Page 71 of Undone By The Mountain Daddies

“Her ass looks great.”

“I’m loving this new side of her.”

“Get it GURL.”

“She’s just letting loose. Let her live.”

“No. This is so embarrassing.”

“I won’t be able to see her the same again.”

“Shame.”

“Big shame. I wish we could see more.”

“No, I mean SHAME. She should be ashamed of herself.”

“I know, right? Imagine what her family must think.”

I drop the phone and gasp. Mom was killed in a plane crash. Grammy suffered a heart attack alone and died. At least they never have to know what I did.

I jump when my phone starts ringing. But it’s Jules, and she’s the only person in LA I’m willing to talk to right now.

“I have officially fallen from grace.” I crawl back under the covers and groan into the pillow. “I cannot begin to tell you how sorry⁠—”

“Shut up for a second and listen to me,” says Jules. “This is not the end of the world.”

“Yes, it is. It’s worse than death.”

“Good PR? Bad PR? It’s all the same thing.”

“No, it’s absolutely not the same thing.”

“Every celebrity I’m representing has either gone through this or is about to. You’re human, Sienna. Cut yourself some slack. Don’t listen to these people’s opinions. We all do things we’re not proud of, and these horrible trolls are no different.”

I hesitate for a second. We all do things we’re not proud of? I hate the fact that I was caught, but do I regret it? Nope. I felt like I was falling in love with life all over again.

“These people’s opinions are responsible for my income, though.”

“Exactly. People talk, you get paid. It’s none of your business what people say about you.”

I lay back, sighing. I wish that were true. It totally is my business.

People are supposed to like who I am. Every step I take is with other people’s opinions in mind. I learned quickly that playing it safe is the best way to go. Keep your emotions out of it, and you can’t go wrong.

It’s nice to be liked and to be celebrated for something after being torn to shreds growing up for not being able to afford new shoes. For not having parents. Being too weird. Too quiet. Too unlikeable.

It felt good to be finally liked.

But now I’m looking back and questioning if I was ever truly myself. I was never fully authentic. Not since I moved to LA.

Grammy was right when she questioned me about dancing. I stopped pursuing dance when I signed my acting contract.

But now when I dance with Henry, I feel so free. I can’t remember the last time I channeled my energy into something that wasn’t appearance-based.

Pilates and yoga get the heart pumping and tone you up, but do I feel alive when I’m doing plank oblique twists? Hell no.

What if I’ve been watering myself down all these years into a likable version of myself? Holden taught me how to fake it. And then I made it, and lost my identity along the way.