Chapter 29
Chapter Twenty-Nine
RAFE
J asmine is shifty today. I watch her out of the corner of my eyes while I’m in hair and makeup. She’s talking to a few of the extras and crew, definitely one of the lighting guys. I don’t know what they’re talking about but it’s big from the way that she’s flitting from person to person.
If I didn’t know any better, I’d think that Jasmine is trying to get allies on her side. Not surprising, from what Kit said she did to her. Jasmine’s not very smart if she thinks a few extras and lighting guys are going to be able to do a damn thing to save her if I blackball her. She’s a diva, a real fucking bitch that any director is going to clock all on their own without me so much as saying a word, but there’s no fun in that.
If Kit went after her then the gloves are off. At least, enough to have some fun with her while she scrambles for power. But that’s a lie, isn’t it? I’m not doing this for “fun.” I’m doing this to create a distraction. Not by me, of course. Jasmine is going to cause the distraction I need. She’s already on the ledge, she just needs a little push to turn everyone’s attention from Kit to her.
If they can come up with a conspiracy theory that Kit offed Jane, then they can do the same when it comes to Jasmine.
“Okay, you’re all done!” The stylist working on me gives me a sunny smile that I don’t return. I just nod my thanks and stand from the chair before she launches into a round of bullshit questions that I’m not going to answer. I amble over to the refreshments and snag a bottle of water. I take a sip and make a show of not looking Jasmine’s way, not even when there’s a clatter and I see a few of the extras at her feet picking whatever it is that she’s dropped for her. Looks like the prop she’s supposed to use in this scene. It’s a puzzle made of rings, a metaphor for the love triangle Rosa is in with her idiot boyfriends. Art imitating life though, right? I’m one of Kit’s idiot boyfriends.
The extras hand the puzzle pieces to Jasmine and she smiles prettily, the way she knows she should, at the extras who eat it up like the clueless pawns they are. A woman like Jasmine is stacking her pieces for use later. If they aren’t careful, she’ll pin Jane on them just because she can. That suits me, though, I hope she does when it all hits the fan. There’s a flurry of activity when the extras are called over for their time in makeup. I keep my eyes off Jasmine but I know she’s close and when I move closer to the set she joins me. Only the cloying scent of her floral perfume announces her before she speaks.
“What happened to Jane?”
“Now why would I know the answer to that?”
Jasmine moves, the tip-tap of the heels she’s wearing sound closer. “That’s not what everyone is saying about her.”
“You should know better than to listen to what everyone says.” I take a sip from my water bottle and wait for Jasmine to respond. She clears her throat and sidles close enough that I can feel the warmth of her against my arm. She’s working herself up to say something.
“They know it’s Kit and I know it, too. She did it.”
I look her way. She’s worried. She’s staring up at me, big brown eyes a hollow fucking shadow of Kit’s.
“And why do you think that bullshit?”
“She threatened me,” Jasmine says and at least she has the good sense to keep her voice down.
“Who? Jane? The police know that?” I ask, feigning confusion.
Jasmine narrows her eyes. “That’s not who I meant and you know it.”
I tilt my head to the side. “Who else could you mean, Jasmine?”
She practically stamps her foot when she speaks. “Kit! Kit did it and you know it.”
“I don’t know that because that’s crazy. She would never do something like that. Everyone knows it.”
“That’s not what Holly said.”
“Holly better watch her mouth before she gets hit with a lawsuit for slander.” I turn into her then and smile down at her when she shrinks away from me. “You know what happens to a person when they lose one of those lawsuits, don’t you?”
She bites her lip and crosses her arms, the stupid rings from her puzzle clatter in her fingers and she takes a deep breath. “She’s not going to be sued because she’s right. Why was Kit out there covered in Jane’s blood?”
“Kit went for a walk, that’s it. You go for walks, don’t you, Jasmine?” I ask. Her eyes go wide.
“I-I-”
“Everyone goes for walks, especially in a hippy ass place like this. There’s nothing else to do but go for a walk. That’s what Kit was doing last night.”
“But the blood and-”
“But I have a question for you, Jasmine.” I wait for her a beat as she turns that over in her mind. I know she doesn’t want to ask me what I mean, but she does because she has to. She takes in a deep breath and gives me a mean-eyed look that’s really not that mean because her hands are shaking. The rings are practically humming in her hands from the way she’s trembling.
“What?”
“What would you do if the next time you go for walk someone accused you of something you didn’t do?”
“What? I-that doesn’t-”
“You’d be pretty pissed, wouldn’t you? Maybe scared?” I ask, cutting Jasmine off. She’s smart enough to go silent but she does give me a nod. “That’s what I thought. Easy to be angry and scared when you know the truth about it and everyone refuses to listen. I mean, when people know something,” I tap my temple and she jumps at the movement, “there’s just no getting it out of their head, even if what they know is fucking bullshit. Isn’t that right, Jasmine? You know all about that, don’t you?”
She sucks in a shaky breath and falls back a step. “I don’t know what you’re-”
“Don’t fucking lie to me,” I snap. “We both know all about that little video you made before your web series.”
She goes pale and wraps her arms around herself. “Fuck you. You don’t know anything.”
The anger in her voice is enough to show me exactly what path to take. What thread to pull to unravel Jasmine at the seams. I smile while I twist that thread around my fingers and tear it out of her.
“That’s not what the internet says,” I remind her. The funny thing about all of this is that I’m working off assumptions. I don’t know shit about a video or what Jasmine might have gotten up to before she made her web series or came into my orbit with the movie. Jasmine isn’t hard to read, though. She’s the same as most of the eager starlets I see at the parties where they get marked as easy pickings for whatever sleazy “director,” who’s really just a shitty DJ or photographer looking for his next girl to run dry, tells them they have a promising career in Hollywood. Don’t they know to trust them? They’ve been doing this for years and they know exactly what it takes to make it as a star. And baby, they’re a star if they ever saw one.
Jasmine fell for the lie, too. But her mistakes make sense to her because she’s going to be a star.
“The internet is forever. We both know that dirty little video still lives. Photos too.”
Jasmine’s face goes red and she points a finger at me. “Fuck you.”
It’s easy to rile her up. Of course, Jasmine was one of those girls once upon a time.
“No, that was you, remember? Was it worth it? Did he help you get the part? You think it helped you get here?”
Her hands clench into fists and for a second I think she’s going to take a swing at me, those fucking metal rings acting like brass knuckles. I wait for the swing but it doesn’t come. Disappointing.
“You don’t know the first thing about me,” Jasmine spits the words at me.
“And you know fuck all about Kit.”
Jasmine’s eyes flash with triumph when I say that and she crosses her arms. “She threatened me. Did you know that? Your precious fucking woman isn’t perfect. She’s insane and I know that she did something to Jane, because she did it to me.”
I scoff and turn back to look out at the set. The wall is to our backs now, so no fuckwit extra under Jasmine’s thrall is going to creep up on us. “Bullshit.”
“Really?” Jasmine presses a finger to her neck. “If it’s bullshit then what the fuck is this?” She points at a cut that looks like it’s fresh. There’s not even a scab there, just a pink angry mark that makeup has done their best to cover but I can see it. That means the cut is deep.
Good for Kit.
“What’s what?”
“Kit did this to me.”
“When?”
“The day before we left for this place. You know what I think?” she asks but she doesn’t pause long enough for me to answer her. “I think that she meant to kill me and when she didn’t pull it off she went after poor Jane. Kit’s a fucking murderer and we both know it. Soon, they’re all going to know it, too.” Jasmine sweeps her arm out at the room and the look she gives me is pure victory and venom. She thinks she has me right where she wants me. That she has Kit where she wants her. “You know what else I think?”
It’s almost too easy to push Jasmine off the ledge she’s on now.
She jabs a manicured fingernail into my shoulder. “I said, do you know what else I think? ”
I don’t respond. I just take another sip of my water and look out at the room she’s talking to. It’s filled with a bunch of nobodies. All of them are just fodder. Bodies. I’m fine to get caught in the crossfire if it means keeping Kit safe. Jasmine is just another body that I’m willing to throw in the line of fire to keep the woman I love safe.
Jasmine pokes my shoulder again and I hear her inhale. She’s about to unleash a stupid monologue on me but I don’t let her get a word out.
“I don’t give a fuck what you think, Jasmine. Nobody does. That's the truth of it. You’re a lying bitch. If you think I’m going to let you try and ruin my woman’s life, you just proved that you don’t know anything about me, either.” I look at her then and give her a pitying look. “I know what you’re trying to do here, Jasmine. Tell anyone what you think happened and I’ll make sure that every single one of them gets a copy of your debut performance.”
Jasmine gasps. “You wouldn’t dare.”
“I fucking would. You think I’m going to let you use this movie to launch your career and shit on Kit?” I chuckle and shake my head. The water bottle is still in my hand. Jasmine tracks the movement and I can see her next play in my head.
Perfect.
“I’ll ruin you. By the time I’m done, no one will give a fuck what you have to say because you’ll just be another jealous whore. I bet when he pitched it to you, he told you it was an art film, didn’t he?” I chuckle. “Most of the girls they trick into that have to be high as a kite to go through with it but not you. You did it willingly. You wanted to do it. ”
“He loved me.”
“Did he tell you that before or after he finished with you?”
Jasmine brings her hand back and swings. Her palm hits the water bottle and sends it sailing across the room. I’ve only taken a sip or two from it so it’s pretty full and I’ll give it to Jasmine, she’s got a decent arm on her. The bottle hits the refreshment table and sends a bowl of fruit crashing to the ground. The crash brings everyone’s attention to us.
“You’re a fucking liar. You don’t know what I had to do! It’s what everyone has to do, asshole!” The room is silent, the only sound is the clatter of the fruit bowl rolling on its side. “That video doesn’t exist!”
I almost smile because Jasmine is giving me exactly what I need. More than I need, really. She’s making it too easy. I barely even had to say anything before she went off the deep end.
I raise my hands and keep my face impassive. “I think we have a misunderstanding, Jasmine. I don’t know what video you’re talking about.”
“You aren’t going to ruin me. I won’t let you. You think I’m going to let you and that stupid bitch take what I worked for? Fuck that! I’ll kill you before I let that happen.”
And that is what we call the money shot.
A woman gasps and that snaps Jasmine out of her tirade. She falls back a step and blinks like she’s just waking up from a long sleep. She looks so much like Kit that for once I feel what would be remorse, at least if I was a normal fucking person. I’m not, so I move past it and let Jasmine freefall into the mess, the chaos, she’s created.
She’s not Kit. I’m not going to save her.
“Oh god, I-I….” Jasmine licks her lips and looks around the room. All eyes are on her. “I don’t know what came over me.” She backs away from me, away from the crowd that’s now staring at her.
“You okay?” I ask but we both know I don’t give a shit. “Can I help you in some way? Anyone that you need me to call for you?”
There’s tears in Jasmine’s eyes and she swallows, the sound of it is loud in the quiet room. “N-no,” she whispers and falls back another step when Holly’s new assistant approaches her with a concerned look.
“Are you okay? Is there some way I can help?” Her words are an echo of mine and Jasmine’s eyes go wide, the weight of what’s going down is hitting her hard. In the corner, people are already starting to whisper. The extras that she had eating out of the palm of her hand are the first to turn. I don’t miss the way they start to whisper. The ones that handed her those stupid puzzle rings even points at Jasmine.
Jasmine blinks to keep the tears from falling and I know that whatever Kit did to her is nothing compared to what I’ve done. She won’t be able to hold her head up when she looks at these people. The power she was trying to gather for herself is gone like dust in the wind.
“I-I have to lie down. I’m tired. That’s it, I’m just tired.” She looks for an out and the assistant gives it to her.
“Yeah, there’s a sofa you can use. Follow me.”
Jasmine nods and wraps her arms around herself. “I’m sorry. I have to go. I didn’t mean what I did.” She looks at the assistant pleadingly. “You know that, right?”
The other woman looks uncomfortable but she nods. “Of course, yes, I know it’s…it’s a lot of pressure. Come with me and we’ll get you some rest.” She slips an arm around Jasmine’s shoulder and leads her away. I don’t bother watching the direction they’re going because I don’t care all that much.
Instead, I look around the room for Holly. “Does this mean I can go?”