The Hollywood Effect Read Free Page B

so she could get a proper look at him. Veronica just shrugged.  
    “Bound to happen, Jen. I’m surprised they didn’t knock on your dad’s door to be honest. Some of them were poking around at the high school.”
    “What?” I asked, startled.  
    “Mmm. Gillian was complaining about it. They came into the office and started asking her questions about Liam’s school record, if he’d had girlfriends, who his friends were,” Veronica said as she looked at the reporters.  
    I spluttered on my cider.  
    “Why? It’s not like anything’s changed in the past three years since he first got famous.”  
    Veronica shrugged. “I don’t know. Gillian was pretty short and annoyed with them though.”  
    “Good,” I said and attempted to drink my cider again. Gillian was the school office lady. You had to go through her before you could access anyone in the school and she took her responsibilities very seriously, and she’d been there forever. I remembered when I was a kid, and had to call Mum who was filling in for the French teacher, because Steph had had a bad panic attack. It had taken quite a while to get past Gillian the Gatekeeper.  
    “So, how was your week, Jen?” Simon asked me.  
    I thought for a moment before answering. “Pretty good, actually. Apart from the ‘Do you know Liam Burns’ questions I got bombarded with today…” The other three teachers just laughed.  

    After having possibly a drink or two too many, I was grateful that I could just walk home.
    It was a pleasant enough walk. My feet started leading me along the familiar route to my parents’ house, but I caught myself in time and turned along my new street.  
    I tripped over a crack in the driveway and swore. I fumbled for my keys before realising I was in Tarang and no one locks their doors in this town (the real estate agent had given me the wrong keys the day I moved in. It had taken me four days to even realise) and pushed opened my unlocked door. I paused in my doorway and frowned. The TV was on. I never watched TV in the mornings. I couldn’t have left it on.  
    I closed the door as quietly as I could, then rethought that and opened it again, wincing as it creaked. I might need a quick getaway. I tip-toed to the lounge room, and grabbed the old cricket bat Dad had bequeathed to me when I first moved out of home for security.  
    I froze as I heard someone sigh. There was definitely someone in my house. I quickly wracked my brain, trying to think if I’d forgotten that someone was coming up to visit, but I came up blank. If it was a thief, they would be sorely disappointed by my meagre belongings. Maybe that was why they’d stopped burgling and started watching telly. What kind of crappy burglar stops to watch the telly? What if they weren’t just a telly-watching burglar though? What if they were here to get me? To murder me? Rape me?  
    I shook myself. Get a grip, Pike . It’s Tarang. We haven’t had a murder here since… I don’t even know when. Ever? Statistically you’re much more likely to die in a car accident or get eaten by a hippo than be murdered in your own home by a stranger.  
    I slightly reassured myself and started lowing the cricket bat when I heard the person sigh again - no man, that had definitely been a manly sigh. Whatever the statistics were, that didn’t alter the fact that someone uninvited was sitting in my lounge room.  
    I took a deep steadying breath, plucked my courage down from where it was hovering near the ceiling, and peeked around the corner.  
    My cricket bat thunked to the floor.  
    “What the hell are you doing here?” I demanded.  
    Liam Burns looked up from his position on the couch and grinned at me.  
    “Surprise.”

CHAPTER TWO

    “Holy shit, Liam! You scared me half to death, you dick.” I clutched my chest. I shoved his feet off my favourite part of the couch and sank down.  
    “Oh. Sorry, Jen.” He didn’t look all that sorry. Not with that smirk on his