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"There you are," Ivy said as Aronnax came outside. She had a huge stack of papers in her arms.

"Hi," Aronnax said, holding up her hand to shield her eyes from the sunlight.

Ivy rolled her eyes. "I know you're not all there when you first get up, but this is ridiculous. It's 2:19 in the afternoon."

"I'm awake," Aronnax said, and instantly felt the urge to yawn. "What's going on?"

"More scripts came for you today," Ivy said, nodding at the stack of paper. "These were the ones I thought you'd be interested in."

"Iv—" Aronnax stopped as Ivy dumped the paper in her arms. "Holy shit. What is this, the sequel to Titanic?"

"Cute." Ivy smirked and tapped the top paper. "This first one is a drama. It's not a huge role, but it's substantial."

"That's not —"

"The last two are comedies. I hear the director of one of those wants you for the lead."

Aronnax groaned and held the scripts out to Ivy. "Tell them thank you, but no."

"No," Ivy said, pushing the scripts back. "Just give them a look, okay?"

"I don't want to. I've looked at probably fifty in the last month."

"Well, you're kind of a hot commodity right now, Aron. Everyone wants to be the one who gets Aronnax to do her first movie."

Aronnax blinked. "That's very sweet. But I don't care."

"Yes, you do. I think if you turn it all completely down, you'll regret it. And once you do, Eric and I can't go around pulling all these strings because you'll have a reputation for being noncommittal."

"Ivy. This is me you're talking to. I never wanted to act. Ever. No matter what came along."

"These aren't commercials anymore. You're well-known now. People want to see more of you."

"I. Don't. Care."

"Just . . . I'm not going to argue with you. We both know it does no good."

Aronnax shrugged.

"Just read them, okay? Some of these things might actually turn into tolerable movies."

"Very funny."

"Okay, well, surprisingly, Alexa Magazine loved your little survey."

"Surprisingly? You didn't think they would?"

Ivy shrugged. "Well, I thought I might not mess with anything too much."

"I thought you were going to leave it as it was."

"I changed a couple of words. Anyway, they loved it."

"Okay."

"You don't seem happy."

"What do you want me to say? I don't care about their opinion. They're a fledgling magazine with groveling staff. They would have loved whatever I had to say."

Ivy smirked. "Maybe. Also, Ryan's going to be walking around taking candid pictures today, so . . . just thought I'd give you a heads up."

"What? Why?" Aronnax shifted the scripts to her left arm and ran her free hand over her head.

"CosmoGirl! is doing a little feature about your band's life on the road. They want it to be "realistic," so they're having him do it."

"Why Ryan, though? He's brutal. The least they could have done is had James do it. He'll at least be nice about it. Ryan waits for the most inopportune moments to take pictures and you know those are the ones they'll use."

Ivy shrugged. "It's simple. He's the funny, crazy one. James is more . . . how do I put this . . . well, he's like the pinup one."

"Pinup? What is this, the 50s?"

"You know what I mean. He's the one that makes all the little girls scream."

Aronnax snickered. "Okay, well . . . I can see that. What am I?"

"I don't want to tell you."

"No, come on, please. You've never done this before. This is fun."

Ivy laughed. "Okay," she said, tilting her head from side to side. "You're the girl, so, obviously, the one the guys like and since you're the lead singer, people care a little bit more about you than they should."

"That's so . . . average."

"Okay, how about this . . . straight guy."

"What?"

"You know what I mean . . . the guys do stuff, you're there to kind of fix it all because you're the responsible one."

"I'd say James is the responsible one, if anything —"

"Okay, look, this is pointless. I told you what I thought. Now, sound check is in an hour, and Robert's here."

"I don't need him here right now —"

"Sure you do. What you also need is a shower, because I don't know what that smell is in your hair, but it's got to go."

Aronnax pulled a piece of her hair under her nose and sniffed. "I don't smell anything.

Ivy pointed to the left side of Aronnax's head. "It's on this side."

Aronnax sighed. "Great." She dumped the scripts in Ivy's arms. "You have no idea how much I hate the showers in these places."

"Well, there's a little Motel 6 a few miles down the road."

"Give me two minutes. I need to grab my stuff."

"You have thirty seconds."