Next Door to a Star (16 page)

“Maybe you could call him,” I said.

She shrugged. “I guess. He lives in Rockford now. He got remarried after my grandma died and I don’t like his new wife. She’s always telling me not to put my feet on the couch or where to set my drink. I feel like I’m in a museum when I’m over there…but maybe I will call and see how he’s doing.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

The next morning, Aunt Faith said she was going to drive to Saugatuck for an art festival. She asked my mom and me to go with her and said I could bring a friend. I called Charlotte first, but she was having allergy problems and she didn’t want to be outside all day. I called Simone next, but she was in the car with her mom on their way to South Haven.

“Going to Saugatuck sounds like more fun,” she said. “I wish I could go with you. Is Charlotte going?”

I told her Charlotte wasn’t feeling well. I didn’t want to say she had allergy problems because it sounded kind of dorky.

“Why don’t you see if Asia can go?” she said.

I felt weird calling Asia, but I had been over to her house. Mainly, I was afraid she’d think I was a loser for thinking she’d want to do anything with me. I decided to call her after I overheard my aunt telling my mom how she wanted to visit the art galleries. It sounded like a boring trip, so I took a deep breath and called Asia’s house.

“Hi, Asia. It’s Hadley. If you’re not doing anything today, uh, do you want to go to Saugatuck with me and my mom and aunt?”

“Sure! I love Saugatuck. What time should I be ready?”

“We could pick you up in an hour if it’s okay. You know it’s only me, my mom, and my aunt going, right?” I asked. I didn’t want her to be disappointed Simone wasn’t going to be there.

“Yeah, it sounds great. I’ll bring some magazines for us to read in the car. See ya,” she said.

I ran downstairs to tell my mom Asia was going. Grandma couldn’t understand why I was so excited.

“Calm down,” Grandma said. “Why wouldn’t she want to go? Saugatuck is a fun place to be.”

But my mom understood why I was so happy. Back in Goodacre, if I invited Lexi somewhere and she couldn’t go, then I had no one else to ask. I wouldn’t even have dreamed about calling someone like Asia a few months ago—not to mention inviting her somewhere. I was almost singing as I washed my hair. I had finished drying my hair when Mom said Asia was on the phone. Oh no. She was canceling. She probably got invited somewhere better…or by someone better.

“Hello?” I said as my mother watched me.

“I’m having a breakdown—”

“Oh, I understand if you can’t go,” I said.

“No, I can go, but I don’t know what to wear. What are you wearing?” she asked.

I flashed my mom a thumbs-up sign. “I’m wearing jeans and my red hoodie.”

“Okay, then I’ll wear my fleece Polo pullover. See ya in a few minutes.”

Mom came over and put her arm around me. “See? You were worried for no reason.”

I shrugged her arm off and went to put my shoes on. Asia’s parents were working out in the yard when we got there. Mr. Milanowski remembered my name. Asia got in the backseat with me and pulled out some magazines from her lilac backpack.

We got to Saugatuck and Mom gave me money to buy both Asia and me lunch with plenty left over for snacks and souvenirs. My mom was pretty generous when it came to giving me spending money. Asia and I went to the Saugatuck drugstore first because she said it had a soda fountain. We sat up at the counter and ordered sodas, hot dogs, and popcorn.

“Look at the guy sitting over there,” she said. “He looks exactly like Jack Brogger.”

He had Jack’s five o’clock shadow and his signature sunglasses too. However, his skin wasn’t as nice as Jack’s. Jack had perfectly bronzed, smooth skin, but this guy had sunspots, a bit of acne, and he was a little blotchy. Then he moved his wrist to look at the check and my heart skipped. He had the same star tattoo on the inside of his wrist that Jack had. It was Jack. I elbowed Asia.

“What?” she asked.

I mouthed, “It’s him,” and she stared at me. I pointed to my wrist and said, “Check the tattoo.”

Her eyes widened. Jack left, so we got up to pay. We raced outside, but he was gone. We tried looking for him, but we didn’t see any sign of him anywhere, so we decided to shop and hoped we’d run into him. She found some cool flower bracelets and we both decided to get one. She bought a purple one for herself and I got one with all different colors. I decided to get a blue one for Simone and a red one for Charlotte.

“I really want to go find Jack,” I said.

“I know, but look at these shimmer powders,” she said, testing them on the back of her hand. “I’m getting these too. Okay, let’s check out and then go look for him.”

We both ended up buying shimmer powder, lip gloss, and vanilla candles. I’d never bought a candle before, but Asia said she loved them and they did smell like cake batter.

“This heart pillow would go with my Teen Couture bedroom stuff,” she said. “Have you gone to the Maxi’s store in Spring Lake?”

“No, why?”

“They had that stuff super marked down there. I would never have been able to get my comforter if it weren’t on clearance. “

I nodded. All this time I thought Asia’s family had a ton of money. She told me she and her mom loved to bargain hunt and go to outlet stores.

“You should come with us sometime. Morgan thinks it’s lame, but my mom says why should you spend so much money on something just because of the name on the label?”

We went into a French-style store and she smelled all the lotions. She was telling me to smell her wrist when she stopped in the middle of her sentence.

“Jack walked past the store,” Asia said, grabbing my arm.

We went outside and figured he must have gone into the bookstore. She knelt down, retying her shoe until he came out with a big bag. I almost fainted when he glanced over at us and nodded.

“He acknowledged our existence. So hot,” she said. “Let’s see where he goes.”

He went into a modern furniture store and the owner took him upstairs. We would have followed him, but there was an “Employees Only” sign. We got bored waiting, so we decided to get some ice cream next door so we’d see him when he walked out. She ordered a scoop of espresso ice cream, so I got the same flavor. I had tried coffee once and didn’t like it, but I didn’t want to look like a kid in front of her. She paid for mine, which I thought was cool.

“He’s so amazing,” I said.

She nodded. “He’s not as, I dunno, perfect-looking as he is in his videos though. I guess famous guys need makeup too.”

I had never thought about celebrity guys wearing makeup, but it made sense. No wonder they all were so perfect in the magazines while real guys were never as flawless as the ones on TV.

“You know, Simone told me all the high schoolers on the TV shows weren’t even teenagers. Some were like, in their thirties, which was why they were so sophisticated looking. She said the guy who played her brother was twenty-five, and he was playing a sophomore in high school,” she said. “I’m still hungry. Do you want to get some pizza?”

I would have liked to stay and wait for Jack, but it didn’t look like he was coming down anytime soon.

“We could go to the New Hummingbird—I’ve seen other celebs go there, so maybe he’d stop by,” she said.

“Good call. I did see they have a back room for special guests, so maybe we’d get a glimpse of him walking in or out.”

We walked to the restaurant and she asked what I liked on my pizza. I hated green pepper and onion, but I didn’t want to say anything. She suggested we get pepperoni, green pepper, and mushrooms.

“Okay, I can pick the pepper off—”

“If you don’t like it then I’ll only get it on half,” she said.

The waitress took our order and I was worried we wouldn’t have anything to talk about. She glanced around the restaurant and I tried to think of interesting stuff to say. I didn’t know any gossip, so I asked her if there was anybody she liked.

“In our class?” She wrinkled her nose. “Well, after seeing Jack, there’s no one else right now who can compare, but there’s not a lot of guys at school to pick from anyway. I kinda like Wyatt Rogers. I mean, like, if the world was ending and I had to choose. What about you?”

I shrugged. I still liked Nick, and other than him and Jack, who else even interested me? I felt like I was being boring, so I tried asking her about Wyatt, but there wasn’t a lot to say. I was afraid she was getting bored and going to tell Simone she had an awful time. I had to think quickly.

“You know, Charlotte thinks Will Fuller is cute,” I said.

Asia’s eyes got big. “Will’s my cousin. Oh my gosh. He doesn’t have a girlfriend right now, but he used to have a thing for Reagan. I can’t believe Charlotte likes him,” she said, stopping to take a drink of her soda. “I can’t wait to ask him who he likes.”

Oh crap. Charlotte would kill me if she knew I told anybody about her liking Will. She had sworn me to secrecy and I had ratted her out—to the guy’s freakin’ cousin no less. She was going to be furious…well,
if
she found out. I asked Asia not to say anything to Will or Charlotte and she nodded.

“I won’t let him know she likes him, but it would be so cute if they got together. I didn’t know Charlotte was even into the whole dating thing,” she said. “I mean, not like I thought she was too young—it’s…well… you know…never mind.”

I hoped Charlotte wouldn’t find out I told Asia about her liking Will, but Asia had promised not to say anything, so I figured it would be okay.

After lunch, we went back to the store Jack had been in, but the owner was downstairs now so we guessed he had left. We kept looking for him while we hung out the rest of the afternoon.

“I can’t believe we saw him today,” Asia said as she pulled her long, thick hair into a ponytail. “I’m so glad you saw his tattoo because I never would have realized it was him. Now I’m a little weirded out he wears so much makeup the rest of the time, but I guess it’s okay ‘cause he’s such a hottie.”

“Yeah, it threw me that he has...well, less than perfect skin.”

“Yeah, not to be mean, but his skin was pretty bad and his hair…it wasn’t his finest day, you know? Normally, it’s all perfect and instead, today, it was like, humidity wasn’t his friend. He was still the hottest thing I’ve ever seen in my life though,” she said.

“Without a doubt. Do you think he has a girlfriend?” I asked.

“I think I read in
Seventeen
that he’s single now,” she said, leaning forward. “You know, he went out with the girl in the
Starlight
video. She left her boyfriend for him, but they broke up after a few weeks.”

I thought the girl in the
Starlight
video was the most beautiful model I had ever seen. She was one of those exotic types who look even better when they don’t wear makeup.

“I can’t believe Jack broke up with her. They looked so perfect together,” I said.

“I know, she’s gorgeous, but I read somewhere he said they had nothing in common,” she said.

“Lies, they’re both hot. They have that in common.”

She cracked up. “I know, right? How is that not a foundation to build a lasting relationship? Anyway, I guess he meant they had nothing to talk about. It seems like they could talk about how beautiful they both are. You know, if he wears so much makeup on TV, then maybe she’s not as natural and perfect-looking either.”

I nodded. Somehow, even though we had seen how his skin wasn’t perfect and he was way shorter than he seemed on TV, I liked him even more. He seemed more, I dunno, real or something, because he had blotchy skin. I guess before he had been too good to be true.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Asia and I decided to wait and tell Charlotte and Simone about seeing Jack until lunch. I was dying to tell Char, but I held back. I gave Charlotte the bracelet I got for her in the morning though. She loved it and I thought it was nicer than the stupid shell ring Deidre got her, but I didn’t point it out. Deidre had been hanging around Pilar a lot lately. It wasn’t like Pilar wanted her around, it was that Morgan and Reagan had been acting like best friends and leaving her out. I guess even hanging out with your dorky cousin was better than being alone.

Simone had the bracelet I bought her on at lunch and Asia yelled at me to hurry up in the lunch line so we could tell them our news. I got my lunch as fast as I could and sat down to tell Char and Simone.

“Okay, so this weekend we saw Jack in Saugatuck,” Asia said.

“Shut up. No way. You did not,” Simone said.

“Yup,” Asia said. “He even nodded at us—”

“Like a ‘hey baby,’ nod or a ‘hey,’ nod? Show me. Show me his
exact
nod,” Simone said.

Asia got up and pretended to be Jack. Simone shrieked. “A total ‘hey baby,’ nod. You guys are so lucky. So what did he look like up close? Did he smell good? I bet he smelled good.”

Asia nodded. “He smelled like the new Calvin Klein men’s cologne.”

“He seemed shorter than I thought he’d be,” I said.

“Was he as cute in person or cuter?” Charlotte asked.

Asia and I exchanged a look. “Yes and no. He wasn’t as perfect-looking as he is in his videos, but he was still super hot. His skin isn’t flawless in person, and I dunno how to explain it, but it’s like his imperfections made him even cuter,” I said.

Simone suggested we all go out on Friday. We were talking about our plans for the weekend when Will Fuller came over to our table to ask Asia something. Asia’s face got red and she shifted. Will shifted his glance between Charlotte and me as he grabbed some of Asia’s fries. I had a sinking feeling he was trying to figure out which one of us liked him.

“Hey, I’m Will,” he said, nodding to me.

“This is Hadley,” Asia said. “She’s new this year.”

“I know, seen you around,” he said smiling.

I didn’t know what to do so I started picking the bits of shredded lettuce off my sandwich.

Charlotte spent the entire time staring at the back of her juice box. Will probably thought she was such a dork since she couldn’t even look at him. Poor Charlotte didn’t even have a clue he knew she liked him. I felt so guilty. After spelling class, Asia grabbed my arm as we walked to my locker.

“I swear, I didn’t tell him about Charlotte,” she said. “I asked him if he liked anybody and he said he kinda liked Reagan, but he could tell I was holding something back. All I said was someone I knew thought he was cute, but I wouldn’t tell him who it was.”

“What a relief. I was so worried Charlotte would find out I told you. I can relax now,” I said.

“Um, not quite. I guess Will kind of assumed it was you who likes him,” she said.

“Well, as long as Char doesn’t find out.”

“Yeah, there’s one little problem. He kinda likes you now,” she said.

At first, I was thrilled a guy liked me, but then I thought about how Charlotte would kill me if she found out I had told Asia about her crush on Will. All I wanted to do was to find Charlotte and tell her a boy liked me. Only problem was she liked the guy. Why couldn’t she like Max? Why did she have to pick somebody cute who now liked me?

“He asked me for your e-mail address. What should I do?” Asia asked. “I mean, I don’t want to hurt Charlotte’s feelings, but it would be cool to have my cousin going out with one of my friends.”

I was so excited she called me her friend that I told her to give him my e-mail address. She gave me a quick hug and ran off to find him. I stood there in the hall wondering what I was going to say to Charlotte. I should have been on top of the world. I mean, for the first time in my life I felt like I fit in somewhere. When I was a kid I used to have a Barbie coloring book, and it would show her at football games with her friends and hanging out with her boyfriend. Now I had a group of friends to hang out with, people to sit with at lunch, a best friend, plans for the weekend, and a cute guy liked me. It was everything I had ever wanted, but I felt sick because I was going to hurt my best friend when she found out I had given my e-mail address to the guy she liked.

“Hadley.” Simone came running over. “I heard. Will’s so cute. You’re so lucky.”

“I know, but Char—” I stopped when I remembered only Asia knew about Charlotte liking Will.

“This is so cool. You’ve got to come over when he messages you so we can read it together,” she said.

Charlotte walked up. “Why are you going over there to check your e-mail?” she asked me. “I thought your dad hooked up your computer already.”

I opened my mouth, but no words came out.

“Because Will Fuller asked for her e-mail address,” Simone said.

Charlotte’s eyes widened and she walked away. I tried to go after her, but it was like she disappeared into the crowd. Simone was right behind me and asked what Charlotte’s problem was, but I shrugged. I didn’t want to make it worse by telling another person about Charlotte liking Will.

“Come on. I want to stop and get a cherry cola slushie before we read Will’s e-mail,” Simone said.

I let her lead me to the ice cream parlor. She talked the whole way about how cool it would be if Will and I started going out and how she and Asia would have to find boyfriends so we could all hang out together.

“If you guys start dating then you’ll be the only one of us who has a boyfriend,” Simone said, playing with her straw.

Simone meant it as a compliment, but the thought made my stomach feel colder than the slushie. If I was the only one with a boyfriend, then I’d have to go places with him all by myself…by myself with a boy. My stomach felt like it was the first day of school all over again. I was so not ready for this. My parents had never even brought up dating rules with me. I mean, I still slept with a teddy bear and kept my dollhouse around, so they probably never thought about me getting asked out. Plus, they didn’t have a clue about Nick and me either.

“Let’s stop at the newsstand. I want to see if they have the new
Teen Vogue
,” Simone said, and I followed her out of the ice cream parlor.

I kept staring at our reflections in the store windows as we passed. Simone seemed so confident and beautiful in her gray and pink Juicy Couture hoodie. It must have been the way she carried herself, because I had almost the same outfit on—only less expensive—but I looked like a little kid next to her. Earlier, Aunt Faith told me I had seemed more sure of myself lately. I thought she meant because I had started wearing makeup, but she said it had nothing to do with cosmetics. She said confidence came from how you felt inside and what kind of person you were, and your appearance made no difference at all. And here I thought it was a load of crap adults said to unpopular kids.

We walked back to Simone’s house and she checked my e-mail, but I didn’t have any new messages.

“Can I braid your hair?” she asked. I nodded and she pulled my long hair into a ponytail and started making lots of little braids. It was more sophisticated than the ones Mom used to do for me.

“Have you ever had a boyfriend before?” Simone asked.

“No. I thought Nick was going to be my first. The guys at my old school were kind of immature,” I said. I didn’t add that all the boys there thought I was invisible, so there was never any hope of me having a boyfriend in Goodacre.

“I’ve had three real boyfriends. One was this guy, Chris, who dumped me the day I found out my parents were getting divorced. I called him crying and he was, like, ‘Too bad, anyway, I don’t think we should go out anymore. Maybe we could be friends.’” She pulled my hair tighter as she talked about Chris.

“Guys are such jerks sometimes,” I said, thinking about the time this guy, Steve, from my old school, found a note I had written to Lexi and read it out loud on the playground. Then he played keep-away with it, and I made a fool of myself trying to get it back.

“Then Chris asked my friend Kasey to go with him two days later. I mean, he could have at least waited a week. It was so embarrassing,” she said, pulling my hair so hard my head snapped back. “Oh, sorry.”

I massaged my aching hair follicles as she went to check my e-mail again. She said I had a message from Will and asked if she could read it with me. I nodded and she almost twisted my arm off she was so excited.

Hi Hadley,

What’s up? Did you watch the football game last Saturday? What’s your favorite team? I like U of M in college football.

See ya,

Will

Oh, yeah. Real romantic. Still, I was relieved he wasn’t asking me out or anything. If Will wanted to just be friends then it was fine with me.

“He’s such a loser. I mean, asking you about football?” Simone rolled her eyes. “But he did write you on the same day he got your e-mail address. Means he likes you.”

I wondered if some girls were given some sort of boy decoding handbook the rest of us didn’t get. How could Simone tell Will liked me by him asking if I liked football? I had a lot to learn about guys. I was surprised he had e-mailed me at all. I mean, in the mornings I try to at least brush my hair after I wash it, but today I had barely gotten all the tangles out. I threw it up in a messy bun, and I didn’t have any makeup on either. Most days I wore a little blush, gloss, and cover-up if I had any spots, but today I borrowed Charlotte’s bubblegum flavored lip balm. I tried to look half decent most of the time, but on the one day I didn’t try, I got asked for my e-mail address. Weird. I didn’t understand guys.

“You can borrow my UM sweatshirt tomorrow,” Simone said. “Then he’ll think you guys have something in common.”

Simone’s sweatshirt smelled like her Bath and Body Works body spray. I loved it when she let me borrow her clothes because they always smelled so girly and nice. My clothes smelled like Snuggle fabric softener. Simone wanted me to e-mail him back, but I had no idea what to say. She decided to call Asia for advice.

“Will loves hiking and he’s obsessed with anything to do with U of M. He also likes to watch anything sci-fi,” Asia said.

He sounded perfect for Charlotte. She loved sci-fi, and hiking was her favorite thing to do. If Will liked
Charmed Lives
and Lance Cunningham, then I’d know he and Charlotte were meant to be—or they were fraternal twins separated at birth like Lance and his sister, Leocadia on the show. Well, they hadn’t revealed the plot twist yet on the show, but Char’s grandpa had read it on a soap opera spoilers website.

“I’m going to call him later and see what he says about you,” Asia said. “Don’t worry, I’ll act like I haven’t even talked to you.”

I was nervous Asia would let him think I liked him when I wasn’t even sure how I felt. Simone could tell I was a little freaked out and she suggested we watch a movie and forget about guys for a while. She popped
Do or Die
in the DVD player and we sat on the sofa.

When I got home I wanted to call Charlotte, but I didn’t know if she’d want to talk to me. Aunt Faith was over and she asked how school was going. I didn’t mean to dump everything on her, but I told her about Will and Charlotte.

“Does Charlotte like him?” she asked.

“Yeah, I think he’s the first guy she’s ever liked,” I said.

“But you like him too?” she asked.

I shrugged and said Will was cute, but I wasn’t sure whether or not I liked him. I wanted to have a boyfriend—Nick. Nick was easy to talk to, sweet, thoughtful, and with another girl. That was over and I had to move on, but all I knew was I liked the fact Will liked me.

“Tell Charlotte you think Will’s a nice guy, but your friendship with her is more important,” she said.

“Sounds like something you’d see them saying on a rerun of
Duncan’s Corner
,” I said, making a face. “But if I do tell him that, then Will would wonder what my problem is and Asia might get mad at me.”

I decided to call Charlotte after dinner. I was going to tell her I didn’t try to take Will away from her. I had it all planned out in my mind. However, I freaked out when she answered and my prepared speech left me.

“I didn’t like, go after Will or anything. He asked me for my e-mail address. I don’t even know why,” I said.

“Why didn’t you tell me you liked him too?” she asked.

“Because I didn’t—or, I don’t. I dunno. I thought he was sort of cute. You know Jack Brogger’s the only guy I like anyway,” I said.

At least she laughed a little. “I don’t have a chance with Will anyway,” she said. “Actually, I had a crush on Nick too, but I knew I really didn’t stand a chance there. Sheesh, you take all my leftovers.”

She said it like a joke, but now I knew why she acted so weird whenever I talked about Nick.