The Year of the Great Seventh (15 page)

There was almost no chance he would accept my offer, but I didn’t care. I didn’t want to feel sorry for myself anymore. If Nate and I weren’t going to be together, at least I wanted to know I’d done everything possible.

Adding to my anxiety was the dress issue. I needed to find one to wear to the premiere. I wanted a proper red carpet dress, but where was I going to get the money to buy it?

It wasn’t a secret that my weekly allowance was almost nonexistent. That was another of Mom’s dirty tricks to push me to take on acting jobs. But it didn’t really work. I liked to rule my own life even if that meant living without a penny.

This time was a bit more complicated. I couldn’t turn up at the premiere looking like a beggar. Emma and Megan earned money from their acting jobs, especially Megan. She was really modest about revealing how much she made, but through Mom, I knew she was a well-paid actress in the independent movie range. For
Operation Calypso,
it was a whole new level.

Megan and Emma were going to get impressive dresses, and even if I didn’t aim for their standard, I didn’t want to make a fool of myself.

Panic took hold of me when I saw Emma checking the Armani online store on her cell phone. She was checking a black gown for the staggering price of eight thousand dollars. It had sparkling sequins and an open back. She was going to look stunning. I needed to put some money together to get a nice outfit.

The year before, when I turned fifteen, Aunt Jane gave me two thousand dollars, which I put straight into my college savings account. After the end of my freshman and sophomore years, Dad had given me five hundred dollars for getting all A’s. And at the end of my summer internship at the Getty, even though it was unpaid, I was given a thousand dollars to cover part of the meal and transportation expenses. That was a total of four thousand dollars that I had saved for college. I couldn’t spend that on a dress. That was just wrong.

Mr. Silverman was writing undecipherable mathematical formulas on the blackboard, and I forced myself to pick up my pen and start copying them in my notebook. I gazed at Emma again to find her texting back and forth with Chase. It made me wonder why she bothered coming to school at all. She had a successful acting career waiting for her, and anyway, she spent most classes surfing the net on her cell phone. But who was I to talk? I spent most classes lost in my reverie.

I couldn’t ignore it for one more minute. I had to ask Nate whether he wanted to be my plus one at the premiere.

I grabbed my cell phone and without hesitating, I typed,
Would you like to come with me to the
Operation Calypso
premiere? I really tried to block you out of my life, but I can’t. It’s about time to break free…
And I left the phone on my table in vibration mode.

I spent the last class waiting anxiously for Nate’s answer, but it seemed he wasn’t as ready to break free as I expected. My disappointment grew and washed over me as the time passed. Maybe he didn’t want to play silly games. To be honest, I wasn’t shocked about him ignoring my text. Why would he change his mind now?

*

On my way out that evening, as I was going to catch the bus, I saw Nate inside his black sports car. He seemed to be waiting for someone. He’d never seemed as handsome as now. He was a bit tanner than usual, probably from the hours he spent playing basketball under the sun.

He was always dressed to impress, though it appeared almost accidental. He was wearing an unbuttoned white shirt and a grey T-shirt underneath; the back of the collar was turned up. The final touch was a charcoal trilby hat that gave him the air of Dr. Jekyll.

The seriousness in his face made me tremble. Maybe I upset him with my text. I was being absolutely selfish. I just wanted to be with him regardless of what was best for both of us.

I was staring at him while walking to the bus, but Nate didn’t look my way once. Then, out of the blue, he pointed out to the parking lot gate. Doubting he referred to me, I pointed at myself, and he nodded. He was indeed talking to me.

Nate backed out of his parking spot and joined the line of cars going through the gates.

I walked out, turning several times to check that no one could see me. Nate was on the side of the road with the engine running, waiting for me. The door clacked open and I got inside.

“Would you like a ride home?” Nate half-smiled.

“All right.” I shrugged.

The moment I shut the car’s door, Nate quickly drove away. He seemed eager to avoid anyone from school.

Nate’s car smelled like brand new cars do. The interior was made of white leather. High-tech screens glowed in the dashboard. The inside of his car reminded me of the cockpit of a plane. I didn’t want to move in case I touched something. All the high-tech equipment seemed so fragile.

Nate was driving quite fast. He braked at the lights a little too late. I was beginning to think maybe he was as nervous as I was.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Nate said, observing me from the corner of his eye.

“I think so,” I replied, relieved to know he was at least considering the option.

“This may have some consequences. Ethan and his friends won’t leave you alone if he sees us together. Also, there’s Stacey, Natasha…”

“Okay, okay, I get it. You don’t need to name them all.” I held my backpack tight to my chest, imagining all the ways in which Ethan could make my life miserable.

He was right. Maybe I hadn’t considered all the aspects that could change in my life by taking Nate to the premiere. I turned to face him, and it only took one glimpse of his beautiful face to make it clear what my final decision was. “I don’t care anymore what anyone says. I want to live my life my own way.”

Nate moved the steering wheel from side to side with one hand as though he was playing a video game. It was obvious there was something else on his mind.

“Did he hurt you? He pushed you, didn’t he?” He finally spilled the beans. His fingers clenched the steering wheel tightly.

“He hardly touched me,” I said, so quietly I barely heard my own words.

“I swear, I thought I was going to kill him. You don’t know how close I was.” He sounded enraged, as though he was picturing in his mind what could’ve happened.

“How did you do it?” I whispered.

He spoke as if trying to explain it to himself. “I don’t really know.”

The roaring of the engine reverberated inside the car.

Nate’s face was flat and expressionless. “When someone provokes me, there’s nothing I can do. I can’t just walk away. This morning I just pictured in my mind how horrible it must’ve been for you to see what I did to Ethan last time. I just got into the car and tried to calm down.”

The freeway was packed with cars, as it was the afternoon rush hour. Nate kept changing lanes to avoid getting stuck in traffic.

We lapsed into silence. It was more than silence; it was a symphony of Nate’s car speeding and braking. He was apparently taking the fury of Ethan’s injustice out on the engine. He seemed to be waiting for me to speak, but I couldn’t do it. I was afraid of the answer to my next question.

“So will you come with me to the premiere, then?”

“What about your friends? Won’t they be upset with you if they find out you’ve been hanging out with the bad guy all along?” Nate said, revealing how he felt about himself.

The speedometer was a bright green number displayed on a digital screen. The numbers on the screen flickered at a high speed as if they were going to draw the winning number of a lottery game. The light reflected in Nate’s eyes.

“I don’t know how, but Megan already knows. She gave me the ticket for you. About the others? I think they’ll get over it,” I said, not making a big deal out of it.

“I wanted you to be who you were before I intervened in your life,” Nate explained with resentment in his voice. “I thought if I stayed away from you, you’d forget about me, about what was happening to me. I don’t know how to fix it. I just don’t want to see you looking depressed all the time. I don’t know what to do!”

The expression on my face suddenly changed. “But you never looked at me once after the day at the Getty. How did you notice?”

Nate spoke in disbelief. “Sophie, I may be a bit more discreet than you are, but I was aware. Just like probably everyone else at school. In fact, I couldn’t bear seeing what I did to you.” He was staring at the road as though he was avoiding meeting my gaze. “You had no idea what I was going through. That day at the cafeteria, I had to check that you were still breathing. You’d been staring blankly at the wall for the entire lunch break!”

“It was you who threw the piece of eraser at me.”

Nate half-smiled back at me. It had been him.

The afternoon sun was blinding. Nate grabbed a pair of sunglasses from the glove box and put them on. I wanted to scream. He had to stop looking so handsome.

I breathed deeply and nervously spoke. “Is that a yes? Let’s break free?”

Nate took a turn onto my street and brought the car to a halt by the gate. Turning to look straight into my eyes, he tucked a lock of hair behind my ear. “I don’t really know what’s going to happen to me. The doctors said I’m going to get worse as I grow older. If you think you can handle my situation, I’ll go with you.”

This was the story with Nate. Good news always came together with fatal news. He always managed to overshadow the positive side of life. In this moment I should be overjoyed. Nate had just said that he would come with me to the premiere. But I just felt empty.

Nate seemed to be waiting for an answer. My voice quivered, as a liar’s might. “I think I can handle it. I think I know what you do. You just take one day at a time without worrying about tomorrow. I guess I can do the same.”

Nate smiled back at me. “Thank you. You don’t know what this means to me.”

And right there, the beginning of my life with Nate started. All it took was a wicked lie. I was sure I would never get over it if he got worse, and by spending more time with him, I was magnifying my pain. But that was the least of my worries at the moment. I wanted to be with him, and that’s all that mattered to me.

“Is that a yes, then?”

He looked at me and grinned. “Yes.”

I couldn’t believe he agreed to come with me. I couldn’t believe it had been so easy, and I couldn’t help wondering why. What was different? Was this a trick?

“Wait a minute. Why? What’s changed? Why is it okay for us to be around each other now?” I rushed through each word.

“I don’t know. I have to admit I’m being selfish by getting you involved in my problems, but as you said, something’s changed. I couldn’t describe what exactly it is, but since the day at the Getty, I feel different when I’m around you. It’s as if I’m under control when you’re around.”

It didn’t make any sense, but I didn’t care. All that mattered to me was that Nate would be my plus one at the premiere. The adrenaline rushed through my body at the thought of our arrival together. I had a lot of planning to do. I had to decide what makeup I was going to wear and how I was going to get a nice dress. Maybe with a bit of luck, a friend of Mom’s who was a makeup artist at the studios could do my makeup for free. Also, I needed to buy a pair of high-heeled shoes. Nate was very tall, and I didn’t want to look like a midget next to him.

When I walked into the house, Mom was in the living room, reading a book, the news resonating in the background. The late afternoon sun was reflected off the ceramic tiles.

I wondered what was up with Mom, as she normally read in her room, but she was probably about to start cooking dinner.

“Hi, Sophie, how was school?” Mom asked, looking at me over her reading glasses.

“It was okay,” I said, rushing up the stairs. I didn’t have time to chat today. I needed to go through my old dresses to see if there was any one even mildly suitable for the premiere.

“Sophie, hold on a minute. Dad and I want to talk to you,” Mom said, taking off her reading glasses and closing her book. I knew I was in trouble if Mom and Dad wanted to talk to me together, and the first thing that came to my mind was my F in Spanish. Had Ms. Sanchez called them? That seemed unfair after I’d redone the paper and received an A.

“Charles! Sophie’s here!” Mom called, staring at the door of Dad’s office. Then he appeared with a big box with a blue ribbon around it. He held it toward me.

“Is that for me?” I rushed to say, running over to Dad to grab the box.

Mom and Dad laughed at my excitement. I yanked the box from Dad and unwrapped it to find a beautiful Dolce and Gabbana red silk gown inside.

“That’s for Friday’s premiere,” Mom said.

I stood in the middle of the living room like a statue with the beautiful dress in my hands.

“This is beautiful. This is a really expensive dress!” I said, stunned.

“Mom borrowed it from the studios. It was used in some movie,” Dad explained, sitting next to Mom on the sofa. The sports news had just come on TV. I could tell Dad wasn’t very interested in premieres and girls’ dresses.

“You’re going to have to tell us who is that Nate you’re taking to the premiere? Is he your boyfriend?” Mom asked.

Thankfully, Dad was absolutely immersed in last week’s L.A. Lakers highlights. He was aware of Nate’s problems, and if he realized Nate was the one taking me to the premiere, that would be the end of the story.

“He’s just a friend. Wait a minute! How did you…? Have you been spying on…?” I said, unable to finish the sentence.

Mom broke into a laugh. “Sophie, Megan’s publicist is an old friend. She told me that Megan had invited you to the premiere and that you were bringing a friend named Nate. I have my contacts!”

God! With Mom and her friends in the film industry, she was way too connected. She’d known about the premiere before I actually did. She even knew I was taking Nate with me probably before I did. I had to confess I was impressed with Megan’s intuition. How had she discovered that I was hanging out with Nate? She hadn’t even been in L.A. the last few weeks. Mom and Megan should open a detective agency. I reckon they would be very good at it.