Girls We Love (18 page)

“Yuh,” he grunted in agreement.

“I mean, how could I even think that you like, liked her?” I felt Jonathan and David snap to attention and turn their eyes on me, but I just gazed out the window and waited for some answers.

“What? I never liked her,” Jonathan said laughingly. “David was the one who … ”

David elbowed Jonathan—I knew, because
Jonathan was sitting between David and me and I felt the impact. “That's insane!” David said. I realized that he was acting all huffy because SBB was in the front. Jonathan and I both looked, and we saw that she was talking to the cabdriver.

“Oh my God, you're from Gda
ń
sk?” she was saying. “I'm about to go make a movie in Gda
ń
sk. So what should I bring, for summer there? To wear, I mean.”

“No clothes in Gda
ń
sk,” the cabdriver was saying. “No money! Nobody have clothes in my country.”

“Really? They wear nothing?” SBB said. “Wow … that's hot.” She giggled, and then continued to lob questions at him.

“I didn't like Liv,” David hissed at us when he was satisfied that SBB wasn't listening to us. “I was just confused.”

“Oh, come on,” Jonathan said. Then he looked at me. “That was why I called you the other day asking for her, because David wanted me to.”

“Okay, okay,” David said. “Maybe I liked her a little bit, but mostly I was confused.”

“But
you
never liked her,” I said to Jonathan.

“Hell, no!” he said.

“Good,” I said. Jonathan took my hand and
kissed it, and then I knew for sure that there really never had been anything between Liv and him.

Our cab got to Lotus first, and we jumped out and into a frenzy of activity. At the center of it all, I saw Liesel yelling at some big bouncer who was like three times as wide as she was.

“I just forgot it,” she was saying. “Is that a crime? But I work for DeeDee Rakoff, and if you don't let me in … ”

“Uh-oh,” I heard Mickey, coming up behind us from the curb, say. “I guess they're doing that old-fashioned twenty-one-and-over-only thing again.”

I felt my stomach rock, because even though none of us were over twenty-one, I was
especially
under twenty-one. “Hey guys,” I said meekly, “maybe we should just—”

“No way,” SBB said. She pulled off her wig and glasses and handed them to me. The Sara-Beth Benny of celebrity weeklies and TV and infamous tantrums appeared and strode up to the bouncer. She placed her hand on her hip and then cocked it.

“Excuse me,” she said. “Do you know who I am?”

“Yes …,” he said slowly. He turned to look at one of the other giants guarding the door.

“Oh, whatever, let them in,” the other guy said.

“I'm going to need my entourage,” SBB said.

“Yeah, yeah,” the guy said.

“And a nice, private area,” she continued.

“Okay, okay,” the guy said. Then he muttered something into his walkie-talkie.

“Come on, gang!” SBB called, and we all held our heads up as we walked into the crowd, which was full of people bumping and grinding and yelling along with the music. It was a scene. We were led to a private banquette, though, and once we'd all crammed in—Jonathan, David, SBB, Liesel, Arno, Mickey, Philippa, and my brother, Patch—everything seemed to settle, and I knew the fireworks were over for the night. I was with people who didn't care if I was a glamorous party girl or not—in fact, I think they might have preferred just regular old me.

“Any chance you've got a birthday cake back there?” SBB asked the waitress.

“Yeah,” Liesel said, “and birthday candles? Fourteen of them.”

The waitress gave us a doubtful look and said, “Well, I'll check.”

Everyone looked so beautiful and sparkly
there, in the low club light, that I couldn't help but smile. The waitress returned, looking bemused, with a small chocolate cake lit up with fourteen pink birthday candles. “Apparently this just arrived, compliments of somebody named February Flood,” she said as she set it down on our table.

Jonathan waved his hand to stop all that horrible singing from happening again, and then he said simply: “To Flan. Happy birthday.”

“Happy birthday!” everybody chorused as I blew out the candles.

I still couldn't stop smiling. There were cool people everywhere, but I had all the people I needed right there around me.

Don't miss the next book from J. Minter,
Inside Girl
, coming soon!

From now on, it's all about Flan! Flan's starting high school at Stuyvesant, an
enormous
public school in downtown Manhattan. She's a little nervous about the big change, but it'll be worth it. She'll do anything to become more than just Patch's little sister. But convincing her new friends at school that she's worthy of their normal girl clique becomes unexpectedly hard when three unforgettable guests arrive at the Perry Street townhouse and absolutely refuse to leave.

Sara-Beth Benny is having boy troubles and housing troubles, plus she's dodging the paparazzi
and
her manager. Flan's bedroom is the perfect hideout!

Liesel's parents are in Paris and her house is being renovated. Everybody's after her to plan their parties—but all she wants is to help Flan find just the right boy.

Philippa totally hates her parents for ruining her relationship with Mickey. The only way to nurse a broken heart is in the company of friends!

But Flan's houseguests must remain secret. Can she keep these glamorous girls hidden, find the right high school boy to date (no, we don't mean Jonathan!), and get the girls at school to like her for the right reasons?

the insiders
pass it on
take it off
break every rule
hold on tight

Copyright © 2006 by J. Minter and Alloy Entertainment

All rights reserved.
You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce, or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages

First published in the United States of America in October 2006
by Bloomsbury Books for Young Readers
Electronic edition published in September 2012
www.bloomsburyteens.com

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to
Permissions, Bloomsbury BFYR, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10010

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Minter, J.
Girls we love : an insiders girls novel / by J. Minter.—1st U.S. ed.
p. cm.
Summary: While planning a sweet-sixteen party for Flan, who is not yet fourteen, the girls work on finally getting what they really want from their boyfriends, a group of wealthy Manhattan youths known as the Insiders.

[1. Dating (Social customs)—Fiction. 2. Birthdays—Fiction. 3. Friendship—Fiction. 4. New York (N.Y.)—Fiction.] I. Title.

PZ7.M67334Gir 2006         [Fic]—dc22         2006014397

ISBN 978-1-61963-015-4 (e-book)