She indulged in movies until dinnertime and then grabbed two nitrate-free all-beef hot dogs from the fridge and sat down to eat them,sansbun.The dexedrine had started to wear off and exhaustion had set back in.Her eyelids felt gritty and dry and her brain was moving slowly.She’d take a nice long bath and go to bed.Tomorrow morning she’d be a new woman.
She heard voices outside and the front door opened.Bev and a boisterous crowd of people filed in.“Let the party begin,” Bev called out happily.
She groaned.Time to hide.She stood up and padded to the foyer, slipping around the corner to the staircase.The sight of a tattooed man stopped her.
No.Way.She wanted to throw up.There, in her living room, stood her sister, her ex-boyfriend, his new supermodel girlfriend and all of his band members.
Before she could bolt for her bedroom, Billy’s blue-gray eyes drifted up the staircase and landed on her.“Heeey Marissa,” he said softly, like she was a spooked dog.He left Ella Janes standing there and headed up the staircase toward her.“I was hoping you’d be here.We really need to talk.”
They did?
“We do?”
“Yeah.”He put a hand on her low back, like he still had rights to her and guided her back into the kitchen.“Listen, babe,” he said in his dragged out, stoner-surfer voice.“I’m so glad your sister invited us over, because I’ve been feeling like we have thisthinghanging between us.”
“Thisthing?”
“Yeah, you know...What happened between us this summer.”
She folded her arms across her chest.“What exactly did happen between us this summer?”She hated the tight, high-pitched timbre of her voice.
The front door opened and closed and the number of voices downstairs increased.Someone turned on the stereo.
“You know, it’s not about you, babe.I hope you understand that.I met Ella and we just had this instantconnection.”
“And you’re telling me this now?Two months after I find it out from the tabloids?”
“Okay, hey.I understand you’re a little pissy about it all.But I just wanted you to know that I still love you.I think you’re awesome.I had a ball with you.And I don’t want there to be any hard feelings between us.”
“Well, you can’t always get what you want, now can you?”It wasn’t that snappy of a line, pretty cliché, actually, but it was the best she could come up with.She wasn’t good at confrontation.She stomped out of the kitchen, up to the third floor to her bedroom.
This sucked.Why would Bev invite her ex and his new girlfriend to her house—her house, dammit—to party?Especially on a night when she had to get a good night’s sleep or her career would be over?
She skipped the bath and crawled into her bed, pulling the covers up to her chin as the band began to do a sound check.Great.Now she had to listen to Billy Foxx and his boy band playing all night long.She held the pillow over her ears.
So much for a good night’s sleep.
Marissa woke in sweat-dampened pajamas.Sunlight streamed in through her window, baking her with its intensity.
Ugh.She got out of bed and turned on the ceiling fan.What time was it, anyway?
She looked at her clock and shrieked.Literally shrieked.Nine-forty.She’d been due at the studio at nine.She hadn’t set her alarm because she figured after going to bed at eight p.m., she’d be up at the crack of dawn.She raced to the bathroom and took a thirty-second shower, stopping only to heave twice down the drain.She froze when she climbed out and caught her reflection in the mirror.
No.F-ing.Way.A giant cold sore had appeared on her upper lip.She looked like she should be starring in a horror movie as the zombie girlfriend from hell.“No, no, no, no, no,” she wailed as she threw on some clothes and dashed down the stairs.Her living room was littered with beer and liquor bottles, party guests still hanging out on her couch or passed out around the room.
“No, no, no, no, no,” she repeated as she searched for the keys to her car.Bev had them last, which meant they might be anywhere.She pounded back up the stairs and threw open Bev’s door.Her sister lay naked, one leg tossed over Billy Foxx, also naked.
She started to heave again.This shouldn’t be her life.It really shouldn’t.She found her sister’s purse and dug the keys out.
“I really hate you,” she muttered as she slammed the door and ran down the stairs two at a time.
Downstairs Ella Janes was stumbling around her living room.
“Your boyfriend’s upstairs in my sister’s bed,” she said as she passed her by.
“I know,” the model breezed, her lids half-lowered over red eyes.“It’s cool.We have an open relationship.”
Ugh.“Well, that works out great for you, I guess,” she said, running out the door.She jumped in the car, cursing her sister and mother the entire time.Considering it was her money they lived on, you’d think they would pay a little more attention to her career.Weren’t they supposed to be managing her?She slammed on the brakes at a red light hard enough that her seatbelt locked.She hated driving.Bev should be driving her right now.
