"I get it," Chloe said. "You liked her. So?"
"So you know who I'm talking about, right?"
She shrugged.
"Brandy Blue." Just the name set my teeth on edge. "The girl from, you know, that video."
Chloe gave me a sideways glance. "I didn't know Brandy went to college."
"That's because she didn't."
Chloe stopped walking, and so did I. She turned to face me. "What do you mean?"
"I mean," I said, "it was all a sham. Everything. The nice girl act, the college thing, the books. It was just one big crock."
Chapter 15
I thought of Brandy, wondering how I'd been so stupid to fall for her act. But Iknewhow. She'd been a damn good actress, even if Hollywood didn't see it that way. Who knows? Maybe she was a lot more convincing in person.
"A crock?" Chloe was saying. "I don't get it. Why?"
"That's the best part," I said. "This guy – someone I thought was a friend – he gets this idea that I should make a sex tape." I gave a bitter laugh. "Everyone was doing 'em. Quick fame, right? That could be me. Famous for being famous. All I needed was a willing partner."
But Chloe was shaking her head.
I knew why. The girl I'd been describing sounded nothing like Brandy. Brandy had never gone to college. Brandy hated animals. Brandy cared about one thing, and one thing only – getting famous, no matter what it took.
Well, she got her wish, didn't she? After that sex tape, she'd moved on to horror flicks. She played the same role in all of them – the nearly naked co-ed who gets slashed, stabbed, or in the case of the last movie, possessed by a sex-starved demon who literally screws her to death. Then there was that doctor drama, where she played a nympho brain surgeon of all things. .
Chloe was looking at me, like I'd lived down to her lowest expectations. "So you did it?" she said.
"That's what you think?" I couldn't keep the edge out of my voice. "That I filmed that thing on purpose? That I wanted the world to see me fucking some chick for five minutes of fame?"
Chloe looked down, refusing to meet my eyes. So shehadbelieved it? I was used to people thinking the worst of me, but for some reason, this stung.
It was time to set her straight. "You want the truth?"
She looked up and gave a small nod.
"That kind of fame?" I said. "Don't want it, don't need it. But Brandy, she wants itandneeds it, because she's gonna be a fuckin' star someday."
"So what happened?" Chloe asked.
"So she hooks up with this friend of mine. And this so-called friend tells her everything she needs to know – where I hang out, things I like, things that piss me off. And they agree to this split."
"Of the money?"
"No. He gets the money. She gets the exposure."
Yeah, she'd been exposed alright. For a few crazy months, the only thing more famous than her pussy was my cock.
"Exposed?" Chloe said. "Literally or figuratively?"
"You saw the footage. What doyouthink?"
Chloe shook her head. "I don't know. I never watched it."
If she was trying to spare my feelings, it was too late for that.
