Under the Lights

“Thank you.” There’s so much relief in the way her shoulders slump that I can’t help wondering what the hell I’ve missed. “I gotta run. Thanks for, uh…” I guess she remembers then that I haven’t done shit but drag her out of her house to come pick me up from the cops. “I’ll see ya.” And then she’s off, and I glance back toward the guest house.

Vanessa’s sitting on the bed now, her mouth drawn into a frown. She rubs her lower lip with her thumb, like she’s trying to seal in that kiss, and my stomach roils again as I approach the house and open the door. I’m dying to ask what the hell I just saw, but one close-up look at her face and I already know — Bri’s the person she’s into. Not Zander. Certainly not me.

A chick.

What. The. Hell.

She looks up in surprise at the sound of the doors opening, and I watch her quickly arrange her face into a bland expression she totally doesn’t pull off.

“How’d everything go with Mini-Jade?” I force myself to ask.

“Okay, I guess. Thanks for that.” She smiles weakly, and it’s kind of heartbreaking. Christ. She is seriously into that girl. “Guessing you didn’t get any sleep.”

“Nah, too hungry. I figured I’d check and see if you wanted to grab some food.” At least, that’d been my original plan when I came to the house. Now I don’t have much of an appetite, but I’m dying to get out of this place.

She laughs, and it’s the saddest fucking sound in the world. “Can you even imagine the shitshow if we were spotted out together now? God, I can’t. Between the paparazzi at the police station and the whole mess with Zander…I need to go home, Josh. If I even still have a home, because I’m pretty sure the second I see my mother, she’s going to kill me. All the gossip about me right now…”

She has a point that it sucks to be her. I can do whatever the fuck I want, and no one will care by the next week, but kids actually look up to her. She has parents she cares about pleasing. She has fans who aren’t utterly depraved.

And apparently, she isn’t who any of them think she is.

I sit down next to her on the bed as she drops her head into her hands. “The thing is, K-drama, sometimes you just have to accept that no one else’s opinion means shit, you know? Sometimes you just have to do what makes you happy and say fuck everyone else.”

Somehow, that only seems to make her sadder. “Yeah, well. Maybe someday I’ll be able to do that, but that day isn’t today.” She braces her hands on her thighs and stands. “It’s been quite the adventure, but I really do have to get home. Think you could get me a cab? My ride kinda checked outta here.”

She doesn’t offer why Bri left, and I don’t ask. I whip out my phone. “I should probably go see Liam, anyway,” I mutter as I dial. “I don’t remember a lot from last night, but I’m pretty sure I was a raging asshole to him.”

“You? Never.”

“Funny, K-drama. Come on. Let’s go.”

We fix ourselves up and meet the cab out front. It’s been a really shitty day for both of us, and it’s pretty clear it’s only gonna go downhill from here.

* * *

It takes a shit-ton of time to find Liam that afternoon. For one thing, the set’s in the middle of fucking nowhere, which is exactly what they’re going for, given that it’s an army movie. For another, it’s a sea of actors in camouflage — even guys I’ve known forever are looking alike to me right now.

He’s sitting in a chair, looking over the script with — shock of all shocks — his abs on prominent display. He’s sweaty and dirty and staring at the pages with a kind of focus I don’t possess on my best day. He doesn’t even notice me until I’m practically on top of him, casting a shadow on the sides. Then he finally looks up, blinks, and says, “Chester?”

“Hey.” I glare at the actor next to him until he rolls his eyes and vacates his seat, and then I slide in next to Liam. “Thought I should probably track you down and apologize for being a dick yesterday. It wasn’t my finest hour.”

He raises an eyebrow. “It definitely wasn’t, but you apologizing might be. Did you seriously come all the way down here just to say that? A text would’ve been fine.”

“Yeah, it would’ve,” I admit, feeling like an ass. “I don’t know. I just needed to get out of my house, I guess.”

“Heard you went to the drunk tank last night. And that Vanessa came and got your ass this morning.”

“Also not my finest hour.”

He sighs. “Are you hooking up with her?”

No, but someone is, and it’s not her boyfriend. I think back to this morning, the fierce way she laid her lips on Mini-Jade, and feel a little shittier than I did a minute ago. “Trust me, I’m not. She’s otherwise occupied.”

“Oh, come on. I’ve fake-dated Van. I recognize her ‘I’m so not into this’ eyes. You can’t tell me she’s actually into Wilson. At all.”