paying you for the last six months?” Chad asked walking into the living room to see what Mason was carrying away.
“Look man, we had to eat and I had to buy clothes for my auditions not to mention some professional head shots for my portfolio.”
“You haven’t worked in six months. And that was for a dog commercial and no one noticed you. It was the dog who stared in that piece of shit commercial.” He stood gesturing to Mason. “When are you going to get real? When are you going to get it into your head that it’s a long shot like playing the lottery? It takes years to establish yourself in this town as an actor. You could be forty and never get a job. What are you going to do then?”
“Well, I’m not forty yet, I’m twenty-five and that’s not old, and I’m going to give it a go before I throw in the towel.”
“Twenty-five is old in Los Angeles. Don’t you realize that actors here have been working since they were children and here you come from England and expect everyone to fall at your feet? What about your family? Can’t they help you keep your apartment?”
“Fuck my family and fuck my father. He’s the one leading the family against me. Saying that I would throw away the family fortune if it was left to me. What do I look like? A bloody idiot?”
“You threw away everything else. I wouldn’t trust you with my niece’s piggy bank.”
“Now that hurts,” Mason said smiling back at Chad. “You have to be out of here today,” Mason said enjoying the look on Chad’s face, as he threw his bag over his shoulder and headed for the door. He felt a hand grabbing his shoulder and turned around.
“What the fuck am I to do?”
“Call my father up and ask him if you can stay here,” Mason said smiling. “But you haven’t got a chance in hell. That stingy old man will die with his money and take it with him.”
“Well at least he made his money,” Chad said watching Mason climb into a cab.
Mason thought about what Chad had said and he shook his head determined to get a job at what he loved to do. He was an actor, but now he had to protect his day job. He had signed a contract to fly a spoil rich girl to Hawaii.
He had been leasing out his small jet, the last of his possessions before his father found out and repossessed it. It had afforded him a comfortable living after everything was taken away by the creditors. After paying a mechanic to get it into shape, he couldn’t afford a pilot, so he decided to fly it himself.
His money had run out and he had to take a short cut on the maintenance of the jet. He figured that it couldn’t be that hard and he decided to work on it himself. So he borrowed some books from the library after he couldn’t pay his internet and televisions bills, and began making repairs. After all there wasn’t much money left after using it for small things like a diamond ring he bought his girl and not to mention the red Porsche he put in her name.
When she found out he was no longer going to be rich she disappeared with the car.
Now Mason was acting as the mechanic when the mechanic suddenly quit after not getting paid for six months. As long as the plane appeared to be in working condition, Mason hoped no one would check his credentials. That was the beauty of this. No one suspected that he owned the plane and he bribed inspectors to look the other way. They thought that they could take the money and Mason would do the necessary repairs. After all, it was his life at stake.
The inspectors didn’t realize that Mason was so distraught most mornings that he didn’t care if he lived or died. It came when his fiancé realized that he couldn’t pay the light bill and there was nothing to eat in the house, and one day the cook and staff were gone. She then ditched him leaving him with clothing, housing, and cars he couldn’t pay for, a large house she stilled lived in and refused to leave. But she packed up and left last month when she discovered that his