Alanis smiled sadly at my insistence. She looked back down at the cucumber water in her hands and frowned. “You know, I remember when I used to be like that. I wanted to make my mark on the world with makeup brushes and eyeliners. It was all I ever thought about. Nowadays, it feels like the only thing I ever want is a drink. More than anything, I wish I could turn this water into something stiffer.”
She sighed as she turned the bottle in her hand. I stood still against the wall, unsure how to follow that up. I’d never expected Alanis to share about her drinking problems. She wasn’t a very open person. In fact, I was pretty sure we’d never talked about anything except for work while I’d been assisting her. Still, my lack of response didn’t seem to bother her. She turned her gaze back to mine and sighed again.
“Having you around these last few weeks has reminded me of what I’ve lost. And what I’m battling to get back. And you did live up to your side of the bargain. You were eager to learn. You picked up techniques faster than I could’ve expected. You’ll make a wonderful makeup artist.”
My mouth opened and closed as I fought for the words to express just how much that meant to me.
Alanis waved her hand at me and smiled. “When you’re ready to apply to schools, put my name down as a reference. Maybe I’m fighting to get back what I lost, but my name still holds some power in most circles. I’d be willing to bet you can go to any school you want.”
I rushed toward her and pulled her into a hug. I couldn’t help it. She stiffened in my arms at first, but gave in to pat me awkwardly on the shoulder. I didn’t even care, I was so happy. Pulling back from her, I wiped the corner of my eyes with my sleeves.
“Thank you, Alanis. You’re the best.”
A proud smile quirked on her lips and she lifted her chin defiantly. “I really am. And don’t you forget it. Not even when we get nominated for the same awards some ten years from now.”
I was in danger of hyperventilating. The fact that Alanis thought someday we could be competing for the same awards was everything. I could already see the Oscar in my hands. That was my dream!
“Now, get out of here,” Alanis said, shooing me away with her hands. I was pretty sure she was worried I was going to tackle her into another hug. “They’ll be coming for the trailer any minute now and I don’t want to get locked in here with you the whole way back to LA. There’s only so much chatter I can take.”
I tried to fight back a smile as I made my way to the door. Alanis could try to fight it all she wanted, but I was growing on her. Maybe even someday, I could claim that she liked me. But until then, I’d have to stay here and finish my schooling.
It wasn’t easy leaving the set. This was the last time I’d be walking through random set parts, trailers, and the hustle and bustle of an entire film crew trying to put together a hit. My heart ached with an anguish that felt like it was coming from everywhere. From saying goodbye to Alanis, to not knowing if I’d ever get to work on a movie set again, to knowing that Zane was only a few hundred feet away on that soccer field, filming the very last scene for his big movie break. It was hard to cope with, so I pushed myself faster toward the parking lot.
Marie’s BMW stood waiting for me in the parking lot. It was old and had a bit of rust around the wheels, but for a high school kid it was a royal treat. She’d loaned it to me this morning after I’d told her about my bare-faced movement at school. I was pretty sure that if she’d still been in high school, she would’ve been one of the awesome girls who’d stood beside me as I stared down Janelle.
It had been a rocky couple years for my entire family, but I was glad to have Marie in our lives now. She was good for Dad. And she was good to my sister and me. The inside of her BMW smelled like her favorite Jasmine Vanilla perfume. I concentrated on that as I drove home, willing myself not to break down again. I’d done enough crying over the past couple days. If I never cried another tear, I’d be ecstatic.
Letting go of Zane had been one of the hardest things I’d ever had to do—and that included showing up at school without makeup. I was really going to miss him. Like, ache in my gut that would never go away, miss him. But life wasn’t a movie. The girl didn’t always get the boy. Sometimes, the girl had to chase her dream in a different direction so no one else got hurt.
Despite my best effort, tears still blurred my vision slightly as I pulled into the drive at my dad’s house. I parked the BMW on the driveway and sniffled, wishing I had my girls around me again. If there was ever a time I needed a chick flick kind of night, it was now. Swallowing back my tears, I opened the car door and slid the phone out of my backpack pocket.
But just as I was about to walk toward the house and call Beth, my gaze landed on a hooded figure sitting on the front porch. I froze, my finger hovering over the call button. That hoodie was all too familiar. And so were the brilliant blue eyes gazing out from beneath the hood.
Zane was here.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“Zane...?”
I didn’t dare breathe in, for fear of scaring off this strange illusion in front of me. Was he really here, or had I officially lost my mind?
“Lexi.” He quickly stood up and took a halting step toward me. Hesitation was written in his eyes as he worked his jaw. “I hoped I’d find you here. I don’t even know where your mom lives.”
“It’s an apartment across town,” I said vaguely. This still felt like some sort of dream. “What are you doing here? I thought you were shooting your last scene and then hitting the road.”
He lowered his chin and stared intently at me. “Finished up early, actually. Everyone else is celebrating, but I had something more important I needed to do.”
“Oh, yeah?” I fiddled with the straps of my backpack as it hung limply at my side.
“Yeah.” His tongue darted out across his bottom lip and he frowned. “Can we talk?”
I nodded, although I was pretty sure that was my head moving on its own. I had lost all motor function the moment my eyes landed on Zane. My heart had already convinced me that this morning had been the last time I’d ever see him again—at least, in person. I’d see him on the big screen and in the tabloids, but not in front of me. Not looking at me in the electric way he did. This was a shock to the system.
Moving past him, I had to try several times before I could get the key into the lock. My hands shook like I’d just downed two energy drinks in a row. Striding inside, I dragged my backpack into the entryway and abandoned it on the floor. Marie and Dad were still at work. The house was completely empty. I walked to the kitchen and went straight to the fridge for a bottle of water.
Taking two out, I tore the cap off and took a large gulp. When I shut the door, my heart stuttered again to see Zane standing close behind it. I tossed him the other bottle, which he set carefully on the granite-top island.
“Thank you.” He stuffed his hands into his hoodie pocket and then cocked his head to one side as he stared at my face. “You look beautiful, by the way. You always do.”
My cheeks warmed and I ducked my chin. No one quite had the power to make me blush the way Zane did. And maybe no one ever would.
Suddenly, I had the overwhelming urge to giggle. I was doing that a lot lately. I clenched the cold water bottle between my hands and leaned against the kitchen island for support. My chest shook with the effort to keep it all locked inside, but the impulse was too strong to fight. The only think I could do was keep my lips pressed together tightly and squeeze my eyes shut.
“Lexi?” Zane sounded concerned. “Are you okay? I can’t tell if you’re laughing or crying.”
“I’m not really sure.” I opened my eyes to look at him and tears began to roll down my cheeks. Wiping them away, I felt grateful for the first time not to be wearing mascara. At least there were no more black tear-trails to worry about. “I think I’m going into shock. I fully expected to never see you again.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I walked away.” I sniffled. At least the
tears and giggles had stopped. I could finally start to make my way through the tangled web of thoughts in my mind. “But then I find you on my doorstep. You definitely don’t make it easy on a girl to say goodbye.”
“Was that goodbye?” He gripped the countertop with his left hand, his knuckles white. “Do you want me to leave? Say the words, and I’ll go out the door and never contact you again.”
I shook my head, the same sorrow overcoming me. “No, I don’t want you to leave. That was the problem. I walked away so you wouldn’t have to sacrifice your career for me any longer. We already messed things up so badly, I didn’t want to make things harder for you.”
He exhaled with control, his eyes closing for a moment as the tension left his face. And when he opened them again, a smile worked its way onto his face. “That’s a relief.”
“A relief?” I stared incredulously at him. “How is any of this a relief? Walking away from you was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. If it’s a relief to you, then maybe we weren’t on the same page with this stupid relationship thingy the whole time.”
The idea that he could shrug off the ending of our friendship or relationship or whatever it was between us had me fuming mad. But the temperature on my anger only grew hotter as he grinned at me.
“What?” I snapped, gripping my water bottle so tightly that it crackled under my palm. “What is so funny?”
“You.” He chuckled and tilted his head toward me. “And believe me, we’re both on the same page with this stupid relationship thingy, as you so lovingly put it. It was just a relief to me that you don’t want me to leave.”
“Oh.” That single syllable took all the fighting energy out of me.
“To tell you the truth, I had a lot of doubts today.” Zane’s brow wrinkled in disgust. “For a few ugly seconds, I wondered if my dad was right and you’d used me for your fifteen minutes of fame.” I opened my mouth to argue, but he shook his head and continued before I could. “I know, I know, it was so far from the truth. I never should’ve let him say those things to you. I’m sorry I didn’t stick up for you. I’ve let my dad call all the shots since Mom died. He’s got my best interest in mind, but that doesn’t always mean he’s right. And I know without a doubt that he was wrong about you.”
Chewing on my bottom lip, I watched the righteous anger flare in Zane’s eyes. It made me so grateful to have known him, even for a second. We’d only spent a couple weeks together, but he already knew me well enough to defend me without a doubt. That was priceless.
“Thank you,” I said softly. “Thank you for telling me. That means a lot.”
“I just wish I would’ve told him that then and there. That I hadn’t been such a coward. I wanted to do something. Something to show him that he wasn’t always right, but then you had that no-makeup movement outside the set this morning that went viral. And that set the stage for me to finally take control.”
A bolt of shock went through me. My eyes widened as I stared at him. “...went viral?”
Beth had mentioned the video going around, but I seriously thought she’d been joking about it going viral. I wasn’t sure whether I was happy about that or not. It had been such a personal moment.
“Yeah, you went viral.” Zane grinned and he tugged his phone out of his pocket. “Want to read some of the comments?”
“Um...are you sure that’s a good idea?” I chewed nervously on my lip. “Isn’t the comment section usually the dumpster fires of the internet?”
He laughed, clicked some buttons on his phone, and then slid it gently on the counter toward me. “Usually, but this time it’s good. I swear. You can trust me.”
My eyes lingered on his smile for a long moment. Inside my chest, my heart flittered like a bird testing its wings for the first time. There was no doubt that I could trust Zane in any situation. That had been firmly established. So, without hesitation, I grabbed the phone and began to scroll through the comments.
There were too many to focus on just one, but as I read them, my eyes filled up with tears once again. This was more than I ever could’ve hoped for. Girls from around the world were finding courage from my school’s stand against bullying. They were vowing to do their own makeup-free days at their schools so that no other girls would feel like they had to hide. It was beautiful. I couldn’t believe this had all happened in one day.
“Is this what you came here to show me?” I asked, looking up from the screen to find Zane watching me, his eyes filled with a sweet and tender affection.
“Partly.” He took the phone from my hands and stepped closer, leaving only inches between us. The light in his eyes changed to a serious tone once again. “Thanks to this little speech of yours, my PR team has been running wild. My numbers are up. I’ve got hundreds of thousands of more followers on all my social media platforms thanks to the Makeup Girl. Apparently, people like that I’m...” He tilted his head to the side, as if at a loss for words. “That I’m associated with you.”
My eyes narrowed. I wasn’t sure what he was trying to say. “Isn’t that a good thing?”
The left side of his mouth curled up into a disbelieving smile. “Yeah, that’s a good thing. The movie execs are ecstatic. Any good press for me is good press for their movie. And because of that, I was able to have my dad renegotiate my contract.”
It felt like the lining of my throat had thickened. I pressed a hand to my neck and tried to swallow. “What...what does that mean?”
“It means that for once in my life, I manned up and stood for what I wanted.” His eyes glimmered as he moved in closer and took my hand in his. “I’m not playing the heartthrob anymore. That’s not my role. It never has been. And it means you don’t have to walk away. Not if you don’t want to...”
He left the end of the sentence hanging, almost as if he were asking a question. My gaze darted back and forth between his eyes. I wasn’t sure I was hearing him correctly. It sounded like he was asking me to be with him.
“But you’re leaving to go back home.” I squeezed his hand, wishing so desperately that I didn’t have to be a realist in that moment. “You’re going to be far away.”
“My next shoot doesn’t start until May.” His chest rose in a hopeful breath. “And I might not have to leave as soon as we thought...”
He reached out tentatively to brush the hair gently behind my shoulder. The sensation sent shivers down my spine. This sounded too good to be true. How could he be for real?
“How soon is soon?” I asked through gritted teeth.
His lips quirked in a suppressed smile. “How does the rest of the school year sound?
I was going to pass out. “The whole year? As in, until May?”
“I talked my dad into letting me finish out my studies here at Rock Valley High. He’s always known my mom wanted me to have a taste of normal life. To go to a school and be around normal people. I finally convinced him that now was the time to make her dream come true. We’re going to rent a house in town.” His gaze searched my face uncertainly. “I mean, as long as that’s okay with you.”
“Okay?” Excitement boiled up from my gut and spilled into my grinning cheeks, making them feel like my face was going to crack. “Are you kidding me? Of course, it’s okay. This is only the best news in all of time.”
A smile slowly stretched across his lips. “Really? You mean that?”
“Yes!” I threw my arms around him and squeezed so tight I was pretty sure I pushed the air out of his lungs. “You’re going to love Rock Valley High! You can even join the soccer team if you want. For real.”
He chuckled and the noise reverberated through his chest into mine. “That sounds like a normal teenage boy kind of thing. Sign me up.”
Pulling back, I stared up into his face, hardly able to believe my luck. My incredibly gorgeous, Hollywood stud of a boyfriend was coming to Rock Valley High. Well...was he my boyfriend? We hadn’t quite hashed out all the details on that stuff yet. We’d spent so much time trying to just be
friends, it was hard to wrap my mind around being allowed to actually date the boy. Maybe he didn’t even want to put a label on it. I was pretty sure that was how they did things in LA. I could be cool with that, even if boyfriend sounded a million times better.
“Can I ask you one more question?” Zane’s eyes crinkled as he smiled at me and then reached up to stroke my cheek. I leaned into his touch. It was the first time since our meeting in the park that I didn’t feel guilty being around him.
“Yes?”
He leaned his forehead against mine. “Got any plans June twelfth?”
That felt like a lifetime from now. I didn’t want to think about anything past graduation. Not when Zane was here, right now. I looked questioningly into his eyes and he just smiled.
“It’s the movie’s premier in LA. I want to make sure I get to show off my girlfriend on the red carpet. Want to go?”
Lights seemed to burst in front of my eyes. I held back an excited squeal as much as I could, but some of it escaped still from my lips. Not only had Zane invited me to a red-carpet event, but he’d called me his girlfriend. Now, I could officially die happy.
“I’ll take that as yes,” he said with a laugh.
I couldn’t contain myself any longer. I grabbed both sides of his face and pulled him closer to me so that I could press my lips against his in a hungry kiss. He hummed his approval, wrapping his arms tightly around my waist. Warmth shot through my limbs and straight out my fingertips as I ran my hands through his soft hair. From the citrusy smell of his hair product to the winter mint taste of his mouth, I was in sensation overload. I kissed him until my knees were weak as jelly and then I pulled back with a satisfied sigh.
“I could get used to that.” Zane wore a goofy smile as he leaned back against the kitchen island.
“Get used to what?”
Dad walked into the kitchen, followed closely by Marie. His brow was arched and there was a glint of challenge in his eyes.
Dare You to Chase the Soccer Player (Rock Valley High Book 5) Page 18
