Forcing Gravity (16 page)

“Yes, be glad you got your name onto my dance card, or I just
wouldn’t have any time for you,
”
I said in a fake southern accent
that was surprisingly
realistic after my week
with Henley
.

He laughed
again. I decided I loved his laugh
.

“Okay, so can I pick you up at your dorm?”

“Sure,” I said, and gave him directions to my dorm. “We’re in room 408.”

“Cool. Um, but are you able to
maybe
meet me downstairs?
I’m not trying to be pretentious or anything, but
I don’t
really
think it’s a very go
od idea for me to get out of my
car
on a college campus
.”

It hit me then just who I was going out with. For the past few weeks I’d grown used to thinking of him as just Jase, a really cute guy I’d met, but he was in fact a celebrity w
ho the paparazzi followed around and who fans swarmed and who girls threw themselves at
. How could I have forgotten that?

“Oh,
right.
Yeah, sure.
That’s fine,” I said, trying not to sound like he’d caught me off-guard. “
What do you drive?”

“A black Maserati,” he said, and I wanted to call my dad right away and tell him.

He would kill to own a Maserati. His pride and joy was the
red
Corvette he’d bought a few years back that he on
ly
drove on special occasions
and wiped down with a cloth diaper once a week
.

Instead I whistled. “Nice car, Brady.”

Jase chuckled. “Yeah, well, I sort of bought it for myself as a birthday present last year.”

My eyes went wide, and I was glad we weren’t face-to-face. I
t would have been embarrassing. That was one hell of a birthday present.

“So, w
here are we going?” I asked
, changing the subject
. “I mean, what should I wear?”

I was
suddenly nervous about going
out with him.
What did you wear on a date with
one of
People
Magazine
’s
‘Sexiest Men Alive’
? Okay, now that just sounded cheesy, but it was true. I had
bought that magazine when it had come out, and he’d looked beyond hot in it
.
Hell, he
was
hot.
T
hen I remembered the girls in his entourage that night at
Katsuya
and wondered if he expected me to dress like them. Thanks to my mom and a mission she’d sent her stylist on the week before, I was now
the
owner of five
more
designer dresses and five
more
coordinating pairs of heels
that
I would break my ankle
s
in if I ever wore them and actually tried to walk.

“Whatever you want.
It doesn’t mat
ter. I’m just excited that we finally get to go out
.”

That made me smile
. He had this amazing way of putting me at ease.
Maybe if I just thought of him as Jase, a really cute guy I met, I wouldn’t feel so intimidated about going out with him.

“I’m excited too,” I said, and then I heard Henley’s key in the lock. “Oh, I actually need to go. I’m sorry.”

As much as I didn’t want to hang up,
I
also
didn’t want to be on the phone when she was in the room. I didn’t need her asking nine million questions about who I was talking to, which she surely would.

“Okay, well, I’ll see you tomorrow. Text me when you’re going to bed?
I’ll probably still be on my flight, but I’ll get your text when I land.
”

I smiled. He was so cute about wanting to say goodnight. “You got it. I’ll see you tomorrow.
Have a safe flight.
”

“I’m just going to close my eyes and fall asleep thinking about the girl I have a date with tomorrow night,” he said, completely disarming me as he said goodbye and hung up the phone.

“Hey Logan,” Henley said when she came in the room.

I was
suddenly
busying myself with pulling out the reading I had to do for my English class
while I fought to keep the blush off my cheeks
. I had reading
to do
for several
of
my classes
, and at that point, diving into schoolwork would be the only thing that would keep what Jase had just said out of my brain, because if I kept thinking about it, I wouldn’t get shit done that night
.

“How was your mixe
r?” I asked, looking over at Henley
as she sat down on her bed and slid off her heels. Henley wore four inch heels everywhere. She was actually pretty short, so they gave off the illusion that she wasn’t such a shrimp – her words, not mine.

“It was so fun,” she gushed. “The girls are all
so
nice. You totally should have rushed.”

I stretched out
my legs in front of me
. “Not my thing, but I’m glad
you’re liking
it.”

“I am,” she said. “I’m going to
go
out tonight with some of
the
girls. Do you want to come?”

Henley was actually really sweet, if a little overbearing at times. She always made a point to invite me out with all the friends she’d
already
made at school. I’d gone out with her and some of her girlfriends on Saturday night to a
fraternity party that was kind of fun. I’d met one guy who’d grown up surfing in San Diego, so we
’d
talked for a while.

“Oh, no thanks.
I actually have plans to meet Ethan to go surfing before class in the morning, so I want to get to bed early.”

“Okay, suit yourself.”
She smiled at me before turning to her closet to find the perfect outfit for that night.

Maybe I’d have her help me get dressed for my date with Jase.

***

“I have a date tomorrow night, are you happy?”

“Very happy,” Skylar said when I called her after Henley got in the shower. “It’s about time. Who’s the guy?
Is it the
one you were texting with last week at dinner?
”

I hesitated, suddenly not loving the idea of my gossip
y
little sister knowing I was going out with Jason Brady. She and her pre-teen friends would have a field day with that, and things were so new between Jase and me that I didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize our potential. I figured leaking our date to the media
via my little sister
probably wouldn’t win me any points, so I kept my mouth shut.

“
Yes, it’s the guy I was texting with.
” At least that was true.

“What
’s
his name?”

“Jase.”

“Jase what?”

“I don’t know, Sky. Quit it with the twenty questions.”

“Are you going to have sex with him if the date goes well?”

My jaw dropped open.
“Excuse me?!” I asked, completely taken aback.

She sighed, and I pictured her rolling her eyes. “That’
s what girls
on TV
do. They have sex with the guy if they have fun on their date.”

“What kind of
TV shows
are you watching?” I asked
,
appalled at the serious lack of parental supervision she had.

Shouldn’t she be watching
Hannah Montana
or some other equally annoying Disney show?

“
Sex and the City.
I’ve been watching it on TBS. They cut out all the really dirty parts, but I’m not stupid. I know what’s going on.”

“Jesus,” I hissed, not even sure what to do with that.

“Sky, don’t you think you’re a little young for that show?”
I finally said, once my brain cleared.

“No.”

It was my turn to sigh. I needed to have a serious talk with my mother. I wasn’t there to intervene, and I could only do so much to positively influence my sister. My mother had to be a
parent
for once in her life.

“Sky, seriously, that show is for adults. You really shouldn’t be watching it.”

“Mom let
s me,” was her comeback, and I had nothing to say in th
at moment. The fact that our mother
knew she watched a show about sex and was okay with it was a serious problem.

“Okay,
fine, whatever,” I said, knowing we’d be discussing this again the next time I saw her. “
I have to do some studying, but please don’t get any ideas from what you see on TV. You should know better than anyone that what happens on TV and in the movies isn’t real.”

“Well, duh. Don’t worry, Lo
Lo
, I’m not going to end up like Mom.”

Head.
Banging.
Against.
Wall.
Literally.

I was
n
o
t a big fan of my mom sharing her shame in having me with my sister, especially since Skylar hadn’t exactly been planned either, and I didn’t know if she knew she’d been an accident. But on the flipside, I guess if it deterred Sky from doing anything stupid, I wasn’t going to argue.

“Great, Sky. I think that’s a good plan.” It was all I could say. I was reeling in so many different ways. “Let’s have lunch on Saturday, okay?”

And maybe we’ll have a little sisterly talk about your hobbies
while we’re at it
.

“Okay!” she said, and in a flash she was back to acting her age.
As grown up as she sometimes seemed, she
was only twelve, and I liked
when she acted like it.

-
9
-

“Where are you going?” Henley asked me
from her bed where she sat watchin
g
Hot Entertainment News
.

My stomach was already swirling with nerves
since I was supposed to meet Jase downstairs in just under an hour for our date
, but when the host
of
Hot Entertainment News
had announced at the start of the show that they had an exclusiv
e interview with Jason Brady, my nerves multiplied exponentially.

Although we’d talked regularly, I hadn’t seen him since Garrett’s party.
I’d seen two
picture
s
of him in
Celebrity Weekly
– one
on the beach in Mexico when he’d been vacationing with his family and one of him buying gum in New York City,
and of course
I snuck glances at
the picture he’d send to me
that I’d saved on my phone all the time
,
but
other than that I hadn’t seen Jase since the night we met.

The idea of seeing him on
TV, talking and being
interviewed,
was a little unnerving. Would I still find him attractive? Okay, that was ridiculous. He looked perfect all the time. Of course
I
would still find him attractive. I was just
being self-conscious
.

“Um, I actually have a date,” I told my nosey roommate.

“Really!”
A huge smile lit up her face, and she
muted the TV and bounced off
her bed.

“Oh,” I said, turning back to the TV. “Um, I kind of wanted to watch the Jason Brady interview they’re going to do. Can you turn that back up?”

“Sure,” she said cheerily
,
as she bounced back over to her side of the room.
She bounced a lot.
“
I love Jason Brady! He’s so cute. The interview
probably won’t be on until the end, so we have some time.”

I was glad she didn’t
question
why I wanted to see it, but seeing as she watched the show nightly, she didn’t think it was odd that anyone else was interested in celebrities.

“Um, time for what?” I asked, realizing what she’d said.

“Time to make you over,” she said, acting like it was obvious.