Guarded

10

 

“You’re right,” I agreed. But it still felt funny entering into a fake relationship with my co-star.

 

Dating Cost was fine at first for the few months and when I thought we were entering our wind-down phase where we could agree to go our separate ways, he had been spotted leaving a hotel with a busty brunette who was clearly not I. While it didn’t bother me so much personally, it bothered me that it could affect my image.

Elizabeth Bennett was a strong female character and so was Jolie. There was no way either of them would stand for that kind of behavior from their Darcy so why was I pressured to remain part of a united front and just say it was a friend. If it had been a one-time thing, it might have been a different story, but it wasn’t.

It happened twice again before the summer and a handful of times over the summer as well. The last time had been when I had heard from Hayley that he had a threesome with her and her friend the night before his death.

I remembered doing interviews at the end of July to promote the second season of the show and the reporters asking me if I thought Cost should go to rehab for being addicted to sex. I just laughed it off, and said he just had a lot of female friends. I would glance longingly as his picture came up on the big screen and say “How could he not with that caramel skin and those deep brown eyes that bore into your soul?”

The reporters would laugh and smile and pat my hand knowingly all the while looking at me like I was the biggest idiot known to man. I would smile back because most of the time I agreed with them. But if that was the biggest problem in my life at that moment, then I really had nothing to complain about. At least Cost was alive.

Luckily his house was only a ten-minute drive from mine and I parked ignoring the crowd of reporters who were already flocking to the scene. I pushed through the crowd of mourners gathering and identified myself to the police as his girlfriend and they let me through.

His parents were there and while I had only met them a few times, my heart broke for them. I knew what it was like to lose parents. I couldn’t imagine losing a son. Death was never easy no matter what form it came in. The police and ambulance were loading the body into the back of an ambulance before I walked in the front door of the house.

The tears that I had been holding back now began to fall freely and I brushed them away as I sought out a familiar face. I saw Bethany Figaro, a co-star of ours holding Celeste Hemmings, while Lourdes Santiago stood behind the both of them in the arms of Tyler Packham. We just needed Cost to be alive and we would all be here and everything would be fine.

I walked over to the girls and Tyler who immediately pulled me into his shared hug with Lourdes. The other two girls clamored around me, embracing me as well and offering their apologies.

“I’m so sorry Archer, I can’t believe this. I can’t believe this,” Celeste said, wiping her eyes.

“Thank you, Celeste.” I hugged her.

Bethany reached out and hugged me as well, “We all know he loved you even if he didn’t have the best way of showing it.”