I grab my things to leave and stick the card Liam sent in my bag. I have to be back here later, so I leave my flowers and tell Quinn I’ll meet her in my car. We, along with the rest of The Eight, make our way to our interview, and when I tell her about my meeting with Florence, she tells me, “It’ll work out,” whichisn’t reassuring, but I doubt anything she could’ve said would’ve helped so I switch the topic.
“How do you think today's interview with Hollywood's It Girl is going to go?”
Quinn shrugs as we walk into the building. “Our last interview was almost exactly a year ago. I think it's going to be an update sort of thing.”
I nod in response before turning to her. “Do me a favor?”
She's already nodding as she turns to me.
“If they bring up Helena, can you help me sway them away? I'm tired of people asking me about her.” I tell her tiredly.
She grabs my hand, giving me a reassuring squeeze. “The girls and I already thought about that. We got you.”
I give her a smile and turn as someone calls my name.
“Sage!” Coral calls, and the rest of the girls make their way to us. “We were trying to find our dressing rooms and got lost,” Coral says shyly, and Stel shakes her head.
“She meant to say she wanted to look around and got us lost,” Nin corrects her.
“Same difference.” We all laugh at how freaking nosy Coral is, and someone finds us before taking us to where we need to be.
“Omg, did we all get flowers?” The girls walk into my room, and I already know they’re not from the interviewers. I grab the card before they can and run my finger along the pawprint before breaking the wax open.
I grew up in Berkeley and it’s one of the few places I love.
Along with New York, Greece, and by your side.
I agree with you, family matters, but I don’t like talking about mine, so I’ll tell you about them another time.
For now:
Dad is gone.
Mom is sick.
I had a sister.
I keep rereading his note, and I can’t tell if there’s a typo onhada sister, but I reallyreallyhope there is because he said he’s not ready for questions, but now I have a hundred more.
“Who are they from?”
I hold the note to my chest and muster up a smile.
Coral leans back as she eyes me suspiciously, but I tell her they're from my boyfriend, and she smiles at me knowingly. “Is it a dirty note?”
“What?” I break into a laugh, and she teases me about it the entire time we get ready. Liam must have looked at my schedule for today because there's no other way he’d know I’d be here today, but I certainly have no complaints.
“Are you guys done?” Coral asks Stel and Mace. When I turn to look at them, they giggle about something to themselves. I look back over at the other girls, and we all share a look. Royal mouths something I can’t make out, and Coral and Nin start laughing. I look over at Quinn, but she only shrugs with a smile.
“Yeah!” Stel pushes Macey’s hand away from her belly, and I smile as I look away from them.They're totally hooking up, and I totally ship them.
The interview goes smoothly. We had the same interviewer as last time, and she asked most of the same questions, at least as far as I can remember. Every time she tried to ask about Helena, the other girls, thankfully, swayed her away.
“The interviewer was totally hitting on you,” Nin tells Macey, and Stel jumps up from her seat.
“I freaking told you!”
Macey tries to deny it but we all agree and it was very clear. “Okay fine,maybeshe was, but she was hitting on you, too, and you were entertaining it, Stellamae.”
