Hidden Gem (6 page)

Lost in her thoughts, she accidentally sloshed the coconut water onto her shirt as she closed the fridge door.
 
“Ugh, Gemma,” she scolded herself despite the smile that still curved her lips.

She made her way up the grand flight of stairs and walked down the length of the hall.
 
Through the circular window above the front door, she noticed that Madison’s car was still parked outside.
 
Maybe she wants to come in and hang out
, Gemma thought to herself.
 
She continued to her bedroom to change into something more comfortable but still remotely cute, just in case Madison did decide to ring her doorbell.
 
She settled on a striped
Commes
des
Garçons
sweater dress that reached her mid-thigh, pulling the neckline slightly off one shoulder.

Through her window, she could see movement in Lucas’s room.
 
Leo bounced up and down on his bed, barking excitedly.
 
Lucas was curled on the bed around him, tossing a rubber ball.
 
Gemma smiled as she watched Leo shoot out of the room after the ball, which bounced off the bed and out the door.

Then her smile quickly faded.

Madison walked into Lucas’s open door, the rubber ball in her left hand and Leo cradled in her right arm.
 
She leaned over and kissed him on the lips with Leo yapping happily in between them.
 
Gemma quickly turned away, her heart sinking.
 
I’m an idiot.
She leaned against the wall and slowly slid down against it to the floor, her cheeks absolutely burning.
 
Her whole face burned.
 
How could I not put two and two together?

She cursed her windows for not having curtains and slipped out of her own room as discreetly as possible.
 
She ran down the stairs and plopped down on the living room couch, trying to normalize her heartbeat as she reasoned with herself.
 
There was no reason to be so upset.
 
After all, she and Lucas had only spoken once.
 
They barely knew each other.
 
Plus, Madison was her best chance at having not just a normal life at Beauford High, but an amazing one.
 
An enviable one.
 
It’s not worth torturing yourself over
,
she tried to convince herself
.
 
He’s your friend’s boyfriend.
 
It’s not worth it.

Forgetting about Lucas proved to be easy.
 
He was usually too busy working for his dad’s custom carpentry business to hang out with Madison and her friends.
 
Madison often pouted and complained, but it was nothing
Pinkberry
and a
mani-pedi
couldn’t temporarily solve.
 
The few times he did hang out with the girls, Gemma was thankful he never brought up her near-death incident at the lake.
 
With Gemma, he usually just made small talk about Gavin’s latest troublemaking or the progress he was making on Mira’s porch.

It wasn’t until a night out in Manhattan that things began to change.

“Oh, I know this place,” Kate gasped as she struggled to walk on the cobblestone street in her braided espadrilles.
 
“It’s opened by that guy Andrew.
 
No Andre.
 
He’s dating that actress.”

Leah rolled her eyes and bopped Kate on the head playfully.
 
“Yeah, you totally know this place.”

Along with the girls, Madison had invited Lucas to a new club in the Meatpacking District.
 
Everyone but Gemma had fake IDs, but Jillian assured Gemma that there would be no problem getting in because she was “friendly” with the cute bouncer.
 
With a wink in Jillian’s direction, he bypassed Gemma while checking IDs.

“See, I told you.
 
The guy loves me,” Jillian smiled as they sauntered through the doors.
 
Gemma dared to cock a curious eyebrow at Jillian, who guffawed.
 
“Get your mind out of the gutter, Gem! He’s totally just a family friend.”
 
Madison snorted.

Gemma bit her lip nervously upon setting foot in the club.
 
It was dimly lit in amber and gold hues.
 
An enormous circular bar served as the centerpiece of the room.
 
Even the cocktail waitresses wore chic metallic mini dresses.
 
Gemma hadn’t thought to add nightclub attire to her wardrobe during her summer of shopping overseas.
 
Everything she had purchased was worthy of high tea at The Peninsula rather than grinding with Leah in the Meatpacking District.

Prior to leaving the house, she had begged Mira to let her wear something out of her Queen Bee wardrobe for the night.
 
While the haute couture fashions were in storage, the smaller pieces that she had worn had been placed in the attic.
 
“Something small – like this!” Gemma grabbed the leather Valentino miniskirt that she wore to an autograph signing in Prague.
 
“No one would recognize it! Please, please,
please
.”

Mira didn’t budge and Gemma ended up leaving in a sequined sweater dress by Stella McCartney.
 
It was cute, but she didn’t feel sexy in it.
 
Especially not with Madison waltzing about in her skintight
Herv
é
Leger bandage dress.
 
Her bright pink lipstick matched the dress perfectly and her normally straight blonde hair had been styled to be wild and wavy.
 
“Like sex hair,” she said.
 
“Except I haven’t had sex tonight.
 
Yet
.”
 
The girls laughed and Gemma tried not to grimace.

She tried again not to grimace when Lucas gave Madison’s butt a quick squeeze as she leaned over the bar to order drinks.
 
Their public displays of affection were generally on the tame side and Gemma had grown accustom to those.
 
She couldn’t quite stomach the raunchier displays.
 
She looked away as Madison trailed her finger down Lucas’s chest and whispered in his ear, flirting as if they had only just met.

“Having fun yet, gorgeous?” Leah suddenly appeared, forcing a flute of champagne into Gemma’s hands.
 
“Ugh, are you still bummed about what you’re wearing?”

“No, I’m not.
 
Really, I’m not.”

“Good, because see that hot-ass guy over there? He invited us to join him in the hot tub.
 
And if you
are
still bummed about your dress, this is the perfect opportunity to take it off.”

“There’s a hot tub here?”

Leah tossed her hair over her shoulder.
 
“Of course.”

“You brought a swimsuit?”

“Would a swimsuit fit in here?” Leah asked incredulously, waving her clutch in the air.
 
“I mean, as small as my bikinis are, the answer is no.
 
Not that it matters.”
 
Without a thought, she pulled down the neckline of her beaded mini-dress to flash Gemma the top of her intricate red lace bra.

“
Leah!
”

“Oh relax, silly! There’s no point in a bra like this if you can’t show it off, right?”

Within minutes, Leah and Jillian had stolen the show at the club by hopping into the hot tub in their sexy lingerie.

Madison, Kate and Gemma watched as other club goers followed suit by joining Leah and Jillian in the tub.
 
Madison laughed with a glance towards Gemma.
 
“You and I are classier than that.”

“And what about me?” Kate inquired.

“You know you
want
to, Kate,” Madison said as Lucas returned from the bar.
 
He wrapped an arm around her tiny waist.
 
“You’re just not wearing cute enough underwear.”

“You’re flattering me.
 
It’s actually because I have the world’s grossest stomach.
 
Total flab.”

“
Is not
,” Madison and Gemma said in unison.

“Is too,”
Kate
insisted, sighing.

It wasn’t long before Gemma was compelled to excuse herself elsewhere.
 
For over five minutes, Kate had done nothing but watch the hot tub forlornly while Madison’s hands began wandering about Lucas’s body again.
 
Gemma pretended not to notice as he peered apologetically at her, trying to gently remove
Madisons’s
hands.

“I’m
gonna
go to the bathroom,” Gemma eventually announced, quickly excusing herself.
 
She busied herself while in there, hoping that by the time she exited, Madison’s PDA-fest would have ended.

It did, because upon stepping out of the bathroom, Gemma walked straight into Lucas.

“Hey,” he smiled.

Gemma tucked her hair behind her ear.
 
“Hi.”

“No hot tub for you?”

“Nope.
 
And none for you?” she countered.

“I guess it’s not my type of thing,” Lucas shrugged.
 
“Not yours either, huh?”

Gemma felt his arm clearing the path for her as they wove through the throng of people.
 
“Not tonight.
 
It looks a little intimidating.”

Lucas nodded seriously.
 
“Wouldn’t want you to drown or anything.”

Gemma’s eyes widened and she stared at him.
 
It was the first time they had acknowledged the lake incident since it happened.
 
Strangely, it made her smile.
 
He cracked a laugh and put his hand on her back, nodding towards the booth where Madison and Kate sat.
 
“Come on, let’s go.”

It was almost three thirty in the morning when the six of them left the club.
 
Upon stepping out, they immediately heard the piercing sound of glass shattering.
 
The girls shrieked and ducked for cover.
 
Gemma’s
own instinct was to close her eyes, but she opened them quickly to find herself in Lucas’s arms.
 
They blinked at one another, both aware that he had protectively grabbed her over his own girlfriend.
 
He let go of her as quickly as he had held her.
 
They both turned to Madison, who didn’t notice.
 
No one had.

Like the lake incident, the glass incident went unspoken of between them.
 
They returned to polite small talk whenever he and his friends joined the girls for dinner or a night out.
 
Gemma began to wonder if in her drunken state, she had imagined him shielding her.
 
One thing she knew, however, was that she wasn’t imagining the way he stole glances at her every time she walked away from the group to make a call or buy a drink.
 
She reasoned that he was probably curious about how someone so quiet could be related to Gavin and Mira.
 
But of course, in her deepest subconscious, she hoped it was something more.

Because of Madison and the girls, her first month of school went by quickly and smoothly.
 
Other than the lack of quality boys to develop her first real crush on, she couldn’t have asked for a better way to start her true high school career.
 
Unlike Jillian and Leah, she didn’t have to prepare for the SATs because she had already done so during her one-on-one schooling while touring.
 
Madison, accompanied by Kate, took this time to introduce Gemma to their weekly routines around town – manicures, pedicures, facials, shopping.
 
She was a perfect hostess and Gemma still had yet to detect any flaws on her.
 
She was everything a girl wanted in a friend, and Gemma knew that lusting after her boyfriend was definitely not a proper way to say thank you.