George and Rina sat in the center of her room, with a bottle of rum in between them, and two glasses by their sides. They started with Instagram, going through the posts and comments that were left on each page with the new hashtags that had been tagged to her identity. Rina sighed when she saw one, and George looked into her phone.
“Beautiful whore?” He burst out laughing, falling to the ground. “That’s something. I wonder if he thought long and hard before coming up with that.”
“At least, he got one thing right,” Rina chuckled.
“The whore part?” George teased with a mischievous grin and dodged out of the way as Rina threw a pillow his way. He caught the pillow in his hands and threw it back at her. “Of course, darling, you know you are the fairest of all.”
“Thank you,” she drawled, reaching for her glass of rum. She swirled the clear liquid before placing the rim against her lips. She’d only been with George for about an hour, going through the comments and posts on the internet, and she was already feeling a whole lot better. The frustration she’d felt earlier ebbed away as they gave their reviews of each comment, laughing at some of the grammatical errors just to lessen the effect. Sometimes, George went as far as checking the page of the person who commented, rolling his eyes, and muttering something about them taking care of the fire burning on their roofs first.
They were down to the last half of the bottle, but they hadn’t gone to the tabloids yet. They kept it for last, knowing the articles would be more painfully worded and Rina needed the armor before going through them.
“Are you ready?” George asked, suddenly somber. “We’ve gone from the whole country calling you fake and a whore on the internet, and saying they never want to see your face. But the tabloids hold more weight since they are at the center of the entertainment industry. We are going to have to go through it so you can get on with your quest to change the narrative.”
Rina nodded, then to prove that she was ready, unlocked her phone and hit the link she’d made Zayn send. Her heart didn’t beat erratically as the dots rolled on her screen and the words made out the first article displayed.
George scooted closer to her as they read the words in silence, their eyes glossing over every line, sometimes reading the details twice. It was something they’d always done with George was still her manager. Deciding that it was a good way to get rid of the feelings that came with bad reviews on the internet, they would go through every word on the page the article was published, scrutinizing the veracity of the claim until it was nothing before them.
They did it to every of the article, stripping it bare until all that was left were more words that didn’t mean anything to Rina because none of the contents was true. She definitely didn’t sleep with Joel to get her way into his fashion house, and the picture that was taken at the side door of the event center was nothing but Joel saving her from the onslaught of Kayla. Every other story woven around that picture was a lie, and even though the world didn’t know that, Rina was satisfied that she did.
“Wow!” George muttered as they read through the last one together. It was published by the media department of Scottsdale Entertainment, reiterating their decision to blacklist Rina Powers, stating that she was a bad egg to the industry, and they wanted nothing to do with her. The words used were harsh, harsher even than their first released publication. Still, Rina read it with a straight face. Nothing they did could affect her anymore, but she sure as hell was going to change their opinion of her.
“This is a lot,” he sighed, shaking his head. “I know I work for an actress that stars in their movies, but this is a lot for anyone to take. Anyone at all. I wonder how you do it sometimes.”
“Do what?” she asked in a quiet tone.
“Take it all in without batting an eyelid. If I were to be the one, I would have melted down from the pressure and maybe taken the next flight out of the country. I just can’t.”
“Running …is a cowardly act,” Rina said, her vision starting to get hazy and her speech slurry. “I know who I…who I am, and what I can do. If the country doesn’t …accept it now, I’mjustgo…I’m just going to have to show them.”
“More like force it in their faces,” George chuckled. He tried to get up but realized his feet weren’t listening to him. He staggered on the spot and reached out to hold onto the bedding to stabilize himself. Rina looked up at him and burst into laughter. There was nothing hilarious about the situation just two inebriated adults, cackling in the middle of the night, their eyes unfocused and limbs weak.
George tried to maneuver his way to the door, but he lost his footing and fell to the ground in a loud plop, causing them to roar in laughter again.
“What are you trying to do?”
“Go home of course.” He rolled his eyes and shone his white teeth.
Rina sighed and got on her feet, waddling through to her bed. She glanced at the digital clock by her bedside, peering at it for a few seconds before she was successfully able to read the time.
“It’s 3 am!” She muttered. “You can take the floor, or the couch in the living room. Don’t let me see you anywhere near my bed.”
“It’s the reason you should get a bigger house,” he slurred, stretching out on the ground. “You have that car outside that I have never seen you drive. I wonder just how much you have in your account.”
“Stop talking and go to bed, George.”
“I will be your…manager…”
A deep snore overtook his words.