Competing With the Star (Star #2) (12 page)

Chapter Seventeen

I looked at my phone and saw I had missed calls from Simone, Nick, Charlotte, and Pilar. I didn’t want to talk to any of them. I just wanted to stay in my room for the rest of my life and never have to deal with reality again.

“Hon? Nick’s here. I’m sending him up, okay?” Mom called out from downstairs.

What? Was she joking? How did he have the guts to come to my house and tell me what a cheating pig he was? I sat up.

“No, I’ll come down, Mom. Give me a minute,” I said. I went to the bathroom and washed the mascara tracks off my face. I couldn’t believe he would show his stupid face here.

I walked downstairs and he was waiting in the hall.

“Let’s go outside,” I said through gritted teeth.

“Hadley, I thought you were going to wait for me after school,” he said.

Seriously? That was his starter? He was going to have hurt feelings over my standing him up after he kissed another girl?

“Are you joking?”

“I was hoping we could go somewhere and talk,” he said.

“About how you’re going behind my back with Simone?”

“Hadley, it’s not like that at all.”

“Really? How is it, then?”

He looked shocked. “She was waiting for me when I got off of tutoring and said she wanted a ride. It was pouring and she said we should wait a little to go out to the car—she didn’t want to get her hair drenched—so we sat on the bench in the lobby. We were just talking and then she leaned over and kissed me. I didn’t even see it coming. It was so random. I think she—”

“So
she
kissed
you
?”

“Yeah, I would never kiss another girl while I was with you. I love you. You know that,” he said.

As I stood there trying to figure out if he was telling the truth, my phone rang. It was Simone.

“Hello?” I said.

“Hadley, I’m so sorry. Neither of us meant for it to happen—it just did. Nobody wanted to hurt you.”

“Why did you kiss him?” I asked.

“Wait, what?”

“Why did you kiss Nick?”

“It—it wasn’t like that,” she said. “We kissed, but it was mutual. It wasn’t planned, it just happened.”

The blood drained from my face as she spoke. I was hearing her words while watching his face. He had no idea what she was telling me and was just standing there looking concerned, but he didn’t seem worried that his side chick was spilling her guts. Did he think I would just believe him no matter what? Who was telling the truth?

I put my hand up to him as if to say just a minute and walked to the side of the house.

“So
he
kissed you?”

“I mean…I can’t remember exactly how it started, but yeah, he kissed back. I’m so sorry. Hadley, you mean so much to me and I never wanted to hurt you. Maybe he was just bored, or wanted to see what it would be like to kiss me—it might not have meant anything to him—who knows with guys. Just know I love you. You’re one of my best friends,” she said in a pleading voice.

“Really? Because I missed where it says best friends kiss each other’s boyfriends.”

“Please don’t be mad. I mean, Morgan kissed Chase after I was seeing him the first time, and Pilar isn’t mad at me for going out with Connor after her. Guys are so flakey, but girls need to stick together.”

“Maybe you and your friends kiss each other’s guys like it doesn’t matter, but it matters to me,” I said.

“Well, Hadley, you yourself said you haven’t had a lot of experience with guys. This is just what happens.”

“Seriously? People say they love you and then just kiss whoever they want?
Who
does that?”

“I get that you’re mad. You have every right to be upset, but just know I would never purposely try to hurt you.”

“Well you did. I have to go,” I said, and hung up.

“Hadley, are you okay?” Nick came around the corner and put his hands on my shoulders.

“Don’t touch me. Do
not
touch me,” I said, backing away.

“What? Why?”

“Simone told me everything.”

“What did she say?”

“That you kissed.”

“Well, you knew that.”

“No! She said…” I realized I wasn’t sure who kissed who first, but the part that was making me so sick was that she said he kissed her back. “You kissed her back.”

“No, I didn’t. She’s making that up. I sat back and said, ‘What was that?’ and then told her we needed to go home. She kept talking all nervously in the car about all kinds of random crap and I thought maybe she was embarrassed and she’d just let this go. And then I wondered how I was going to tell you. I didn’t want to keep it from you and have you find out and wonder what went on, but it was nothing.”

“How could you tell me you loved me one minute and kiss another girl the next?”

“It meant nothing.”

“Really, Nick? Because everyone knows what a huge crush you had on her and you even told me you were in love with her. It must have been a real thrill for you to kiss your dream girl,” I said, and then I ran into the house and shut the door.

He called me and I hit
ignore call
. He sent a text next.

Nick: I would never cheat on you! I love you. Simone was just messed up after her breakup. She was rambling about how guys don’t know what they want and then she kissed me. I did NOT kiss her back. Please talk to me.

Me: There’s nothing left to say. You obviously did or said something that let her think you were interested. I can’t talk to you right now.

Nick: I swear to you I did not kiss her. I love you.

Simone called me back and I took her call without thinking. She was sobbing when I answered.

“Oh my gosh, Hadley, I am so sorry. You told me he was super into me and I should have kept my distance,” she said. “I guess I didn’t realize how much he liked me that this could happen.”

I felt like throwing up.

“I can’t talk about this right now.”

“Please don’t be mad at me,” she said. “At least tell me you don’t hate me. I am so sorry.”

She was crying so hard and it hit me that Nick hadn’t even seemed apologetic. He was exasperated and mad, but there were no tears. Meanwhile she was sobbing the way I had been when I heard about it.

“I don’t hate you,” I said, even though I sort of did. “I have to go. My dad’s here.”

I hung up the phone and called Charlotte, but her phone was off. I remembered she was at the science fair tonight. I tried Pilar’s phone next and told her everything.

“What the crap? Well, one of them is lying,” she said.

“What do you think happened?”

“Well…first tell me what
you
think happened.”

I took a deep breath. “I think she was all sad and vulnerable over her breakup and maybe she made the first move—I don’t know—but I think he saw his dream girl and kissed her back. I mean, everyone said he was so in love with her…how can I believe what he’s saying—that he just sat there and then said, ‘We have to leave’?”

“He might have kissed back. I don’t know. I wouldn’t put it past her that she made the first move though. She went after Connor when he and I were talking. Basically how it went down was that I came to school and Morgan told me Connor liked Simone now and I was just supposed to be okay with it. I don’t know if it’s because she was on TV that she thinks she can get away with whatever—or maybe Hollywood people do things differently—maybe she thinks that’s all okay.”

“She acted like it was no big deal and said you guys have all done stuff like that and it was like I was such a baby to think there was anything wrong with it.”

“That is
exactly
what she did to me,” Pilar said. “She made me feel like I was this immature hick and she was some sophisticated TV star. Reagan is the same way. I am so over being treated like crap by people and I feel bad for you. Nick was the first guy you said I love you to—that’s a big deal. And she knew it was to you and to him. I don’t know what his problem is. Nick told my brother how he just doesn’t just say those words and how he was a little worried how you’d react, but that he felt comfortable enough with you saying them and that you’d say it back.”

“Maybe that was the problem—he was too comfortable with me. I was boring and she’s exciting. I mean, how can I compete with a TV star who looks like she’s twenty-one?” I asked. “And she even told me how Nick and my relationship was like some safe, boring old couple’s.”

“Which is apparently what she wanted after Chase dumped her butt.”

“Yeah, suddenly boring ol’ Nick was good enough for her. Oh my gosh—I am so stupid!”

“What?”

I groaned. “She even told me how Nick was never even on her radar until she saw how sweet he was with me and she admitted to me a while ago that she started to like him after seeing him with me. She said she never even thought of him that way until we started going out. I am so dumb. She tells me that and I was still so in awe that a TV star was my friend that I let it go. Like that’s an okay thing to say to someone.”

“Well, this is starting to make sense. Chase rejects her, so she goes for the one guy who put her on a freakin’ pedestal,” Pilar said. “Of all the guys here, Nick was the only one who got all dopey around her and he’s the safe one who won’t break your heart.”

“Well, he sure broke mine,” I said, sniffing.

“I just wish there were some way we could find out if Nick actually kissed her back. There is a chance it happened exactly like he said. I’ll see if my brother knows anything. I’ll text you if I hear anything.”

We got off the phone and my heart felt like it was going to explode out of my chest. I needed to talk to someone, but Asia was Simone’s best friend. She would take her side. I couldn’t talk to my mom about this, but maybe Aunt Faith would listen.

I looked outside and the rain had stopped, so I told Mom I was going over to Grandma and Grandpa’s. I ran down the street to their house and hoped Aunt Faith would be home. Lucky for me, she was sitting in the living room reading.

“Hey,” she said. “I haven’t seen you much.”

“Can we talk somewhere private?”

“Sure, let’s go to my room.”

We went upstairs and I told her the whole story. I felt angry now more than sad as I repeated what both Simone and Nick had said.

“I don’t know either of them that well,” she said. “All I can say is that girls do flirt and act stupid when it comes to guys, but she sounds very sorry for what she did and she obviously cares about you as a friend.”

“Then how could she do this to me?”

“I had something similar happen when I was in high school. It was my senior year and my friend, Tara, kissed my boyfriend. I don’t know if he liked her or what, but it was at a party. I was devastated. But you know what Grandma told me? Boys will come and go and by next year he wouldn’t even be in my life. But she said a friend is forever and that people make mistakes.”

“But if she was my friend then how could she do that to me?”

“Well, girls do dumb stuff.”

“Did you stay friends with either one of them?” I asked.

“Tara and I still are friends online. We don’t hang out anymore, but we kept in touch. I know right now this seems like the end of the world, but you need to ask yourself which one of them is worth saving the relationship with.”

“I don’t know. She’s my friend, but even he said we were best friends.”

“Do you think he’s telling the truth about her coming onto him?”

I shrugged. “I want to believe him.”

“What does your gut say?”

I stopped for a minute and thought about it. “I guess I wonder why he didn’t seem more emotional like she did—she was crying her head off. He was more like…well, expecting me to say, ‘Okay, that’s what happened. I believe you.’”

“So what does that mean to you?”

I shrugged. “My gut kind of feels like maybe he’s telling the truth. Pilar said Simone has done this before and she did admit to me how she was starting to like him. Plus, she was upset over being dumped.”

“I could see how that would make her vulnerable enough to do something like that.”

“Yeah, so do you think he’s telling the truth?”

Aunt Faith looked away for a moment. “Hadley, I’m afraid I can’t tell you to rely one hundred percent on your instincts because there is a chance you want him to be telling the truth so badly that it’s clouding your judgement. I wish I could tell you to go with your feelings on this, but you are so young and this is your first real love. Honey, you’re going to have to weigh the consequences on this one. I’m afraid you’ll end up losing one of them no matter what.”