A Safe Space (Someone Else's Fairytale Book 4) (22 page)

It’s then that I make a grave mistake. I look at the comments.

Rachel Schofield
Aw, I remember these days. How have you been?

Devon Schaller
Been all right. You?

Rachel Schofield
Eh.

Devon Schaller
That doesn’t sound good.

I check the date and see that these comments were a year ago. A whole year. I need to ignore them.

I keep reading.

Rachel Schofield
It’s over between me and Mike.

Devon Schaller
Sorry to hear that. You were always too good for him.

Rachel Schofield
Says the guy who bailed on being my prom date!

Devon Schaller
I had to. My sister needed treatment.

Rachel Schofield
Yeah, I know. I was totally kidding. Sorry.

Devon Schaller
It’s fine.

No
, I think as I read this.
No, no, no, no!
I’m
the only girl who’s achieved a friendship with him, who he’ll talk to even when I stick my foot in it
. That was a major accomplishment of mine. This evidence that Devon had that capacity all along feels like a betrayal.

It was a year ago, though. I force myself to repeat that again and again. A year ago.

I check out his Wall.

From today:

A picture of a water tower shared by Rachel Schofield with the caption: Good times!

Devon Schaller
You know it.

Rachel Schofield
Like it was yesterday.

Devon Schaller
Nah, if it was yesterday, I’d still be hungover.

Rachel Schofield
:-)

My blood boils. A smiley face? To add insult to injury, Devon ‘liked’ it. I scroll down his Wall.

From two days ago:

A picture of a lanky, teenage Devon with hair long enough to fall in his face. He’s in a tank top and cutoffs, trying to flex, but he’s too scrawny and wiry. This is the guy I remember from the hospital. Again, it’s shared by Rachel Schofield and has the caption: They don’t make ‘em like they used to.

Devon Schaller
Holy crap, Rache. Where’d you get this?

Rachel Schofield
Off my bedroom wall.

Devon Schaller
Sweet!

No!
I want to scream now.
Not sweet! Not cool! Not funny!
It’s creepy and wrong and I
hate
this woman so much.

Rachel Schofield
And my locker door before that. You know it.

Again, he ‘liked’ this.

I click on Rachel’s name and am popped out to a page that reveals little. She shares nothing about herself except a profile picture of an average-looking brunette woman with her arms around two big-eyed toddlers. The dark circles under her eyes and the cheap clothes she wears, along with the wallpapered wall behind them screams “single working mother only just getting by.” Which gives her clear moral high ground over me, a spoiled Hollywood princess who is much younger and has much less baggage. Devon is a better person for ‘liking’ what she says than he is for hanging around with me, a paying client.

The mature thing to do is switch off my computer and ban myself from Facebook for a few days.

I hit Google and grab the first stupid Veronica Pryce meme I find, one of me in pigtails with a cheesy grin with a caption that says, “Is it the weekend yet?” In three clicks, I’ve put it on his Wall. Then I sit back and wait. It feels like hours before a comment pops up.

Devon Schaller
Nice.

Elizabeth Breckerton
I thought you’d like that.

Devon Schaller
You know me too well ;-)

Yesss!
My heart soars at the sight of the winking smiley face, but then I can’t think of a response. I spend the better part of twenty minutes typing and deleting various ideas, and during that time, Rachel shows up.

Rachel Schofield
You still a Veronica Pryce fan?

Devon Schaller
Always :-)

Now she gets a smiley? No way. Not cool.

Rachel Schofield
My daughter loves her.

No
, I think.
Shut up. Nobody cares about your daughter
. I remember then to ‘like’ Devon’s comment to me.

Devon Schaller
Oh yeah?

Rachel Schofield
We watched the movie last week.

Devon Schaller
Which one?

Rachel Schofield
There’s more than one?

Devon Schaller
Uh, YES. Who doesn’t know that?

Right
, I think.
She knows nothing. Shut her down and ignore her.

Rachel Schofield
Well excuuuuuse me!

Devon Schaller
As punishment, you have to go find the other movie and watch it.

Right then, someone knocks on the door of my trailer. I’m needed on set.
Dang
it
.

A
T LEAST
I have the self-restraint to not spam Devon’s Wall with Veronica Pryce memes. I may not have ever done the whole high school socialization thing, but I’m pretty sure that’d come off as desperate—and that Rachel Schofield would laugh at me.

As soon as the car drops me off at home, though, I get in my car and drive to the gym, because I’m nineteen and immature and hopelessly in love with Devon Schaller.

He isn’t there.

So I go home and try not to look too put out. Not so much that Kyra will panic at the sight of me, but if she offers me some sympathy, that’d be nice.

The apartment is empty.

I’m even desperate enough to call Zach, but it goes straight to voicemail, as does Kyra’s number.

I sink down onto the couch and run my fingers through my hair. There has to be someone I can call, other than the obvious—the guy I should definitely
not
call right now. I grab my phone and dial Cleo’s number.

“Hey,” she answers.

“Sorry to call after hours.”

“Does a personal assistant do hours?” she laughs. “No, it’s cool.”

“Please tell me there’s some fan somewhere in the hospital that I can Skype?”

“I’ve been looking, but none have come up lately.”

“I seriously need a distraction at the moment.”

“Oh, you know what? I got word that Becky and Bethany are both recovering. The liver transplant worked. Bethany went through with it.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I tried to call but you weren’t around and I didn’t want to leave that on voicemail. That a good distraction?”

“Yeah, not bad. Oh, did you get in touch with Maree ever? Find out if she’s really pregnant?”

“I’m still working on that.”

“Okay.”

“Anything else you need? Some In-N-Out Burger or cocaine or anything like that?” she asks.

“No, I’m good there.”

“All right.”

“No, wait.” A new thought hits me. “Yeah, there is something I need. Not right this moment, but when you get a chance to go to my storage units.”

“Mmm-hmm?”

“You’ll have to dig for it,” I say, “and I’m sorry about that.”

My trump card. Next time Rachel tries to flirt with Devon, I’ll have a nuclear option on hand.

The next morning I text Cleo before I head to the gym.

Lizzie:
Please log in to my Facebook account and change the password. Don’t tell me what the new one is.

I do this to convince myself that I can make good decisions, even under stress. Besides, I’m about to see Devon and I need to make the most of that, not freak him out with jealousy. Having said that, I am still
green
with envy of Rachel Schofield, whoever she is to him.

But when I arrive for my workout, I smile and fake it. He helps me through the regimen he has set for the morning, and I think I do a pretty good job stretching myself and keeping good form. After the cooldown, I thank him and go get changed.

When I emerge from the changing room, he’s leaning against the wall just outside the door.

“Hey.” I smile at him.

“What is it?”

“What is what?”

“You’re trying to act happy, but you are not a naturally bouncy person, okay? That’s Veronica. What’s going on?”

Dang it
. I let my shoulders slump. “Um…I dunno. Where do I begin? My costar stormed off for a day and put us behind in our shooting schedule. Our ratings are down, and I’m practically naked in this next episode we’re filming.”

He pushes off the wall and walks with me towards the exit. “Yeah, not good.”

My mind views this situation from every angle to see if there’s any way I can broach the subject I really want to talk about. “Thanks for friending me on Facebook.”

“Thanks for mocking me with a Veronica post.”

“Come on. That was funny. Especially given that no one else in your friends even knows who I am.”

“Yeah,” he agrees with a chuckle. “It was funny.”

“Unless you’ve told your friends who I am. Which you can. I mean, I trust you.”

He shrugs. “I kinda like being the only one who knows.”

“So who’s Rachel? She seems nice. I only saw her on the comments to my post, but—”

“My high school girlfriend.”

“Oh…”

“Or she would have been. She’s cool. She gets me.”

Don’t act upbeat like you don’t care
, I tell myself.
He’ll be onto you again
. “So you guys are friends now?” I ask.

“Well, as much as you can be friends in that kind of situation. I don’t think that ever really works, you know?”

“Why? You still like her?”
Shut it, Lizzie
, I think
. Too far
.

He just shrugs. “She’s got a piece of my life, you know? She was there for me when things got bad with my mom. Her parents let me live in their converted garage while I fought for custody of my sister and they let us live there after I won. Her family’s kind of my family.”

“Oh.”

“Except that her parents were killed in a car accident around the time we left for Seattle, and then Rache has had it rough. Lived with a guy for five years and had two kids but didn’t get married. Spent her inheritance dry. Now I just try to be there for her while she figures out how to go after her ex for child support. You know, fun stuff.”

“Or not.”

He shrugs. “Such is life.”

We stand at the back exit of the gym, and Devon gives my shoulder a squeeze before saying, “Later, all right?”

“Yeah. Later.”