Strangers Read Online Free PDF

didn’t recognize the person staring back.Everyone kept on about his fabulous face, but he looked like shit.Dark circles rimmed his bloodshot eyes and his skin was sallow, despite weeks spent filming in the Arizona desert.He needed a shave.His breath would have made a flower wilt.Jesus Christ, sixteen years old?He was a walking fucking disaster.How many more lives was he going to destroy?
     
    Charlie attempted to smile at his agent’s secretary, but when Alicia wouldn’t look at him, he knew he was in trouble.She’d called to tell him Ethan wanted to see him—now—and Charlie wondered how he’d found out he was at the party.But then Ethan was God.He knew everything.He’d been his agent since the outset and the closest thing to a friend Charlie had.
    “Go straight in,” Alicia said.
    Ethan Silver stood staring out of the window when Charlie pushed open the door.His agent was in his forties, taller than him, with short gray hair beginning to recede.
    “Sorry,” Charlie said, the best way to open any conversation he had with anyone.
    Ethan turned and Charlie swallowed hard.Ethan’s jaw was tense, his narrowed eyes black with fury.
    “I want to kill you, you stupid fucking wanker.” Ethan’s voice started soft but by the end of the sentence he was yelling.
    He strode across the room with his tie askew, his face flushed.He stopped in front of Charlie and Charlie cringed.
    “What the fuck’s the matter with you?Do you have a brain?Don’t answer that.Did you know you lose brain cells every time you fuck?You are literally fucking your life away,” Ethan shouted.
    “Count to ten slowly.I find it helps,” Charlie said.
    Ethan gave a snort of disgust and returned to his desk to slump on his chair.He pointed to the low black leather seat opposite.Charlie sat.
    “Right—eight, nine, ten.You are still a stupid fucking wanker.As if my job isn’t stressful enough without dealing with morons.”
    Ethan snapped his pencil in half and Charlie pressed himself back in the chair.He knew Ethan had chosen it so he towered over anyone who sat there.As if the guy wasn’t intimidating enough.Ethan picked up another pencil and snapped that one too.
    “Do you know why I’m breaking my pencils, Charlie?”
    Charlie shook his head.
    “Because although snapping your neck would give me a greater sense of satisfaction, I’d get sent to prison for that.”
    Charlie stayed quiet.
    “I don’t know what’s wrong with you.That was your fucking part.”
    The fog cleared in an instant and Charlie perked up.Ethan didn’t know about him and India.“I didn’t get it?”
    “Of course you fucking didn’t get it,” Ethan yelled.
    “Okay.”
    “Is that all you have to say?”
    “What do you want me to say?”
    “You were a shoo-in, Charlie.All you had to do was fucking walk into the room and turn on your smile.How difficult could that be?”
    Charlie opened his mouth and closed it again.
    “Apparently you were drunk, stoned and rude.Did I miss anything?” Ethan rose from his chair and paced again.
    Charlie felt like a mouse being played with by a cat.Any moment Ethan would crunch and swallow him.Charlie’s memory of the audition was a bit hazy.Drunk, stoned and rude about covered it.“No,” he said.“You didn’t miss anything.”
    Ethan ground his teeth.
    “You’re going to wreck your dental work.”
    “You’re lucky I’m not wrecking yours.” Ethan kicked his waste paper basket straight at the door.
    Charlie jumped at the noise and his headache flared up again.
    Alicia rushed in.“Are you all right, Mr.Silver?”
    “You’re fired,” Ethan said.
    Her chin wobbled, she dissolved into tears and fled.
    “What was that for?” Charlie asked.
    “The woman’s useless.I’ve had enough of useless people.I need a different job.A complete change of career.Instead of trying to find work for wankers like you, maybe I should take up something less stressful, like working as Naomi Campbell’s personal