Reality Ends Here by Alison Gaylin

Author:Alison Gaylin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pocket Star Books

Eleven

“JAKE! JAKE ASTOR!”

It was the fan again, the same hoarse, slurry-voiced fan who had shouted Levity’s name as she’d slid into the limo with her leading man. Only now he was yelling at Jake, outing him wildly, and apparently drunkenly, as we ran across the street to catch Delp.

“Jake! Over here!”

How he’d managed to recognize Jake under the mustache, glasses, and trucker hat was beyond me, but one thing was certain: this loud, drunken idiot wasn’t going to shut up until his presence was acknowledged. Jake and I stopped. The fan stumbled out from behind two burly guards and beneath one of the streetlights, where he stood wavering on his feet, close to toppling. Unbelievable.

He wasn’t a fan. We knew him.

Jake said, “Dylan Donnely?”

It was Dylan, all right—wearing a tux with the shirt unbuttoned to the waist, undone bow tie flopping helpless against his pasty bare neck. He held a red plastic cup in one hand and a bottle of Alizé in the other. “Dude!” he yelled. Like a bomb going off. Could this guy do anything that wasn’t embarrassing? I pictured an Us Weekly Where Are They Now? piece on Dylan Donnely—a full-page picture of him behind the Shrine in his tux, clutching that turquoise bottle, jacket buttons straining against his belly, the thick headline looming over his grinning face: FROM RUFUS TO DOOFUS.

“What are you doing here?” said Jake.

“Trying to get in.” Dylan belched loudly. “Can you believe these guys don’t know who I am? Tell ’em who I am, Jake Astor.”

“Sssh.”

“Oh, I get it.” Dylan pointed to the fake mustache. “Incognito.” He put a finger to his own lips and nodded sagely. “Tell ’em who I am, Bartholomew Johnson.”

“He played Rufus on Glory Days, ” Jake said flatly. “Listen, Dylan, we’ve got someone we have to go talk to.”

I glanced over at Delp. “I’ll talk to him,” I said. “You stay with Dylan.”

Dylan gaped at me. “Who’s the cougar?” he said.

I jogged over to where Delp was standing. Behind me, I could hear Dylan telling Jake, “You know my bro Bieber’s in there, don’t you? He and I go waaaay back . ”

Delp didn’t notice me as I approached. He was all in black again and now he wore a black wool cap over his pale hair. With the big black camera covering his face, he almost looked as if he were a part of it—an enormous, evil piece of machinery. Perfectly still, too, save for the finger working the shutter release.

I said his name twice before he finally lowered the camera and stared down at me, his eyes blinking rapidly, as though he’d just emerged from a dark cave.

“It’s me,” I said. “Estella.”

His eyes widened. The hand holding the camera dropped to his side, and he raised the other to his forehead. The red ring glinted. “Keep the wig on,” he said through his teeth. “He’s got people watching me.

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