The Truths Behind the Life of Maeve Sun Lively

31

YOU'RE OVERTHINKING ALL OF THIS," Mason says to me while I threw another article of Klarise and that random guy I never even heard of's scandal across my private makeup room on the current film set. That article seemed to be everywhere, just her and Cameron, her and Hao Shan. I had ten minutes before I had to go back to film another scene.

"Do you really think I am?"

Mason picks up the article I had thrown and puts it neatly on top of my vanity. "Yes, you are. You've been in this fame business for a while now, you should know as well as anyone in the circle that this is for publicity."

I crossed my arms across my chest and stared at myself in the mirror. I looked painfully beautiful, hot tears in the corners of my eyes, urging to come out. "Is it really though?"

He doesn't answer me.

"What does Cameron have to say about this?"

I haven't heard from Cameron for a while, he went back to New York where his parents were to deal with all this crap that has happened. I was both happy and furious and heartbroken. Klarise wasn't getting married anymore. But at least when she was with Cameron I knew she didn't feel anything for him, at least that was easy to think when I knew Cameron was with Mason. But now this other guy, as I watched and rewatched—with pain and grudge—the footage of her kissing Hao Shan, I wanted to know what they were. Did she love him? Is she happy with him? Is he that much better than me?

Mason's eyes darted from both me and that article/magazine cover of Klarise and Hao Shan. "He hasn't really contacted me since he went back."

None of us mentioned or talked about it, but it seemed pretty clear that Cameron didn't tell his parents about him and Mason. And even more upsettingly apparent that he wasn't planning on telling them any time soon.

I took the magazine and looked at Klarise hard in the plastic paging face. Mason snatched it away from me before I could embarrassingly kiss her on the page, and this time, he threw it in the trash.

"Enough of all of this, staring at that garbage is going to soon tear both of our lungs out."

I groaned a sigh, my face in my hands. Then I took them off and looked at Mason, tears on the verge of coming out. "Do you think she loves him?"

He comes over to me and places his arms around my shoulders. "I think that you are so much better than her, and I think that everything that has happened has been for a reason. And I think that she's changed you."

I looked at him in the vanity mirror, he was wearing a striped shirt underneath a black blazer that Cameron had gotten him for his birthday; he's been wearing it ever since. About a few days ago, when it was my birthday, Mason made sure to sit both me and Cameron down in our home and make his homemade recipes. But throughout it all, I could barely eat as good as the food was. My head swirled with images of Klarise and that guy, and it was even more awful when I couldn't talk about it because Cameron was there.

Now, I look at both me and him, and suddenly I wasn't seeing someone famous with her also rising agent who was getting requests from other actresses and actors. All I saw was two awfully pathetic teens who think they're old enough to do it all, show it all. I wanted to cry more than ever, and it really made me wonder since when I've turned into such an emotional being. It wasn't me.

I sniffed in the emerging tears, sucking it all in. "Call time is in a few minutes, I should go."

As I stood up, checking my makeup, Mason was looking at me with this concerned look he always had. I think he worried too much about me, but I guess I can see why. I was a mess, maybe even more of a mess now.