“Yeah, something like that. Take a common phrase, evolve it, make it mine, slap it on a tee-shirt.”
“Try harder.”
Meghan breaks out into laughter. “I will.”
As much as I try not to look, I can’t help but check out the headlines. Eva’s face is plastered at the top of Chatter, her eyeliner smudged from the faucet of tears running down her face.
How were ever friends?
“So, off record, tell me about your stay here,” Meghan says.
“Pardon?”
“I really want to get to know you and your situation a little better—the real you. You’ve become so polarizing to people, but underneath it all, you’re still human, a country farm girl at that. You were always so private about your personal life in interviews, but everything here looks amazing. Your parents are wonderful. Your siblings are…siblings. Were you just trying to protect them? Protect what you had?”
I exhale, unsure of how to go about this conversation. “I wish I could say that my secrecy was intentional, to protect my own, but the truth of it isn’t that simple.” I tuck an ornery strand of hair behind my ear while I search for the right words. “I guess most parents want the best for their children, and mine did too, but they didn’t think that Hollywood was the best for me. They were scared for me, and understandably so. They wanted a small life for their daughter, and at the time, I thought it so unfair, but you know about hindsight…”
“I didn’t think this would be possible, but I just fell in love with your family even more.”
“Great,” I say sarcastically.
“What I mean is that I’ve interviewed a lot of celebrities, and a common denominator among them is bold, pushy, parents that will do anything to get their kids in front of the camera, almost always at the expense of the child. Stage moms, they call them. They’re like soccer moms on steroids.”
“I get it, now, but I didn’t then. Gosh, I can hardly imagine what it must have felt like when they received that call from me. I was nineteen at the time, and I honestly expected them to be ecstatic. When they panicked…it took away my joy.”
“And you gravitated towards the people that were cheering you on, didn’t you?”
“Something like that.”
“We all do.”
“Gosh, I’m half tempted to make you my friend, but with how things turned out with Eva, don’t hold your breath.”
“I’ve seen a lot of Evas in my day. Trust me, it’s not you.”
“I’ll try to remember that.”
“If you don’t mind, could you have your sister sit down with me?” Meghan asks. “She’s the only one I haven’t chatted with yet.”
My heart sinks into my stomach, and a familiar despair washes over me. “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea.”
“Oh?”
“I probably shouldn’t be telling you this, but we’ve recent had a falling out.”
“Is it because you suck at doing farm work?”
I snicker. “I wish it were that. If I tell ya something, promise it won’t make it to the cut?”
“Promise.”
I sigh heavily, choosing my words carefully. I wasn’t intending to tell anyone, but these emotions have weighed on me so heavily since the night of Saturday Bons that I need to let them out, and Meghan, being a stranger to the situation, might offer better insight.
“Ya see, when I got here, there was this ranch hand. He was staying at the guest house with my brother. I knew him from my childhood, he was my first crush, my best friend’s brother.”
“And the apple of Prim’s youthful eye.”
“How’d you guess?”
