Laguna Cove (15 page)

Okay, maybe she wasn’t all that mysterious, since her dad had introduced her as Brooke, and had also mentioned something about her working in makeup or wardrobe.
Or was it set design?
Anne couldn’t specifically remember because she was way too freaked out by the fact that there even
was
a Brooke in his life. A Brooke who seemed way too comfortable hanging all over her dad and knew way too much about Anne. Were they a
couple?
And if so, why had her dad failed to mention it? It’s not like Anne wanted her dad to be alone for the rest of his life or anything; she just wasn’t sure she was ready for him to start dating just yet. Especially since she’d just started spending time with him again, and she really didn’t feel like sharing.

Thinking about her dad always made her think about her mom. And now she wondered if she wasn’t turning out to be exactly like her—and not in a good way. Her mom had obsessed over some guy to the point where she’d jeopardized her entire family, and now Anne was sitting here doing the same kind of thing.

Here she was, sitting at an overdecorated table (what was with all the big golden candelabras?) at what most people would consider to be a great party (if for no other reason than the free booze and drunken B-list celebs), and she wasn’t even enjoying it because she was too busy thinking about some guy who didn’t even have the decency to show up. It was truly pathetic.

“Hey, you guys,” she said, trying to get Lola’s and Diego’s attention. She was determined to have some fun. “You wanna walk around and eavesdrop on the stars or something?”

They both turned to look at her with forced patience. Then, simultaneously shaking their heads no, they immediately went back to their private conversation.
Fine, then. I’ll have fun by myself,
Anne thought, grabbing her purse and getting up from the table.

Spying Duncan across the room, she made a beeline right for him. “What are you drinking?” she asked, peering at his tall glass filled with clear, bubbly liquid with a wedge of lime suspended in the middle.

“Club soda,” he said, smiling sheepishly.

“It’s an open bar, you know.” She laughed, shaking her head.

“Yeah, but my dad will kill me if anything happens to his car, so I’m not taking any chances.” He shrugged. “So where is everybody?”

“Well, I just left the two new lovebirds,” Anne said, pointing at Lola and Diego.

“Yeah, what’s up with that?” Duncan asked.

“Who knows?” Anne shrugged. “Also, I’m kind of avoiding my dad because I don’t really want to know that he has a new girlfriend, even though it’s obvious that he does. Not to mention I thought Chris would have been here by now, but apparently he’s still at Ellie’s,” she said, sounding bitter even though she’d aimed for nonchalance.

“Chris is at Ellie’s?” Duncan asked, eyes going wide.

“Yeah,” Anne said, feeling suddenly really uncomfortable. “You didn’t know?”

“Not exactly.” He shook his head. “I invited her tonight and she said she wasn’t feeling well and had to rest up, since the Surf Fest thing is in two weeks and her dad booked her a coach again for tomorrow. She didn’t say anything about Chris being with her.” He looked upset.

Great, thought Anne.
It’s not enough that my love life sucks. Now I had to go and wreck Duncan’s as well.
“Oh, well, Chris told me they were assigned as lab partners, and they were just starting a project and got a little behind. But he’d meet me here later,” she said, shrugging as she looked toward the door. “I stopped holding my breath about an hour ago.” She smiled.

“I should have known,” Duncan said, shaking his head. “It’s always been about Chris.”

“What’re you talking about?” Anne asked, fearing what he was about to say, yet still needing to hear it.

“Ellie’s liked Chris forever. It’s so obvious, but she thinks she’s the only one who knows. That night when we hooked up at the beach, I really thought she was finally getting over him. I should have known she was just trying to get back at him.”

“Get back at him for what?” Anne asked, confused.

“For liking you,” he said, looking right at her and taking a sip of his drink.

chapter thirty-nine

“Do you think everyone’s still here?” Ellie asked as Chris pulled up to the valet.

“Who knows?” He shrugged. “I guess we’ll see when we get in there.”

“Will they let us in?” she asked, running her fingers through her long blond hair that she was wearing down for a change. “I mean, don’t we have to be on a list or something?”

“No worries,” he said, getting out of the car and handing over his keys. “Anne said she put me on it, so I’m sure I can get you in, too.” He smiled.

Yeah, only she probably put me on the do-not-let-in-under-any-circumstances list,
thought Ellie, following right behind him. It had been pretty awful of her to take advantage of Chris’s good nature by pretending to be so overstressed about school and Surf Fest and her dad and insisting on getting a head start on the science project. And even then, she’d made sure that it took way longer than necessary by pretending to not fully understand the concept, when, if anything, she’d understood it even better than he did. She rolled her eyes just thinking about it. That was definitely an all-new low for her—
dumbing it down for a guy.

And now, as she walked into the party and scanned the room, she was feeling pretty ashamed.
Well, at least Duncan won’t be here
,
since I lied to him, too,
she thought.

Relieved that she hadn’t spotted any of her friends, Ellie grabbed Chris’s hand and pulled him toward the bar. “I really want a drink,” she said, feeling suddenly pleased with herself when she saw the expression on his face. It was nice to be able to shock someone you’d known for years.

She grabbed a glass of champagne for each of them. Then, turning to hand him one, she was disappointed when he shook his head no. “Just water for me,” he said. “It’s late, I’m tired, and it’s a long drive home.”

“Fine. More for me,” she said, holding up the two flutes and smiling, but then feeling kind of stupid immediately afterward.

“Glad you could make it,” she heard someone say, the voice coming from right behind her.

She turned to see Duncan standing there staring at her. “Duncan, hey. Um, I thought you weren’t gonna show,” she said, sipping her champagne nervously and avoiding his eyes.
Oh great, this is my karma,
she thought.
And there’s no doubt I deserve this
.

“Is that why
you
showed?” he asked, noticing the two drinks she was holding and giving her an odd look.

“What? No! Of course not, don’t be silly,” she said, laughing outwardly while feeling totally panicked inside. “Do you want some?” She offered the extra flute, but he shook his head no. “So, who’d you come with?” She took another hefty sip, hoping it would calm her nerves, and get her through this.

“I drove up with Lola, but I’ve been hanging with Anne,” he said, nodding toward the table where Anne was sitting.

“Oh.” Ellie glanced quickly at Anne, feeling a stab of guilt at seeing her sitting alone.

“So where’d Chris go?” Duncan asked, looking around.

Ellie shrugged, hoping Duncan couldn’t tell how nervous she was. “Duncan, I—” She faltered, and started again. “I know how this looks. But the truth is, we were working on a project, for school, and it was so intense that we just decided to drive up here and blow off a little steam. I was totally going to call you, but then I realized how late it was.” She shrugged, fully aware of how lame she sounded. There was no way he was buying her lousy excuses.

He just stood there looking at her, not saying anything.

“Hey.” Chris walked up. “I just saw Anne sitting over there by herself. Why don’t we go join her?” he said, already turning and motioning for them to follow.

Of course
, Ellie thought, as she watched him walk away.
It’s always gonna be about Anne. And I’ve been a total fool to think otherwise.

chapter forty

Diego is so amazing,
Lola thought, smiling as he told yet another hilarious story. Who would have thought her mom would actually introduce her to someone she had so much in common with? They loved the same movies, the same books, the same magazines, the same music, the same television shows, the same celebrities, the same clothing designers—they even liked the same hair products! But more important, they both knew firsthand what it was like to grow up with strict, overbearing parents who had even stricter ideas on how their children should and would live their lives.

It’s like we’re soul mates
, she thought, looking into his gorgeous, dark, and long-lashed eyes.
Soul mates who would never, ever sleep together
.

“I can’t wait ’til next fall,” he said, taking a sip of red wine.

“Why? What’s happening next fall?” she asked.

“I’ll be going to Columbia, living in my own apartment three thousand miles away from my parents’ watchful eyes. Free at last in New York City! It doesn’t get any better than that.” He smiled.

“Sounds great,” Lola agreed.

“Yeah.” He nodded. “All I have to do now is lay low, stay under their radar, and just get through my last year of high school,” he said.

Lola looked at him. He was gorgeous, smart, ambitious, funny, totally presentable, and he’d already won the approval of her parents. In other words,
he was perfect.

“I have an idea,” she said, smiling and leaning toward him.

chapter forty-one

Ellie looked at Duncan standing in front of her. He was sweet, nice, cute, funny, athletic—so why couldn’t she like him?
There must be something wrong with me,
she thought.

“I think I’m gonna take off,” he said, looking at her and shrugging. “Can you tell Lola and make sure she has a ride home?”

“Oh. Okay. Sure.” Ellie felt awful about lying to him, and even worse about having been caught.
He has no idea how lucky he is that I don’t like him,
she thought
. Because he definitely deserves someone much nicer than me.
“But Duncan, um, you don’t have to go,” she said, wondering if she really did want him to stay or if she was just trying to alleviate her own guilt.
Probably the latter.

“No, I should hit it. I’m surfing in a contest tomorrow and I’ve got a seven-thirty heat.” he told her.

“Oh, okay, well, good luck,” she said, standing there with her two champagne glasses, one empty, the other completely full.

As she watched him fumble with his keys, she contemplated asking him for a ride. She too needed to get some sleep if she was going to be in a halfway decent form for Lina tomorrow. But it was pretty obvious he just wanted to get away from her, so she just stood there and watched him walk out the door, wondering how she was going to get home.
It’s not like I can ask Chris,
she thought, glancing over to see him leaning close to Anne, talking intently, his arm around her shoulder.

“Just FYI, don’t be fooled by the Colin Farrell lookalike over there,” Jade said, walking up and pointing toward a table in the far corner of the room.

“Colin Farrell? Are you serious?” Ellie asked, all excited. Not that she was a big fan of his, but she’d yet to see one big name and she’d been here at least twenty minutes.

“No, I repeat,
not Colin.
He has the hair, the tats, the sexy smirk, but up close, I’m telling ya, it’s just fool’s gold,” Jade said, crossing her arms and shaking her head. “
Extremely
disappointing. Anyway, have you had any Ben sightings? Know where he might be?”

“I thought he was with you.” Ellie shrugged and set both champagne glasses on the edge of a nearby table.

“He was, but then I saw the Colin wannabe and made a mad dash across the room so I could get a closer look. You know how I love my bad boys.” She laughed.

“And now you can’t locate the one you came with,” Ellie said, smiling.

“Jeez, I hope he hasn’t had any more to drink,” Jade said, scanning the room with a worried look on her face. “Last time I saw him, he wasn’t looking so great.”

“Does he have a problem?” Ellie asked, already assuming the answer.

“Actually, he has a lot of problems,” Jade said. “But he’s going through a really rough time right now, so it’s totally understandable. He’s a really great person though, and I know he’s gonna pull through this. It’s just a matter of time.” She nodded.

Ellie watched Jade’s eyes search the room, looking for Ben. He may be a nice guy, like Jade had said, but she doubted he’d pull out of it anytime soon. She recognized a downward spiral when she saw one. But it’s not like she could tell Jade that. Jade would just get mad and accuse her of being judgmental.
Besides, with the way I’ve been handling my own life lately, I really don’t have the right to judge anyone else
, she thought.

“Oh, maybe this is him,” Jade said, grabbing her ringing cell phone and placing her free hand over her other ear. “What happened? … Oh, great. Just stay right there.” She closed her phone and looked at Ellie. “Ben got kicked out and they won’t let him back in.”

“Why?” Ellie asked, wondering what he could have possibly done to get kicked out of a party like this, where all the normal rules of behavior had seemingly been abandoned.

“I have no idea, but clearly the party’s over for me. I gotta drive him home,” she said, shaking her head and rifling through her purse for her car keys.

Ellie looked over at Chris and Anne. It was like they were in their own little world. And while she really didn’t want to ride home with Ben, she was pretty much out of options. “Do you have room for one more?” she asked.

chapter forty-two

Anne looked toward the door just in time to see Ellie leave. She was embarrassed to think how ridiculous she’d been, worrying about them studying together. Chris was acting so sweet and affectionate, holding her hand and smiling, and even though it wasn’t turning out anything like the movie version she’d scripted in her head, it was still pretty nice, maybe even better. Because this was real. “I’m so glad you made it here,” she said, leaning toward him and smiling.