The Year of the Great Seventh (16 page)

“Hey, that’s your friend Megan with Jay Leno!” Dad said with incredulity.

“Turn the volume on! Turn the volume on!” Mom and I ordered at once.

Megan was wearing a gorgeous short black dress and Alex a black suit. Jay Leno was joking about the high-tech gadgets that Alex and Megan used in the movie to spy on the terrorists. He also joked about how they made Montreal look just like Paris.

Megan and Alex were giggling at Jay’s jokes. Alex began to cough and Megan passed a cup of water to him. He placed his hand on hers to thank her while he gulped it down.

Megan was explaining to Jay Leno how she’d taken karate lessons for the movie, and she also had to learn acrobatics.

Megan looked stunning. She sounded very confident and mature in the interviews. Even I could tell she was going to make it in Hollywood.

Jay Leno showed a clip of the movie. Alex and Megan were running on the roof of a skyscraper, and they were getting shot at by a helicopter. In the last frame, they held hands and jumped off the building. Two parachutes unfolded and they finally landed in the middle of a garden party with perfect hair and makeup.

“Sophie?” Mom said without being able to look away from the TV.

“Yes?” I replied, knowing exactly what she was going to ask me next.

“They’re together, aren’t they?” It was more of an affirmation than a question.

“I thought your contacts updated you on everything that happened in Hollywood.” I joked.

Mom shook her head from side to side. “Megan! At this age she should be focusing on her career, not dating her costar.”

Megan was sixteen, and contrary to what Mom thought, this was the best age to fall in love. In fact, she shouldn’t have to work at all, and even less, worry about her career. I was really happy for her. Alex seemed like a very nice person. Hollywood was a tough place where you never knew who you could trust. At least I knew he was going to look after her.

CHAPTER IX

THE LIMOUSINES WERE LINING up in the street. We could see the masses swarming the red carpet. Like everything else in Hollywood, the glitter vanished once you crossed the line and became an insider. Contrary to what we’re led to believe on TV, movie stars don’t spontaneously arrive at the red carpet. They’re made to wait inside their limousines parked on the street for ages. Our driver had a walkie-talkie and was waiting for one of the event managers to give him the green light to drive up to the velvet rope and let us out. The windows were tinted, and we’d been expressly told to keep them shut. The premiere organizers didn’t want the paparazzi to know which limousine was Megan and Alex Giordani’s.

“This is weird,” Nate mumbled, staring out at a paparazzo pressing his face against our window. He was trying to see through the tinted glass. Nate tapped on the window and the paparazzo’s face disappeared like a fish in a tank.

Nate stared out in boredom at the line of limousines ahead of us. His tailored black suit, which he wore with a simple white shirt and black tie, made him look like a movie star. He ran his fingers through his hair, pushing away the locks that spilled over his face. The perfection of his face made me tremble.

“We’re finally moving!” Nate exclaimed, bringing me back from my daydream.

Our limousine moved at a slow pace following the others ahead of us. It seemed we were going to be on the red carpet soon.

“God, I’m so nervous. I don’t think I can do this,” I said, biting my bottom lip.

“Don’t worry. You look beautiful. And I’m quite sure your friends suspected you’d been up to something anyway.” Nate brought his arm around my shoulders, making me feel like the luckiest girl in the whole state of California.

My legs were shaking. The thought of openly admitting to the world that I’d been hanging out with Nate made me really anxious. I could picture Ethan and Stacey’s faces once they discovered I’d been with Nate all along.

Deep inside I didn’t care how people reacted. This was my dream come true. Nate and I had decided to come out in the open and break all the rules. We didn’t care what the world thought. This was a statement. We wanted to break free from our scripted lives. Probably, the high school underclasses had tried to break free before, but this time was different. This time, the rebellion came from an alliance of the top and bottom hierarchies.

What really mattered to me was that I found someone who understood me. Maybe we were outcasts. In different ways we both thought we had to fit the roles assigned to us by our families and friends—Nate, the overconfident high school prince from an affluent family where appearances are more important than real feelings, and me, the invisible girl who’d been doomed to live in the movie mecca where looks mattered more than content.

“Do you think Megan’s already in?” Nate asked as we slowly approached the red carpet.

“I think she’ll be the last one. That’s how they normally do it. First the wannabes, then the real stars.”

I couldn’t stop playing with the stones of the necklace Dad had given me.

The car stopped right in front of the velvet rope. All the paparazzi turned our way. They were arranged in rows on top of a tiered stand. All we could see was a wall of camera lenses.

Nate buttoned his suit jacket and inhaled. “Let’s do this. Three, two, one.”

He opened the limousine door, but it felt like he was opening Pandora’s box. There was no way back, but by getting out of the limousine together, we were laying all our cards on the table. Nate stepped out. I followed behind. The camera flashes twinkled randomly and we stood awkwardly on the red carpet. The photographers shouted at us. The flashes resonated in the middle of the chaos.

Teenagers waiting on the other side of the barricade screamed in madness and waved their Alex and Megan posters. I didn’t understand anything. What was all the hysteria about? They didn’t even know who we were.

Nate strode down the red carpet. I was hypnotized by the flickering lights, unable to move. He grabbed my hand and gently guided me behind him.

A woman with a walkie-talkie waved at us and we followed her to the middle of the red carpet. She pointed at a huge movie billboard with Megan and Alex’s face plastered all over it. We stood in front of it while another lot of photographers shot their dazzling flashes at us. I was having trouble believing this was for real. People were screaming at us for no good reason.

Nate didn’t seem intimidated at all. He was as confident as always, flaunting his Hollywood smile for the photographers. He squeezed my hand trying to help me relax, letting me know we were together in this.

I forced a smile for the cameras and posed next to Nate, not really enjoying the moment. The temperature of my face rose quickly.

Surprisingly, the cameras were mostly pointing in Nate’s direction. I suspected that Nate’s charm hadn’t gone unnoticed by the photographers.

“Can we take a picture of you alone? What’s your name?” a photographer shouted.

My hands began to sweat. This was too embarrassing.

I brought my gaze down and when I was about to step away, Nate put his arm around me, bringing me as close to him as physically possible. Facing the photographer, and with a half-smile, he shook his head from side to side, refusing to accept the photographer’s orders.

The flashing slowly relented. Another limousine arrived at the red carpet, and thankfully, we became invisible again. The photographers’ intimidating lenses pointed at the new arrivals. Alex and Megan’s fans were becoming delirious awaiting their arrival. Their screaming hadn’t lost any steam.

Nate and I looked at each other and burst into laughter. It was bizarre the way paparazzi could almost make you believe you were someone important—worth fighting for to get the best shot—and then seconds later, completely lose interest in you.

The woman with the walkie-talkie waved at us. We followed her to the entrance of the theater where we could witness the others arriving, safe from the crowd.

I was quite sure I couldn’t have done this without Nate. There was something about him, about his presence, that made me feel more secure about myself. Nate’s magic was contagious.

A parade of limousines arrived and beautiful people strolled down the red carpet. Some of them, the real celebrities, were interviewed by TV hosts as they walked along. A slim brunette was working the crowds as she paraded through the red carpet in a silver gown. The walkie-talkie woman looked particularly surprised at her arrival. She was signing autographs and posing for fans.

“Who’s that?” I asked Nate, intrigued.

Nate shrugged. His eyes fixed on the mysterious girl.

“She played the mean girl in
Street Gangs
,” the security guard leaning on the theater door whispered to us. “She was dating Alex Giordani, but he dumped her for Megan Layton, his costar in this movie.”

“It looks like there’s going to be a cat fight. I’m sure she’s not supposed to be here.” The security guard, who was the size of a closet, giggled like a teenage girl.

Nate and I looked at each other with wide, open eyes. It wasn’t fair that this girl was trying to crash Megan’s premiere. Megan had worked hard to get here, and she didn’t deserve this.

By the guard’s comments, it seemed I wasn’t the only one who knew Alex and Megan were together. I guess it wasn’t easy to hide your feelings when you had an army of paparazzi following you around all day.

Emerging from a white Hummer limousine, Emma, Tyson, and Chase waved their hands at the screaming fans. Tyson and Chase were in tuxedos and Emma was wearing the open-back Armani sequined black gown. Tyson and Chase looked a bit shocked as they hadn’t properly anticipated the hysteria that ensued.

Emma was getting interviewed along the red carpet, and it looked like Chase and Tyson were trying to hide behind her. Emma was the only one who had a real reason to be here. At least she was part of the movie industry.

Suddenly, it hit me. I could feel my legs shaking. This was the moment of truth. All the times I had ferociously denied anything to do with Nate to my friends ran through my mind. What if this was a turning point in our friendship?

Tyson and Chase followed Emma along the carpet, seemingly stunned by the frenzy. Emma stood in front of the billboard, and the paparazzi unleashed the fury of their flashes on her. Emma smugly worked the camera. Chase and Tyson waited to one side, observing the fireworks of flashes reflecting on Emma’s sparkling dress. Emma changed poses, turning her back and staring coyly at the photographers over her shoulder. Locks of curling hair fell over her bare back.

Suddenly Emma’s eyes fixed upon us, and her smile faded. Some of the paparazzi looked our way to see what Emma was staring at. Tyson and Chase’s eyes widened.

Cold fire ran down my back. This wasn’t the sort of reaction I was expecting. Emma strode toward us, leaving the photographers flashing at an empty billboard. Tyson and Chase followed close behind. The disappointment in Emma’s eyes made my stomach squirm with guilt. Tyson and Chase looked down, as though they didn’t have the courage to meet my gaze. I knew they weren’t disappointed because I was with Nate, but rather because I’d lied to them over and over in these past weeks.

The three of them stood in front of us, looking thunderstruck.

Emma took me slightly to the side and whispered in unflattering disbelief, “You must be joking! This can’t be for real!”

“Please, Emma, don’t do this,” I murmured in her ear, begging her to spare me from this embarrassing moment.

“I can’t believe it. So it was him you were dating, wasn’t it? That’s why you didn’t want to tell us,” Emma said, raising her voice from a whisper to a louder tone and ignoring that Nate was, in fact, standing next to her.

“Hi, you must be Emma. I’m Nate,” he said, making her aware that he wasn’t a hologram and was indeed listening to the conversation.

“Yeah, I guessed. I was at Ethan’s party, remember?” Emma explained with sarcasm in her voice.

This was terrible. How could she be so rude? How could she dare talk to him like that? Maybe she should weigh the possibility of getting to know him before blaming him for what happened at the party.

“I was hoping people had forgotten about that, but I see it’s not the case.” Nate half-smiled, showing her that none of her menacing words worried him a bit.

Emma pressed her lips together as though she was preparing a new attack. She wasn’t going to give him a second chance.

“Is Megan here already?” Chase said, trying to loosen the tension between Emma and me.

“Nope, but she shouldn’t be long. I think the stars always come in last.” Nate made another vain attempt at starting a conversation.

The situation was utterly awkward. The five of us stood in a circle outside the theater, all of the others staring at Nate as though he had one leg and three eyes.

The photographers scrambled, making all of us turn at once toward the red carpet. The last limousine had arrived. Alex Giordani was helping Megan out of the car. The fans waiting outside the barricades, mostly teenagers, screamed in madness, some of them in tears. Alex and Megan were signing autographs, the flashes flickering at a million times per second. The air filled with euphoria. The intensity of the moment urged me to scream. Unlike the fans, I didn’t want to scream because of the excitement, but because of my friends’ injustice. I knew what Nate had done to Ethan was unspeakable, but I wanted them to give him a second chance.