Beautiful Monster (Beautiful Monster #1)(33)
Author: Bella Forrest

“Do you really think I’m so shallow, Shannon?” I asked with a smirk on my face as I reached for a towel to rub my hair dry. I put the phone down, pressing speaker phone and turned off the tap. “That I would put the whole school in jeopardy to cast a pretty girl?”

“That’s the Liam I know,” she replied, and it made me set my jaw. She was right, of course. Beautiful women were what got me into this whole mess in the first place and I’d once rather have a blond on my arm that couldn’t form a sentence than a bespectacled brilliant nerd.

“And so, since you know me so well, what’s the answer to the question you are about to ask?” I wrapped the towel around my waist, spraying on some cologne.

“The answer is of course, yes. I’m going to take Gatsby on the tour circuit in two months. Rehearsals start next week. Amy can join the chorus.”

“As an understudy?” I asked, leaning against the counter.

“No, just a chorus girl – for the party scenes and such. She’ll have a few lines, maybe. But I’ll bill her as on loan from your school – it’ll be good publicity for the Academy. We’ll do a whole ‘introducing’ thing, as if your school turns out students directly ready for the professional world.”

“If rehearsals start next week, she won’t be on loan,” I replied, calculating how many days were left in the term. “This is her final semester here so she’ll finish the final show and then leave with you…and I don’t know if she’s ready, Shannon. There was talk of her being here another year. You know how it is with people who peak too soon.”

“Or she won’t be the first to drop out of school for a show,” Shannon purred. “Full union rates, full contract.”

“Right,” I glanced up at the mirror. I looked fully human now, if not a little tired, but I felt like I was walking through a fog. I squinted, trying to focus. Shannon was right, of course, the publicity with that kind of announcement would launch this school to a whole new level of success. It was Peter’s dream to bring the school to a level where it would be recognized as the best training academy in the world.

And it would be a convenient way to sever ties with Amy. My chest ached at the thought of her. She was angry and cold, but I was no better. Her judgemental actions had ripped my heart out, and I cursed myself for getting involved. How could I have thought that someone in this damn world would actually understand enough to be able to look past it? The truth was, I was still the Hollywood Hunk and that’s all they ever wanted. If it came with complications, women took off faster than a jetpack.

If she was gone from the school, and I confirmed it now, then I killed two birds with one stone. I’d be free of the awkwardness every time we saw each other and the school would soar to a new level of success. I could replace her as Beauty in an instant.

“I’ll talk to her,” I said as I opened the door. To my surprise, Porsche was stretched on the floor in the splits, her dancer’s body fully folded over as she stretched. She glanced at me, and I raised an eyebrow, watching her. She looked pale in the dawn light, her jaw set as her limbs contorted into poses only a dancer could pull off. “Hey, I also sent you Porsche De Ritter. She’s a dancer. My first scholarship winner.”

“I remember her.” Shannon replied, and her tone dropped. Porsche glanced at me, and I shrugged. “I’m holding dance call backs next week and I’m going to call her back.”

“Porsche’s the prima ballerina at the Russian National,” I snapped, my tone reflecting the look Porsche gave the cell phone. “Are call backs really necessary?”

“I’m worried about her stamina, Liam. Skinny little dancers like her can pull off a grand ball but 8 shows a week is a different matter. Even in the audition, it raised a red flag. Talk to your girl and get back to me by tomorrow.”

“Right,” I hung up the phone then, and crossed my arms, leaning against the bathroom doorway.

“Did she want Amy?” Porsche asked, as she slowly drew her limbs in.

“Forget Amy, what’s going on with you?” I didn’t miss the look of pain on her face as she came back into first position.

“I’ve been up all night, Liam, relax.”

“Well, you weren’t up all night when you auditioned, so why is Shannon going on about a lack of stamina?” I asked, heading to my dresser to pull out clothes.

“Uh,” Porsche replied, sitting on the bed and rotating both her ankles with her hands. I heard her joints pop from across the room and gave her a look. “Because Shannon is a helpless liar who will say anything to get her way and you know it? I swear, if she didn’t have so much power, I would never even look at her again.”

“Porsche…” My worst fear, looking into her face, was that she would do something incredibly stupid, which I knew she was capable of. She wanted to be human, I understood that. But insisting on waiting until her dying breath to be changed into a vampire was one of the stupidest moves she could make. We weren’t always together. We couldn’t be and I feared that one day, something would happen and I wouldn’t be able to get to her in time. “What do you know?”

“I know that all dancers age out and I’m jet-lagged, running on about an hour’s sleep. So you need to stop worrying. Now, did they want Amy?”

“They did,” I said, pulling on a shirt. “For a chorus role though. Rehearsals start soon, and then the show is on tour, so she certainly won’t have another year here. But Shannon is willing to do a partnership agreement. It’s an amazing boost for the school. It could help give us what we need to actually rank as top in the world.”

“And you won’t have to awkwardly stare at each other in class,” she pointed out, standing up. “Industry break ups are always awkward.”

“It’s not awkward,” I snapped, turning to distract myself. “She’ll stop looking at me like a lost puppy dog, and the school will get a boost. Win.”

“Except killing herself at rehearsal there, when she has a lead role here too, to just play a chorus girl and possibly get stuck there forever, isn’t the best advice in the world.” Porsche went to her purse, rummaging around for what I assumed were her pills. “Did you think of that?”

“I can’t hold their hands!” I protested, turning back to her. “I got her the audition, I got her the contact, and the rest is up to her. I need this for the school … whether she’s stuck in the chorus forever or not.”