CHAPTER 4
It had been 4 days.
Lola had officially been rejected.
Rejection wasn’t something she liked but it was something she could handle. She had handled perfectly well almost her entire adult life. Really no one should be in show business if the couldn’t handle the copious amounts of rejection that was dished out daily. Whether it was the studio head telling you your movie was going straight to DVD or the fan on the street criticizing what you looked like without makeup, rejection was everywhere. But rejection was as familiar to her as happiness would be to any other poor shmuck. Yes, rejection she could deal with.
Awkwardness she could not.
And in this particular situation the awkwardness that she would no doubt feel the next time she saw Justin was driving her crazy with doubt. And doubt lead to insecurity and insecurity lead to self pity and so on and so on till she was drowning in so many emotions she couldn’t even identify most of them.
But today her personal feelings were going to be channeled for the greater good.
Lola had an audition!
It was Ruby’s sad attempt at a peace offering. It was rare that Ruby would attempt to win over Lola. Usually it was the other way around and they both knew it. So Lola took the olive branch that was being offered and sent one of her own back- she agreed to do it.
It wasn’t Spielberg or Scorsese that was for damn sure. It was some stupid teen movie and she was actually on the fence about whether or not she wanted to even be in it. It was bound to get poor reviews from the critics but it would make money and the public would take notice of her again. The fact that she was in it would probably be a major selling point of the movie but she was debating whether or not she really wanted to be a part of something that the critics were inevitably going to harpoon. In reality she wanted to audition, land the lead and politely decline the offer. They would beg her, offer her more money but she would decline again. The casting agent would be so impressed by her though he would remember her for a future project and cast her in the next Oscar-worthy motion picture. She would be the underdog in the category of course but because of her stunning portrayal of some real life drug addict or prostitute she would win the Oscar and her comeback would be golden.
Being an actress she often made up short little scenarios in her head. Little movies of how important events in her life would pan out. She was always the star and always the winner. Rarely did her personal motion pictures pan out but what kind of actress would she be if she didn’t live half in her own head.
The kind that doesn’t nail stupid bullshit roles, that’s what kind… Lola thought with a smile.
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4 days after Lola had coyly slipped her number into his Sidekick and he was almost positive he had made the wrong choice by waiting to call her. It hadn’t occurred to him that he would look like an asshole. Or so Rachel, his cousin/personal assistant had so sweetly pointed out to him.
“It’s cute how you know nothing about women,” she had said when he told her that he was waiting till he was on California soil before calling Lola. It annoyed him to no end that she said it without even looking up from her magazine, like his stupidity and ignorance was no big deal.
It was not cute how he knew nothing about women. Sure he could spit a smooth game to some groupie in a club but when it came straight down to the in’s and out’s of the female mind he was baffled. To him the excuse ‘we weren’t in the same time zone’ was a perfectly valid and forgivable excuse.
But Rachel has condescendingly told him. “Lola’s not gonna care that you are 3,000 miles away. The only thing going through her head is ‘He didn’t call’. Period. That’s it.”
“Not every women is as needy and emotional as you Rachel.” He was grasping at straws, he hated to be wrong.
“No maybe not, but Lola is” She put her magazine down and now looked him, “She is an actress, all she has is her emotions. Think about every actress you’ve meet, you always know exactly what they are thinking and feeling cause they wear their emotions on their sleeve.”
The fact that she was making sense was only adding to his annoyance, “Well fuck”
Rachel picked her magazine back up and continued reading, “Nicely put”
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The awkwardness that set in the second she stepped through the casting agents door was almost unbearable. She wanted to tell them she was just kidding and turn around and leave. But she didn’t, her determination made her stay.
Hindsight is 20/20…
Trust your instincts…
And all that proverbial mantras that she should have listened to instead of standing rooted in her spot. Because when she attempted to read her lines as Becky, the school outcast who was secretly pretty if she would simply take off her glasses, she had been interrupted.
“That will be all Jord- I mean Lola” The director had said to her, looking down at her resume. The slip was obviously intentional seeing as he was looking at her name when he said it but another thing she could handle was the little Hollywood men who overcompensated for there tiny pee-pee’s making movie about the girls they couldn’t have in high school. She knew the drill, the bigger the budget the smaller the pee-pee.
Lola had every intention of stopping at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf before making her way home but she got lost in her thoughts and drove straight past it. Namely on her mind was Justin Timberlake. Her actual crush on him had developed by hearing stories about him from her guy friends. His charity work, his heartbreak (what girl could resist the desire to help a broken man), his success all told through the eyes of friends had put the schoolgirl notion of romance into her head. She hadn’t had a crush on anyone since, probably before she was famous but she didn’t know Justin very well, if at all, so it was more of an infatuation with the image he displayed than true full-blown feelings for the guy. It was feelings that could only come from having meeting him once and having two chit chatty conversations with him.
Who was Justin Timberlake?
Fuck if she knew…
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Another one of Ashton’s party was in full swing.
He was in his usual spot on the couch, chilling out with a Bud. He was completely toxin free tonight, opting instead to observe the antics of his drunken friends, drunken friends of friends and the drunken people who worked for them. It was the pages of US Weekly on parade throughout the entire house. The Bush twins were upstairs, sans Secret Service, Paris Hilton was dancing on the dining room table, and Mary Kate Olsen was eyeing the In-N-Out Burger some guy was currently munching on.
Hours had gone bye and still no sign of Lola. Lindsay came with Wilmer and Nicole came with her boyfriend, Adam but Lola was MIA. He contemplated asking one of them where she was but he was too chicken shit to deal with the giggling and the inevitable “why do you ask’s?” that were sure to come. All the ballsy things he had done in his life and he was afraid to talk to two twenty-something-year-old girls about their best friend.
As if his thinking had personified in front of him Lindsay Lohan sat down in the recliner next to him. He nodded his head hello to her but received the look of death as she pointedly turned her back to him. What the fuck was her problem?
When she finished talking to some PA to one of the celebs around here she made a point to turn back and face him full on. She leaned in really close to him, partly because it was the only way that she would be heard properly over the pulsating music and partly because she didn’t want anyone to eavesdrop on their conversation
“Lola Dean is my best friend,” she hissed at him “And I know perfectly well what you think of her and that makes you an asshole in my book” She stood up and went to walk away but without thinking Justin grabbed her hand.
“What are you talking about?” he said as he stood.
“Why didn’t you call her?” She answered a question with a question.
“How did you know I didn’t call her?” The conversation of questions was confusing him more and more.
“She’s my best friend” Lindsay stated again “Girls talk”
“Look let me explain-“ Justin started but was swiftly cut off.
“Don’t bother. Lola is the most real person you will ever meet. She is not some superficial leech looking to latch onto someone with success. And the fact that you think that makes you an asshole.” She went to leave but turned around and looked him square in the eye, “Was that clear enough for you.” And with that she walked away, leaving him to stare after her.
Women he thought and rolled his eyes. But as he did that another thought popped into his head, If Lindsay thought that he saw Lola like that did Lola think the same thing?
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