Rock Idol (Reality With a Twist Series) Read Online Free Page A

ourselves in. Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide
when to get out of it.”
    Clearly
suspicious, Fawn didn’t say anything.
    “I’d
just like to know—to satisfy my own curiosity—why did you start using again?
Things are going so well for us now. What made you think you needed the coke?”
    “They’re
going well for you !” Fawn corrected her.
    “Yes,
they are,” Ember agreed. For the first time in twenty years things were going
right for her. “But aren’t they going well for you, too?”
    Fawn
began to fidget, like a guilty witness being cross-examined on some courtroom
TV show. “I, I guess so, it’s just—”
    “Just
what, sweetie?”
    “They
keep making fun of me!”
    “What?
Who?”
    “The
tabloids! They keep making fun of me!”
    Ember
laughed. She couldn’t help it. The mirth just bubbled out of her.
    “Don’t
you laugh at me!”
    Ember
tried to get control of herself. “Oh, sweetie, I’m not really laughing at you,
it’s just…making fun of people is what tabloids do!”
    “They
don’t make fun of you!”
    “Of
course they do!” Ember said. “They’ve made fun of me for twenty years. And I
hate it, but you can’t really get mad about it. It’s just what they do!”
    “They’re
not making fun of you now,” Fawn insisted.
    “Sweetie,
just a few weeks ago they were running stories about my secret wedding in Tahiti because I was seen having fun with a guy.”
    “That’s
not making fun. That’s just…” Fawn struggled to find a word to describe Ember’s
situation. “That’s just human interest .”
    “Fawn,
one of the papers, I think it was The Global Tattler , reported that Bill
Clinton flew out there to beg me to marry him instead. If that’s not making fun
of me, I don’t know what is. Now what’s really bothering you?”
    Fawn
mumbled something far too low for Ember to hear.
    “Sweetie,
you’re going to have to speak up if we’re going to talk about this.”
    “They
think I’m a terrible judge,” Fawn repeated.
    That
was true and Ember agreed with them, but she wasn’t going to tell Fawn anything
close to that. “Oh, sweetie, you can’t take that sort of thing personally.
They’re always making up that kind of shit.”
    Now
that she had begun talking about the issue, Fawn was not going to be dissuaded.
“They say I can’t say anything bad about anyone and that most of my
observations are either completely obvious or incomprehensible drivel.”
    What
did Fawn want her to say? That analysis was one hundred percent accurate from
Ember’s perspective. Still, she had to say something to help her friend.
“Sweetie, you are the sweet judge. Mitch is the asshole. These are roles
we play. America
expects you to like the music and Mitch to hate it.”
    “Where
does that leave you?” Fawn asked.
    Ember
shrugged. “I’m somewhere in the middle. I try to be upbeat, but also to give a
little practical advice about how to help the singer’s next performance.”
    “Well,
I don’t want to be sweet anymore!” Fawn said.
    “But
sweet is who you are, Fawn,” Ember told her. “Is that why you started using
coke again? You’re trying to fortify your courage to be nasty on stage? I don’t
think this is the road to pithiness. Why don’t you flush the rest of this crap
and keep being America’s
sweetie.”
    “You
don’t understand at all!” Fawn said. “I need this! I need to shake up my
career! I’m getting older. I can’t keep on being America’s sweetheart forever.”
    “I
hope you’ll change your mind about that,” Ember said. “I like you when you’re
clean.”
    Worry
lines suddenly creased Fawn’s face. “Who are you going to tell about this?”
    “No
one!” Ember promised her. “I do think you need some help, but with Fox’s
current anti-scandal obsession, we can’t be certain he wouldn’t give you a pink
slip. And believe me I know. Getting fired doesn’t magically make the drugs go
away. It just makes it harder to pay for