Never Crossed My Mind

The ringing mobile phone hit Olivia square in the side of the head, startling her from a deep sleep. She reached around for it, attempting to answer the call before the person on the other end hung up.

“Where is it?” she groaned.

“Maybe if your phone’s going to ring at four o’ clock in the morning, you could fall asleep in your room,” her roommate and cousin Julie grumbled before going back to her bed.
The ringing phone stopped sounding just as Olivia found it. She realized she had once again fallen asleep on the couch in the living room. Thinking back on it, she couldn’t remember the last time she had fallen asleep in her bed -- actually gone to bed there without falling asleep on the couch first.

“Such is the life of a freelance journalist,” she mumbled to herself as the phone rang again. “Olivia Moore.”

“Liv, it’s Keith,” came the tired voice on the other end. “We’ve got some breaking news.”

“What’s up?” she asked, scrambling for a pen and paper to take notes.

“Word on the street is that Ryan Dunn was killed in a car accident about an hour ago in his hometown.”

The words stopped Olivia short. She wasn’t necessarily Ryan Dunn’s biggest fan, but the entire Jackass and CKY crews had always been entertaining to her, and she’d grown up watching them. Hearing about the too-early death of one of the cast members was a shocking wake-up call.

“You still there?”

“Yeah, sorry. So you want me to cover it or what? I can be on a plane in a few hours.”

“I’ve got the realtime stuff covered, but there’s something else I’ve got in mind for you. It was something that was already in the works, but now we’re putting a spin on it. I’ll email over the details once we’re off the phone, but I want you brainstorming right away.”

“Got it, will do.”

“All right, I’ll talk to you in a few hours.”

Pushing off the couch, Olivia made way for the kitchen to start a pot of coffee. It was going to be a long day.

***

“Working already?” Julie asked, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. “It’s only eight o’ clock.”

“I’ve been working since you woke me up at four.” Olivia took a sip of coffee -- her fifth cup -- and then turned back to the laptop screen. “It was Keith that called.”

“Some intense breaking news, I imagine,” Julie replied sarcastically.

“Ryan Dunn died this morning,” Olivia replied matter-of-factly. “When Keith called it was just a rumor, but it’s since been confirmed.”

Julie stopped stirring her own cup of coffee and looked at her cousin incredulously. “You’re kidding.”

“I wish I was,” Olivia sighed. “I wish I was kidding and I wish I wasn’t put on this assignment. They’re exploiting everyone Ryan left behind, and quite frankly, I really don’t want to be part of it.”

“Why are you working so hard then?”

“If I can get them to push it back, it won’t be bad. From the looks of the details Keith sent though, they want it going right away. It was already in the works, now they’re putting the spin on it.”

“You’re the one who wanted to be the big time journalist,” Julie reminded her. “You could have just come to nursing school with me.”

“Excuse me if wiping butts isn’t really my thing.”

“Very funny. So what are you going to do about the assignment?”

Olivia shrugged. “Like I said, try and get it pushed back. It’ll be the biggest assignment I’ve had yet, so I don’t want to just pass it up.”

“I’ve got to get in the shower and head to work. Good luck.”

***

Three days later, Olivia brought herself to Keith’s office. He was a noted journalist himself, but also worked as an agent for selected freelance workers. If he was offered a job that he was too busy for or felt someone else could do better, he would call one of his freelance connections. Between her own offers and the jobs Keith found for her, Olivia found herself abnormally busy for a freelance journalist.

“Morning, Liv.”

“Morning, Keith. Here’s the workup I’ve got for the assignment you sent me the other day.”
Keith took the stack of papers from her hand and started reading over. He would make a note here or there, and Olivia mostly sat and fidgeted while he read over what she had come up with. Just as she began to feel boredom creeping in, Keith cleared his throat and looked up at her.

“This is brilliant. I think you’ve caught on to exactly what MTV wants.”

“MTV? You left out that little part.”

“You’ll have to forgive me for that. I know you’ve worked for a long time for something this big, and I didn’t want you to feel too overwhelmed. You mention here that you want the start date pushed back, though?”

Olivia nodded. “These men just lost their very close friend, Keith. I get that this was already in the works, but if we’re really wanting to close in on their life after Ryan’s passing, I think we need to give them time for their life to normalize a little bit.”

“I agree, but it’s not really up to us. We’ve got a meeting in New York next week to discuss the details.”

Olivia nodded her agreement and gathered her things. She had a feeling the meeting wasn’t going to go too well at all; after all, if it had been her best friend who had just died, the last thing she would want to do would be to air her feelings on television for the whole world to see.

***

Johnny Knoxville shoved his carry-on bag into the apartment above his seat on the airplane, then settled in next Jeff Tremaine. He wasn’t happy about going to New York in the first place, let alone having to attend this meeting.

“They can’t possibly imagine that we’re going to say yes,” Johnny said to Jeff for the millionth time. “I’m not interested in making money off of Ryan’s death.”

“None of us are,” Jeff agreed. “But MTV wants us to meet the journalist who would be doing the documentary. Supposedly she’s got some really good ideas.”

“Great, so it’s some random chick. I suppose she’ll want us to dig deep down into our emotions and shit like that.”

Jeff sighed. “Look, we know your answer. You don’t have to do any talking here unless you feel like it’s really necessary. Bam is going to meet us there, and we’ve got everyone else’s vote. If we don’t want this show to happen, it’s not going to happen.”

He took some comfort in that, but he still grumbled to himself about having to go to this meeting. He didn’t want to hear what the MTV executives had to say, and he didn’t want to hear this journalist’s stupid ideas. As the plan took off, he leaned back in his seat and hoped to sleep on the long flight. With Jeff and Bam there, he could just shut his mouth and tune out most of the meeting anyway.

***

Keith and Olivia met early the morning of the meeting to go over all of Olivia’s notes. Having full confidence in his colleague, he opted to let her go to this preliminary meeting by herself. If at any point she felt like she was in over her head, she would simply ask that the meeting take a break and call Keith to join them.

She took a deep breath outside the door to the studios before walking in and announcing herself to the receptionist.

“Yes, Miss Moore. Just one moment and I’ll have someone escort you to the conference room.”

She sat in a chair nearby, looking through her messenger bag to see that all of her notes had been put back in the right order after seeing Keith that morning. She checked her phone to see a text from Julie wishing her luck and instructing her to call as soon as she had news.

“Miss Moore? If you’ll follow me this way, I’ll show you to the conference room.”

Olivia gathered her things once more and followed the young woman, who couldn’t have been any older than Olivia herself, to an elevator and up a few floors to the conference room. She was apparently the first one there besides the two MTV executives waiting. She shook hands with the two men who introduced themselves as Hank and Ben.

“Nice to meet you, Miss Moore,” Hank said. “You’re a new name to the business, right?”

“Please, call me Olivia. I’m new to television, yes. I’ve written quite a few articles. I don’t know if you read the article on John Mayer in Rolling Stone a few months back, but that was my handiwork.”

“The one where he admits himself that he’s an asshole?” Ben asked.

Olivia chuckled. “That would be the one.”

“We’ve got a genius on our hands,” Hank commented to Ben. “Keith had better be careful or she won’t be freelance for long.”

The full brunt of the compliment hit her like a happy shock, but she didn’t have long to bask in the glow of it. Three somber looking men, all of whom she recognized, walked in the room and immediately put a damper on her compliment parade.

“Hank, Ben,” Jeff greeted with a nod, shaking hands with both of them, then extended his hand to Olivia. “And you must be …?”

“Olivia Moore,” she replied confidently. “You can call me Olivia.”

“Nice to meet you,” Jeff replied, sounding sincere. “I’m sure you know these gentlemen, Johnny Knoxville and Bam Margera. This, apparently, is Olivia Moore.”

“Hi,” she said quietly, shaking hands with both of them.

“Why don’t we all have a seat,” Hank suggested. “Olivia, you have copies of your notes for everyone?”

“Of course,” she said. Her nerves were suddenly grated to the core as she handed out copies of her notes to each man sitting at the table. “First of all, I want to … extend my condolences to each of you. I can’t imagine the loss you’ve suffered.”

“You just want to try and figure it out and put your investigation on television, right?” Bam shot back.

“Uh, no,” Olivia replied meekly. The words and harsh tone had come from out of nowhere. She had expected them to be hesitant, but not completely against her. “I meant that sincerely, like I’m sure a lot of people throughout the world do. I was merely taking advantage of the chance to say it in person.”

Jeff gave Bam a pat on the shoulder and motioned for Olivia to continue. As she went over the notes and the program she had in mind, she had the feeling they were only listening as a courtesy and had every intention of turning down the documentary.

And she was absolutely right. Once she was done, Jeff explained to her that while her ideas were innovative, they were unfortunately going to have to decline the treatment.

“I think you boys are making a grave mistake,” Ben replied. “This documentary could be huge. Ryan’s fanbase alone was off the charts. There’s no way --”

“There’s no way we’re going to do it,” Bam interrupted. “You’re not going to take everything that Ryan had built up and spin it into some sad, pathetic hour-long thing where we all cry and talk about how if only we’d gone with him that night and all that shit.”

“Not at all,” Hank assured. “We merely want to capture Ryan’s legacy somehow. What better way to do that than to put it in a show, like everything else he’s done?”

“This is bullshit!” Johnny finally spoke up. “The answer is no. We’re not doing this to Ryan. We’re not making money off of this.”

He stormed out of the room, Bam hot on his heels. Jeff sighed and shrugged, explaining to Hank and Ben that their minds were made up.

“The president of the company is very interested in this,” Hank commented. “If you back out, we can’t promise coverage on any other projects.”

They began going into logistics, and Olivia suddenly felt out of place. “If you gentlemen will excuse me, I’m just going to step out for a smoke break.”

They excused her and she couldn’t get out fast enough. The meeting was going downhill fast, but she didn’t want to call Keith. This was her first big job and she didn’t want anyone to think that she couldn’t do it on her own. She was a professional, after all.

The receptionist who had directed her to the conference room politely showed her where the smoking area was, and Olivia discovered she wasn’t the only one who wanted a cigarette. Johnny was already out there, and didn’t look happy to see her.

“Can I borrow your lighter, please?” she asked as nicely as possible. He dug into his pocket and produced a lighter without even looking at her. She thanked him as she handed it back and took a couple of drags from her own cigarette. “I know you probably don’t like me at all, and I don’t blame you. I just wanted you to know that I wasn’t really for this project from the time I got the assignment.”

“I’m sure,” Johnny mumbled.

“No, really. I mean, I know you all are in the public eye and everything, but that doesn’t mean you don’t deserve your own private time to grieve for your friend.”

“Maybe she does get it,” Bam said, suddenly appearing outside with them. “Listen, Knoxville, I just talked to Jeff. Hank and Ben are saying if we back out, the president of the company may pull coverage on everything else.”

“This just gets worse and worse,” Johnny groaned. “They don’t get it.”

A light bulb went off over Olivia’s head. “I might have an idea, if you don’t mind.”
Bam and Johnny exchanged glances and both shrugged. Feeling as though she accomplished something just by being open to hear what she had to say, Olivia let a small smile fall across her features and started explaining.

***

They couldn’t wait to find Jeff. Olivia was going to completely bail them out of the dilemma they were in, and suddenly they found themselves a little more fond of her.

“Hank, Ben, I’m sorry,” Olivia started when they were all seated back in the conference room. “After hearing what these three gentlemen have had to say, I can’t commit myself to this project. I’m backing out, and I’m taking my ideas with me.”

Both Hank and Ben took a few moments to recover. Jeff, Johnny, and Bam could more easily be swayed. A freelance journalist who might never be accepted back into television by forgoing this project, however, they weren’t ready to negotiate with.

Ben took a deep breath. “Sounds like perhaps this is a project we’ll need to re-evaluate later on down the road.”

“I guess so,” Hank agreed, gathering all the papers in front of him. “We’ll see you gentlemen another time. Olivia, thanks for your ideas.”

She accepted the hand-outs she’d given at the beginning of the meeting and tried to hide her smile. Maybe she hadn’t nailed it quite like she’d hoped, but this was a different sort of success.

As she exited the studios, Olivia dialed Keith. She told him the whole story and he extended his apologies but also assured her she had done the right thing. They made plans to meet for lunch, and Olivia put the phone away in her bag. Just as she was about to hail a cab, she felt a tap on her shoulder.

“Sorry,” Johnny apologized. “I don’t want to keep you, I just want to thank you for what you did in there. You really saved our asses.”

Olivia shook her head. “It’s not a problem. You saved my ass, too. I can’t imagine that the industry would look very kindly on someone who accepted that project as their television breakthrough job.”

“Keep those ethics as long as you can,” Johnny told her. “Are you in the city for awhile?”
“I fly out early tomorrow afternoon. I really just came for the meeting, but I’ve never been here and thought it might be nice to eat somewhere nice and stay in some fancy shmancy hotel on the boss’s dollar while I had the chance. So much for ethics, I guess.”

Johnny chuckled; it was the closest to a smile Olivia had seen from him the whole time. “Nothing wrong with that. We’re in town for a couple of days. Maybe the five of us can meet for dinner later.”

“Five?”

“Bam, Jeff, me, you, and your manager.”

“Oh,” Olivia smiled, feeling silly for not comprehending right away. “Of course. That would be great. Um, here’s my card. I guess I’ll see you later.”

“For sure.”

They said their goodbyes, and Olivia got herself a cab so she could meet Keith back at the hotel. Maybe the project had fallen through, but this meeting wasn’t going to be without it’s connections.