll have a real celebration,” she murmured into Piper’s cute little ear. “Come on now. Close those pretty eyes.”

  “You sure?” she asked, so tired it was kind of funny.

  “Positive.” She rolled Piper onto her side, then spooned up behind her, relishing the closeness she experienced when they were like this. It felt like they were longtime lovers, which was pretty cool. She wasn’t sure why, but she didn’t feel the need to impress Piper or put on a façade for her. Whatever the reason, she was massively glad for it. They could concentrate on the important things—really getting to know each other deeply.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  HALEY’S EYES OPENED AND SHE lay quietly for a few seconds, not sure what had woken her from a vaguely erotic dream. Then a sharp knock came from the front of the house. Turning, she saw that Piper had tucked her pillow around her head, with her arm pressing against it. She didn’t flinch, so Haley got up to see who was so freakin’ insistent at the front door. Her clothes were in the living room, so she grabbed Piper’s shorts and zipped them up as she walked to the closet. Grabbing the first thing, she pulled out a sweatshirt. Greek letters decorated the front, which puzzled her since Piper had only briefly gone to a junior college. Did they even have sororities at a JC?

  When she got to the front door, she peered out the sidelight, seeing a guy in a dark blue work uniform with a metal crate at his feet. She opened the door, saying, “Help you?”

  “Got your juice,” he said, pretty perky for nine a.m. on a Sunday.

  “My what?”

  “Juice delivery.” A patient smile appeared. “You ordered it, ma’am. If you don’t start on time your whole schedule’s going to be screwed up.”

  Opening the door fully, she saw that he had two metal crates, each filled with colorful bottles of juice; bright yellow, spring green, vibrant red, and a dull green that was a little sketchy looking. “All natural,” he said, picking up the first carrier. “Gotta refrigerate them.”

  She led the way into the kitchen, with the guy yammering the whole time. “You should drink the first one right now. Then every two hours until you finish all six.”

  “Looks like more than six,” she said.

  “Eighteen.” He dumped a crate on the counter, opened the refrigerator and started sticking the bottles wherever they could fit. “You ordered three days worth.” There wasn’t much room, so he started taking out beer and soda and iced tea. “You’re not going to be able to drink any of this stuff, so I’ll just stow it on the counter.”

  She watched him work, not commenting. In her head, she was replaying the conversation where Piper solemnly vowed she ate a perfectly ordinary diet. Maybe this was ordinary for LA…

  “Okay,” he said when he’d jammed the refrigerator full. “All of the juice is cold-pressed, all organic. We added ground flax seed to give you more fiber, and chia seed for a little fat.” He gave her a big smile. “You’ve got a lot of bad stuff in your refrigerator. This cleanse is gonna do you a world of good.” He handed her a clipboard and indicated a signature box. “Sign right there and start getting healthy!”

  “Thanks,” she said. “Can’t wait.”

  “I don’t hear much enthusiasm there,” he said, still too perky for the hour. “But when all of those toxins clear your liver, you’ll have a new attitude.”

  “My liver thanks you,” she said, hustling him back to the door. “Have a nice day.” She closed the door behind him, then went back to the bedroom, but Piper hadn’t moved. Tempted to go back to bed, Haley decided against it, preferring to stay on a relatively consistent schedule so she wouldn’t have trouble getting up for work the next day.

  After using the bathroom, she saw that the tiny bedroom next to the bath was an office, where the sun was peeking through attractive wooden shutters. A long counter covered the south wall, stacked with neat piles of paper and file folders. A desktop computer was in the center of the counter, along with an expensive-looking ergonomic desk chair.

  The walls were decorated with framed photos, and Haley moved closer to check them out.

  In the first, a pretty, dark-haired woman who looked a little like Piper was standing next to a stunningly handsome blonde guy. The woman was giving the man a glancing look, but it was filled with something… Adoration wouldn’t have been putting it too strongly. In front of them, almost like she was in another photo, a pre-teen Piper was holding a tiny baby, facing the camera dead-on and grinning like she was the happiest kid in the world. Seeing the look on her face, caring, proud, clearly already in love with the baby, brought a tear to Haley’s eyes, having seen some of the same tender emotions flash across Piper’s face the night before.

  The photos were in roughly chronological order, and by the time the adorable little blonde girl was around three, candid photos had morphed into professional ones. The kid had a head shot! Great. Another little moppet being pushed into an agent’s office, dreaming of stardom.

  The next photo was a glossy magazine ad of the little girl peddling orange juice, then another of her sitting at a dining room table with a TV family. Each of the others showed her growing up to be a knockout. Beautiful blonde hair, blue eyes, gorgeous smile. She’d obviously been on a few TV shows, and had continued to do print work. But the last shot, a small movie poster, made Haley’s jaw drop. An obviously adult stunner posed coquettishly, wearing only the exact sweatshirt Haley had on, clearly trying to make viewers want to tug on that shirt to see what was beneath it. Delta Epsilon Forever, the title read, with a bunch of other actors, producers and a director Haley had never heard of. But she’d heard of the production company, one of the newer ones formed by some comedians to crank out movies for teens and twenty-something men.

  Haley was near the chair, and she sat down, stunned. Then her eyes fell to the pile of papers next to the computer. The first was from a well-known fashion magazine, proposing a Christmas layout. Someone, probably Piper, had stuck a post-it note on it, saying just one word. “Yes.”

  Haley’s stomach was in her throat. Piper had not only hidden the fact that her sister was a pretty darned famous actress, she had to have been deeply involved in her career. Where was the simple hair stylist who’d coughed up every important element of her life?

  She knew she wasn’t just snooping now, she was prying, but Haley couldn’t help herself. She started to page through the pile, seeing notes on all sorts of proposals, with Piper clearly pulling the strings on her sister’s career. After that was a pile of invoices for some outrageously expensive stuff. Was the $30,000 bed for Piper? If so, who paid for it? Was she sponging off the little sister she’d obviously shepherded through the Hollywood gauntlet? Who in the fuck was the woman lying in the next room?

  The toilet flushed, then Piper stood in the doorway, clad in just a tank top and running shorts. “Um…” She reached up and scratched her head, clearly at a loss for words.

  “You forgot to mention someone,” Haley said dryly.

  “No, I didn’t.” She walked into the room and started to pull the letters and invoices away, tucking them into the corner of the long desktop. “I told you I had a sister.”

  “Yeah, you did,” Haley agreed. “But you didn’t tell me she was an actress.” She looked up at the framed movie poster again. “One who’s famous enough to be the face of the production.”

  Piper shrugged, with a puzzled expression on her face. “I’m not the face of a production. That’s my sister’s thing.”

  “It matters because you told me you’ve revealed every important fact about your life.” She pointed to a pile of scripts that Piper had obviously rendered her opinion on. “I’m certain the woman who cuts my hair doesn’t spend her free time reading scripts.”


  “There’s a million things you don’t know about me. But you know the important stuff.” She moved to stand right next to the chair, gently placing her hand on Haley’s shoulder. “I’m exactly who I said I was. This stuff…” she trailed her hand across the desk, “is my sister’s life, not mine.”

  “That’s clearly not true, Piper. If you weren’t involved, you wouldn’t be approving photo shoots for her. And if she’s being approached by magazines of that caliber…” She stared into her eyes, feeling like she didn’t know this woman at all. “If my dad owned the helicopter company he works for, I would have mentioned it. That would have been…important.”

  “Why? If you don’t work there, it doesn’t matter to me what role your dad has. Same for my sister.”

  “Not the same. You’re involved, Piper. Deeply involved. But now that I think about it, you didn’t even tell me her name. Why?”

  A funny expression covered her face. One Haley couldn’t name. “Because as soon as people learn about Charlie, they treat me differently.”

  “I wouldn’t have! I’ve been around the Hollywood block, Piper. I’m not bowled over by knowing a starlet.”

  “But I couldn’t have known that,” she said, squatting down so they were on the same level. Her eyes were just as kind as they’d been the night before. Expression just as concerned and open. But Haley no longer felt like they were intimately connected. All of the facts Piper had hidden formed a scrim that rendered her inaccessible—even remote.

  “You lied to me, Piper. You purposefully hid things because you thought I might… What? Use them against you?”

  “No, of course not. I’m just super careful when it comes to my sister.”

  Haley took in a series of deep breaths, trying to guess what Piper was getting at. But she couldn’t, for the life of her, understand why she’d hidden this famous sister this deeply into their relationship. Piper’s intent gaze felt creepy all of a sudden, and she had to get some space.

  Standing, she said, “Your juice is waiting. Better get moving on that or your schedule will be screwed up.” She brushed past Piper, heading for the bathroom. “Did you have to lie about your diet to protect your sister?”

  “Oh, shit,” Piper groaned. “I forgot all about that.” Her head cocked dramatically. “How’d you know about the juice?”

  “The same way it seems I’m learning all sorts of things about you. By accident.”

  “Come on, Haley. Stop and talk to me,” she said, following along behind.

  Haley stopped by the living room to pick up her clothing, using the pause to gaze at Piper. “I need to get my mind around this. Go have your juice.”

  “I don’t want the damn juice! I just went along with it for Charlie.”

  Haley stood closer, so close she could see the small muscles in Piper’s face twitching. “Is that the whole story? You just go along?”

  “Kind of…” She said, her gaze shifting to the floor.

  “That’s why you choose what magazines she’ll appear in? What personal appearances she’ll make? Whether or not she’ll be the voice of a cartoon butterfly?”

  “No,” she said, her eyes fluttering closed. “I do that to help her out when she’s out of town. I don’t take a dime for my work,” she said softly, “even though I spend hours on it.”

  “Then why lie about it?” She grasped Piper’s shoulders, desperate to reconnect.

  “I don’t think of it that way, but…you obviously do,” she said, still looking bewildered.

  “Why?” she begged. “When I told you how important it was for me to know who you are, why did you hide all of this?”

  “To protect myself and my sister,” she said, finally lifting her head to stare Haley right in the eye. “I can’t afford to have people try to use me to get to her. I never talk about her until I’m sure I can trust someone.”

  “You trusted me enough to sleep with me, but not enough to tell me about your sister? I thought we were leading up to something. Did I imagine that?”

  “No!” She grasped Haley’s shoulders firmly. “I really like you. Really,” she insisted. “Last night, when you said you were going to stay over, I realized I had to tell you all about her. So I thought I’d take you over to her house today since I was going to have to drive you home. She was going to have a little birthday dinner for me, but then this juice thing came up…”

  “What is that? You normally eat like a teenaged boy.”

  “Charlie’s in a new movie,” she said, letting out a breath. “She’s got to lose ten pounds before they start filming, and she’s trying a juice fast.”

  “And that has what to do with you?”

  “I felt bad for her, so I said I’d do it, too,” she said quietly. “I’m trying to be supportive.”

  “All right,” Haley said wearily, feeling like she’d been up for hours. She tucked her clothing close to her chest, then turned for the bath. But she stopped mid-step, then stared at Piper one more time as she recalled a detail from the night before. “Every one of your friends was here last night, but not one person mentioned your sister. Why?”

  Her head dropped, with her hair falling forward, hiding her features. “My friends are all protective of Charlie, too. I told a few people not to bring her up and they told everyone else.”

  “So fifty people were engaged in a conspiracy of silence to make sure the possible stalker you were with didn’t have any ammunition to throw at your sister?” She reached for Piper’s arm and held it tightly. “I’ll never be able to show my face around here again.” She entered the bath and closed the door, then fell against it, unable to stop the tears.

  “Haley, please listen to me,” Piper begged. “Everyone understands that I wait a long time to tell people about Charlie. I don’t think you’re a stalker, and neither do they. It’s just…” She cleared her throat. “I’m sorry,” she said quietly. “I screwed up, but not because I didn’t trust you. I’m just super careful.”

  “Go get started on your juice. I’ve got to think.”

  After heating up the water, Haley got into the shower and let it hit her right in the head for a minute. She was normally very conservative with her water usage, since they were either in a drought or worrying about the next one, but today she needed to get the cobwebs out.

  When she relaxed and let the feelings come, one stood out starkly. Hurt. That’s what was lodged in her esophagus, making it hard to swallow. She was deeply, profoundly, hurt.

  Piper had kept something important from her, not trusting her to know about her sister’s fame, but very willing to sleep with her, even if she was some kind of celebrity stalker. That hurt to the core, making her feel like she could actually be ill.

  But Piper couldn’t have been faking an entire personality—unless she was a true sociopath. Which Haley was sure she wasn’t. Absolutely sure of that. She was equally sure she couldn’t waste water just to soothe her nerves. After doing a quick but thorough wash, she got out and dried off. Sighing, she got dressed and went into the kitchen, where Piper was pulling out a pair of mugs to fill with the coffee that had just finished brewing.

  Haley went up behind her and wrapped her arms around her waist, feeling Piper let out a relieved sigh as their bodies molded together. Her hands reached for Haley’s arms, pressing them tightly against her body.

  “You hurt me,” Haley said, feeling her emotions rise in her chest until they burned. “Part of me wants to hurt you back, but I’m trying to learn from my past mistakes and not jump off the deep end.” She hugged her tightly. “Please, Piper. Please make me feel like I haven’t been stupid for trusting you.”

  Piper turned in the embrace and held Haley in her arms like she was a fragile object that needed tender care. “I made a mistake,” she said quietly. “A big one. I never should have had sex with you without telling you about Charlie.” She held her at arm’s length and revealed the pain that filled her eyes.

  “Why didn’t you?” Haley asked, a few hot tears spilling onto
her cheeks.

  “We moved faster than I thought we would,” she said, her head dropping. “I’m just so into you. We started kissing and I let myself get carried away. But I shouldn’t have,” she stressed. “We should have sat in my living room while I told you all about my sister and the things I do for her. I’m sorry for that, Haley. I really am.”

  “I feel so stupid,” she whimpered. “Like everyone at the party knew I was in the dark, and they all made it a point to keep me there.”

  “That was horrible of me,” Piper said. “Horrible. But that’s what I’ve always done when I meet someone new. It’s just a habit now, one my friends all have, too. We’re all protective of Charlie.”

  “Against what?” Haley asked, blinking her eyes clear.

  Piper shrugged. “Anything. I’ve been protecting her like a mother hen since she was a kid, and it’s been hard for me to let go of that instinct. Until I was sure you weren’t the type of person to use me to get to her…”

  “And sleeping with me showed that wasn’t true?” She stared into Piper’s eyes, somehow feeling a tiny victory when she looked away, chastened.

  “No. I was just unable to keep my hands off you. I didn’t want to have the talk when I could have been kissing you.”

  Haley pushed away from her, some of the hurt fading when she looked into Piper’s eyes. She truly seemed sorry, as well as embarrassed, both of which helped ease the bruised feelings. Quietly, Piper continued, “From the day my mom let her go on that first audition, Charlie’s career has made my life harder in every way. I get all of the downsides, and few of the benefits. I guess I’ve gotten into the habit of putting her first, but I’ve got to stop that.”

  “I’m sorry for jumping on you,” Haley said. “I’ve had more than my share of disappointments with actors, and I think that’s bleeding over into this.”

  “Let’s have some coffee and talk this out,” Piper said, reaching for the mugs again. “You’ve clearly got a viewpoint.”

  Taking one of the mugs from her hand, Haley returned it to the cabinet. “No caffeine,” she said. “Your liver can’t get clean if you keep stuffing it with chemicals.”