How to Land a Movie Star novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: Twelve Seconds

The clip played all the way to the end of the sentence, and then somebody finally stopped it.

By then the whole floor had heard.

The woman in cream was looking at her tablet with a faint, satisfied stillness.

Corin turned and walked out.

He didn't run, and he didn't say anything, and his shoulders were so straight I thought they might break.

I went after him, and Marj shouted my name, and I didn't stop.

He was in the stairwell by the time I caught up, one flight down, with his palm flat against the wall and his head bowed.

"Corin."

"Don't."

"It's only ten seconds. It's not the rest of it."

"My father's name is trending."

He said it to the wall, in a voice that had gone very quiet.

"They've found the magazine. They've found the picture."

His throat moved.

"There's a boy in a school play with his hair parted wrong, and a million people are looking at him."

"I know."

"Do you?"

He turned.

I had never seen his face open like that, not on the roof and not at the counter.

It was white and raw.

"I told you something I never told anyone," he said.

He took a breath.

"I told it in my own kitchen, and you carried it out in a bag."

It was the worst sentence anyone could have said to me.

It was also true.

I stood there with my pencil in my hand, and I took it.

"Yes," I said. "I did."

"I let you. I know I did. I'd do it again to find out who you were, and I'd still be sorry."

"Corin."

"I can't have you in my kitchen tonight."

He said it carefully.

"I'm not saying it to hurt you. I just can't look at the counter and see it."

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