HDU #2: Dirt

by India Lee

  Me (Amanda Nathan)

  I don’t know either. I’m losing steam. Don’t know if I care anymore.

  Ian (Ian Marsh)

  I’m making you care. I’m not letting Casey get away with anything.

  Amanda stared at her laptop screen, unsure of how to even respond to Ian’s determination. He had always been frustratingly unflappable when excited. Or rather, just unflappable. The frustrating part depended on her mood and currently, it was in no place to listen to scheming.

  She was beyond through with scheming. It was a major requirement of surviving the industry and she no longer wanted anything to do with the industry.

  Me (Amanda Nathan)

  It’s impossible, Ian. We tried.

  Ian (Ian Marsh)

  There’s got to be something out there though. There’s no way Casey Mulreed is THAT fucking untouchable. It’s just probably some little detail she forgot about somewhere down the line.

  Me (Amanda Nathan)

  Like what though?

  Ian (Ian Marsh)

  Something small and subtle. It’s not going to be anything obvious that takes a diabolical maniac like that down. Honestly don’t know how people ever believed the video I made of her. She’s too smart to let a secret video happen let alone take her down

  Amanda stared at the message, feeling a tinge of a strange memory. Or thought. Something that made her heart suddenly flutter but she wasn’t sure what. She reread Ian’s message, trying to figure out which key word had caused her to feel the hints of a light bulb above her head.

  Small and subtle? Diabolical maniac? Secret video? Amanda’s eyes scanned the words back and forth.

  Suddenly, she sat up straight, her eyes wide as she stared forward.

  Me (Amanda Nathan)

  Quinn used to perform the monologues she wrote into Legacy.

  Ian (Ian Marsh)

  Okay? I know. She did them for Casey over video chat which gives us nothing because it’s not like she saved any of those video chats. Or took videos of herself performing them.

  Me (Amanda Nathan)

  But I think Jake did.

  Recalling when Jake had first told her about him, Amanda’s mind conjured up the image of Jake’s phone when he had first showed her the picture of Quinn. He had accidentally played a video of her slating for the camera, the way actors did right before an audition.

  Ian (Ian Marsh)

  He took a video of her doing a monologue from her script? I doubt it’s anything that’s the same as the script that was aired as the pilot though.

  Me (Amanda Nathan)

  Quinn said that Casey changed about three lines from the original script. She obviously can’t write worth a damn considering how bad the rest of the season got.

  Ian (Ian Marsh)

  It doesn’t make sense though. Jake would’ve watched that video of Quinn a million times if it’s one of the only ones he has left of her and he would’ve recognized that monologue the second he watched Legacy on TV.

  Unfortunately, it was a beyond valid point. Her posture slumping, Amanda closed her eyes in defeat, letting go of a long sigh.

  Me (Amanda Nathan)

  Never mind then.

  Ian (Ian Marsh)

  Unless.

  Me (Amanda Nathan)

  Speak.

  Me (Amanda Nathan)

  IAN.

  Ian (Ian Marsh)

  Sorry, was thinking… did Jake even watch Legacy? I know he’s obsessed with his sister and thinks she’s perfect but maybe that was reason for him to not watch it or stop watching it? That pilot was pretty explicit and it’d probably be disturbing for him as a little brother to think that it was totally autobiographical.

  Amanda sat back up again. She recalled how Jake had insisted that Casey had once thought partying to be “disgusting” because of how often she’d seen her own father drunk to the point of bathroom accidents. “I hate partying. I don’t even like watching other people party. It makes me uncomfortable and for awhile, Casey was like that too.” Her pulse suddenly beating loudly in her ears, Amanda’s fingers flew about the keyboard.

  Me (Amanda Nathan)

  We need to ask him if he watched Legacy.

  Ian (Ian Marsh)

  I fucking agree. Too bad we can’t do shit about getting a hold of him. I’ve been trying for weeks.

  Amanda actually laughed, in disbelief of how her next idea had slipped her mind for so long.

  Me (Amanda Nathan)

  Do me a favor — ask Quinn right now for Jake’s childhood address.

  ~

  Columbia was about a forty-five minute drive from Merit. Normally, at least. Thanks to Amanda’s speeding, it was closer to a half hour.

  She hardly felt guilty about it until making a bit of a sharp, squealing turn onto Jake’s small, charming street that reminded her of the houses on Verbena Road in North Carolina — just a few large ones on a tiny little block. Luckily for her heart, her mind didn’t linger on those thoughts for much longer because there was entirely too much on her mind.

  It was mostly revenge, for sure, but she couldn’t help feeling the anticipation of delivering good news to Jake about Quinn — so long as his answer to her question turned out as she and Ian had suspected. And she had a feeling it would. And when it did, she could confirm with Jake that he wasn’t ‘weird’ as he constantly suspected, that Quinn’s reasons for leaving him in the dust had, like seemingly everything, only to do with Casey.

  Parking her car at the end of the cul de sac, Amanda climbed out, her auburn waves flying behind her as she ran up the driveway and up the front steps of the brick house that had seen the childhoods of both Jake and Casey.

  She had hardly rung the doorbell before the door opened. Catching her breath, Amanda stared at Jake in his Mizzou T-shirt and jeans, his blue eyes wide as he stared back.

  “Hi. I have something to ask you and a lot to tell you. Can I come in?”

  Chapter 25

  Amanda hardly cared about the way her neighbors stared when her car came rolling back into her parents’ driveway. They stared as usual and some even took out their cameras to film her as she got out of the car but she couldn’t care less.

  Of course Jake hadn’t watched Legacy. She should have known.

  After buying the pilot episode online, Amanda had fast forwarded the action up to the point of the monologue in which the main character — supposedly based on Casey all this time — rattled off the same, angst-filled words as Quinn had in Jake’s video of her. His four-year-old video which would prove that Legacy, which Casey had claimed in various interviews to have been written only two years ago, was not her work at all.

  With Legacy’s only good episode to be soon proven as stolen, Amanda could only imagine the fate of the rest of the show. And Casey too, for that matter, considering Jake had shown interest in exposing everything fraudulent about her. It was a personal matter, perhaps. Amanda could understand. Casey had been the reason behind Jake’s accident — the injury that led to his later years of bullying and resorting to calling someone his “angel” simply for being his friend. That had been an accident on Casey’s part but taking away that very friend from Jake, knowing well that she was his only one — that was certainly no accident.

  “I’ll do whatever video he wants if she’s in it, too,” Jake had eagerly promised when Amanda read aloud the email that Ian had sent her. In order to expose Casey, Ian planned on making another video for her — just one that starred Quinn and Jake this time around. It would be short, consisting mostly of little anecdotes from Quinn and Jake about their own relationship, how it fell apart and why. The “how” and “why” would be easily explained with the inclusion of Jake’s four-year-old video of a young Quinn performing the fateful monologue.

  As she unlocked the front door to her house, Amanda let go of what felt like the longest, most relieving sigh in the world. So this is what closure feels like. It was a sensation beyond relief. Despite the dark sky outside, it made her feel
as if it were the start of a sunny new day, as if the context of everything around her had just magically transformed with the knowledge that Casey and her whole career would soon be taken down.

  Suddenly, she her street no longer looked like the place she would be in fact resigned to for the rest of her dull life.

  Suddenly, she missed the city again.

  “Where were you, Amanda Bree?”

  Pushing through the front door, she looked up to see her mother standing in the living room, hands on her hips as she stood beside Amanda’s father, who sat in his usual chair. Her mother looked cross as usual — crosser than usual, actually — but her father wore a small smile on his lips.

  “I was out. I had to see someone.”

  “Well,” her mother crossed her arms. “You left in broad daylight and now the whole town knows you’re home ‘cause I heard them talking about you and us and this whole family while I was at LJ’s before. I hope you’re totally fine with that.”

  Amanda shrugged. “I’m perfectly fine,” she smiled, and so genuinely that her mother broke into a laugh, narrowing her eyes.

  “What do you know?” she asked.

  Amanda snorted. “What?”

  “You’re acting strange.”

  Amanda wanted to tell her mother that she was acting a little strange herself but she opted to hold her tongue, instead shedding her shearling jacket and heading up the stairs to her room. “I’m going upstairs.”

  “You do that.”

  Her body practically exhausted and tingling from the victory from Jake’s house, Amanda rolled her neck, closing her eyes as she pushed through the door of her bedroom.

  When she opened it, there was Liam.

  “Hey.”

  Amanda blinked, standing still for a moment. I’m dreaming, she told herself, convinced that her development with Casey had her simply delirious with glee. It was just too bizarre a scene. In a long sleeve, heather grey T-shirt and jeans, Liam Brody was standing in her childhood bedroom. The same bedroom that she had listened to Megan gush over him in and years later, the same bedroom that she would spread rumors about him in while moderating HDU on her trusty laptop.

  “I’m not imagining this,” she murmured with wide eyes, only after hearing her parents burst out laughing downstairs. No wonder my mom was acting so weird. She was just harboring a celebrity in my childhood bedroom, no big deal. Looking up at Liam, Amanda gave a crooked little smile. “This is really weird,” she opted to say rather than ask why he’d come. For the most part, she knew.

  Liam laughed. “Yeah, you’re telling me. This room is… surprisingly pink. And there are still pictures of Dylan Hardy cut out from magazines that are just lying around.”

  Amanda winced. “Oh God, where?”

  “Don’t worry about it, Princess took care of them.”

  Amanda raised her eyebrows, looking at the actual shreds of paper next to her cat, who stared at them both from her post on the bed. Turning her gaze back to Liam, Amanda cocked her head.

  “Why are you here?” she decided to ask.

  Sliding his hands in his jean pockets, Liam smiled. “That was my question.”

  Amanda chewed her lip. “I couldn’t be in New York anymore.”

  “Why?”

  She rolled her eyes at his question. “Oh, I don’t know. It’s full of drama there and I tend to ruin your life when I’m in the same place as you.”

  “That’s not true. Things are pretty good right now and we’re in the same town,” Liam pointed out with a grin.

  “Give it some time. We’re in Merit.”

  Liam smirked, reaching for her hand. “Contract’s over with Terrence. Everything’s done. Why can’t we be together now?”

  “I don’t know, Liam. I’m trying to figure things out. I love New York but I don’t want to be a part of this industry anymore. I just realized I want nothing to do with it, which I thought meant this,” she gestured to her room and the view out the window, “This was what I was meant to be in. This town where I don’t have to do a thing, that I hate so much that it’ll keep me inside all day and on my computer, which is where I’m most peaceful. Because I’m talking drama about people and other celebrities instead of being a part of the drama.”

  Liam took a look around her room, his eyes landing on her laptop. He laughed. “You can be somewhere in between New York and Missouri. I know you don’t want to be here in Merit. Your parents don’t even want to be here in Merit.”

  Amanda lifted her brows with amusement. “You talked to them?” she asked, suppressing a giggle. Liam shrugged.

  “You were gone for forever. And your dad wanted to ask me about the Yankees game. And he wanted to know exactly why I put my fist in a paparazzi’s mouth.” Liam laughed. “Your mom did too. She said it’s not sanitary and she hopes I washed my hands more than twice.”

  Amanda burst out laughing. “Oh God. I’m sorry.”

  “It’s fine. We had fun talking.”

  “About what else?”

  “Logan. His deployment ended so now he’s home in North Carolina. Your parents said they’d love to visit there.”

  Amanda raised her eyebrows, trying to disguise the fact that the mention of North Carolina made her heart pound every time.

  “Speaking of that place,” Liam started, eyeing her. He ran a hand through her hair, his other hand reaching into his pocket. “I was kind of wondering if you’d finally stop making me hold this for you.” He held up the shiny metal key to the house on Verbena. “I had all these appearances to make for Terrence but he just told me he’d prefer to take me out of the publicity for A Soldier so, uh,” he shrugged, giving a big, adorable laugh, “Kind of got fired from promoting. So now I’ve got a whole bunch of time to take another vacation. Hang out with Logan and Heidi and the kids.” He smiled, handing the key over. “And maybe show your parents around town if you decide to come too.”

  Despite the news about Terrence, Amanda could hardly hold her smile back. She plucked the key out of Liam’s fingers. Turning and studying it in her hands, she frowned a bit, giving a laugh.

  “So. I just quit my job at ZINC and you’re being taken off of the publicity campaign for A Soldier. And your role in The Legends is being recast. We’re going to have to start eating Logan’s famous sale-item casseroles soon, aren’t we?”

  “At least we’ll do it in a nice house. If we run out of food, we’ll sell ours and move in next door with them,” Liam joked.

  Amanda wiggled her pout. “I feel bad about that.”

  “Don’t. Logan still loves that casserole,” he laughed. “I’m not even kidding. And he’s happy as long as he’s close to his family, so if we were to ever move in with him, actually, it’d probably make his life.”

  Quieting for a little, Liam pulled Amanda into his body by the waist. He kissed the slight frown between her eyebrows.

  “Amanda, he was never the one who wanted millions of dollars from me to be set up the rest of his life — that was just my own thing. And I can still give that to him, I just have to work a little harder than I would have if Terrence Rambis still liked me and didn’t want me basically dead.” He laughed. “I’m going to be fine, Amanda. You will too, in whatever you decide to do.”

  Touching the chest that she’d missed so much, Amanda rested her cheek upon it, savoring the touch of Liam’s lips in her hair. “Okay. I’m trusting you on that.”

  “Good.”

  “So … now what? I’m back to square one as far as career goes and your upcoming projects just got canceled. What exactly is going on in our lives right now?” she asked with a little laugh.

  Liam gave her a breezy shrug and a smile. “Each other, for once.”

  LIAMANDA REUNITE IN MISSOURI

  Celeb-o-Matic

  This time, it’s for real.

  While folks have been speculating over the false negative of Liamanda’s relationship since Liam’s paparazzo beatdown in front of the Waltman Global building, fans of the former couple got a
sweet confirmation this morning when Liam was spotted in Merit, Missouri the small hometown of his real sweetheart, Amanda Nathan.

  The two were spotted enjoying breakfast together at LJ’s Diner, amid a sea of gawking local stares before hopping a short plane ride to Virginia — even sharing a kiss in their romantic booth for the famously nosy neighbors to see.

  According to sources, Brody and Nathan met up with fellow New York couple Ian Marsh and Harper Gunn in Virginia, where they were briefly spotted with a third unidentified couple.

  When asked about their Southern swing, Brody’s publicist, Perrin Davies, gave no comment, saying only that, “They were just on a couple’s vacation.” When asked then if Brody and Nathan were in fact a couple now, Davies gave the following response: “I’m pretty sure they always were but yes, those two are together now, for real and the long haul.”

  Chapter 26

  BREAKING: VIDEO BLASTING CASEY MULREED AS ‘FRAUD’ GOES VIRAL, CINEREEL INVESTIGATES PLAGIARISM

  Actress’s brother teams up with Ian Marsh and Legacy’s true writer to lambast Casey

  The Pop Source

  October 25th

  Once again, a Casey-centric video by Ian Marsh has caught the Internet by storm. This time, the amateur filmmaker documents the stories of Jake Tatum and Quinn Colwell, a friendship that began in Columbia, Missouri thirteen years ago.

  And, oh, an important detail: Jake Tatum is none other than Jonathan Jacob Mulreed III, the younger brother to Casey Mulreed and only son of film legend, Daniel Mulreed.

  And according to the youngest Mulreed, his sister is the one of the biggest frauds in the business — not a promising TV writer and director but a shameless plagiarist who stole the pilot script of Legacy years ago. The best part? Casey allegedly stole the script when it was a mere short film by the girlfriend of her brother, Colwell, who was seventeen when she wrote the script as a means of applying to college.