HDU (20 page)

lies311

still don’t know who this girl is and why people care
about her. she’s not cute, hot, interesting, stylish, etc, list goes on and on

mrstylerchase

rude. she is way cute and also not a fake asshole
like every other celeb

vidabella21

ia. people are just amazed that her basic face landed
liam brody

“Mom, I can buy Star Magazine here too, along with
all the other tabloids,” Amanda laughed, her cell phone wedged between her ear
and her shoulder as she unpacked a large, white box of free clothing that had
been delivered to her room.
 
Having
heard about her concerns with being “fashion-challenged,” the people at June
Magazine had taken the matter into their own hands and sent over a half dozen
new ensembles along with a note from their contributing editor, Wendy, that
read:
Not that we think you’re
fashion-challenged, but this should help! Keep up the blogging, gorgeous! XOXO

“Man.
 
You know you’ve made it when people start sending you free shit,” Ian
murmured, unpacking the other box as he sat on the floor of Amanda’s
bedroom.
 
He plucked out a women’s
V-neck T-shirt and held it to his own lean torso.
 
Amanda snorted, watching him pull it on as her mother
continued to insist on mailing over the half dozen gossip rags she had
purchased at Prenger Foods, all of which featured Amanda’s face somewhere on
the cover.
 
She didn’t seem to care
that the headlines weren’t all that kind to Amanda, several already predicting
her inability to endure being ordinary around such superstars.
 
“How
will this naïve newbie handle the fame?”
they asked.
 
“With
friends like Casey, will Amanda need to
doll
up to
keep
up?”

But while a small portion of the media seemed intent
on foretelling a breakdown, the rest seemed to like her, finding her relatable
and “adorably self-conscious.”
 
In
just a few days, she had been appointed the mascot for normal girls across
America – living proof that being oneself could land a boyfriend like
Liam and a best friend like Casey.

Of course only the papers were calling her a “best
friend” of Casey Mulreed’s, simply for the sake of a story.
 
Since her blog entry, Amanda found that
the media was becoming quicker and quicker to jump the gun, more concerned with
churning out new headlines about her than getting the facts right.
 
After all, she and Casey had only hung
out once.
 
During their Wednesday
afternoon in Nolita, Casey had taken Amanda out, shown her the best moderately
priced shops, and quizzed her on the street names and locations that she had
been blissfully clueless about before.
 
Instead of having to depend on Liam or Ian, she could now navigate SoHo,
Nolita and even a bit of Chinatown on her own, and she knew that Houston Street
was pronounced “How-ston” rather than “Hue-ston.”
 
It was a start – to both her understanding of the city
and her friendship with Casey.
 
The
afternoon at least got her a last-minute invitation to Jaime’s Friday night birthday
bash at Roué, a burlesque club in the Lower East Side.

“We don’t have to dress burlesque-y though, right?”
Ian asked.
 
Amanda had invited him
to join her for the night, what with Liam completely laughing off the prospect
of going – his text response to Amanda’s invitation was simply “
Ha, no
.”
 
Though it wasn’t just because of his distaste for Casey and
Jaime – he had been holed up at home since Wednesday evening, preparing
for his second audition for
A Soldier
next week.
 
But it worked out for
the best anyway – Amanda owed Ian an invitation to a celebrity event, and
it would nice to have his company considering Casey would likely have much
closer friends to entertain.
 
Amanda
laughed as she sifted through a new box of clothes.

“No, you don’t have to dress burlesque-y.”

Ian let out a sigh of relief, blowing a lock of hair from
his eyes.
 
“Thank God.
 
Though maybe
you
should, in case Dylan Hardy shows up.”
 
He wriggled his eyebrows suggestively.
 
Amanda froze for a second.

“I completely forgot about Dylan in the past two days.
 
Is that crazy?”

“Not really, considering you don’t really know him.
  
Well, aside from that time you
screamed in his face and ran to the bathroom.”

Amanda laughed, chucking her empty coffee cup at him.
 
“That was awful, I’m trying to forget
that it happened.
 
Though you
should just be proud that I didn’t puke on him.”

Ian laughed.
 
“I’m very proud.
 
Puking is
never a good look,” he said, making somewhat of a guilty face as he smoothed
down his shirt.
 
There were bags
under his eyes and his clothes were rumpled, leading Amanda to suspect that he
was once again hung over and wearing the same attire he’d passed out in.
 
His energy seemed unaffected
though.
 
He turned to her, grinning
with amusement.
 
“Pretty, what if
Dylan shows up tonight?” he asked.

Amanda’s stomach promptly flipped at the thought, but
she shook her head.
 
“I doubt he
will.
 
It’s Jaime’s party, not
Casey’s.”

“But Casey’s the one throwing it and Dylan
is
her co-star, so he’s probably invited,”
Ian persisted.
 
He paused for a
moment, scratching his chin.
 
“No
chance Casey knows Natalie, right? Because I need to get a haircut if she’s
gonna be there tonight,” he said.
 
“Just kidding,” he added hastily, though they both knew that he wasn’t.

“No, I don’t think Casey knows Natalie,” Amanda said
with an awkward laugh.
 
Ian hadn’t
mentioned his ex-girlfriend since returning to the city and she had thought that
he’d gotten over her amidst the excitement of their week.
 
Amanda certainly hadn’t thought of
Megan much since arriving in New York.
 
She did have more to distract herself with, but it wasn’t as if Ian wasn’t
seeing his own slight but rising celebrity.
 
His following on Twitter had experienced a boost by the
thousands – mostly of teen to twenty-something women who found him
attractive from paparazzi shots alone.

Ian shrugged.
 
“Well anyway, if Dylan
does
show
and you need to calm yourself down, I have the solution,” he said, reaching
into his back pocket and pulling out something between his pointer and middle
finger.
 
Amanda squinted.

“Is that a joint?” she asked, unsure.
 
He nodded.

“Are you one of those people who gets paranoid when
you smoke?”

“No.
 
I
mean, I don’t know, I don’t really do drugs,” Amanda answered.

“But weed isn’t like
drugs
drugs, it’s baby stuff, it grows from the earth! It’s not
like I’m offering you Molly,” Ian said, reaching into his other back
pocket.
 
Amanda guffawed, holding out
her hands.

“No, no, don’t take it out.
 
I’m not smoking weed tonight and I don’t
want to see your collection of Mollies or whatever,” she said.
 
“But thank you for the offer?” Ian
grinned and shrugged, stuffing everything back into his pockets.

After spending the next few hours sifting through the
piles of free clothing and figuring out what to wear, Amanda and Ian finally
left the hotel for Roué.
 
To
Amanda’s amusement, Ian had actually opted to wear her newly gifted women’s
V-neck rather than his own wrinkled T-shirt.
 
Paired with the usual leather jacket, he managed to look
messy chic again rather than just messy.
 
It didn’t hurt that he had styled his hair with quite a bit of gel,
slicking it back to match Amanda’s look for the night, which he dubbed as “very
throwback.”

For her own ensemble, she had also decided on one of
her new gifts – a vintage-looking black dress patterned with a print of
the tiniest red roses.
 
She paired
it with her usual black tights and pumps, though she packed a pair of flats in
her purse for when her heeled feet would inevitably give up on walking.
 
Aside from a coat or two of mascara, her
only attempt at makeup was bright red lipstick that she had purchased with
Casey at MAC.

“So have you been to this place before?” Amanda asked
as she seated herself in the backseat of the luxury SUV that Ian at called
for.
 

“A couple times a few years ago, but I don’t remember
a thing.
 
All I know is that I definitely
had a good time,” Ian grinned devilishly, toying with the settings on his video
camera.
 
Amanda noted that he
looked actually handsome instead of just cute with his hair for once out of his
face.

“How do you know you had fun if you don’t remember
anything?” she asked curiously.

He bit his lip back.
 
“Because I always woke up next to a girl in the morning.”

“Oh.”

“You can’t not get lucky at a place like Roué,
basically.
 
Something always
happens there, it’s just one of those places.”

“So
that’s
why you were so excited that you actually did your hair,” Amanda teased.

“Partially, but I’m also going to a party full of huge
celebrities, so that’s kind of exciting too.”

“Right.”

Ian laughed, sighing happily.
 
“Thank you again for inviting me,
Pretty,” he said.
 
“And also, you
look very pretty.”

“No problem and thank you.”

“You would’ve definitely gotten lucky tonight if you
weren’t Liam’s girlfriend.”

Amanda snorted.
 
“Shut up!”

Ian grinned wide and shrugged.
 
“Just telling the truth,” he said as
the car pulled up to a sidewalk.
 
Amanda
didn’t have to look for a sign to figure out that they had arrived at Roué.
 
The entire block was packed –
almost comically so – and despite the freezing temperature, there were
three lingerie-clad beauties at the door with clipboards and headsets.
 
One was likely a man.
 
The trio did their best to admit and
deny entrance to the stylish crowd, and despite the chaos, everyone seemed to
be all smiles.
 
Amanda could
practically feel their energy permeating through the car.
 
Suddenly it wasn’t so hard to believe
Ian’s words – that something always happened at Roué.

Ian looked out the window and then back at Amanda
with a hint of concern.
 
“Are… you
ready for this?” he asked.
 

She cocked her head.
 
“Actually,” she smiled.
 
“I think I am.”
 

- Chapter 7 -

In case the negligee-clad bouncers didn’t get the
rowdy message across, Roué greeted all guests of Jaime’s party with a massive shot
of bourbon presented by a dancer swinging from the ceiling.
 
She literally hung around until the
shots were finished so she could collect the empty glasses.

“Yeah… tonight’ll be good,” Ian laughed, wiping his
mouth with his leather sleeve and draping a free arm around Amanda’s shoulders.
 
She could feel the burn of the bourbon
in her throat turning into a nice, warm buzz in her chest.
 

Together, they ventured into the main room, which
boasted white marble balconies on its walls and vintage iron chandeliers from
the ceiling.
 
On stage, a group of half-dressed
acrobats flipped, contorted and stacked themselves atop one another, forming
together a rather vulgar totem pole of the oddest shapes and most suggestive positions.
 
Amanda’s eyes widened, unable to pry
her eyes from the bizarre scene, even as she felt someone tugging on her
arm.
 
She stared as the next act took
the stage, trying to predict what the woman dressed in balloons would do.
  

“I apologize on her behalf,” she heard Ian joke.
 
“I think it’s her first time seeing
this kind of thing.”
  

“Aw, she’s
so
funny.
 
Such a doll.”
 
The girly voice next to her belonged to
Casey, and so did the hands still gripping her forearm.
 
Finally, Amanda forced her eyes away
from the stage.

“Hey, sorry!” she smiled wide, leaning into Casey’s
pouting lips for a kiss on the cheek.
 
She silently congratulated herself for completing the normal social
exchange, which was necessary considering the amount of party guests curiously
watching them as they filed in.
 
They
expected to see a friendship in full bloom, and that was precisely what Amanda needed
to convey.
 
“You look great!” she said,
gesturing at Casey’s dress and even plucking at its suede fabric.
 
It gave full coverage but was tight and
red and showed off a surprisingly curvaceous body.
 
Casey smiled and shrugged, carefree.