The Sweet Life (20 page)

O, I concur. Brandon = rich brat playing w U
. Luca = happily eva after.

Gabstar

Not sure what to think. Brandon beautiful one moment, freezing the next!

x X Janey G X x

The three of them messaged back and forth for another half hour until Em wrote:

Catch u tonight ur time maybe? Signed up for 1 day script writing master class. Big name American out to tell it like it is in HOLLYWOOD! Gotta motor. Easy.

The Divine Miss Em

Pretty soon after, Gabs signed off too.

Im out!

Gabstar

Janey updated her page with a few holiday snaps, including one of Brandon and a sneaky profile shot of Luca she’d taken one morning as he was driving Celia away to her office. He looked like a secret agent of some kind, in shades, with tousled hair. She also added a comment about how much she was looking forward to her trip to Pompeii the next day, promising to upload more photos on her return. She refreshed her page one more time and was on the verge of logging out herself when she noticed a new comment had been posted.

Fellini was back, poisonous as ever.

Like a person who looks like u could ever pull guys like dat!

Fellini

There was a tiny orange and green ‘Online Now’ icon under his avatar. Janey was so angry she was shaking. Who
was
this freak? How dare he get so personal and in her face? Especially
here
. It was supposed to be
My
Space, not OpinionatedKookSpace. She felt violated.

Get off my page! JERK. No one asked U.

x X Janey G X x

Janey waited to see how Fellini would reply, adrenaline roaring through her body. It was frightening, but also kind of empowering, dealing with this cretin head-on. Fellini shot back seconds later.

JERK best u can do? u need ME to keep uself REAL. U getting ideas, chicken head.

Fellini

Fellini was feeling talkative this evening, Janey thought distastefully as she typed back.

Who asked u? u and me r nothing. LEAVE ME ALONE.

x X Janey G X x

That’s right. u and me r nothing, and it stays that way! And LEAVE is the operative word. U leave, it stops. And not B4. Get it?

Fellini

Janey hurriedly logged off, feeling like she’d been slimed. If she’d only gone with Freddy and her friends to Duke’s Bar, she would’ve avoided this little confrontation! Although the way she’d left things with Brandon, a night at Duke’s might only have been marginally better, she told herself grimly.

Suddenly she was glad to be leaving in just over a week. The trip of a lifetime had suddenly become a nightmarish game with rules she hadn’t a hope of understanding. She couldn’t wait to go home to her non-judgemental friends and her low-key life. Thanks to Fellini, Rome had suddenly turned from a magical place into a frightening one.

Janey suddenly missed her mum so much it was like a physical pain and hot tears spilled down her cheeks.

Janey woke the next morning to a sky as dull and overcast as her mood. She slipped into her freshly laundered orange tank and white shorts, because the forecast for where she was headed was sizzling. Celia had already gone to the office and Freddy had no doubt crashed at Luz’s or somewhere, because the apartment was all Janey’s as usual.