Sunset Boulevard (19 page)

flipping through fashion magazines and letting the girls try out a braided updo from the Phillip

Lim show on her red hair. Maybe they weren't officially her friends, but gossiping about them

made her uneasy. Someday, when she went to BHH, they'd be more than just lunch buddies,

and friendship meant not saying nasty things behind one another's backs.

Kady rolled her eyes. "I know. It's just so weird. They're not even really fighting over Grant.

They're like the three lovesick Musketeers--all for one and one for all. Imagine asking them out.

He'd have to buy three dinners, hold three doors, look deeply into six eyes. I don't even want to

know what happens during a make-out session. I'm a woman of the world, but that's too

worldly for even me."

Amelie noticed a blush creep up Jake's face and he instantly reached for his empty water bottle.

"Oh, I'm out of water," he said, shaking the bottle. "I'll go get another one."

"You can have some of my Diet Coke. I forgot I had one from craft services when I ordered,"

Amelie offered, pulling the fresh bottle from her tote bag.

Jake smiled politely. "I'm trying to stay away from soda. Grant says it makes you pasty," he

explained. "I'll be right back."

Kady watched as Jake ambled to the cooler in the corner. She wrapped her red Free People

cardigan tightly around her tiny frame and turned to Amelie conspiratorially. "I don't fully get

Grant mania. What's the appeal? He's so broody, and way more full of himself than he lets on."

Her gaze trailed over to the cashier, where Jake was paying. "Jake, on the other hand, is so cute

and sweet. And hot. Where are
his
groupies?"

Amelie mulled this assessment with a swig of tea. Kady was right, of course. With his new

leading-man status, Amelie expected Jake to be surrounded by eager females. But then again,

Jake was no Hollywood himbo. "He's smart, so maybe they're intimidated," Amelie reasoned.

Kady flipped up her hood, so that just a fringe of her silky black hair wisped around her tiny

doll face. "I'm going to tell you something, and you can't make that face where you look like

you've digested a bad tuna roll." She paused, her sapphire eyes scanning Amelie's face. "I like

Jake."

Oh, big news,
Amelie thought with a touch of annoyance. Instead, she smiled and teasingly

said, "Yeah, I know. You've been flirting with him since pretty much the first time you saw

him."

Kady took a deep breath, rolling one of her croissant's oversize salt grains around on the

placemat. "I know. But I think maybe I actually
really
like him."

Every muscle tensed beneath Amelie's breezy gown. She'd known Kady had a crush, but the

thought of her and Jake actually in a relationship made her shiver like she was stranded atop a

diamond run at Big Bear ski lodge. Kady was a force of nature or, well, of nightlife, and Jake

was several ego trips short of ruling the club scene. The last thing she wanted was for Kady to

change him into the kind of guy who talked about "the scene" all the time.

Instead, Amelie just said, "Jake? Is he really your type?"

Kady, who never got embarrassed--not even when she'd tripped over a camera wire and split

her pants the other day--actually blushed. "I can't stop thinking about him. He's not a scraggly,

unshaven hipster, true, but there's something. But I don't know if he likes me."

"You're asking me for advice on that?" Amelie laughed, breaking off a piece of her molten

chocolate cookie. "I don't really have much luck in the guy department. I mean, he seems to be

paying a lot of attention to you."
And ignoring me, even though I'm three chapters behind on

geometry,
Amelie thought. She knew she should be more helpful. Kady
had
helped her be

alone with Hunter that night at Area. She had no say about who Jake should date. He was just

her tutor. And, okay, the guy who made her laugh even when she was feeling sorry for herself.

But she didn't own him or anything.

Jake returned with his fresh Smart Water, plopping down in his seat. Kady had nudged her

chair a little bit closer while he'd been gone. "When are we supposed to shoot this scene?" he

asked, looking at Kady.

"We have time," she said, gazing at Jake like he was the only person in the room. "Have you

ever tried one of these?" She waved her pretzel croissant under Jake's nose temptingly. Jake's

eyes surveyed her pixie-like face. Amelie felt as invisible as Ryan Seacrest on the red carpet

with Brangelina.

"Uh, I don't know if I should eat so much salt," Jake said, evidently taking all of Grant's food

rules to heart. Amelie rolled her eyes. Grant's health obsessions were ridiculous, especially

from a guy who hadn't set foot outdoors since he'd left the birth canal. "Maybe a little piece. It's

kind of carby."

Kady tore a piece from the pastry and brought it to Jake's lips. Feeling like a ridiculously

unnecessary chaperone, Amelie stared down at the open geometry textbook until her eyes

blurred. Jake "mmm"-ed in delight. Amelie couldn't have felt more embarrassed than if he and

Kady had been making out. Mercifully, her cell phone vibrated across the table, the number

coming up restricted.

"Hello?" she said tentatively.

"Amelie? It's Hunter."

Amelie took a deep breath. Hunter sounded tinny and far away. Still, it was unmistakably his

toe-curling baritone coming through the receiver. She watched from the corner of her eye as

Kady fed Jake another bite of pretzel.
You have Hunter on the phone. Pay attention!
She

focused on making her voice sound less irritated.

"Hi, Hunter," she said. Kady and Jake looked up at his name. Jake's face flickered with

something, maybe worry that Hunter would swoop in and take his part. Or maybe it was just

surprise that Amelie was there and had a life of her own.
Good,
she thought. She had concerns

beyond
Class Angel
and tutoring, too.

"Can you... meet me for coffee? The 101 Coffee Shop? I just... I need to talk."

"Meet you now?" Amelie's eyes blurred, but she saw Kady give an enthusiastic nod. Whether

she was enthused for Amelie's romantic prospects or her own was unclear.
Let Kady have the

tutor,
Amelie thought.
Hunter Sparks
was calling her. It was what she'd been waiting for.

The 101 Coffee Shop teemed with teenage hipsters in skinny jeans, beat-up Vans, and ironic

tees. Right now, they were all staring at Amelie, who stuck out like something larger and more

glittery than a sore thumb in her sugary white dress. Her new white metallic Chloé bag seemed

to scream,
I cost more than a used Hyundai!
under the low lights. A girl with rumpled black

hair wore an American Apparel tee screen-printed with Amelie as Fairy Princess, Miley Cyrus

as Hannah Montana, and Demi Lovato, all standing beneath the words
Girl Power?
She

whispered something to her guy friends, and the table laughed caustically.

The 101 looked like a family room from the 1970s, and it was poorly lit. A long cordovan

banquette ran along one wall that was a mosaic of flat brown, white, and beige rocks. Along

the other wall were booths in the same brown hue, each table beneath a dangling spherical light

fixture. Amelie finally spotted Hunter, sitting alone at the booth farthest from the door. He gave

her a little wave.

She slid into the booth, feeling his eyes on her. Even sitting down, Hunter's five feet eleven

inches of gorgeous was apparent. He leaned forward, his chiseled jaw resting atop one of his

muscular forearms.

"Hey, Amelie," he said, reaching over to touch her arm. "I'm glad you could make it. I ordered

us both cappuccinos, hope that's okay."

Amelie nodded. "Yeah, that's fine," she said, pleased that he'd ordered for her. It meant he'd

been thinking about her before she arrived. Hunter stared forlornly at his reflection in the

stainless-steel napkin dispenser. Amelie wondered if they were on a date. If so, why was

Hunter acting like it was the end of the world?

"Is everything okay?" she asked gently. Maybe he'd been regretting that they hadn't seen each

other since the night of Lewis Buford's party. Or maybe he felt shy about what he'd said that

night, when he'd admitted he couldn't resist her.

Hunter heaved a sigh. "No," he said, glancing up with a polite nod as the waitress set down a

cappuccino in front of each of them. "I've never been fired before, Amelie."

Oh. So he wasn't thinking about them; he was still caught up in getting the boot from
Class

Angel.
"I don't think I'd call it fired, Hunter," she said, giving him her best soothing smile. She

wished she knew whether to listen wholeheartedly or try to flirt him out of his doldrums. "I

don't think you were bad. I think producers just get ideas in their heads sometimes and think

they need to change things." It was true. Sometimes studios made last-minute changes just to

exert their power. But after watching the dailies, Amelie knew that Hunter really
had
been

phoning it in. She didn't have the heart to tell him, though.

Hunter smiled weakly. "That's what I'd been thinking. They just changed it for no reason," he

said, brushing an invisible piece of lint from his cashmere V-neck. "It's like they fixed

something that wasn't even broken."

Amelie paused, not knowing what to say. Hunter was handsome and already a star, but the

reality was, Jake was
better
. Like Tommy Archer, Jake was a guy who didn't know how great

he was. With Jake at its core, the whole movie now had true sweetness and that
je ne sais quoi

teen angst factor. She had a feeling that Jake was just being Jake, not Mr. Superstar Method

actor. But even if the producers had just gotten lucky, Jake had given
Class Angel
the true

authenticity they'd been hoping for.

"I wouldn't worry about it, Hunter," Amelie said, thrown by how grown-up she sounded. "I

mean, you've got a lot coming up, right?" Just last week, Hunter had landed a part as Iron

Man's illegitimate son in the next installment of the franchise. And she'd just read about his

casting in an indie role as a gas station clerk being stalked by a famous actress. She'd practically

been ready to stalk him at the time. But now... things felt different.

"Yeah, I guess," he said, dolefully catching the eye of a trio of Hollywood High School girls

who were staring at him. "But I feel like I don't know what I'm doing. Is the new guy a lot

better than me? Jacob What's-His-Name?"

Amelie stirred her coffee surreptitiously. She was somewhat relieved that Hunter hadn't

connected the name with Jake. They had met, after all, at Lewis's party--when Amelie had let

Hunter believe that it was Jake who'd left her brokenhearted.

"He's... got a different style than you," she said carefully. "He's new at this. It's kind of hard to

compare." Of course, it was easy to compare them. She'd been doing it from the moment she'd

sat down, mentally tallying the pros and cons of Hunter and Jake as Tommy Archer.

"But different, good? What's his method? Is he a real high school jock? How often does he

work out?"

Amelie glanced at the time on her Sidekick, a bit put off. Was Hunter always this insecure?

Had he always fished for compliments this way? "I don't know, Hunter," she said. "Jake's just

a regular guy." She shrugged, maybe a little impatiently, half wanting to shake Hunter and ask,

You dragged me out here for
this
?
Where was the confident, semi-cocky object of her lust?

The guy who could make her heart thump like parade music just by saying her name?

"Oh," Hunter said, perking up a bit at the words
regular guy
. He flashed his megawatt grin, his

coffee-colored eyes finally meeting Amelie's full-on. "That's kind of gimmicky. I was kinda

glad not to have to shoot at BHH. It's hard enough just going out at night without being

recognized. I bet it's a nightmare."

"It's not that bad, actually," she said, her mind cutting away to a vision of herself toting books

down the hallway with her group of girlfriends. "It's nice to be around normal people. And

most people there have parents or family in the business, so they're used to being around

filming."

Hunter shook his head affectionately. "You're too nice," he said, cocking his head as his gaze

scrolled over her face and her bare shoulder. "Come on, you can tell me. It sucks, doesn't it?"

he asked, reaching across the table to fold her hand beneath his.

Hunter's hand was warm and dry, and hers was cold, as always. But when he touched her, she

felt oddly detached. Maybe being away from him for a while had given her calm. Or maybe it

was that since she'd started dreaming of going to high school, she'd sort of put her Hunter

fantasies on the back burner. Whatever it was, it felt both satisfying and a little disappointing to

not feel her heart flip at Hunter's touch.

"I'm serious," she said insistently. "At first I was nervous. But I've been thinking about trying

to enroll."

Hunter squinted at her across the table before breaking into a wide smile. He laughed, letting go

of her hand and running his fingers through his dark, shiny hair. "You're good. I forgot how

funny you are, Amelie," he said. "We should hang out more often."

Amelie bit the inside of her lip, clenching her fist around the white satin bow draped at her

waist. Hunter didn't get it. Or, he didn't get
her
. A piece of her heart, the spot she'd reserved for

him for years, cracked at the realization that her crush was based on nothing but a fantasy. All

this time, she'd thought that if she could just have Hunter to herself for a while, instead of

sharing him with costars and directors, they'd really understand each other. She'd built him up

so much that she'd imagined him being like her, a guy with an extraordinary life who just