Diamonds are Forever

by Michelle Madow

  He looked away and took a deep breath. Then he refocused on her and said, “Because I saw the way you looked at me at Savannah’s party after Peyton told you about the dare. Like you hated me and never wanted to talk to me again. So I don’t get why you’re here with me now, or why you invited me on this trip, or why you cared about coming to see me when I was out of school for all those weeks.”

  Madison stared at him, shocked that he truly didn’t get it. “Do you really think I hate you?” she asked, her voice cracking.

  “You should,” he said. “I wouldn’t blame you if you did.”

  “Well, I don’t.” She clenched her hands, wishing he would believe her. “We’ve been friends forever. You saw me through my awkward ugly/fat phase, through the first time I was heartbroken, through when I broke up with Nick and hated myself for it and through finding out Adrian’s my biological father. I’ve gotten annoyed with you, yes, and after what Peyton told me at Savannah’s party, I was hurt and angry. But no one’s ever been there for me as much as you. After the accident...” Her throat tightened, because she hated thinking about that time, but she swallowed back the tears and forced herself to continue. “After the accident, I thought I might lose you forever. That terrified me. So please, trust me, Oliver—I don’t hate you. I could never hate you. I just wish you would believe me.”

  He held her gaze, frozen, as if he didn’t know where to start. As if she’d left him speechless. Could she have finally broken through? Her heart raced at the possibility.

  But then the waitress delivered their food, ruining the moment.

  “Want some fries?” Oliver asked, motioning to them.

  “Seriously?” She glared at him. “After everything I just told you, you’re asking me if I want some fries?” She wanted to take a handful of fries and throw them at his face. Instead, she stabbed a piece of grilled chicken and ate it, trying to convince herself that it tasted just as delicious as the cheeseburger sitting in front of Oliver.

  “I remember everything you said on the night of Savannah’s party,” he said, and she stopped eating, waiting for him to continue. “You thought I was playing you because of Peyton’s bet. I’d told you that she’d called the bet off, and she said it was true, and I promised I was there with you that night because I wanted to be. But you didn’t believe me. You said you didn’t think I cared about you—that all I cared about was getting what I wanted.”

  “That’s not true...” Madison bit her lip and watched the skiers flying down the mountain, knowing it was a lie. She had said those things to him. “Well, I might have said all of that in the moment, but I wasn’t thinking straight. I didn’t mean it.”

  “You said you never should have trusted me,” he continued, gazing off at the mountain. “And then you let me get into my car. You knew I’d been drinking, and that there was no way in hell I should have been driving, but you let me get behind the wheel, anyway.”

  “I told you not to drive,” she reminded him. “I tried to wrangle the valet slip from your hand, and you pulled it away from me.”

  “You didn’t try hard enough.” He turned to her again, and she was glad his sunglasses were on, because if his eyes were as angry as he sounded, she might break down on the spot. “If you had, I wouldn’t have been driving that night, and the accident never would have happened.”

  “What are you trying to say?” She placed her fork down, her appetite gone. “Are you blaming me for your accident?”

  “You saw I shouldn’t have been driving, and you let me leave, anyway,” he said. “If you’d cared enough, you would have stopped me.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” she exclaimed. “I tried to stop you. You know I did. But it was your decision. If I could go back and do more to stop you from getting in that car, I would. Do you think I haven’t wished every day since finding out that you were in the hospital that I could go back and change what happened that night? But I can’t do that. No one can. And blaming me for what you chose to do is total crap.”

  Oliver flinched, as if her words had physically hurt him. Had she been too harsh? After all, he’d had a rough past few weeks. But she’d meant it, and she couldn’t take it back now, even if she’d wanted to.

  “You’re right,” he finally said. “I should have known better. It was my own stupid fault.”

  She watched him closely, making sure he meant it. His gaze stayed locked on hers, and her heart rose into her throat. She knew in that moment that he meant every word.

  “Thanks,” she said softly. “And I really am sorry for what I said that night. Our friendship is important to me. I don’t want to lose it.”

  “I know,” he said. “You wouldn’t have been blowing up my phone these past few weeks and coming to my place otherwise. I’m glad you forced yourself back into my life, Mads.”

  “Good.” She smiled and grabbed a handful of his fries. “Because I’m not going anywhere.”

  She wanted to say so much more—she wanted to ask how much of what had been between them had been because of the dare, and how much had been his true feelings? But she couldn’t do it. Because she finally had her friend back, and if his answer wasn’t what she wanted to hear, she feared she would lose him forever.

  www.campusbuzz.com

  High Schools > Nevada > Las Vegas > The Goodman School

  Perry Myles and Savannah Diamond getting hot on the slopes!!

  Posted on Wednesday 3/11 at 2:15 PM

  Who else has seen the pics of Savannah and Perry Myles on the slopes of Aspen?!?! Or, even better, on the chairlifts?! If you haven’t CLICK HERE. I gotta admit, I’m kinda jealous. What girl DOESN’T want to make out with Perry Myles on a chairlift?! They actually look really cute together <3

  1: Posted on Wednesday 3/11 at 3:49 PM

  as if perry myles is ACTUALLY interested in Savannah! He’s a total manwhore. And who wouldn’t be, with that much fame? The pathetic part is that Savannah probably thinks he’s interested in her. That girl is so desperate for attention it’s ridiculous.

  2: Posted on Wednesday 3/11 at 4:03 PM

  the pathetic part isn’t that Savannah thinks Perry is interested in her—it’s that she actually thinks she’s gonna make something of herself by being a “youtube celebrity.” Ummm, wtf? It’s YOUTUBE, not a record deal.

  3: Posted on Wednesday 3/11 at 5:16 PM

  the only way savannah diamond would get a record deal would be if her dad bought the label. which I wouldn’t put past him...

  4: Posted on Wednesday 3/11 at 5:56 PM

  w-o-w, someone’s a jealous bitch who obviously hasn’t listened to any of savannah’s videos. she’s actually an amazing singer!

  5: Posted on Wednesday 3/11 at 6:10 PM

  whatever. We all know Perry Myles is gonna find someone else to hook up with after his spring fling with Savannah in Aspen is over! She’s gonna be SUCH A WRECK when that happens haha it’s gonna be so funny. Almost as funny as when she cried in front of everyone at Luxe when Damien kissed Madison! I wish I’d recorded THAT to put on YouTube.

  6: Posted on Wednesday 3/11 at 6:32 PM

  ummmm that thing with Damien happened LAST SUMMER. You’re probably the only person who still cares. Anyway, Savannah and Damien are friends now. They’re over it, so you probably should be, too.

  chapter 21:

  Skiing was pretty fun—once Savannah figured out how to stand, stop and get down the bunny slope without falling. Now it was day two, and Perry was even spending time with her—he was doing the easy “green circle” runs with her and her instructor in the morning, and then doing the harder runs with the experienced skiers in their group in the afternoon.

  As they stood in line together for the two-seat chairlift, Savannah couldn’t stop fidgeting with her ski poles. Her instructor got on first, then Evie and Noel took a chairlift—it was nice
of Noel to be so friendly to Evie to make sure she didn’t feel left out—and Peyton got on with her instructor, Zack. Courtney and Brett had taken a break for the day to explore Aspen, so Savannah and Perry were the only ones left, besides their bodyguards, who would be getting on after everyone else.

  They situated themselves on the chair, which lifted into the air to bring them to the top of Buttermilk Mountain. Savannah’s stomach swooped—not from the chairlift, but from the reminder that she was on a chairlift with Perry Myles. His trademark dark hair peeked out from underneath his beanie, his perfect face exactly the same as it looked in the magazines she and Evie used to browse together during their sleepovers. How was this her life?

  But while she’d been hanging out with him and the rest of the group since they got to Aspen, she hadn’t had any one-on-one time with him. Now that they were alone, what was she supposed to say? She wanted to take out her iPhone to snap a selfie of them together so she would never forget this moment, but she didn’t want to annoy him by seeming like a wide-eyed fangirl.

  “So, Savannah,” Perry said in his gorgeous, perfect British accent. He made her name sound beautiful, and she wanted to ask him to say it over and over again. “Have you thought yet about the next step in your music career?”

  “Emily Nicole and I just put the music video we made in Vegas up on YouTube, and it’s getting lots of hits.” She swung her skis, using her poles to scrape the snow off the top of them. With anyone else, she would be proud about how her music was progressing, but Perry was an international pop star. What she was doing must sound so amateur to him. “Now my agent’s looking for a songwriter for me to work with so I can record a demo and try to attract the attention of major labels.”

  “Cool.” He nodded, and Savannah glanced back down at her skis, unable to help feeling like it wasn’t that cool at all. “I wasn’t sure if you were going to go for a label, or have your dad produce an album for you, or if you were happy with just recording covers for YouTube.”

  “I love how many hits my YouTube channel’s gotten,” she said quickly. “I never could have gotten so many without your help at my party, and the feature on My Fabulous Sweet Sixteen got me a ton of subscribers.”

  “But you want more.” His eyes locked on hers, and her head went fuzzy. It took a second to remember that she had to respond.

  “Yes,” she said.

  “Like what?”

  “I want to work with songwriters and learn how to write songs of my own,” she said. “I want to get a record deal, record an album, and then see it in stores and on iTunes. My dad’s offered to hire people to produce everything for me, but I would feel more legit if I had a label behind me. Because most of all, I want to have professionals in the industry work with me and invest in me—not because of who my father is, but because they think I have talent and believe in me.”

  “That’s the attitude I like to hear.” Perry leaned back and smiled his famous megawatt, genuine smile that made girls everywhere crazy for him. “Getting out a demo might work, but as you know, the competition’s rough, even for the most talented people. So I had another thought that you might want to consider.”

  “Okay...” Savannah couldn’t breathe as she waited to hear it. Could he want to feature her as a guest star in a song in One Connection’s upcoming album? She’d been secretly dreaming about that for months.

  “Have you heard of the show American StarMaker?”

  It wasn’t what she’d been hoping he would say, and her heart sank at the lost dream of being featured on a One Connection album. But she smiled, not wanting him to see her disappointment. “Of course,” she said. Because who hadn’t heard of American StarMaker? It was the greatest reality show out there—it wasn’t about who had the best voice, but about who would be the best star. Four celebrity judges, and one guest celebrity judge per episode, sat on a panel. Fifteen people were chosen to move into a house in LA for three months and get “trained to be a star.” Every week was a different competition—­interviews, modeling, music videos, stage presence, etc. The judges eliminated one contestant each week, until the final week, when they crowned America’s Next Superstar.

  The winner received a record deal, an interview in Rolling Rock magazine and more. There were two “cycles” per year—the winter was the adult version, and in the summer, it was Teen American StarMaker, to discover the next teen star.

  A year ago they’d held auditions in San Francisco for the teen version. Courtney had said Savannah should try out, and Peyton had offered to drive. But Savannah had brushed it off, too terrified at the prospect of getting on that stage and getting rejected by the celebrities she loved.

  What would have happened if she’d given it a shot?

  “I have an in with one of the judges,” Perry said. “Alan Levy—he played a big part in getting me and the boys off the ground. If you want to try out for the show, I’ll put in a good word for you. I can’t promise he’ll let you on, but you’ll have a better chance of it happening than if you went in for a blind audition.”

  “So you can talk to him, and then I might have a shot of getting on national TV?” It sounded too good to be true.

  “Yep,” he said. “With your talent, looks, YouTube following and your life story of how you came from nothing only to discover that your father is Adrian Diamond, I wouldn’t be surprised if you were a no-brainer to let on the show. And my personal opinion is that you have a great chance to win it, too.”

  “Which means...a record deal,” she said, breathless.

  “And more,” he said. “The LA auditions are the last weekend of the month. Think you’ll be able to make it?”

  That was the weekend before Adrian and Rebecca’s wedding. They would be busy, and Rebecca wouldn’t be able to go with her, but Peyton would be eighteen by then, and Savannah had her bodyguard. She couldn’t imagine why she wouldn’t be able to go.

  “Of course I’ll be there,” she said. She would make it happen. “But I can’t help wondering...why are you doing all of this for me?”

  “Isn’t it obvious?” He looked at her like she was the center of his universe, which sent her heart racing. “I like you, Savannah.”

  Then he leaned forward and kissed her, his lips warm, and Savannah’s head spun as she kissed him back. Was Perry Myles actually kissing her right now? It was unbelievable, and totally surreal, but true. She couldn’t believe it. Out of all the girls in the world, Perry Myles liked her. He actually liked her. He deepened the kiss, his tongue brushing hers, and fireworks exploded in her chest. She wanted this moment to last forever.

  She leaned closer into him and felt something fall from her hand, ploofing into the snow below.

  Perry laughed and glanced down at the mountain. “There goes your ski pole,” he said, his eyes dancing. “And I’m pretty sure the trail below us is a blue. Think you’re up for trying an intermediate run with me, or do you want me to get it for you and we’ll meet back up at the bottom of the mountain?”

  “I’ll go with you,” Savannah said, smiling. “I’m feeling up for an adventure.”

  He kissed her again, and in that moment, everything was perfect.

  * * *

  After the last run of the day, the group met up at a bar called 39 Degrees in the Sky Hotel for what skiers called “après-ski.” It was basically a fancy word for happy hour. 39 Degrees was a sleek bar with a lodge-like flair, overlooking the hotel pool and Aspen Mountain, and it was packed with skiers relaxing after a long day on the slopes. Luckily, a group hanging out in the couches near the fireplace was leaving, and Savannah and the rest of her group snatched the prime seating area. Perry and Noel kept their hats and sunglasses on, but it didn’t stop people from staring and snapping photos on their phones. People might not mob celebrities in Aspen, but that didn’t mean they went unnoticed.

  They saved seats for Courtney and Br
ett, who were making their way to the lounge after their adventures around town, and Brianna and Oliver, who had gone dogsledding. It didn’t take long for the four of them to arrive, and they were all so hungry that they ordered pretty much every appetizer on the menu. A day of skiing made you work up an appetite.

  “I’m sore in muscles that I didn’t know existed,” Savannah groaned as she sipped her hot chocolate. Nothing tasted better after a long day on the slopes.

  “And you’re the athlete of the family,” Courtney said. “Imagine how I feel. I literally can’t move. I’m just glad Brett agreed to take the day off from skiing to walk around town.”

  “What’d you all do all day?” Brianna asked Courtney. She crossed her legs, her foot brushing Damien’s, and left it there. Savannah’s chest heated, and she glared at Brianna’s foot, as if that was enough to get her to stop touching him. But why should she care? She’d spent the morning kissing Perry Myles on ski lifts.

  She crossed her own legs, letting her foot brush against Perry’s. Damien glanced at their contact. He raised an eyebrow, but said nothing, and she smiled in victory.

  “We walked around with no map, figuring it would be the best way to discover cool places,” Courtney said. “And it was. We stumbled upon a great indie bookstore with a cozy coffee shop in the second floor attic, and hung out there all afternoon.”

  “Don’t tell me you bought more books?” Peyton asked. “Because you don’t need any more books. Your bookshelf is overflowing.”

  “I found two that I just had to have,” Courtney admitted. “After staying for so long, I couldn’t leave without supporting the store! Plus, they were books I’d been eyeing up for a while.”

  Courtney said that about every book, but whatever.

  “While you two were at the bookstore, you missed a Leo­nardo DiCaprio spotting at lunch.” Evie grabbed her phone, scrolled to the picture and pushed it in Courtney’s face. “He was eating at that special lunch club while we were there.”