The Sweet Life (13 page)

The implication was clear. Her aunt had been about to say, ‘Before you make a mistake like . . . your
mother
did.’

Janey blinked hard before spinning on her heel and retreating to the study in order to log on to her MySpace page. She needed to process and share her incredible day. For some reason, her aunt was determined to believe the worst about her. Her friends, wherever they were, would know what to say to make her feel better. Tearily, she began to blog.

‘Well, friends and citizens of Cyberia, it’s been just
another day of Heaven and Hell in the Eternal City.
Here’s the story so far . . .’

Trastevere

Janey stayed in the study busily uploading photos and responding to concerned queries from her online buddies long after Freddy had returned, and both she and Celia had retired to their bedrooms. Earlier, Celia had slipped into the study with a dinner tray of cured meats, chargrilled vegetables and cheeses for Janey, but they hadn’t really spoken because Celia had had to take an important call almost immediately.

‘Call me tomorrow?’ she’d told Janey distractedly – back in work mode – as she hurried out of the study. Janey had nodded and whispered her thanks, but she hadn’t looked up, not wanting her aunt to see how upset she was. Things were still up in the air between them, and it bothered Janey a lot, especially since she’d travelled halfway around the world to meet the only family she had left and silly misunderstandings were threatening to ruin everything. She
hated
conflict.

But it felt great reconnecting with her vast network of friends from around the world, most of whom could see she needed cheering up. Postings went up faster than she could answer them, and after a while, Janey stopped crying as she recounted the more spectacular parts of her day with Luca.

Sounds like a hottie

Razzle Girl

White hot! Xtreme NV.

Minxie10

Keep urself nice! ;)

Bille88

Unfortunately, the three people Janey wanted to hear from the most weren’t online. It was Sunday morning back home and they were probably all sleeping in. But Janey knew that before too long, Em, Gabs and Ness would catch up on her latest blog and demand a Skype conference call or something. It was the way the four of them dealt with a crisis when they weren’t all able to be physically present in the one place.

It was nice to know that people cared, thought Janey tiredly, as she finally logged out around one in the morning.

When she finally got to bed, she was so exhausted that she fell asleep straight away, and slept deeply without dreaming.

With a shock, she woke to find it was almost one o’clock on Monday afternoon.

Celia was probably at work and, Janey noted as she stumbled down the hallway, Freddy was still asleep in her bedroom after yet another late night with her glamorous BFFs and BBFs. Brandon was right when he ’d described her cousin, Janey mused with a yawn. She
could
be a little full-on.

Janey headed back to the study with a coffee, eager to see whether her three besties had caught her latest blog. It had been
so
long since she’d spoken with Ness! Janey owed her
big time
for playing fairy godmother and totally accentuating her positives.

She logged back in to her MySpace page, almost spilling coffee down her front in excitement. The very latest posting was from Em, from about six hours before.

We’ll wait to hear from u (skype!!!) either 11.30 am or 11.30 pm (wont get to sleep in with this one, but wont hold it against u!) Monday ur time. Pls b there?

The Divine Miss Em

Thanks to Janey’s cyber bender the night before, she’d missed the first of the appointed rendezvous times, but there was only about ten hours to kill before the next one. And boy, did she have a lot of stuff to tell her best mates face to face that no amount of blogging could even begin to convey!

Feeling a lot calmer than she had the night before, Janey scrolled back down to the last comment she’d looked at and started reading upwards. Distracted by playing around with the background wallpaper on her page, it took her a while to notice that a new comment had been posted, just above Em’s.

Immediately, she felt a chill run up her spine.

Hey loser. Don’t read so much into 1 lousy kiss, will ya?

Fellini

Without warning, Fellini and his chillingly familiar car crash avatar had popped up again.
In real time
.

Janey stared at the posting in horror. She hadn’t said anything about any kiss in her latest blog about Rome. It had been something so private, and so special, that she’d only planned to tell her besties about it.

Janey’s mind spun. Who
was
this creep? That guy in 1B whom she’d never even met? She refused to believe it could be Luca, slamming the lid on that traitorous thought, though a tiny, rational part of her mind insisted that it
could
be. She forced her shaking hands into action.

Who’s the loser? U following me?