Give Me A Chance

Two

"I know I've messed up a lot of times, but if only you could give me one last chance to.."

"Cut!"

I turn to look at the director and roll my eyes, I'm tired, exhausted, we've been here the whole day repeating the same lines and he keeps saying it's not good enough.

"Monalisa you need to stay focused, if you want your fans to love you again then you need to work extra hard."

Yea, same old story.

My director thinks if I make a movie, a good movie then, maybe I will earn back the love of the fans, that's what my public relations officer said, that all I needed was to come back with the confidence and do something that will change their perception about me, which I highly doubt it's going to work but we all know I need to get the hatred off my back so, I have no other choice but to do as they say.

"Focus." He snaps his fingers on my face and I turn to look at him.

"Did you just understand what I told you?"

I didn't hear anything because I had zoned out but if I tell him that he will just give me a lecture on how he is trying to save my career.

"Yes."

"Yes what?"

"Yes sir."

Damn, I hate him.

"Good, now we are going to go from the top one more time and do not disappoint me this time, because we need to be going live on social media." I nod and turn to look at the guy I'm acting with.

I don't know him and I've never seen him before, apparently every famous actor that I ever worked with doesn't want to be involved with me.

Which is perfectly fine, it hurts but it's okay. I get to know who my true friends were.

"One, two, three, and start."

I take in a deep breath and release it.

"I know I've messed up..."

"Cut."

He walks towards us quickly and I groan and inwardly click my tongue, he always has fun in doing this, making us look like small children.

"Monalisa, if you keep talking like you're reading the words we will be staying here even longer."

Everyone starts walking away and I know they are so done with working with us.

"I really don't want yo do this."

He takes a few intimidating steps towards me and I step back.

"Now you listen to me carefully, I don't want to do this either, but your mother asked, you know what? She actually begged me to save your reputation, it's probably not going to work but the best you should do is show some interest."

I can't blame mom for telling him, she wants my life to go back to normal and this is the life I had before, it may have not been normal but I grew in it.

"I don't care about the reputation, it's already gone, everything I worked for most of my life is gone, so this is just a waste of time."

When Ronald said without him in my life my career would be meaningless I always thought it was just a threat so that I wouldn't leave him, but his words made sense in a way, it's meaningless, it's just so unbelievable that even in his death he is still controlling my life.

"Well you should."

The old guy always makes my life a mess.

"What's the use? We made a short clip yesterday, all I got were insults, people calling me murderer, maybe this is all a joke to you but reading all those comments hurts, I really don't care."

He looks at me and nods, I know he is pissed off but he can't really do anything about it, I've already made up my mind.

"Okay, fine, we won't do any movies for now but you need to think of something that will make people love you again, even if it's a fake story, you didn't sacrifice your childhood for it to be a waste when you are just at the peak of your career." He says and I must admit he is kind of right.

"It's not that easy you know."

"I know, but are you just going to sit down and let a dead man ruin what is rightfully yours?"

He asks and I shake my head, Ronald is dead I'm not going to let him still have that power on me.

I care so much about all I've worked for, so I'm not going to let it all be a waste, I don't know what I will do but I'm sure my public relations officer will come up with something good.

"I hope you'll figure out something soon, see you later."

He walks away and I watch him until he disappears before I murmur a response.

"See you later, father."

I rarely call him father in his presence, maybe because he has always been more of a manager and movie director to me than a father.

I joined the acting industry when I was three years old, my dad was already in the field as a producer, I was too young at the time and I didn't care much about what happened at the time.

Then as years moved by, being on the screens excited me, I wanted to appear more, and the enthusiasm made my dad give me plenty of roles, all the time I was always rehearsing for an upcoming movie, or shooting one.

I was home schooled all my life, I didn't get to mingle with children my age, the only friend I had was Joseph who was sort of a family friend, my dad always pushed me to work more than play more.

The money kept flowing in and the fame was good, the fans loved me.

I was the country's sweetheart.

Then adolescence came and I was turning out to be a beautiful woman, I hadn't interacted with the opposite s*x much. Most of them were always my colleagues and my dad never gave me the time to interact with them once the rehearsals and shootings were over, so I didn't consider much about dating.

When I turned eighteen someone was invited to my birthday party, Ronald, he was handsome, I had only seen him on TV, in my field of acting, I hadn't met him but I always had this secret crush on him.

He had come to my party because he wanted to meet his co actor in the movie we were to do together, I think it was the chemistry or the crush I had on him because everything happened so fast.

We did the movie, Sweet Love, he was the main actor I was the main actress, we had too much chemistry in the movie so we started dating, and everyone loved us, we were the celebrity couples of the internet.

The age gap was an issue, since he was twenty years older but who cared about age, I mean they say age is just but a number, right? And to top it up, I'm the type that grows up fast, physically, so I always fitted in.

But it was always for the public eye, Ronald was good in the beginning, but six months into the relationship he started being insecure, he even asked me to stop hanging out with Joseph, I did that because I thought I was doing it out of love.

It was never love.

He was too complicated.

Thinking about him is exhausting.

All this is just exhausting, him being a constant in my life, I sit on one of the chairs and text Joseph to come pick me up. I also text Charlotte not to let anyone back here, I just need some time alone.

We kind of were supposed to hang out with Joe once I was done and I need some cheering up.

"It's such a bad thing for a beautiful woman to be sitting all alone." I hear a male voice from behind me and when I turn I see an epitome of beauty.

I don't know how I can describe it but he is hot looking, he is tall, not very tall, with not so broad shoulders and a beard, a very beautiful beard, the two years in prison really did waste me, I had forgotten men this good looking still existed.

I watch his lips turn into a smile, a very beautiful smile.

And he clears his throat.

"They didn't tell me you stare this much."

That totally snaps me out of my staring moment.

Ugh! I wasn't even staring.

Maybe I was, but that's not important right now.

"Excuse me?"

"I said you were staring too much."

"Yea, I heard that part, how may I help you?"

I have never seen him before and I don't know how he got in here.

"I'm looking for Miss Pascaline but I'm sure I already found you, you sure do look more beautiful in person." I try so hard not to blush, like really try.

"Thank you, why are you looking for me and who let you back here?"

"Charlotte let me in."

The PR officer, I don't know why she did that when I specifically told her not to let anyone back here.

"I'm Trevor Mulwa, I'm sure you've heard about me." He stretches his arm but I don't take it.

Why does he think I know him? I've never heard that name before, probably a fan.

"I don't know you, but I'd appreciate if you said what you want and leave me alone, if it's a selfie we can get it over with."

That's what they always do come here portraying as serious people and once they are allowed in the ask for a selfie.

He lets out a chuckle as he shakes his head.

"I'm sure your fans would love that but I'm not your fan."

Okay, that hurt like a b***h.

"Then what do you want?"

I'm already bored with him.

"Heard you need a boost in your reputation."

"I already have a PR officer, thank you so much, you can leave now."

He takes a few steps towards the door and turns to look at me.

"I don't want to be your public relations officer, love, trust me you need me to help you clear your name."

This is not something new, a lot of people have said that but we all know what they want, money, I'm not going to let this good looking guy play that trick on me.

Why am I even thinking of his looks?

"I'm perfectly fine Mr Trevor, you can leave now."

He walks back towards me and pulls out an envelope from his coat pocket and pulls out some papers.

Articles, lots of articles and I'm the headline in all of them.

"All these are articles about you, they hate you Monalisa and I can help you change that, make them love you again, I can make you the sweetheart you were, only if you let me."

He sounds so convincing but I'm not going to fall for that.

"I'm sorry but my budget doesn't allow me to employ another PR officer." I hand him back the papers and he shakes his head in disbelief.

"Before you say no, you might just ask your PR officer to brief you on who I am, apparently you don't know people." He says and walks away before I can throw him the insult that was lingering on my tongue.

Another person I don't know making my life harder.

"CHARLOTTE!"

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