Beneath the Glitter: A Novel (Sophia and Ava London) (22 page)

Not fooled, Dalton reached out and caught her tear with his thumb. “Your Southern accent came out a little bit. Come in, I’ll make you breakfast. California style.”

“I can do it, I’m a good cook,” Ava said.

“I’m a better one,” Dalton told her.

Ava put her hands on her hips. “Want to bet?”

“I wouldn’t do it,” admonished the sleepy-eyed girl in floral pajama bottoms and a peach camisole who joined them in the kitchen then. She looked like an ad for California girls with a perfect heart-shaped face, clear blue eyes, slightly tanned skin, and just-past-her-shoulders hair in that blond color that only kids have. Kissing Dalton familiarly, she held out a hand and said, “You must be Ava. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“And you must be Dalton’s girlfriend,” Ava said, trying to sound chipper. Because of course he had a girlfriend who looked like her, perky in all the right places and skinny in all the others. And of course she didn’t care. She was dating Liam. Liam Carlson!

The girl in the pajamas laughed and punched Dalton on the shoulder. “You doofus, you didn’t tell her?” She smiled at Ava. “I’m his little sister, Hotchkiss. Most people call me Kiss.” She shook her head at her brother. “You’re such a dork. Ava, how do you put up with this dork?”

“I find it works best if I do all the talking,” Ava said, wondering what Dalton had told his sister about her.

“Great minds,” Kiss said, gesturing with a finger between her and Ava.

After they’d done the dishes, Ava asked if she could have a house tour.

Dalton said “No” but Kiss said, “Of course,” so Ava went with that.

She saw Kiss’s room, which barely looked lived in and had a stack of boxes against one wall. “Did you just move in?” Ava asked.

“A few months ago,” Kiss said.

Dalton laughed.

“Fine,” Kiss said. “Six months ago. I just haven’t gotten around to unpacking.”

The walls of Dalton’s room were lined with surfboards, over forty of them of different lengths and widths. Some were beautifully painted, others were completely battered. There was one that looked like a shark had taken a bite out of it, and another with the signatures of all the Bee Gees. “Dalton and I come from a long line of surfers,” Kiss said. “Most of these are antiques, boards collected by our father and our grandfather.”

“They’re amazing,” Ava said. “Like totems to worship.”

“Only that would be the worst thing for them,” Kiss said. “All those boards need regular love and attention or they’ll dry out and die.”

“That’s a lot of surfing,” Ava said.

Kiss nodded. “Dalton thinks they’re our legacy but to me sometimes they seem more like a prison sentence, forcing us to be like our dad.”

“Who’s made you surf in the past year?” Dalton objected.

“Who gave you permission to speak?” Kiss asked. She looked at Ava who was struggling not to laugh. “You better get him out of here, he’s getting feisty.”

It was a little after eight when Dalton’s gold Bronco pulled up outside of Ava’s building. “Your sister is seriously great,” she said.

“Yeah, I did pretty well in the sister lottery,” he agreed. “As did you.” He went quiet for a moment and seemed to grow more serious. “Can I ask you something?”

Ava’s heart started to pound really fast. They were facing each other across the seat in his truck, knees and hands almost touching. The dream she’d had the other night of kissing him seemed dull compared to what it was like sitting here with him.

“Yes,” she said, hoping to look alluring.

“Is your sister really into Hunter Ralston?”

That wasn’t what she was expecting. It took her a second to recover but in that moment, she made up her mind. Her thoughts flipped back to Dalton and Sophia laughing that day at the shelter when Sophia adopted her kitten. Dalton casually asking her to bring Sophia to the party. Dalton commenting on Sophia’s prettiness. Dalton buying the Nerds Rope after she’d said it was Sophia’s favorite. Dalton getting upset that Sophia was out with another guy.

Dalton was definitely interested in her sister. She should have known. And she was happy for Sophia. Dalton was a great guy. Besides, she already had a totally awesome boyfriend.

“I’m not sure,” Ava said. “I mean she says she’s doing a boytox which means she’s not dating anyone but I’m sure if the right guy were to come along—”
There,
she thought.
That was a good sisterly thing to do. Good karma.

But that didn’t seem to please Dalton. With an intensity in his eyes she’d only seen when he’d berated her for letting go of Popcorn, he said, “Please tell her to be careful. Hunter Ralston is a vindictive liar. He’s like a spoiled child with an infinite toy budget to woo friends with. He treats people like playthings because no one ever said no to him. I just don’t want her to get hurt.”

“Sure, no problem, thanks.” Ava said the words as one breath, squashing them together in her haste to leave. She couldn’t believe she had been thinking of kissing him when all he’d been thinking of was Soph—

“Thanks, Ava,” he said when her hand was on the door latch. “I had a super time. You’re a great person to hang out with.”

She had to bite her lip to keep from crying. Because those were exactly the words in exactly the tone she’d want to hear from a boyfriend. But not from her sister’s future boyfriend.

“Yeah you too,” she said, flinging open the door and sprinting into their apartment complex. Behind her she heard him say, “Wait, you forgot the Nerds Rope,” but she didn’t stop.

*   *   *

Sophia was in the living room when Ava burst through the door at 8:15. She’d moved to sleep on the couch so she would know the minute Ava got home because she was so excited to tell her about—

“Don’t say anything,” Ava ordered, crossing the living room. “I know you’re going to yell at me for staying out and ask where I was and remind me that I have responsibilities and tell me how much I’m letting you down and I don’t want to have that conversation with you. I can’t handle it right now.” Ava nodded once, as if that settled things, and went to her room.

Sophia stared after her, shocked. She hadn’t been going to say any of those things. Picking up the mock-up of the poster for her gallery show that she’d left on the coffee table, she went and knocked on Ava’s door. “Are you okay?”

“Please just leave me alone.”

Ava’s tone, even more than the words, worried Sophia. It held a core of anger with sadness wrapped all around it. It sounded confused.

Deciding to give it one more attempt, Sophia tried the knob on Ava’s door. It was locked.

They never locked their doors. Ever.

But what stronger message could Ava have sent that she didn’t need Sophia than locking her door?

Sophia glanced down at the mock-up of the poster she held in her hands. She’d been so excited to share it with Ava and now—

She could leave it on the kitchen table, she decided. There. Perfect. Now even if she didn’t get to tell Ava about it in person, she’d find out.

But as she crossed the living room to get her bag, she caught sight of Ava’s locked door. Changing her mind, she stuffed the poster into her bag and left.

LonDOs

Candy’s Candies

Loft parties

Parties with no photographers

Boys in bands

Staying up all night and watching the sunrise

With pancakes

Puppies who snuggle up next to you as soon as you get into bed

LonDON’Ts

Command performances

Sleeping on the couch

Locking doors

Homesickness

Puppies who keep snuggling up next to you until they’ve snuggled you off the bed

19

miss understandings

The first thing Ava saw when she woke up was the stamp on her wrist from the party and she felt a surge of happiness. Followed almost immediately by a dull ache of sadness when she remembered Dalton’s last words. “You forgot the Nerds Rope.” Which was followed, when she picked up her phone and saw ten text messages from Liam, by a pang of guilt. Quickly followed by annoyance since the whole reason she ended up hanging out with Dalton was because Liam was off having fun at a party that she wasn’t invited to.

Not quite ready to text him back, she went to check on the London Calling Twitter feed and gaped at the number of new tweets about them. It had skyrocketed overnight. Had some video from their shoot leaked? Or worse? Warning bells and Sophia’s words about what the press could do with even one bad picture of her and Liam filled her head. Taking a deep breath she started scrolling through the tweet mentions.

“Congratulations @London1!”

“@London1 Can’t wait to see them.”

“You rock @London1.”

London1 was Sophia. Ava checked on Sophia’s recent posts and saw that she’d put up a vlog that morning.

“Hi guys!” Sophia started. “This is just a quick one because I’m so excited.” She was smiling, and she seemed excited, but her eyes looked tired.

From waiting up for you,
a voice in Ava’s head told her, and a whole new wave of guilt washed over her.

“Obviously, I’m not afraid of cameras,” she said over a montage of photos. The first one showed her in the bumblebee costume she wore last Halloween, and the last photo was taken just a few months ago. In it she stood on the beach laughing and splashing her toes in the water, the sun setting behind her. “But what very few people know is I’ve always dreamed of being on the other side of the camera. And now I have my chance.” She held a piece of paper up to the camera close enough for Ava to read M
AX
H
OUCK
G
ALLERY
P
RESENTS:
LAHYP
—L
OS
A
NGELES’
H
OTTEST
Y
OUNG
P
HOTOGRAPHERS.
Below that was a list of ten names including number three:
SOPHIA LONDON
.

Ava gasped. She couldn’t believe it. Couldn’t believe that this dream of Sophia’s was coming true so spectacularly.

Couldn’t believe she’d had to find out about it from their Web site like a complete stranger.

Ava felt hot tears burning in her eyes and couldn’t tell if they were happy tears, for Sophia, or tears of frustration and hurt for herself. How did this happen? How could they have gone from being best friends to being uneasy roommates?

She watched the rest of the vlog with her knees hugged to her chest, and stayed in that position, staring at nothing, after it finished.

Her phone rang and as if saying you’ve-been-at-this-long-enough, Popcorn nuzzled his face into her lap. Checking the caller ID she saw it was Liam. For the sixth time.

“Where have you been?” he demanded when she answered.

“I’m sorry. I—I wasn’t feeling well.” It wasn’t a lie, she told herself. She absolutely did not feel well at all. The fact that she wasn’t leaping up and down thinking
LIAM CARLSON IS CALLING ME
was proof of how unwell she was.

“I’m sorry, babe,” he said. “I miss you. I was hoping you’d have brunch with me. Are you too sick for brunch?”

Somehow although she could exaggerate the truth, she couldn’t lie outright. “No,” she said. “I could do brunch.” Besides, it would probably be good for her to get out of the house. And of course to see Liam.

She and Popcorn met him at the Ivy. He was already at a table on the patio when they arrived but he leaped up and met them outside, kissing Ava and taking Popcorn’s leash to lead them in.

Ava couldn’t help but be charmed, especially when she smiled and Liam’s face lit up. “That’s what I was looking for,” he said, linking his pinkie through hers.

“Liam, over here,” one of the paparazzi who were always outside the Ivy called.

Liam waved him away good-naturedly, saying, “Cool it guys, can’t you see I’m trying to spend time with my special lady?”

“Sorry about that,” Liam told her and even as she said, “Don’t be, it’s part of your job,” Ava heard a voice in her head asking if he really did want some quiet time with his special lady, why chose a restaurant that always had photographers in front? Dalton’s voice, she realized.

An unfair voice,
Ava thought as Liam pulled out a chair for her at a table in the middle of the patio.

“I took the liberty of ordering some biscuits for Popeye.”

“Who?”

“Your dog?” he said, picking up Popcorn under the legs and saying, “How quickly they forget about us, huh, dude?”

Popcorn whimpered. “His name is Popcorn.”

Liam’s face fell. “Isn’t that what I—oh god, sorry babe. Sorry Popcorn. I’m not supposed to tell anyone but my agent sent me a script for a Popeye prequel and I was reading it this morning—slip of the tongue.” He got serious. “You won’t tell anyone what I just told you though, right? It’s still in the hush-hush stage.”

Ava mimed turning a key on her lips and locking them down tight.

Liam laughed. “Wow, beautiful and a mime too.”

Ava flashed back to the morning a few weeks earlier when she and Sophia had been joking about miming. She remembered Sophia lying in bed with her kitten on her chest, remembered the way they’d laughed together. Remembered her opening the box from Hunter with the camera in it.

Remembered that afternoon when she came back from taking pictures with Lily and wouldn’t say what they were of.

She tuned back in to catch Liam saying, “—says it’s a good niche. And you can’t say it doesn’t sound cool, to be the prince of prequels. So that’s the angle we’re going to push. What do you think?”

“It does sound good,” Ava agreed, gratefully catching the gist of the conversation. “The prince of prequels—it
is
a good angle,” she repeated, but her voice sounded forced even to her own ears.

Liam was looking at her intently. “What’s wrong, babe?” He took her hand and cradled it between both of his. “I can tell there’s something weighing on you. I wish you would confide in me.”

He really was the best boyfriend. If she wasn’t as all-caps crazy about him now as she had been at first it was just because it was real now. Deeper. More solid.