All About the Hype (9 page)

‘Actions speak louder than words,’ he replies, cocking an eyebrow at me. I smile and lean in to kiss him, but what was meant to be a peck somehow transforms into another full-blown
snog.

‘Get a room,’ Agnes interrupts. She and Brett smilingly pull up the chairs across from us.

‘When are you flying home?’ I ask Brett, fighting off a blush.

‘Next Friday,’ he replies.

Agnes stares at the table, disheartened. I feel a surge of pity for her. She’s going to be devastated once he’s gone.

‘Damn,’ Jack says suddenly, taking his arm out from behind my shoulders. I follow the line of his sight to see Brandon getting out of a car.

I edge away from him, disappointed. Brandon asked what we were up to when I texted him from Jack’s phone earlier so I didn’t think twice about replying that we were heading here.

‘You guys are ridiculous,’ Agnes states. ‘Why don’t you just come clean?’

‘Dudes!’ Brandon’s shout prevents us from answering. I sit up straighter as he drags over a chair from another table. ‘Man, that YouTube shit is nuts!’ he exclaims
with a grin.

‘What did you expect?’ Agnes asks him, before smiling at me. ‘Johnny singing to you was crazy cute,’ she says. ‘Did you see Margarita’s Twitter
feed?’

‘No?’ I give her a questioning look.

‘She posted a pic of you, Gina, Rafe and Johnny and got, like, six thousand retweets or something.’

I presume she means Rafael Rios, the male model.

‘How funny,’ I say with a giggle.

I can’t believe all these famous kids are in my class.

‘So listen,’ Jack says, sitting forward and resting his elbows on the table. ‘I was contacted again by Owen from
Muso
magazine today. We’ve set up next Friday
for the interview. That cool?’

‘Fine with me,’ I reply, feeling a buzz of excitement at the thought of doing an interview with a proper music journalist. I remember Jack talking to him after the gig in San
Francisco.

‘Are we sticking to Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays for band practice?’ Brandon asks.

‘I can’t do Wednesdays,’ I say. Jack throws me a glance. ‘Driving lessons,’ I explain. ‘And I think Harry wanted to change my singing lessons to Mondays,
going forward, but maybe I can stick to Tuesdays.’ Harry is my singing tutor. ‘I was going to try to fit in piano lessons, too,’ I muse.

‘You’re gonna be busy,’ Brett comments.

‘Don’t forget homework,’ Agnes chips in.

I groan and slump down in my seat.

‘Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays?’ Jack suggests.

‘Works for me,’ Brandon replies. ‘I’ll check with Miles.’

‘Where is he this arvo?’ I ask. He didn’t reply to the message I sent from Jack’s phone.

‘Work,’ Brandon replies.

Jack, Brandon and Miles all finished school last summer, but they were more interested in pursuing careers in music than going off to college. They have part-time jobs to keep their parents off
their backs while they focus on the band. Jack and Miles work in a record store and Brandon does some music PR for his dad’s company. He and Jack also do a bit of DJ-ing. None of them
need
to work, but I’m kind of glad that they do. There’s nothing attractive about a waster.

Brandon hangs out with us while we finish up our drinks and then we wander back outside to our cars, Jack carrying my new keyboard.

‘I’ll catch a ride home with Sam,’ I say, smiling at the man in question as he leans against his car, waiting for me.

‘You sure?’ Jack asks, seeming disappointed. ‘Miles is coming over after work if you wanna join us?’

‘I can’t. Eddie’s doing a “first day of school” dinner,’ I tell him. ‘Johnny and Meg are going to totally grill me. See you on Thursday,
though?’

‘Yeah.’ He glances at Brandon and then gives me a small, regretful smile.

I jerk my head towards Sam and Jack carries my keyboard over to put it in the car boot.

‘Bye,’ I say, stepping forward and hugging him. I hope the embrace looks platonic to Brandon, even though the feeling of Jack’s chest against mine makes my pulse race.

I call goodbye to the others and climb into the car, glancing out of the window in time to see someone who looks just like Charlie Hunnam walking into Intelligentsia.

I smirk to myself. Just another typical day in LA.

The next day at school, Jenna reminds me that I’m invited to her and Justin’s sixteenth birthday party. It’s on Saturday night and it sounds like everyone is
going, everyone except Agnes.

‘I’d rather spend my last weekend with Brett,’ she tells me at lunchtime as we wait in line for our food. What’s on offer looks a damn sight more appetising than what
they used to serve in the cafeteria back home. ‘You should go, though,’ she urges, sliding her tray along the counter.

‘Yeah, I suppose so.’ The thought of going without her is not very appealing. ‘Do you know what Jack’s up to?’ I ask.

‘Don’t you have a direct line to him?’ she responds with a smile.

‘Sorry.’ I don’t want her to ever feel like she’s caught in the middle. She was one of the people who warned me that her brother was trouble, but she also sort of
encouraged our relationship. She can be contradictory like that.

‘I’m sure Jenna and Justin wouldn’t mind if you invited him,’ she says.

‘Really? I’d feel a bit cheeky.’

‘Everyone knows Jack. He’s probably invited, anyway.’

I soon find out that she’s right.

‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ I ask with mild irritation when I arrive earlier than Miles and Brandon for band practice on Thursday. I felt awkward earlier, when
I finally bit the bullet and asked Jenna if Jack could come with me to the party, and she replied that all three of my bandmates were already on the guest list. She’d invited them last
weekend at my house.

‘It hadn’t occurred to me,’ Jack replies casually, leading the way into the games room. Brett picked up Agnes from school today in his campervan and they’ve gone for a
drive to Malibu beach so Davey brought me here.

‘Are you going?’ I ask, feeling a bit miffed.

He shrugs. ‘I dunno yet. You?’

‘Yeah. I am.’ I try to sound as flippant as he does.

‘Then I guess I am, too,’ he says, flashing me a grin. Why do I get the feeling he’s teasing me?
And
testing me?

I think I might need to keep Jack on his toes. The thought is depressing. I don’t like having to play games. I never had to with Tom. I wonder how he’s been getting on with his dad.
I make a mental note to call next week when he’s back in England.

‘Hey,’ Jack says. I return my attention to him as he jerks his head towards the back of the room, indicating that I should follow him.

‘Why?’ I ask, staying where I am.

‘Miles and Brandon’ll be here in a minute. Let’s hang in a dark corner until they arrive… Don’t make me come get you,’ he warns when I don’t instantly
oblige. He slowly starts walking towards me. My face breaks into a grin as I back away.

‘Oh, you do
not
wanna do that,’ he says meaningfully.

I turn and run out of the games room doors, laughing.

His family’s property is set into a hill and there are three flat expanses, divided by small, steep hills as the land slopes down. I run straight down the first hill, laughing as he chases
me. He catches me easily at the beginning of the next hill, grabbing my waist and whizzing me round. I’m panting as he spins me to face him, and then we’re falling on the sloping
ground. He traps me beneath his body and my whole head fizzes and sparks as his tongue enters my mouth. I feel dizzy as I kiss him back with just as much fervour.

We freeze at the sound of a car driving through the front gates. Jack sighs and rests his entire body weight on top of me. It feels so good, even if I’m momentarily unable to breathe.

Reluctantly, he gets up, holding out his hand to pull me to my feet. I smoothe down my hair and flash him a cheeky grin as we walk over to greet our bandmates.

Maybe I like playing games after all.

Saturday comes around quickly and, with it, Jenna and Justin Kelly’s sixteenth birthday party. There’s been a buzz about it all week at school and, as far as I
know, everyone who’s anyone is going. I’m disappointed that Agnes can’t be there, but at least Lottie is coming, and Jack, Miles and Brandon, too. We’ve had a couple of
really good band sessions this week, including today, which saw us working on a new song. I even suggested a few lyrics myself that seemed to go down well.

Eve, the last All Hype singer, didn’t write any lyrics, which is something I feel hugely relieved about. Jack and Brandon write most of their stuff, so she doesn’t have any ownership
over their songs. That would have really bothered me. It’s hard enough to compete with her voice, but she was super cool, too.

I hate that she had sex with Jack – at least, I think she did. He told me that they weren’t really boyfriend and girlfriend, that they just had ‘a thing’ going, but then
he later told me that he ‘broke up’ with her because of me.

I’m not sure it makes me feel any better.

But I’m still buzzing after today’s session when we arrive at the party together, which is being held in the Kellys’ mansion in West Hollywood. Davey has driven all four of us,
but Johnny was satisfied with the Kellys’ security measures so he let me come without Sam.

When we climb out of the car, several flashes go off in our faces. I pose with my bandmates for a few photographs, and my head is spinning as we walk through the gates.

The whole garden has been decked out like a winter wonderland, with fake icicles hanging from the trees and real snow being sprayed out of machines into the air. Waiting staff wander around with
trays of colourful cocktails and canapés and they’re all dressed in extravagant, icy-looking costumes that wouldn’t seem out of place on a film set. Even their over-the-top
make-up looks like it’s been done by proper make-up artists. One guy’s hair has been spray-painted white and slicked up into an enormous quiff and his eyebrows have been frosted
blue.

Jenna and Justin are welcoming guests so we go over to say hi.

‘Hello,’ I say warmly. ‘Happy birthday.’

‘Thank you!’ Jenna gushes. She looks somewhere between a princess and a bride in a sparkling white ballgown. Justin is rocking an electric-blue, sequinned suit.

As for me, I’m wearing an Alexander Wang minidress that’s black with draped, ruched detailing. Meg gave it to me yesterday when she found out I had a party to go to. I couldn’t
believe it when I googled the price.

I still feel underdressed, though, and I’m not sure Jack’s crumpled suit jacket over ripped jeans is up to standards, either.

Not that I mind. He looks so sexy.

We each take a cocktail and head further down the garden, where I notice with amazement that an ice rink has been set up on the grass. People are gliding across the length of it and I watch with
fascination as one girl spins on the spot like a professional ice dancer. I flash Jack a grin.

‘I so want to do that.’

‘Can you skate?’ he asks.

‘No, but I’ll give anything a go at least once.’

‘I’ll keep that in mind,’ he says quietly enough that Brandon and Miles can’t hear him. The hairs on my arms stand up and then I hear an unfamiliar voice speaking from a
few metres away.

‘I will if you will.’

I turn to see Sienna Victor, the daughter of supermodel Courtney Victor. She’s tall and stick-thin with thick dark eyebrows, blunt dark hair cut to just above her shoulders and piercing
blue eyes. It’s no surprise that she’s following in her mother’s footsteps.

She flashes me a grin. ‘I overheard. You tempted?’ She nods again at the skating rink. ‘It’ll only get busier.’

‘OK,’ I decide on impulse, downing half of my drink in one go and dumping my glass on a nearby table.

I haven’t seen much of Sienna this week in school. We don’t share many classes, but I met her briefly at my party. As she leads the way, her gangly, high-heeled feet treading
carefully across the soggy grass, I start to have second thoughts. Do I really want to make a complete tit out of myself in front of this girl? Though if I worried about that all the time I’d
have no fun at all. I decide to stick with my convictions and follow her to the boot hut, which is covered with fake snow.

‘Only got guy boots in that size,’ the man tells Sienna.

‘Fine,’ she says abruptly, looking embarrassed.

‘I really hope you can’t skate well,’ I say, trying to sound upbeat.

‘Are you kidding? I’m about to fall flat on my face.’

‘Phew! Me too!’

Once we’ve laced up our boots, she offers me her arm and we walk carefully across the artificial lawn to the ice-rink entrance.

‘OK,’ she says, taking a deep breath. ‘Let’s do this.’

I shoot a look across the rink and see that Jack is nowhere to be seen.
Good
, I think to myself before launching forward.

‘Argh!’ I scream and she does the same as she follows me, her gazelle-like legs scooting this way and that as she tries to stay upright.

‘Crap!’ she gasps, as I crack up laughing.

I’m surprised at how much fun I have in the next twenty minutes, but, by the end of it, we are actually doing some semblance of skating. As we do a last lap round the rink, we even manage
a conversation.

‘Where’s Agnes tonight?’ Sienna asks me.

‘She’s with her guy, Brett. He’s over here from Australia,’ I explain.

‘Aah,’ she says knowingly. ‘I saw them together at your birthday party. Great night, by the way.’

‘Thanks,’ I reply, touched. ‘Not that I had anything to do with organising it.’

‘I love that your dad’s All Hype song went viral.’

‘Me too! So funny.’

‘And you have some serious lungs on you, too, girl.’

She flashes me an impressed look and my insides fizz with pride.

‘Why didn’t you sing another song?’ she asks curiously.

I’m not sure I want to get into it with her, but then I think, why not? We’ve bonded over our shared lack of skating skills and it’s not like it’s a big secret.

‘My birthday was the first anniversary of my mum’s death,’ I tell her.