‘Well, he’s doing this all for you, so I think you’re the only one he’ll listen to.’
Rachel felt flattered beyond belief. It had confirmed all her suspicions that she was the reason he’d transformed into an Edwannabe. It was the news she’d been waiting for and made the sun come out inside her. She couldn’t wait to see him again and kiss him. All she wanted to do was be with him. However, that had to wait. Olivia looked at Rachel with pleading eyes.
‘Could you just try to get him to stop pretending to be a vampire?’
‘Don’t worry,’ Rachel said, holding Olivia’s hand. ‘I’ll talk to him. I’ll convince him this is all unnecessary. I know I’m small but I can be persuasive when I need to be.’
‘Oh, Rachel, that would be a huge weight off my mind.’
‘Hey, no problem. If there’s anything else you need or you want someone to talk to, don’t hesitate to call me, okay?’
‘Thanks, Rachel. I really appreciate this,’ Olivia said, smiling through wet eyes.
‘My pleasure. Do you mind if I ask you a question?’
‘Sure, go ahead.’
‘The thing is, I like Lewis too. I’ve always liked him. It’s just I wasn’t sure whether I was going to be another notch on his bedpost. I’d love for us to be together, but how do I know he won’t drop me once he’s got me, because the chase is over?’
Olivia looked around the room as if searching for the answer.
‘I suppose you don’t know. Nobody does at the start of any relationship; it’s always a leap of faith. One thing I do know, is that no girl has ever had this effect on him. You’ve made him change into a completely different person.’
Rachel’s pale cheeks suddenly turned the colour of a fire engine.
‘Whatever happens though, you and me will always be friends.’
‘I’d love that,’ said Rachel. ‘What about you? Are you seeing anyone?’
‘No, all the guys I meet are only after one thing.’
‘Sex?’
‘No. Money. The second they see where I live and who my dad is, it’s like you can see the pound signs in their eyes.’
‘That’s horrible.’
‘Yeah, it makes you feel kind of dirty inside. I’d like to meet a guy with a bit more depth to him, but I’m not sure one exists.’
‘Hey, I’ve just remembered,’ said Rachel. ‘It’s my birthday in two weeks. Why don’t you come along.’
‘I’d love to.’
‘I’m not sure what I’m doing for it yet, but I’ll let you know.’
‘Cool, I’ll be there. Now how about you show me some of the wonderful stuff they’ve got in this place.’
*
Rachel tried several time to arrange a meeting with Lewis so she could cure him of what she called his ‘Edwarditis’. Each time she asked to hook up with him she got the same excuse that his nose was still as wide as a motorway and he didn’t really want to see anyone until he was at least looking semi-normal.
This was all vanity on Lewis’ part. He’d fallen in love with the image he had created and the effect it had on people around him - well, only those that knew about Twilight. It had become a kind of armour; to go out not looking like his chosen hero made him feel weak.
Lewis’ ego had never been perfect but at least it had been healthy. Now it had become fragile and inflated. When he wasn’t checking his nose in the mirror to measure its progress, he would spend his days looking on all sorts of different Twilight websites. There were literally thousands of them across the world. Many of them had a ‘Rate my Edward’ section where fans would upload pictures of themselves so others could vote on how much they resembled Edward. There were also ones for Bella and Jacob look-alikes.
Lewis had submitted a picture he’d taken of himself in the mirror before he’d got whacked on the nose, and was thrilled to see that he was rated top Edward look-alike on all the sites. There was a brief period of a week when he was knocked down to second place. It had made him depressed not to be the best fake Edward anymore. However, it later turned out that the image of Lewis’ competitor had been photoshopped and the guy who’d submitted it had been disqualified. Lewis was rightly reinstated as the number one fake vampire from Forks, and his confidence rocketed back up again.
‘What are you doing?’ asked Olivia. She was passing his bedroom, trying to look as casual as possible. In reality she was keeping tabs on him.
‘Writing emails,’ said Lewis. He didn’t look up and continued his one-finger typing.
‘Who to?’ replied Olivia.
‘Fans.’
‘Fans? What sort of fans?’
‘Twilight fans.’
‘Why are they emailing you?’
‘Well, I’ve become a bit of a celebrity in the Twiliverse.’
‘What’s the Twiliverse?’ It took Olivia a second. ‘Oh, right I get it. But why are fans emailing you?’
‘Because I’m the top Sparkler’
‘OK, what’s a Sparkler?’ Olivia said, putting her hands on her hips.
‘A Sparkler is someone who looks like Edward. Remember how he sparkles in the sunlight?’
‘And fans are emailing you?’
‘Yeah,’ said Lewis. ‘I’m the one everyone thinks looks most like Edward. It’s on all the Twilight sites and this girl from Seattle says she wants to meet me, get my autograph and have her photo taken with me, cool, huh?’
‘That is definitely not cool. Lewis what are you doing? This is wrong, you’re turning into a weirdo.’
‘I’m just sending an email to a girl who thinks I look like Edward. There’s nothing weird about that.’
‘You’re not going to meet her are you?’
‘Dunno.’
‘Don’t.’
Olivia ignored his protests, went straight to her bedroom and called Rachel. She paced up and down like a demented sentry waiting for her to answer.
‘Rachel, it’s me,’ said Olivia, speaking quicker than she normally did.
‘Hi Olivia,’ Rachel replied.
‘Any luck with talking to Lewis?’
‘Well, he won’t see me until his nose is better, and it’s not the sort of thing I think you can talk about on the phone. But he’s going to come to my birthday party. I’ll tell him then.’
‘Okay, that’s good because he’s getting worse. Did you know he’s the top Sparkler on the web?’
‘Sparkler? What the hell’s that?’
‘It’s an Edward lookalike.’
‘Oh, no, it’s getting worse.’
‘Do you see what I mean now? He’s even getting fan mail.’
‘What? This is verging on special needs. Look, don’t worry, the party’s not far away. Leave it to me, I’ll sort him out.’
Chapter 18
*
Le Bateau was a spot that only locals knew about. It was one of those places that wasn’t sure whether it wanted to be a coffee shop, a bar or a restaurant, and nobody seemed to care that much. The atmosphere was unthreatening and easy to get used to. It got rammed at weekends and a strong bladder was a definite requirement if you were going to survive the night. The queue for the loos could be a painful experience, providing you could get to them in the first place.
In the summer the friendly crowd would spill out onto the pavement and sometimes into the road, much to the annoyance of passing motorists. While Aruba was loud, brash and opulent, Le Bateau was small, friendly and relaxed. That made it the perfect choice for Rachel’s birthday. She hadn’t invited many people, just her close friends from school, a few from Books ‘n’ Beans and, of course, Lewis and Olivia.
Rachel arrived stupidly early, which annoyed Cassie who was sure she had picked the wrong outfit. She was out to impress Matt, one of Lewis’ friends who she was hoping would be there. Cassie was wearing a cerise pink dress with a matching head band because she wanted to stand out from the crowd. The outfit was so bright it would have been safer to look into the sun. She was also shocked to find that Le Bateau
was more about dressing down rather than up. The few people who were already there looked like they were about to go to a car boot sale. It was strictly a T-shirt, jeans and sneakers kind of place.
Rachel, on the other hand, was her usual sober self and wore a plain tight-fitting white jersey dress with a jean jacket over the top
‘I look ridiculous,’ said Cassie. ‘I look like something a batty old lady has baked for the Women’s Institute.’
‘Shut up, Cassie, you look great,’ said Rachel.
‘That’s easy for you to say, you always look stylish.’
‘Tell you what, take the head band off and have my jean jacket, that should turn down the volume a bit.’ Rachel removed her jacket and Cassie quickly pulled it on and buttoned it nearly to the top.
‘Collar up or down?’ Cassie asked.
‘Definitely down.’
‘So do you know what you’re going to say to Lewis?’
‘Not really. If I’m honest, I’m starting to get a bit nervous.’
‘Why?’
‘Well, it’s a difficult thing to bring up isn’t it? Hi Lewis, I really like you and by the way, can you stop being Edward Cullen.’
‘Yeah, but you wouldn’t say it like that. Just talk to him normally and then say something when you get the right opportunity.’
‘Yeah, I suppose. What if he doesn’t like me anymore?’
‘Oh, come off it, Rachel,’ Cassie said. ‘That’s the whole reason he’s done all this. I’d be over moon if someone did that for me.’
‘Don’t you think it’s a bit weird though?’
‘It’s usually fat blokes on their own who dress up like their idols, and that’s what makes them weird. When someone good-looking does it, it’s called eccentric. Let’s wait until we see him and then we can decide how weird he is.’
‘Good idea.’
‘Here’s Clive. What’s he done to his hair?’
Clive had slicked his hair down in an attempt to control his wayward curls. It was stretched back across his head and he was dressed all in black with a long-sleeve T-shirt and jeans. He looked like the bad guy from a movie.
‘Hi, Cassie. Hi, Rachel,’ he said. ‘Can I get you two a drink?’
‘That’d be cool,’ said Rachel.
Clive pushed his way to the bar, which was starting to get busy and returned with a fistful of beers. They clinked their bottles together and wished Rachel a happy birthday. More people arrived and Rachel got bought more and more drinks, which she tried to squirrel away in different places. She wanted to keep a clear head for when Lewis arrived.
*
Clive was relieved to be in a fairly neutral mood, which was rare for him. He’s didn’t feel angry or bitter, yet he didn’t feel happy or ready to party, just somewhere in between. Strangely he wasn’t dreading the arrival of Lewis either. Maybe it was because when he’d been rejected by Lynn it was like having a bucket of cold water thrown over him - it was painful but it also brought him to his senses. If Lynn didn’t like him then there was no way he was in Rachel’s league. Of course he still had feelings for Rachel but he was more realistic now and that made him feel a bit more in control of his emotions.
Clive felt like he had grown a little bit and possibly matured. However, that all went out the window when he saw Ginster and Lynn walking towards Le Bateau. It was no coincidence that they came together. Clive felt some prickly heat dancing around his neck as he watched the two of them say happy birthday to Rachel. Afterwards they came straight over to him.
‘Hey, dude,’ said Ginster.
‘Hello, Clive,’ said Lynn.
Both of them were being over-friendly and he could guess what was coming next. ‘Er, I thought we should come and tell you that er, me and Lynn are …’ Ginster started stumbling over his words, so Lynn stepped in.
‘We’re going out together,’ she said.
‘Oh, good for you,’ Clive said. His voice was cool and robotic.
‘Hope that’s okay,’ said Ginster.
‘Course, why wouldn’t it be?’ Clive replied.
‘Well, you know.’ Ginster was still having problems finding the right words, probably because there aren’t any in this sort of situation. Clive’s cold tone suddenly shattered, like thin ice over a pond:
‘What? Because Lynn chose you over me? That’s fine, I’m absolutely fine,’ he said. Clive wasn’t fine. Even though he didn’t really like Lynn, it was the fact that she had rejected him for Ginster. A guy with all the appeal of an earth worm.
‘Don’t be like that,’ said Ginster.
‘Like what? I feel like you’ve both made a fool out of me. Why does everyone want to make me look stupid?’
Ginster glanced up at Clive’s hair and resisted the urge to say that he was doing a pretty good job of that on his own.
‘How are we trying to make you look stupid?’ asked Lynn, sympathetically.
‘Well, for ages Ginster’s been saying that you fancy me. And you, Lynn, kept looking at me when I was working and sending me texts, then when I asked you out you said no. Now that’s what I’d call playing games with someone.’
‘I’m sorry, Clive, you misunderstood. It wasn’t you I was looking at, it was Ginster. You both stand next to each other at the tills so it probably looked like I was looking at you. And I was texting to ask you about Ginster.’
‘Oh, right. That makes sense,’ replied Clive. He now felt even more stupid, but at least he knew neither of them was out to get him.
‘No hard feelings?’ said Ginster.
‘No, of course not.’ Clive said, still hurting on the inside.
Ginster held out his hand and Clive shook it. At that instance a violent screech of tyres came from outside, followed by numerous car horns beeping in protest. Everyone rushed to the windows to see what was happening. There was a blur of silver as a car sped past, its engine growling like a jet fighter. At the junction it nearly went through a red light and then its tyres screamed as it came to a halt beside the pavement.
‘Who the hell is that?’ asked Ginster.
‘That’ll be Lewis.’ Rachel answered.
The passenger door of Lewis’ Volvo opened first and out jumped a fearsome but beautiful blond-haired girl. She slammed the door hard enough to shatter all the windows. Her face was tightly pinched as she marched across the small park between the car and Le Bateau. She looked fierce enough to split an atom.
‘She’s really angry,’ said Cassie.
‘Who is she?’ asked Clive.
‘That’s Olivia, Lewis’ sister,’ said Rachel.
Clive was quite pleased to see that, for once, there was someone who looked unhappier than he did. A few seconds later, Lewis coolly emerged from the car, looking like he’d been plucked straight from the set of a Twilight movie. His face was the opposite of Olivia’s - a mask of pure calm.
Olivia pushed her way through the crowd and immediately found Rachel standing next to the bar. Everyone looked at Olivia to see what all the drama was about.
‘That freak of a brother of mine nearly killed us on the way here,’ she said. ‘He drove like a manic.’
‘Why?’ asked Rachel.
‘Why do you think?’ she snapped. ‘He wants to be Edward Cullen, so now he’s driving like him. He’s going to kill someone or get arrested. He’s an idiot.’
‘Take it easy, Olivia,’ Rachel put her arm around her, ‘Clive could you get Olivia a drink?’
‘Sure,’ said Clive. ‘What would you like?’
‘Don’t care, anything,’ Olivia replied.
Clive thought a ‘please’ might be nice. Who did this Olivia think she was? He didn’t like being ordered around. He’d had enough of that from Kat. He wondered whether he should just wander off and not bother getting her a drink, but Rachel was standing close by. He didn’t want to look rude in front of her. Clive could still hear what the two girls were saying and he desperately wanted to find out what was happening with Lewis.
‘I’m so sorry for
getting angry just now,’ Olivia said, ‘but he’s getting worse. Do you see what I mean about him?’
‘Absolutely. I totally get it,’ Rachel said. ‘I’m going to talk to him, right now.’ Rachel left to find Lewis, leaving Clive alone with Olivia. He managed to get served and turned to face her holding out three drinks. His neck went hot as if he’d been sunburnt, as her cool blue eyes met his.
Becoming Edward Page 20
