HDU #2: Dirt (37 page)

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 25
^th

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.

In Marsh’s video, Tatum and
Colwell detail the fateful mistake they made in trusting Mulreed with Colwell’s
script and talent, going as far as hacking into Colwell’s inbox to delete their
exchanges, thus deleting proof that the script had ever come from Colwell.

Sound kind of farfetched?
Well, according to Marsh, it wasn’t the last time Mulreed hacked into an
important inbox as he alleges her to be the one who leaked the Liamanda scandal
after hacking into former
Leadoff
writer Amanda Nathan’s
inbox.
 
When reached for comment
about the source of their breaking story on Liamanda’s hoax, Pop Dinner gave no
comment, though a former intern alludes to the fact that Mulreed was in fact
the online tabloid’s benefactor when it came to the news.
 
Non confirmations have been made, but Marsh
has vowed to uncover the truth about Pop Dinner’s source in a second
self-produced mini-documentary, due to begin production this winter.

Additionally, Marsh claims
that his first viral video starring Mulreed was something the actress planned
herself, to garner attention for her then-upcoming show, Legacy, which had been
struggling to get picked up.

Yes, that’s a whole lot of
unsupported claims from a man without the best credibility, but something Marsh
does come through with is the likely proof that no, Casey really did not write
Legacy
.

Because included in Marsh’s
“Jake/Quinn” mini-documentary is video proof of Colwell reciting a monologue
from the
Legacy
script at the young age of seventeen, in a cameraphone
video dated from over four years ago — two years before the time during
which Mulreed claimed to have written the script herself.

Due to the popularity of
Marsh’s video and the evidence in Colwell’s monologue video, Cinereel has
announced their intentions to investigate Mulreed’s script and productions,
vowing to cancel Legacy if it is proven that the pilot script was stolen work.