Center Stage - Chapter 16

“Hey babe, what’s up?” she said, sounding out of breath but in a good mood. 

I’d cut it close for her pool time, so she must have either just gotten out, or someone heard the ringer. I felt bad interrupting her time, especially if she was having a good day, which it sounded like she was. The closer she got to the summer, the less of those she’d been having.

“I’m really sorry to interrupt your training time, but we have another problem.”

“What now?” she said. 

She didn’t sound mad, just suddenly tired. That was the biggest shock of seeing my career finally start to take off. I could take the toll, since this is what I signed up for, but I hadn’t been prepared for what it would do to those around me, who just happened to be in my life. Hanna had been in her own world and didn’t seem to notice, but Mrs. Phillips and Kat were both seeming to wear down from it. And it was my fault.

“There’s going to be more pictures of me and Alina. We were coming out of the restaurant where I met her, which I told you about. But … they asked questions about us dating. I know Quinn said just to ignore them, cause anything I say could get twisted, but I was still going to deny it, when Alina spoke up instead.”

“What did she say?” Kat asked cautiously.

“It’s not what she said, but how she said it. She gave a no-comment answer, but the way it was worded, it could very easily be interpreted as non-denial denial.”

There was a long pause. I could hear Kat breathing but she wasn’t saying anything. I didn’t push her, but it worried me a little. I did want to help Alina and she was actually nice and could use a friend, but not at the expense of my relationship.

“Do you think she did that on purpose?” she finally asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe. I’m not sure there’s anything I can do about it, since they I can’t exactly call up the paparazzi and tell them that we weren’t dating, or that they wouldn’t just twist it anyway if I could. I just wanted to give you a heads up before you see it splashed all over the internet.”

“I appreciate that, Charlie. And you know I trust you, right? I know there’s nothing going on with you two.”

“Yeah, I know, I just …”

“But...” Kat said, cutting me off. “You’re going to have to deal with this. It sounds intentional. If it isn’t, then fine, but is she’s giving people the wrong impression on purpose, you need to set it straight. Before it gets worse.”

“Yeah. It feels weird to accuse someone of something like that over the phone. We’d talked about meeting up in a few weeks again, since it looks like we’ll be in the same city. I’ll do it then.”

“Good. And Charlie?”

“Yeah?”

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

***

When I got home on Monday, I had a couple of surprises. The first was that Mrs. Phillips had finally found me a tutor. She was a former teacher who’d started doing part-time teaching and ended up on a list somewhere for a bunch of child actors, until she’d become a go-to online tutor for kids who were essentially homeschooled, since they couldn’t make it to an actual campus.

Besides knowing how to do remote learning like that, she was also just very easy to talk to. She had the same knack Kat had for being able to explain something in a way that made sense and I could follow. We talked for almost thirty minutes, just discussing what I was having trouble with and where I needed the most help. In the end, it seemed clear my biggest problem wasn’t just finding time to study, but still my history with my early education. I’d managed to make it through when I was in class by really focusing, but I was basically coming up with my own ways of doing things instead of the best way, since I never learned those.

That was fine for history and the like, but science and math, you can’t just make up your own ways of getting to the right answer, since while those would sometimes work, they weren’t reliable and could just as often not work.

It would take time, but she was confident I could get caught up on that, which would help me get back on track. Well, that and actually having dedicated work time five times a week, even if I wasn’t in school, where she only focused on what I needed to do instead of in a class where they couldn’t back up for me, since I wasn’t the only person in the class.

The other surprise happened later that night when I got a phone call from Dakota. I’d just finished up my evening call with Kat, a little earlier than usual since she had a late-night practice to get to and was honestly shocked to see her name on my screen, considering how our last conversation had gone.

“Dakota. I’m surprised to hear from you,” I said, picking up.

“I know, which is the main reason I’m calling. I wanted to apologize for how I talked to you before. I could say it was because I’d just gotten kicked off the tour and I was hurting, but I think it was mostly because I knew what you were going to say, and I wasn’t ready to hear it. I also wanted to thank you for continuing to stick up for me even after... well, everything. I wanted you to know it hasn’t gone unnoticed, every time you’re in an interview and the tour comes up, and you put in a good word for me or say you miss me being on the tour. That really means a lot.”

“I’m not saying it just to say it. I mean it. And you don’t have to apologize. I know what … this is all like. I didn’t take it personally.”

“You should have. I wanted to tell you … I was wrong. When I said I didn’t have a problem. I do think, the way they replaced me so fast, and who gave me the, uhh, stuff I took, that GLR was setting me up a little bit, but that doesn’t get me off the hook. I took it. Willingly. I …” she trailed off, taking a shaky breath. “Things are a mess. My sales were lagging, and I played right into their hands. GLR used this as an opportunity to drop me from the label and pull me from the next season of The Stage, probably so they could get in someone they wanted more exposure for.”

“Dakota, I’m so sorry.”

“Yeah, well, like I said, it’s my fault.” She cleared her throat. “Anyway, the main reason I called, besides to apologize, was that I wanted to let you know that I’ve checked myself into rehab again. I’m hoping this time it will take.”

“That’s great, Dakota. Really. That’s the hardest part, I think. Actually asking for help. Just remember, you don’t finish rehab and you’re cured. It’s a lifelong thing. The addiction will never go away, and the only way to beat it is with other people’s help.”

“I’ve heard that before, in treatment. But in this industry... it’s hard. People don’t want to talk about it.”

“Just have people you can talk to when things get hard. You can always call me if you need to. Don’t try and think ahead to forever, ‘cause that will make it seem impossible. Take it a day at a time.”

“Yeah, that’s what they always say too. Anyway, I just wanted to let you know and thank you. For everything.”

We said our goodbyes and I hung up. It sucked what she was going through, and all but confirmed I’d made the right call not working with GLR. She’d been a huge earner for them, and as soon as they didn’t need her, they threw her to the curb.

***

Thursday afternoon, I was home and packing for my flight in a few hours when Quinn called me. I was behind because I’d had to do a bunch of work with my tutor after school and had barely started packing, so I almost didn’t answer, figuring I could call her back at the airport. The only reason I did was that she didn’t call all that often, so if she was calling now, it might be important.

“Charlie. Good. I hoped I’d catch you before you had to leave. I’ve got some updates for you before you head to Atlanta.”

“Okay,” I said, stuffing a few more shirts into my suitcase.

“First off, you’re doing great, and the social media response has been fantastic. Your account following is up fifteen percent, and your name was trending at a very low level a couple of days this week, which is very encouraging. Engagement is through the roof, and we’re getting a ton of interview requests.”

“To talk about my music, or about the thing with Alina?”

“Charlie, this is a big opportunity, and we should use it while it’s happening. There’s a reason the saying ‘there’s no such thing as bad press’ is still around, and this isn’t even bad press.”

“Quinn, we’ve been over this. I don’t want to feed into these rumors. It’s not fair to Alina, it’s not fair to Kat, and it’s not fair to me. The sooner this all dies down, the better.”

“I know, I know. And I respect that, I do. But you have to understand…”

“I get it,” I said, interrupting her. “I really do. But I’m also not going to play into it.

Quinn sighed, and I could practically hear her counting to ten in her head.

“Okay, I’ll put them off, but you’re making this harder than it has to be.”

“I have faith that you’ll manage to make it all work even with my handicapping you.”

“Thank you,” she said, although it was pretty clear she wasn’t particularly thankful for me as a client at that moment. “Anyway, the main reason I called was to talk to you about some plans for this weekend. After talking to Warren, we’ve decided to make this a really big deal for you. I know you’re going to start publicizing your summer tour over the next couple of months, and I think the best way to start that is to kick it off in Atlanta, using the momentum from the ending of this tour to lead you into your summer tour. GLR has really been pushing this final stop and there’s going to be a pretty good-sized press showing, and I want to really capitalize on this opportunity.”

“Okay. How?”

“For the last week, we’ve been really hitting your followers on social media hard and even worked in a little airtime, although the budget you gave me is small so most of that was what I could get from free media. We’re trying to get anyone who supports you in the Atlanta area, or even those who can travel, to show up at this last stop. We want the response to you to be huge while the cameras are rolling, and we want to up the chances that anyone who local news stops to interview is actually a fan of you specifically. We’re really pushing that this is going to be your best performance yet. We even managed to start a small trend on social media under #showyourtix where they’re posting up the tickets they got for the show, to prove they’re going. It’s part of how we’ve been able to track the responses and get an idea of how many of your people are going to be there.”

“You realize there is nothing special planned for this stop, right? My setlist is the same, my duets, everything’s the same as the other stops since Philadelphia. I’m not sure it’s going to deliver on the promise of the best show yet.”

“That doesn’t matter. If we say it enough then people, even the ones there, will believe it. It’s just the way people are wired. If we plant the idea into their head and you do even a halfway decent job, they’ll believe it was the best show ever. Besides, most will never have seen you perform on this tour, so they won’t know. What you do need to do is give a shout out to your fans either at the end or in between songs. We want to reinforce their support and signal to them you saw it, so we can build on that for the future.”

“You know this tour isn’t about me, right? It’s an ensemble thing. We’re not really supposed to single ourselves out like that. I think there’s language in the contract to stop this kind of thing.”

“Charlie, you need to stop being Mr. Nice Guy all the time. Benjamin and I looked over your contract, and there’s nothing in there that explicitly prevents you from giving a shout-out to your fans. There’s some stuff about cross promotion, but he feels the language is overly specific to paid media, and this wouldn’t apply. This is about building excitement for your own tour that’s starting in just two months. You can’t just announce a tour and expect it to take off.”

“It’s not just about the contracts, it’s about…”

“Charlie, it’s about running your career, and not trying to run others at the same time. I get it. You’re a good guy, that’s what everyone’s said about you. And that’s great, but that’s not what this industry is. Good guys are meat that get ground up and made into burgers. You have to be willing to do what you need to for your career. I’m not talking about screwing people over or anything. I know that would be a no-go for you, but you need to stop worrying about others over yourself. Put yourself first.”

She wasn’t the first person to give me that advice, and she’d probably be surprised to find out I used to be worse, but I also didn’t think this was an instance of me bending over for other people. If Benny looked it over and said it was okay, then I guess it was fine. Although saying it was okay didn’t mean we wouldn’t have a fight over it.

Still, I could see Quinn’s point. I had serious momentum from the show, the tour, even from the Dakota and Alina things. I was seeing good money now, but that was while everything was rolling high, and would fall off as I fell out of the spotlight. Which meant now was the time to strike.

“Okay, but if the producers throw a fit, I want you guys ready to deal with it.”

“That’s what you pay us for,” she said, and then hung up.