Damage Control

chapter 15

Every single choice that I had made in my 19 years of life had led to this exact moment.

Hadyn and I sat in one of his bathrooms with the lights on at full capacity. He was sitting on the top of the toilet and I was kneeling in front of him with a brush to his face.

“I hate makeup,” he murmured with his eyes still closed.

So far, I had done the base layer of foundation and concealer. I didn’t want to contour and I told him that the look I was going for was more natural. He thought my seriousness was hilarious and told me to “just wait for your turn”.

“I’m bored,” he whined just as I was uncapping my blush.

His eyes flew open and once again, I was struck by the gold that peeked through the green of his iris. His hair was also spiked upwards because I gave him one of my headbands, which he complained was ‘cutting off the circulation’ of his face.

I leaned backwards, resting on my heels. “You stayed still earlier today.”

“I wasn’t dating the makeup artist from earlier today,” he retorted.

I shrugged, swirling my brush in the blush powder. “This shade is called Hibiscus, which will compliment your skin really well,” I explained.

Hadyn groaned, slumping down and resting his head against my shoulder. Which, while was adorable, the foundation was probably rubbing off onto my shoulder. “Can we hang up the photos instead?” he mumbled into me.

“Oh, now you want to do that?” I laughed. We had gotten about fifty prints from off his phone and developed them at a sleepy CVS we found about a half hour away. When we had gotten back to Hadyn’s place, though, he didn’t want to deal with them just yet. So, we decided to do makeup.

“But now I’m bored. And my eyes are shut so I can’t see you. What if you rob me?” he joked.

“Yeah,” I drawled, pushing him back so that he was sitting upright and I could continue his makeup. “The pressure on your face is from my accomplice that I smuggled in my suitcase.”

He made a face at me. “You’re bossy.”

“You’re ADHD.”

Hadyn stood up, knocking over all my makeup products and rubbed his face with the white hand towel that was hanging next to the sink. He ignored my protests and let out a happy grunt as soon as he removed all his makeup. “Much better!” he announced.

I stood up, gaping at him. “Your towels are gonna be stained forever!”

“I have like sixty more hidden in the basement,” he responded, offhandedly. “C’mon, we bought duct tape,” he said, with more excitement.

Giving him a look, I allowed him to lead be into his bedroom where the photos were spilled onto his bed and a roll of duct tape was thrown into the mix. “So you’re into being restrained,” I mused.

“You know exactly what I’m into, Lex.”

I pretended to think for a second. “Tall, blonde, bitchy models?”

He returned the look back. “Jealous?”

“You wish,” I scoffed. I turned my attention to the photos, which I hadn’t examined closely yet.

Back home, I had worked on my wall throughout high school. There was one wall right by my bed with every single inch covered with photos or stickers or pretty much anything two-dimensional. We didn’t have enough to cover a wall, but we had a pretty good start.

The first photo I picked up was of him and his costar Paige Branson at least five years younger with big, cheesy smiles. He was holding a water bottle and Paige was giving the camera a thumbs up.

“That was one of the first photos that Paige and I took on set,” he explained. “Back when we were all unknown and new to the industry.” Nostalgia seeped through his tone, which was sad enough to make me look at him. But his expression was more wistful than it was upset. Macy’s words from earlier popped into my mind, that he was clearly going through a phase and didn’t want the fame. But the privileges that came with being known were too good to give up, despite the setbacks. Even I knew that.

“You look happy in it,” I commented.

He let out a bitter laugh. “Yeah. This was before Paige turned into an entitled bitch.”

I sharply glanced at him. He had never been that harsh before.

“Sorry,” he laughed, lightly. “I meant that in the nicest way. I love her, but it’s true.”

“Is it weird?” I asked, changing the subject. “Being all passionate with your costar and confessing your love to her, then having PG s*x, and then going home after?”

Hadyn shook his head. “It’s made us all closer,” he responded. “Like, we don’t have personal space at all because the boundaries are so unclear. I don’t know, it’s hard to explain. But it works and we keep it platonic.”

I nodded. I knew that Paige had a boyfriend (some actor from another teen drama), but I wondered if that was also all for publicity as well.

“C’mon, put the first photo up,” Hadyn suddenly said. He gave me a different picture, which happened to be the one he took of me in my apartment the other day.

“You don’t want the honors?” I asked, ripping off a small piece of duct tape.

He shook his head. “Think of it as applied learning.”

Laughing, I rolled up the tape and stuck it onto the back of the photo. I decided to stick that particular picture directly next to his bedside table.

We continued to tape photos all over the wall above his bed. He didn’t notice, but I examined each and every photo. Seeing his life in a more personal scope humanized him. He wasn’t some celebrity; according to the photos, he was just a normal guy working a job that catered to the public.

There were shots of him in vampire mode, with fangs and pure golden eyes; there were shots of him and his costars doing mundane things like eating or napping; there were shots of him with his parents and siblings; then there were photos of some of his favorite places that he had taken like In and Out Burger, a house on the beach with two hydrangea trees that were in full bloom; there were also some landscape photos like of a sunset by the ocean, Italy, and brightly colored alleyways.

We spent the next hour or so putting up photos. When we ran out of pictures, we took a step back to admire our work.

I’ll admit, the photos looked a bit strange with the whole minimalistic vibe his bedroom had. But glancing at Hadyn, I could see that his face was glowing.

“You like it?” I asked.

He nodded, a grin spreading onto his face. “It looks so much better.”

I crossed my arms in content and we stayed like that for a few moments longer, admiring our work.

The next day, the cast of Fangs of Passion had booked a shoot for some magazine cover. Hadyn offered for me to just hang out in his place and take one of his cars to go sightseeing, but I chose to accompany him to the shoot.

We drove about an hour to the studio where it was already bustling and busy.

The Fangs of Passion cast was not small. And I had to admit, it was strange seeing the actors in person rather than on a screen.

Paige Branson was sitting in a chair with the biggest iPhone I had ever seen. She was next to their other costar Dean Lightly, laughing over something on her phone.

When she spotted Hadyn, though, she sprung up and out of her chair to give him a hug. She offered me one as well and all of the sudden, I was hugging one of the most well known actresses at the moment.

“You have to tell me all the embarrassing quirks that my fake boyfriend has,” Paige gushed, leading me to where she and Dean were sitting. Dean shook my hand and gave me a smile in greeting.

“I’ve only known him for a few weeks,” I told her. “You probably know his quirks better.”

Paige laughed. “You’re right. I’ll tell you everything about him.”

Hadyn was whisked away to makeup and wardrobe. He was the last one in because we had slept in a few minutes too late.

Despite everything Hadyn had told me, his costars were actually nice. I’m sure it was only because I was dating Hadyn, but they were a lot friendlier than Macy was.

The rest of his costars were curious to meet me. There was Jordan and Sean and Lucie, who all played Hadyn’s adopted vampire siblings. Then there was Bianca, who played Paige’s best friend.

Naturally, the cast was all supernaturally beautiful. They looked as if they were poster cutouts, which they would be in a few months when the issue was released. I felt like a gremlin in my jeans and t shirt compared to them.

“-remember that one time we dared Hadyn to scale the rocks?” Jordan asked, his face already with a wide smile.

Paige clapped her hands together and nodded, laughing. “Then he fell and bled all over his costume?”

Sean nodded and rolled his eyes. “And we found out later he had a concussion so they had to change the entire schedule.”

“I was pissed,” Lucie added.

They all swapped memories and stories. Of course, it had started with them trying to embarrass Hadyn, but it quickly turned into something more nostalgic and dreamy. I felt like I was intruding on a family looking through a photo album.

Paige seemed to notice my closed off nature and she offered me a smile. “You know, you’re the first girl we’ve met.”

“What do you mean?”

She glanced behind her, undoubtedly looking for Hadyn. “Macy refused to come onto set. She claimed that we didn’t include her.”

Jordan let out a snort at that. “As if we were back in middle school. She told it to our director, Mike.”

Lucie giggled. “He was so confused.”

“Macy’s quite the character,” I agreed, cheerily.

Paige smiled at me and put her hand on my shoulder. “We’re glad that you’re here, Alexa.”

“Thanks,” I responded, smiling back at her. “I’m actually glad that I’m here, too.”