“I wish it was a different surprise. I hate that guy,” Calvin interjects, coming between Darien and me. He grabs a sandwich from the snack table. We’re all staring across the green room at Amon and Vance laughing it up, feeling like we’re the old toys in a playroom. “No one asked me to go onstage in costume.”

“Or me,” Darien adds, and his voice has a weird edge.

“Didn’t Vance beat you for best stud of the year or something?” Calvin asks, earning a glare from his co-star.

“Thanks for reminding me,” Darien deadpans.

Calvin shrugs and chomps into a tuna melt.

My stomach growls. Jess didn’t tell me a rule about not eating in public, but I’m pretty frakkin’ sure she’d chase me down and stuff me in a hundred sardine cans if I blew tuna breath on everyone. I’m so hungry even Pizza the Hut sounds delicious right now.

“Crap, act natural, here they come.” Darien quickly turns toward me as Amon and Vance saunter over. Darien gives me a half smile, but it’s a weird one. Like he’s encouraging me that I have this. Why wouldn’t I?

Amon and Vance join us, but I can tell it isn’t because they want to shoot the breeze. I shouldn’t be here, I realize, looking around to see if I can escape. Jess’s assistant finally dips into the Green Room, making a beeline for me, but security stops him and asks for his badge. He pushes up his glasses as he assesses my situation.

“Help,” I mouth.

His eyes dart to the real actors—and then he shrugs and mouths something that looks suspiciously like “Don’t do anything stupid.”

Thanks, buddy.

“Jess, did you hear me?”

My ears prick as I whirl back to Amon.

“I, um…no.”

Amon laughs. “You’re always a breath of fresh air, Jess. I hope everyone enjoyed the panel. As I said, the script leaking is real. But we’ve been told by the higher-ups to sandbag every question—”

Say it now. You didn’t have a chance to on the panel. Bring up the #SaveAmara initiative.

“Actually,” I interrupt, “wouldn’t it be a good time to talk about some of the fan movements, especially the Save Am—”

“Amon,” Darien interrupts, giving me a strange look. “You said you needed to talk to me about something?”

The director claps his hands. “Right! Jess, can you excuse us? Just put a pin in our conversation and I’ll be back later.” He takes Darien by the shoulder and steers him away.

The strained smile across my lips falters. Why did Darien interrupt me? Does he do that in real life? Just interrupt people?

I guess being a movie star has gone to his head.

Calvin also slinks off, back to the snack table, where he picks up another tuna melt.