“Cool. I’ll stay, then. Just to get on your nerves.”
I could almost feel him smiling behind me.
“Good, Jen. I’m glad.”
9
Three Months
Everything went well over the following week—except for my hand, which was still in bandages—but there was one thing I couldn’t stop thinking about. Or not a thing. A person. A name.
Vivian.
Will had asked about her one day, and Jack had gotten defensive, and Naya was clearly watching to see how I’d react.
To say I was curious was an understatement. I’d already tried to find something about her on the internet, but with no surname to go on, there wasn’t much I could do. I didn’t even know what she looked like. She was a needle in a haystack.
But one afternoon, when Lana was over helping Naya with a project for her French lit class, Will went up to the roof to smoke and I saw my chance. It wasn’t like I was interrupting anything: their so-called studying was really just the two of them gossiping. It was obvious why they got along so well: neither of them could ever shut up. I had to disconnect now and then not to go crazy when I was around them.
I cleared my throat to get their attention and said, “Can I ask you guys something? But promise you won’t tell anyone. It’s important.”
That seemed to intrigue them, and Naya said, “Well, now, this is getting fun. Sure, I promise!”
“Me, too!” Lana added.
Anxious, I tapped my fingers on my laptop and tried to form the question in my mind. But there was no veiled way to ask, so I just came out with it. “Who’s Vivian?”
I knew they’d think I was jealous. I was even ready for them to make fun of me. What I wasn’t ready for was the stupefied look on their faces. When Lana seemed incapable of believing I didn’t know who she was, Naya said her name: “Vivian Strauss. You know.TheVivian Strauss.”
“I get that you two are trying to make me understand something,” I said, “but I have literally no idea what you’re talking about.”
They pushed me off the sofa onto the floor and grabbed my laptop, and I sat there with my legs crossed while their heads nearly bumped together as they searched the web and stared at the screen.
“Show her this one,” Naya said.
“That one’s horrible!” Lana responded.
“She’s gorgeous in it!” Naya told her.
“Honestly, I don’t care,” I assured the two of them.
Lana flipped the laptop around to show me a girl with delicate traits and dark eyes. Her hair, dyed so blond it was almost white, was pulled up on the top of her head in a perfect arrangement. It had to be the work of a professional stylist. Her body was tanned a perfect bronze, and she was wearing a red sequin dress. Was she pretty? Maybe. But it was more than that. She was special, attractive, magnetic. Her back was turned to the camera, and she was looking over one shoulder with an almost bored expression that nonetheless intrigued me.
“What is she, like, a model?” I asked.
“Bingo,” Naya said.
“Wait till you see Ross’s movie,” Lana said. “She’s the lead actress.”
Aha. Now I got it. Staring at that image, I wasn’t sure how I felt. She was gorgeous, and I assumed she was talented. But were those the only reasons he’d picked her for his film?
“They get along well,” Naya told me. “I think he met her at film school in France. She was studying to be an actress.”
“And apparently she made it,” Lana said.
“Ever since the poster for Ross’s movie came out, the press has decided they’re an item,” Naya admitted. “The whole thing pisses Ross off, but Vivian hasn’t denied it publicly, and that means everyone just keeps talking.”
“Because if they talk about them, it means they’ll talk about the movie,” I deduced.
