Read Sweet Valley Confidential: Ten Years Later for Free Online Page B

imperceptible shake of his head made the decision. The producer thanked Mark Evans, and the next actor came on.
    In the few moments it took to set up the new music, Elizabeth squeezed up enough courage to speak to the writer.
    “Excuse me.” Elizabeth leaned over and said to the back of Will Connolly’s head, “Could I ask you a few questions?”
    “Hey, can’t you see I’m busy,” he said in a nasty tone without even turning.
    “Well, maybe when there’s a break…” She braced for the unkind response.
    And got it.
    “I said I was busy. Jesus. Get her off my back, somebody, huh?” Without waiting for an answer, he went back to checking the papers he had on his lap.
    Bala Trent leaned over from the row in front and smiled at Elizabeth.
    “We’ll stop for lunch in about an hour and then he’s all yours.”
    “Thanks,” she said, adding a new dread, the lunch break.
    Another actor came on and sang a few bars of some song Elizabeth didn’t recognize, then most of another from the same musical, which Elizabeth planned to Google as soon as she got home.
    “That was nice. Thanks,” Will called out in a very friendly voice, so warm she didn’t realize that it came from the same man.
    Again, the director nixed the actor and another auditioner was called.
    This went on for ten more actors. Elizabeth was amazed at how good some of them were, but no one seemed to make the cut.
    How did they stand the rejection? And it wasn’t just a comment on their talent. It could be their appearance: too tall, too short, not good-looking enough, too old, anything. They would never know what it was, so how could they ever fix it? Most of it couldn’t be fixed anyway. She would die being judged like that. It was bad enough having all those rejection slips from The New Yorker for her short stories, but at least that wasn’t face-to-face and not because she wasn’t pretty enough or young enough or thin enough or whatever. It was just that she wasn’t talented enough. Oh, my God!
    Between the miserable rejections she had been watching for the last hour and her own lack of talent, Elizabeth’s day was ruined. Additionally, Will Connolly was obviously a prick.
    Just then the houselights went up and everyone stood for the lunch break, including Will Connolly, who stretched his arms out, palms pushing the air as he rotated his shoulders, and turned around to Elizabeth.
    She gasped.
    The prick was a doppelgänger for Todd Wilkins.
    *   *   *
     
    When it first happened, when she first found out she had been betrayed, Elizabeth fled. Ran like a whipped dog. But in these last eight months, the pain of hurt had solidified into anger. Anger that left the ugly taste of metal in her mouth. And sometimes it became fury.
    All directed into thin air.
    It was mostly silent, but sometimes her fury erupted into voice, and the voice was loud and hoarse with rage, the words vile and threatening.
    All directed into thin air.
    Other times, she played with the idea, What if she hadn’t found out? Would they have gotten married? And then she tried to remember whose idea it was to get married. Maybe it was hers, but why did he go along with it? Weak asshole!
    Would he have married her and still been in love with someone else? If he really was in love with Jessica and not just pushed into it when he got outed. What was the matter with him that he just kept going on with their relationship when he should have ended it?
    Who knew and didn’t tell her? Winston for sure, but he had a loyalty to Todd. Still, he was Elizabeth’s friend, too, and he had to have known it would explode one day and ruin everyone’s life. Maybe that’s what ended their friendship—his and Todd’s.
    And what about Bruce? By that time he was her best friend, if he had known he would have told her. There would be no reason she could think of for him to keep such a secret. She decided he couldn’t have known.
    What if it was all a big mistake? A momentary lapse. Like