Chapter Forty-One – The Dark Side of Jamie Vayne
"Pick up, pick up, pick up," Hearst repeated the command like a mantra, pressing the phone against his ear, as if that would help convince the person at the other end to answer their phone.
He didn't have a plan; at least, not one he could call a foolproof plan. Before he started digging, the way his brother claimed a bona fide journalist should be able to dig, he needed to contact Jamie and warn him about those fuckers at LiveFeed. The sooner Jamie got away from those bastards, the better. Without knowing what Wen knew, Hearst couldn't even begin to imagine what sort of trap those guys would set up for Jamie.
"Hey," Jamie's usual drawl finally replied in answer to his prayers.
"Thank fuck," Hearst said without thinking. "I thought you'd never pick up."
"Wow, aren't we a lil' too dramatic so early in the day? It's not even lunchtime."
Hearst let out of long sigh of relief. Nothing had happened yet if Jamie continued to be so easygoing. "How was your meeting with those assholes?"
"Assholes? Okay, now I know they're not exactly the best people in the world, but it sounds to me like you have a bone to pick with them. What's up?"
He couldn't go ahead and tell Jamie what really was up. From this moment onward, he needed to play his cards right while keeping them close to his chest because he couldn't afford Jamie starting to become suspicious of him. Just this morning, Jamie had been about to ask him about his plans after graduation. Perhaps he was grasping at straws like a drowning man, but he couldn't help it. There was hope to be had there, and he didn't want to give it up.
"That show is killing your career. Your career as a musician," he said quickly. "They're after gossip, and trust me, because--" Hearst swallowed quickly before he ended up giving himself away. "Because I know their type. The thing is, I've thought about, over and over, how they're too pushy with you. I mean, I watched your competition, and I don't think they treat any other guy or gal the way they are treating you."
"Relax," Jamie said, chuckling under his breath, "you're worrying about nothing. I know you care about me and my career, but this is good for me. The more people who know my name, the more popular I become. That's great for a musician. I know it's not exactly ideal since I must do other things, but--"
"Jamie, they're going to drag your name through the dirt." He had no idea if that was a stupid exaggeration, but Wen was a fucking viper. For reasons still unknown, Wencel wanted to bring Jamie down and leave his reputation in tatters. While he tended to be lazy when it came to real work, Wen never did anything by half when he put his mind to it. As long as he'd thought that school would take him where he wanted to be, he'd studied like a fiend. When he had created Xpress and believed in it, he'd put his all into it. Even if people dismissed it as a stupid gossip rag, they read it, and they read it voraciously. Hearst didn't want to give his brother any praise, but he could be passionate to scary levels when something kindled his imagination and fueled his ambition.
"Hey," Jamie said softly, showing concern. "Do you know something I don't?"
He did but not enough. "No," he replied, "but take it as a hunch. I don't like them."
"You seemed to like them enough before today."
"I've never told you I liked them," Hearst said.
"True, but forgive me if I tell you that you sound a bit too extra right now. And, really, don't you think I can take care of myself? Relax. They can't push me into doing something I don't want to do. By the way, I'm glad you called, because I have some news. I'm going to be away for a while."
Hearst stopped the avalanche of words he hoped to make sound convincing enough from climbing up his throat. "Where are you going? On tour with Melinda?" That would be great, because that meant Jamie would have little to no time to give to those LiveFeed fuckers. They wouldn't see each other, either, but Hearst knew he could wait. And that he also needed time to get his head and his family in order or, more specifically, his brother.
"No. With LiveFeed. I'm going to meet a lot of people and let them know about my music. Isn't that great?"
"No, it's not great. It sucks."
"Aww, is this because you're going to miss me?" Jamie teased him.
"No, I mean, of course, I'm going to miss you, but that's not what's important here."
"What's important here then?"
Jamie's direct question was valid. He was within his rights to ask it.
"You not getting hurt," Hearst said in one go.
"I'm not getting hurt." Jamie sounded irritated now. "You're a little weird. Care to share with me what changed since this morning when you had nothing against me going to meet with Angus and the others? Because this sort of change requires an explanation."
"You're right. I just was thinking about this thing with the reality show, and it struck me that these guys won't give up until they show you in a bad light. I mean, they've done some pretty fucked up things until now. Like that shit with making you appear as if you were a fraud."
"I get where you're coming from," Jamie replied, this time in a placating tone. "Trust me, I won't let them get away with murder."
"Is that where you draw the line?" Hearst asked, because he needed to know.
"Have a little trust in me," Jamie insisted. "I'm not a schmuck. They can't play me, because no one plays a player."
"I admire your confidence. But be careful, okay? In the meantime, I'll do my best to…to cheer for you from the sidelines. Bye."
He cut the conversation off before Jamie had time to say anything else. Cheer from the sidelines? No wonder people thought he was a total weirdo. Next time he called Jamie, he needed to have proof that the LiveFeed people were planning sabotage in lieu of support as they pretended. Until then, he needed to keep his contact with Jamie to a minimum, because he ran the risk of getting entangled in his own lies.
And he needed, really needed, to find out what the hell Wen had discovered about Jamie's family. He had so much work to do.
***
That had been one weird phone call. Jamie frowned and scratched his head, wondering if he should call back and continue to probe Cottontail for the real reason he was acting so strangely. Not that the bunny boy had ever struck him as the conventional type, but this last call had topped everything else so far.
Jamie didn't need a warning regarding the guys who worked for LiveFeed and also seemed prone to work him for their popularity contest and ratings. After the last missteps, Angus would do better for himself to be careful, because Jamie didn't plan on letting the guy and his crew walk all over him.
They had to leave tomorrow, which was incredibly soon. It looked like LiveFeed employees didn't have a life and expected the contestants not to have one either. It worked for him, because a single phone call to Janet had convinced him that his boss could easily find a replacement for him since he'd worked there sporadically anyway over the last few weeks.
In fact, that was a good reason to call Cottontail again. If he was going to be away for months, that left them with little time to spend together. Jamie wanted his furry friend by his side for a pleasant roll in the hay and maybe some more conversation on the topic of why Cottontail was getting so worked up about the reality show thing.
His phone call went to voicemail. He wasn't surprised. After all, Cottontail probably had classes now; still, the fact that he had turned his phone off was strange, to say the least. He could have just put it on silent instead.
In the meantime, he could pack the very few belongings he cared to take along. This tour with LiveFeed sounded promising, and Jamie, as always, intended to travel light. Still, before leaving, he preferred to have a proper conversation with the masked rabbit who had turned his life upside down.
If Cottontail didn't want to give up on his mask and wait for Jamie to return as the real him, that would be a bummer, but not the end of the world. It wouldn't be the first time Jamie left unfinished business behind, so he wasn't particularly troubled by it. Nonetheless, he wished he'd have more time to put things in order with his bunny boy before leaving.
However, Cottontail's warning stayed with him. Whether the bunny boy was keeping secrets or not came in second to what those assholes at LiveFeed could do to him. To hurt him. But Jamie didn't believe there was anything of the sort, and he was getting more and more infuriated with their insistence on rattling his cage. That was what they had been doing, maybe not from the start, but still. Intrigued by what Cottontail had told him about the other competitors receiving different treatment than he was, he decided to do something he had never done before.
He began to check out the others' live feeds. With a deep frown etched on his forehead, he began scrolling slowly. At first glance, everything seemed fine and dandy, meaning that the guys and gals involved were vying for the attention of viewers with everything they had. And yes, just as the bunny boy said, they didn't seem to be suffering from the same close attention Jamie was getting. In Angus's book, that most likely meant that the show producers were betting on him, not others, to increase their audience. For a moment, Jamie even felt a bit proud because, indeed, he appeared to be among the top three most popular contestants.
But at what cost? Jamie sat on the bed among the things he had gathered to pack for the tour. He might not have liked going to school much, but that didn't mean he was stupid. As he began to observe the other people who were aiming to be number one, he realized that the interventions from the show's makers were subtle but existed. Were they playing favorites? No one had a pristine comments section, but it was obvious who was being treated with kid gloves and who wasn't. A less attentive observer would have chalked it all up to bots and trolls, but it was evident that some contestants received compliments masked as insults, while for others the situation was reversed.
Okay, so the game was rigged. Should he be that surprised? Reality shows were known for being about anything else but reality. And they made money out of drama; in this case, the drama didn't come from contestants competing directly and sabotaging each other, but from the comments section, which could very well be infested by individuals who worked for the show. Jamie believed that he knew enough about people to assume that to be the truth. Under the guise of regular viewers, they were not-so-innocently provoking the contestants to react. A girl was questioned at length about her personal history of eating disorders; her defensive stance didn't help to clear the issue up at all. And instead, a lot more people were now hunting for signs of those troubles in her silhouette, mannerisms and so on. One nasty comment went as far as to dare her to eat a box of chocolate chip cookies to show that she wasn't anorexic.
Jamie felt his lips twitching in disgust. Had he had on a pair of rose-colored glasses until now? These were other people, people who were competing against him for being number one, so, in the spirit of competition, he shouldn't have cared much about them. A true reality TV contestant might even feel overjoyed to see their woes.
But that wasn't him. And he knew that no one would be spared if whatever happed to them made for good ratings. In hindsight, he might have been better off not getting involved with the show, but—
And that's where his ambitions reared their collective heads. He was in this not to change the world, but to make a name for himself. Were the guys at LiveFeed a bunch of scumbags? The balance was really tipped in favor of a positive answer to that question.
But did they have something they could use against him? Jamie owned up to everything he had done in his life to date. He wasn't ashamed of who he was, of being gay, of having worked for a while as an adult entertainer, of not having a serious relationship. Like many other human beings, he was a work in progress. Mistakes and flaws were par for the course, and whatever these guys intended to bring up, he would make sure to show them that he didn't give a damn.
Cottontail could sleep without a worry. Jamie was made out of sterner stuff than most people, and he didn't intend to disappoint his bunny boy.
***
"What do you want?" His next call was essential for his future strategy. While waiting for his brother to pick up, he was already all over Google, searching for any bits and pieces from Jamie's past that could come back to haunt him. For better results, though, he needed Jamie's real family name and – he realized right away – his brother had to know it because he, apparently, now worked for the reality show.
"That's a very broad question, and as much as I'd like to offer you a straight answer, I can't help you until you provide more details. What is it that you wish to know, dear brother?" Wen was in high spirits, seeing how much verbosity he was delivering at the moment.
"You know what I mean. You have information, and I want that information."
"About?" Wen drawled, impervious to Hearst's annoyed tone.
"Jamie, obviously. What do you want in exchange for the information you have on him?"
"Hmm, let me think for a moment. I don't think there's anything I want from you."
"Are you sure?" Two could play that game. Hearst controlled his breathing. His brother was a shark, smelling blood in the water from miles away. "You wouldn't have told me about having the upper hand in this weird game you're playing if you didn't want to get a reaction out of me."
"You spitting orange juice in my face was a pretty weird reaction, but I took it in stride because you're my lil' bro."
"So you keep saying. Name your price."
There was silence at the other end, but it didn't last long. "I want you to give up on Jamie Vayne, Hearst." That was a strange development. His brother sounded dead serious. For once in his lifetime, his name didn't sound like it was dripping sarcasm the way his brother was saying it.
"Why?"
"Because he's a bad man. Because you shouldn't go after a guy like that."
"He sleeps with guys and is never serious about pursuing a relationship with them. I know about all of that. As I know about his adult entertainment gig on the side. And about the furry," Hearst added, using irony as his weapon this time around.
"That's nothing." Wen's voice dropped to a whisper. "He will ditch you the first chance he gets. He's playing with you right now, and you're a willing victim."
"What did he do that makes you see him in such a bad light?" Hearst asked. "I thought you liked villains because they make great gossip material."
Wen laughed. "Yeah, they do. They will always do something that people enjoy reading about, feigning outrage while wishing in secret they could be that badass."
"Are you trying to convince me that Jamie is a no-go for me, or are you trying to sell him harder to me?"
"Jamie's not a villain. If he were, I would tell you to get even closer than you are so you could become part of the gossip," Wen said with something that sounded a lot like evil glee to Hearst.
"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" His wry tone fell on deaf ears.
"He's a coward. He's a leaver," Wen continued. "He's the worst type of person you could meet in your life."
"And now, you're just making me more curious. Tell me what it is about Jamie that makes you say all this crap. By the way, I wouldn't be surprised if it's all lies. After all, you successfully ran Xpress for years before me."
Hook, line, and sinker. That hit straight home.
"They're not lies. Fine, I'll give you Jamie's last name. Isn't that why you called? I can hear you furiously typing, trying to discover the info I have in my possession. After that, you'll be on your own. But you have to promise me to give up on him. Don't try to save him, don't say a word to take his side, or you'll go down with him."
"And now you're trying to scare me. You know that if there's something criminal involved, if you withhold essential information from the police, you risk going down as well."
"No, let's say that it's not something condemned by the laws written in law books. But it is something that will definitely make a lot of people condemn this asshole who pretends to be such a good and pure soul."
"Whatever. Just tell me his name."
"Do you promise to give up on him?"
Hearst held his fingers crossed behind his back, although his brother couldn't see him. "Cross my heart and hope to die. By the way, why are you doing this to Jamie?"
"Because it feels good," his brother replied in an icy tone. "Because there is a dark side to Jamie Vayne, and I will be thrilled to expose it."
TBC