Hayley shook her head. “Besides, I like my fans.” She stepped out onto the sidewalk, taking the pencils and pens to sign photos and say hello to the girls. Mia tapped her phone screen like a watch.
“Time’s ticking,” she said.
“I have to go,” Hayley graciously told the girls, who all looked a little starstruck. “Thank you, thank you.” She handed back the papers and pens. Mia shuffled Hayley down the sidewalk toward her car.
“Meter’s almost out,” Mia said. “Just made it.” She locked the doors as Hayley adjusted her guitar case across the backseat, then buckled her seatbelt. “When is yours coming out of the shop?”
“You don’t like being my chauffeur?” Hayley poked Mia teasingly in the arm.
“Only if you put me on payroll.” Mia turned on the radio. One of Hayley’s songs poured out of the speaker. “I like this one,” Mia said, turning it up. She pulled onto the street as Hayley turned it back down.
“I’ll never get used to my own voice,” Hayley sighed. “It sounds different to me.”
“Everyone is like that.” Mia turned at a red light. “Also, can we talk about the kids back there? I’d get annoyed if kids followed me around everywhere. You have an entourage now. Don’t they know that’s my job?”
“They’re sweet,” Hayley said. “But maybe a little… thorough.”
“Not all sweet,” Mia said. “Did you see who was in the back, hiding behind that tall girl and a tree?”
“No,” Hayley asked. “Who?”
“Louis Barns. Remember him?”
Hayley shook her head. “Should I?”
“We went to high school with him. Creepy guy who hung around outside the girl’s locker room? I had a class with him. He smelled funny. Like Doritos.” Mia shuddered. “He works at the campus bookstore now. He’s checked me out before. He’s alsochecked me out. It’s gross.”
“No recollection.”
“You don’t remember anything bad about anyone,” Mia said. “He showed up at a party senior year – who would have invited him? – and cornered me outside a bathroom, asking me to ‘return the favor’ since he answered like, one problem for me on a chemistry lab. Such a creep.”
“Maybe he was walking tonight and got stuck behind the girls.”
“Oh, sweet Hayley,” Mia snorted. “Some people just suck. He was standing there drooling all over his shoes. He probably figured out where you were from that fan site, and you should 100% get your new security people to take that down. Does your mom know about it? She’d have a fit.”
“The security is overkill,” Hayley said. “I only agreed to it to placate her. I woke up to her checking up on me in my room the other night, like I was a little kid. She’s going to drive herself nuts.”
“Any hot ones?”
“Hot ones what?” Hayley rolled down her window and hung her elbow over the side. The air was hot and clashed with the cold air conditioner blasting out of the dashboard vent.
“Security guys,” Mia said. “Can I see them?”
“Old,” Hayley replied dryly. “Retired old. Ex-army guys. They’ve taken over our pool house.”
“It’s so cool you have a pool house now.” Mia parked in front of the gymnastics building. “Next year, I’m out of the dorms. Never living with roommates ever again.”
“Not even me?”
“Maybe you.”
“We’re early,” Hayley checked her phone. “Five more minutes.”
Mia killed the engine and rested her knees on the steering wheel. “I wish Tyler could see me in this car,” Mia said, running her hand over the Lexus logo. Mia’s mother – Hayley’s aunt – had bought the car for Mia, with money Hayley had earned from her royalties and shared with the family. “He called me ‘white trash’ when we broke up. Do you remember that?”
Hayley nodded. “Why’d you ever go out with him?”
“I don’t know,” Mia said. “Hot. Smart. Future doctor type.”
