Chapter Twelve
When I woke up the morning after the premiere, my whole body ached and my mouth tasted disgusting. I could also smell the remnants of vomit in my nose. I moaned and curled up into a tighter fetal position under my comforter in my bed wishing I could just go back to sleep. I never wanted to drink again. How could I do this to myself? I hadn’t even drunk that much the night before. Well, I mean, I drank a lot, but over the course of several hours. Hm… And I couldn’t remember getting home. Okay, so I had been drunk last night.
I continued to try piecing together my memories of the night before when my phone chirped. With as little movement as possible, I reached my arm out and grabbed my cell phone from the nearby end table, pulling it under the covers to look at it.
I had several messages and missed calls. I tapped on the messages first. One was from my mom, of course, telling me again how proud she was of me. She wouldn't be so proud if she could see me at that moment. A couple messages were from Colton telling me to wake up and meet him in his room. He also told me there were a few Hangover Cure pills on the bathroom counter for me to stir into a waiting bottle of water. The last two were from Ethan.
Are you still at the Plaza? He had texted me about an hour ago. Then the most recent message had just come through saying to give him a call when I could. Mustering up the energy, I decided to get dressed and just go to his room. We could recap our nights together.
It was almost eleven in the morning, so I threw on some clean clothes from my half-unpacked open luggage on the floor next to my bed. After dressing in a pair of black denim capris and a white loose button-up tank top, I washed my face clean of any lingering make-up and put a single line of kohl eyeliner across my lids. Throwing my hair up into a messy bun, I grabbed my purse and sunglasses, slipping them over my eyes as I left my room.
Dutifully, I knocked on Mason’s door across the hall. He opened the door, already dressed in his favorite black Jack Daniels t-shirt that he probably got for free at a bar and a pair of dark wash jeans, his black hair still wet from a shower. “Hey, sunshine,” he smirked at me, teasingly. “How are you feeling this morning?”
I shook my head, causing the pain from my hangover headache to increase. I put my hand up to my temple in an attempt to soothe my head. “Shush, Mason,” I said. “I just thought I’d be nice and let you know I was going to head over to Ethan’s room. Want to walk with me?”
“Okay,” Mason said reaching behind him and grabbing his wallet off of a nearby console table. “As long as you don’t throw up again.”
My stomach rolled. “Okay,” I agreed. “Just don’t say the words ‘throw up’ and I’ll be fine.”
Together we walked in silence to the elevator and up one floor. After walking down a long spacious hallway, we stopped in front of room 1042, Ethan’s room. Mason, seeing a chair halfway down the hall from Ethan’s room, kept walking to go take a seat while I knocked on the door.
I waited a couple minutes, hearing nothing on the other side of the door. Mason was watching from down the hall as I moved my weight from my left foot to my right foot and back again. I knocked again, for longer this time, getting more annoyed. What was taking him so long? Maybe he wasn't even here. I was about to turn and wave for Mason to come back with me when the door suddenly opened.
A woman with long blonde hair almost similar to mine stood in front of me. The similarities with me ended with her hair. Her skin was pale white, looking almost porcelain. Her icy blue eyes looked fake like she thought she was a character from the children's movie Frozen. She loomed over me, cocked her head to the side, and placed her hand on her bony hip. “Elena Lewis,” she said in a strong confident voice.
“Uh,” I stuttered, surprised by her appearance. She was wearing short shorts and light blue camisole clearly without a bra. “Sorry. I’m looking for Ethan.”
“He’s busy,” she said and smiled at me with an egotistical smirk. “Is that all?” She moved to close the door in my face.
I reached forward and stopped it with my hand. “No, uh, where is he?” I asked, getting impatient and a little angry. Who did this chick think she was, trying to shut the door in my face? I could feel my heart rate pick up as it always did when I got angry and fired up.
The Ice Queen glared at me, the fake smile she had a moment ago now untraceable on her perfectly sculpted face. “I don’t think that’s your concern,” she said with a low voice. “Like I said, Elena. He’s busy. Now please leave before I call hotel security.” My eyes widened as I stared back at her. The nerve! I pursed my lips and continued to glare at her with my hand on the door trying to think up my next response.
Ethan suddenly appeared behind her, pulling the door wider open out of Ice Queen’s grasp. His shirt was unbuttoned, showcasing his tan washboard abs, his casual shorts riding low on his hips, showing a hint of the V of his drool-worthy lower abdomen. Ethan’s hair was disheveled as if he had just gotten out of bed. He better not have just gotten out of bed with that chick in his room! What the hell was going on? “Miranda,” Ethan said quietly to her. “It’s okay, I got it.” She gave Ethan one of her icy glares and retreated back into the hotel room, out of sight. Ethan turned back to me and gave me a half-smirk.
“Got your messages,” I snapped. “Didn’t think I would be interrupting anything.”
Ethan gave a frustrated sigh, his features darkening and leaned against the door. His green eyes sharpened on mine, but I didn’t see any of the love in them that I was used to seeing. “Yeah, well, figured you’d be busy with your new boy to have time for me today anyway," he said.
I gaped at him. “What are you talking about?” I demanded. “You texted me today! Sorry for thinking you wanted to see me. Instead, you are clearly too busy with Ice Queen to remember that you texted me first today.”
“Ice Queen. Good one,” Ethan said coldly. “God, Elena. Grow up, already. Stop acting so immature all the time. You – ”
“I’m immature?!” I practically shrieked not giving a damn who heard me in this hallway. “Like you have any room to talk! You’re thirty-three years old and you’re hooking up with a random chick!”
Ethan shook his head and ran a hand through his messy blonde hair. “Elena, stop! You don’t know anything, do you? Miranda, not Ice Queen, is an old friend of mine that – ”
I cut him off again, “Oh yeah, old friend. She looks like she’s barely twenty years old. Classy, Ethan. Where’d you find her? A coffee shop near NYU? A One Direction concert? That’s so – ”
“Shut up, Elena!” Ethan shouted causing me to jump a bit. “Who I spend my time with is no concern of yours. We aren’t dating. I can be with whomever I want and I don’t need to run it by you first. I’m sorry for texting you this morning! I didn’t think you would come to my room or I wouldn’t have bothered. Just stop pretending to care, Elena. All you’ve ever cared about is yourself.”
I just stared at him, shocked, unsure of what to even say to that. He continued, his voice lowering but his tone darkening even more. “You know, where do you get off coming to me and reprimanding me for who I spend my time with? You don’t even care!” His voice rose again. “You are only there for me when it is convenient for you. Just stop already, Elena. Just leave me alone.”
After he finished, he finally looked me in the eye again, still fuming. We stood there in stony silence for about a minute, neither of us knowing what to say from there. Could he really think I was that selfish? Could he seriously think I didn’t care about him at all?
A tap on my shoulder caused me to jump, and I looked to my right to see Mason standing there with a concerned look on his face. “Come on, Elena,” he said quietly and nudged me. I looked around and saw a couple heads poking out of their nearby hotel rooms. I looked at Ethan one more time, a strange look of anguish on his face.
Without another word, I turned and walked back down the hall to the elevator. I didn’t even know what just happened. How could our friendship, which means so much to both of us, suddenly evaporate? He had never yelled at me before. What had changed in the last twenty-four hours that would cause such a response? I couldn’t remember.
∞∞∞
I sat in my cushioned first-class seat on the commercial flight back to Los Angeles; Colton was sitting next to me rehashing my entire argument with Ethan. “I am telling you,” Colton was saying in a hushed voice so as not to disrupt the other passengers. “Ethan’s on his man period. There’s no doubt about it. And yes, it does exist!”
I continued swiping absent-mindedly through pages of the e-magazine on my tablet. “I just don’t understand,” I said sadly. “How could he say those things to me? He can’t really think that. I care so much about him. How can he not see that?”
Colton sighed, fiddling his fingers. “You know what I think?” Colton asked then continued without waiting for a response. “I think you should just give him some space and let him think on this for a bit. A person can’t just say things like that and not feel regret about saying them. He’ll come around and apologize. And then he’ll be able to explain what is really bothering him.”
I sighed as well, “You’re probably right. Still, it’ll be weird not talking to him for awhile. I should just wait for him to contact me first, right? That would be – ”
I stopped short, my finger hovering above my tablet ready to swipe to the next page but the headline of the magazine article in Posh stood out catching my attention. Colton leaned over the screen to see what stopped me mid-sentence.
Plenty Of Drama To Go Around
At The Destruction Premiere Saturday Night
Thrown Drinks, Cozy Co-Stars, and Who Went Home With Whom?
Posh has the inside scoop on all the happenings at the premiere of the final Monument movie.
Sandra Vogleson | New York, NY
Saturday night marked the premiere of the highly anticipated third and final installment of the Monument trilogy. Previous premiere parties for the Monument series have always been highly entertaining and filled with drama, usually involving the male lead Mitchell Hayes reaching a high level of intoxication, providing entertainment and stories for days after the premiere.
However, last night, it was not Hayes causing scenes (though he did seem to keep the tradition of getting plastered at premiere parties alive by drinking directly from the Jameson bottle at the bar). In fact, it was Kiya Akam (who plays a supporting role in the Monument series as the Head of the radical organization Fusion) and her posse of socialites that caused the most eyebrow-raising dramatics of the night.
It began when Akam approached Monument star, Elena Lewis. Lewis had just left the dance floor to cool off on the veranda with Ethan Anderson (Empire Burning) when Akam poured her drink down the back of Lewis' head. This reporter was unable to get within earshot to hear the vicious words being thrown from Akam's collagen-filled lips but did witness Anderson and executive producer of the Monument trilogy Adam Scott asking Akam to leave. Akam even had to be escorted out by security! Bad move for your career, Kiya! This will not end up well for you.
The rest of the night was fairly calm, for a party lasting until the sun came up. This reporter witnessed several stars, including Natalie Bingham of the Fox new hit show Freedom rushing to the restroom towards the end of the night. Can’t handle your liquor, Bingham? We’ve all been there.
More interesting was seeing Lewis getting cozy in the corner with an unknown costar of Destruction. No one seemed to know what this drool-worthy man’s name was, but Lewis seemed to enjoy getting to know him.
Anderson did not seem very happy at the end of the night while Lewis was preoccupied with her new friend. Anderson ended up leaving that night with supermodel Miranda Summers on his arm. We didn’t know the two were that close!
All in all, it was a fascinating and dramatic night for the Destruction premiere. Oh, and the movie was pretty good, too.
I looked over at Colton to see if he was finished reading. When he looked up and met my eyes, he smiled brightly. “See,” he said. “What did I tell you? Kiya ruined her career when she poured that drink on you. And they didn’t even talk about you making out with Anthony. And no one knows who he is. Just said you were getting cozy with a costar which, you know, implies that you were making out but doesn’t outright say it. I guess it goes to show that you get a little respect when you’re an A-list actress. You can go ahead and – ”
"Colton," I said, reaching a hand up to my temple where my headache was returning. "I get it! Relax." Colton laughed, pulling out his headphones and reclining his seat. I settled back into my own seat, reclining and closing my eyes.
So Ethan bumped into Ice Queen at the premiere party. If I hadn’t been so busy ‘getting cozy’ with Anthony, maybe Ethan never would have talked to Miranda. I drifted off into a restless sleep where my dreams involved Kiya and Miranda taking turns pouring drinks on me while Ethan and Anthony laughed and watched.