Girl About Town by Adam Shankman

Author:Adam Shankman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers

EIGHTEEN

Lying on the floor with the echo of the gunshot ringing in her ears and the chaos of people and voices all around her, Lulu was profoundly grateful to the screenwriter and Sassoon for having kept the fainting scene. She’d argued against it when she’d first read the script, saying that her character would never faint. Jezebel might scream, she might flee, but she would never simply relinquish all responsibility for her actions by slipping conveniently into unconsciousness.

To which Sassoon had brusquely told her that fainting allowed them to quickly cut to her male costar’s perspective, and also show an awful lot of thigh when they panned back to Lulu sprawled decoratively on the plush ivory carpet.

Since that first day in Vasily’s classroom, Lulu had hardened to the point where she would never truly faint again. She had no natural escape from the nightmare that was unfolding, so she turned to her only real strength: acting. While girls screamed and running feet pounded around her, Lulu pretended to be out cold. She felt a warm wetness on her arm, a little dog’s tongue licking her reassuringly. Good old Charlie. He was on her side, at least.

Just one more minute, she begged the universe as she squeezed her eyes closed, still feigning unconsciousness. Please let it not be real. The little terrier whined and licked her cheek, bringing her closer to the terrible reality. I know it has to be real, only . . . not yet.

Because he was there. And where he was, danger and death followed.

While she pretended to be unconscious, she tried to figure out what happened. Her first thought was that Sal had shot someone—had shot her, in fact. Then she realized that the shot had come from her gun. But that’s impossible. It’s only a prop! The smell of gunpowder hung in a cloud around her, and her hand ached from the revolver’s recoil. No. This can’t be happening.

But Lulu heard the shouting everywhere around her. “She shot Ruby!” “Is she dead?” “Medic!” “Call an ambulance!” “Call the police!” “Call the legal department!”

She let herself peek from barely cracked eyelids at the pandemonium around her. Some of the actors were still hunkered down in case more shots followed. The gun had fallen from her hand, and she saw Roger King pick it up.

“Where’s security?” he barked.

“Taking care of Docky,” someone answered. “The good doctor drank himself into a stupor and had to be escorted home.”

“Perfect.” Roger grimaced and opened the revolver’s cylinder, dumping the bullets and spent shell into his palm before slipping them into his pocket. He put the gun on a table. “Nobody touch this,” he ordered. Then he and the assistant directors started to herd everyone off to the side while a few people crouched over Ruby.

In the corner, Louella looked shocked but not displeased by the terrifying events that were clearly the seeds of a delicious scandal. She was frantically taking notes. Vasily, hovering nervously nearby, looked utterly stunned at first. Then Lulu thought she saw what looked like the shadow of a smile flicker across his face.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.