Gravity Happens (Forcing Gravity)

by Alexander, Monica

  I’d gone on two dates, one with a guy from my ethics class, and one with a guy Ethan and I had met while we were surfing, but I hadn’t felt a connection with either guy, so I hadn’t kissed them or accepted a second date. I was attending my mother’s wedding solo.

  A knock on the door pulled me out of my thoughts. I looked up to see my mother’s wedding planner enter the room.

  “You girls ready?”

  “I suppose,” Skylar said dramatically, as she pouted in front of the mirror.

  I smiled at her even though she reminded me of our mother when she did that. “Come on, Sky. You look great.”

  She shrugged. “I know. I just wish I had bigger boobs. I’m going to ask Mom if she’ll buy me some when I turn sixteen.”

  “Skylar!” I turned to the wedding planner. “Give us two minutes, and we’ll be down, okay?”

  “Two minutes,” she echoed sternly before she closed the door and left us alone again.

  I turned back to my sister. “Sky, why do you want bigger boobs? You’re going to be tall like me, but you’ll have really amazing curves when you get older. I have no hips, so look like a boy most of the time.”

  “That’s because you dress like a boy,” she said honestly, and she was probably right, but I didn’t care. I’d learned to rock a girly look, but I preferred jeans and a hoodie any day. It was just me.

  “You didn’t answer my question,” I said, ignoring her snarky comment.

  She shrugged. “Guys like big boobs.”

  “Sky, I can’t tell you what to do.” And I certainly couldn’t stop my mom from buying her plastic surgery for her sixteenth birthday, but I could hope to knock some sense into her in the next couple of years. “I think you’re beautiful just the way you are, and when you’re my age, you’ll be sexy, just like you want to be. You’ll be fighting guys off. Just be patient, okay. Don’t grow up too soon.”

  She shrugged.

  I stepped closer to her. “Sky, you scare me sometimes with the things you say. You’re my little sister, and I love you. And because of that, I want you to make good decisions when it comes to life and boys. I know you hate being thirteen, because you still feel like a kid, but trust me, if you do certain things too early in life, you’ll regret it.”

  I hoped she got my message, because she worried me too much. I lived in fear that she was going to make a mistake that she couldn’t take back. She was so much more mature in so many ways than I’d been at thirteen, but in so many other ways, she was still a kid.

  She turned around and looked at me, her brown eyes wide. “Lo Lo,” she said, using the nickname she’d given me when she was little, “I know I say things a lot, and you get mad, and then you lecture me, but sometimes I just do it because I want to get your attention.”

  I felt my face fall at that admission. “You do?”

  She shrugged. “Yeah. When you started dating Jase, I barely saw you, and then when you broke up, I figured we’d get to hang out more, but you’ve been busy with school and Ethan and Nora and your internship and modeling, and I feel like you only make time for me if I do something outrageous.”

  My heart sunk as she called me out, and I realized how wrapped up I’d been in my own life that I hadn’t made time for her, and seeing her more often had been a big part of my decision to go to college at USC. Living in L.A., I could have a relationship with my little sister that had previously been limited to the summers I’d spent at my mom’s house. I vowed then and there to spend more time with Skylar and be there for her however she needed me.

  “I’m sorry, Sky. I’ll make it up to you, I promise,” I said moving across the room to hug her. She squeezed me around my waist.

  “I love you, Lo Lo. I just miss you. And I’m not going to do anything stupid. I promise.”

  I wasn’t convinced of that, but I’d already said enough.

  “I love you too, Sky.”

  A knock on the door interrupted our sisterly bonding moment.

  “Girls, you look beautiful,” Luiz said, as he stepped into the room, his Brazilian accent wrapping around his words.

  “Thanks Daddy,” Skylar said, beaming at him.

  I was suddenly so glad that Luiz was marrying our mom. Skylar was getting the wish she’d had her whole life, that her parents would be married and living under one roof. And that meant Luiz would be a daily fixture in her life. I felt much better about her fate knowing he’d be there to veto the bad decisions that our insane mother, who he loved for some reason, would no doubt make.

  Skylar would be okay. Luiz and I would tag-team the effort.

  “Listen,” he said, lowering his voice, “the wedding planner yelled at me and told me to come up here and get you girls or she was going to do it herself. So I’d come down, because she was not messing around.”

  I smiled. “We’re on our way, Luiz.”

  “Thank you, Logan.”

  Skylar left the room before me, hugging her dad on the way, and as I walked past Luiz, he stopped me. I turned to look up at him in question.

  “I wanted to let you know that I invited Jason, but he called to tell me he couldn’t make it.”

  I nodded, feeling a mix of relief and disappointment. “Okay, thanks for letting me know.”

  “And I didn’t invite him because of the movie,” he continued. “Logan, sometimes people make mistakes. It happens, and it doesn’t mean we stop loving them. Your mother and I have made mistakes, but we love each other, and that’s why we’re here today. Sometimes people deserve second chances.”

  I swallowed hard, letting his words sink in. Maybe he was right, but if I took Jase back, would I always be expecting him to cheat again? Would I live in fear that he’d go on location and sleep with his co-star? I didn’t think I could live like that. I needed him to be a hundred percent in with me.

  “I know,” I finally said, “but I can’t forgive what he did.”

  “I know you can’t, but maybe in time you will.”

  I didn’t think so, but it wasn’t the time to tell him that.

  “Thanks, Luiz.”

  He leaned forward and kissed my forehead. “You’re welcome.”

  “And congratulations. I’m really glad you’re marrying my mom.” I smiled at him before I headed downstairs to meet my sister.

  * * *

  The wedding went off without a hitch and with no paparazzi appearances. I was honestly surprised that my mother hadn’t tipped them off like she’d done the night she and Luiz got back together, but that plan hadn’t worked out so well for her, so I guess she decided not to chance it. They could always make an official announcement via her publicist.

  As the party was winding down, Ethan asked me to dance. I’d seen him approach the band leader, and when I heard them start to play a song by The Horrible Crows, I’d known what he was doing. He turned around, smiled at me and beckoned me over with his hand, so I joined him on the dance floor.

  He’d spent most of the night dancing with Nora, which I’d never seen him do before, but he was doing all sorts of things he’d never done before because of her, so I considered it a good thing.

  “Hi,” I said, feeling the urge to take my shoes off. My feet were starting to hurt.

  “Having fun?”

  I shrugged. “It was a beautiful ceremony.”

  “Not as beautiful as ours from what I understand,” he said, and I just shook my head as I grinned.

  “Shut up, you idiot. I’m just glad I wasn’t dumb enough to really marry you.”

  He shrugged and looked back at Nora who was talking to someone on the other side of the dance floor. Then he looked back at me. “Yeah. Me too.”

  He pulled me closer then, and we danced for a few minutes in silence. When the song ended, he pulled back.

  “Thanks for the dance, Ms. Kessler,” he said, being playfully cordial.

  “My pleasure, Mr. Lewis.”

  He grinned. “Hey, so we’re going to The Well later. You want to come?”

  The
Well was a lounge we’d gone to a few times. It had a chill atmosphere, and no one really bothered us like they did at other places when we were with Garrett and Ellie. Of course neither of them were at the level Jase was at where he needed to have a bodyguard, but they still had fans and admirers.

  “Yeah, I do,” I said, thinking I didn’t want to go home just yet.

  I was staying at my mom’s house since the dorms had closed the week before when classes had ended. And since she and Luiz were headed out of town on their honeymoon, and Skylar was staying at a friend’s house for the week, I knew the house would be empty. I didn’t want to be alone.

  “Am I okay to go wearing this?” I asked him, fingering the satin skirt of my dress.

  He grinned. “Sure, you look hot.”

  I raised an eyebrow at him, and he shook his head. “I mean that only in the most respectful way that my girlfriend would approve of.”

  “I still can’t believe you have a girlfriend, E. You’ve certainly changed this year.”

  He shrugged. “I think it was time. I couldn’t be an asshole player forever, and Nora’s pretty incredible.”

  “I am, aren’t I,” she said, coming up behind him and linking her arm through his.

  He smiled at her. “So incredible.”

  They kissed, and although I was happy, I was jealous. I wanted that. I’d had that. But now it was gone.

  Garrett and Ellie came up to us then. “The Well?” he said.

  Ethan nodded. “Yeah, we’re going to do something chill, is that cool?”

  Ellie squeezed Garrett’s hand. “We’re down with that.”

  She’d sung her new single for my mom and Luiz that night, giving an impromptu performance of what her fans would see when she went on tour in June, and I’d seen the pride on Garrett’s face as he watched her. It seemed all my friends were happy and in love, and I just wasn’t. I knew in time I’d find someone else, but a part of me wasn’t in a rush. I wanted love, but I wasn’t ready for someone new to come into my life. Not yet.

  I took a few minutes to say my goodbyes, and then we were off, piling into Garrett’s Jeep.

  “I’m going to find you a guy tonight,” Nora whispered in my ear, and I turned to her.

  “Oh yeah?”

  She nodded. “Sure. You need to get back out there.”

  “I have gotten back out there.”

  She shrugged. “You have to try on a lot of guys before you find the right one.”

  I had the right one.

  “Not tonight.”

  Nora smiled and shrugged. “Then whenever you’re ready.”

  I nodded once, glad she was being friendly. She seemed to be softening more and more each day.

  At The Well, we settled in an L-shaped couch and took in the Saturday night crowd. There weren’t many familiar faces, which was good. I wasn’t in the most social of moods, so hanging out with my friends was just fine with me.

  “Hey guys,” a voice said when we’d been there for thirty minutes. “I didn’t know you were coming here.”

  “Bryan!” Ellie cheered, jumping up to hug her old friend. They’d worked together on her Disney show a few years earlier before she’d ditched acting to pursue a singing career.

  Bryan Heller was an actor and my step-father’s protégé. He’d been at the wedding, but I’d artfully avoided him because he was single and a complete douchebag who was totally full of himself. He’d called me and asked me out a few weeks earlier, and I’d turned him down, which had thoroughly baffled him. He’d tried asking me out again earlier in the night, and again, I’d had to tell him no.

  “Logan, you look beautiful.”

  He’d already told me that twice that night.

  “Thanks, Bryan,” I said passively.

  He winked at me, and I wanted to shake off the icky feeling it had produced. Bryan Heller was probably the best looking guy with the worst personality. If he was halfway normal, I might have considered going out with him, but I could barely stomach the idea.

  “Who are you here with?” Ellie asked him, since Bryan had come to the wedding alone.

  “Oh, just a few people. You know, Bash, Javier, Chloe and some other friends.”

  My ears perked up at that. Was he talking about Chloe St. James?

  “Oh, my God, Bash is here! I can’t believe you got him to come out. How is he?”

  Bryan laughed. “He’s a little fucked up. It’s his twenty-first birthday, and he’s been going at it for a few hours, so we came here to regroup.”

  “Oh, well, I want to go say hi to everyone and wish Bash happy birthday,” Ellie said and turned back to Garrett. “Come meet some of my old friends?”

  “Sure,” he said, rising to his feet before the three of them walked away, and I was left wondering if the girl I’d come to hate was there that night.

  I quietly sipped my drink, feeling like a third wheel as Ethan and Nora talked with their heads together. I checked my phone, looked around the bar and people watched for a few minutes, but when a guy who was sort of cute made eye contact with me, I quickly looked away. I was trying to distract myself out of doing what I really wanted to do.

  Finally, I decided that I wasn’t going to wait any longer. Ever since Jase had told me the week before that he was ninety percent certain that he hadn’t slept with Chloe, I’d had my doubts, and there was only one person who could tell me the truth.

  “I’m going to the bathroom,” I told Ethan and Nora, because I needed to get my thoughts together and figure out how I was going to confront Chloe.

  I’d wanted to talk to her for a week, hell for months even, because something about that night and what I’d walked into just didn’t sit right with me. Jase was so incredibly unaware that she was in his bed, and even if he’d been drunk, he would have remembered going to bed with her. And wouldn’t he have eventually recollected almost everything from that night?

  I knew my night with Ethan was fuzzy, but over time, I’d remembered every stupid thing we did that night – minus a few details – but I knew with certainty that we hadn’t slept together, and Jase still couldn’t remember anything about that one, very important detail. It didn’t make sense.

  When I stepped into the bathroom, I jumped back a little because Chloe was standing at the sink washing her hands. She looked up and caught my gaze in the mirror, and I was completely unprepared to confront her in the calm rational way I wanted to. I didn’t want to go off on her. I didn’t want to hit her again, because those emotions and actions hadn’t gotten me anywhere in the past.

  “Well, look who it is,” she said snarkily, and I wasn’t sure what that was supposed to mean.

  “Who is it?” I asked as confrontationally, and I could hear defeat in my tone, not fight, which I wasn’t sure was a good thing or not.

  She spun on me. “The bitch who got what she deserved. The one who’s going to get more things she deserves, because no one sucker punches me and gets away with it. I might be all polished and have money now, but I didn’t grow up that way. This won’t be my first fight.”

  What she said threw me off for a few seconds, because she was standing in front of me wearing a bright blue strapless dress and five inch open-toed nude heels. She looked as prim and proper as anyone who’d grown up in Beverly Hills. But I’d read the articles about her, about her upbringing in a rough part of Boston and how she broke out of her lot in life by getting cast as the girlfriend of an up-and-coming rap star in a movie when she was barely seventeen.

  It was just fortunate that one of the producers was from Boston and had decided to get a hot dog at a Red Sox game at the counter she was working at. He flew her to L.A., had her audition and gave her the part. She’d told countless interviewers that story and how she’d never looked back after that day.

  The producer had taken her under his wing, made her over and taught her how to act and succeed in Hollywood. In his film, she’d stolen the show, was nominated for an Oscar, and made a name for herself that would ensure that
she always had a place in Hollywood. And I doubted she’d do anything to ruin that, even if her white trash roots dictated it was what felt right in this situation.

  My eyebrows rose. “You’re going to fight me? In a bathroom? Please.” I shook my head, swallowed my pride and used the mom card. “I know you can’t stand me for some bullshit reason, but if you kick my ass tonight, guess who’s going to know about it?”

  She glared at me and took a step closer. I had inches on this girl. I could probably take her if had to, but she looked like she’d be scrappy, and she probably was.

  “Who are you going to tell? Jase?” she demanded, her Boston accent that she’d worked so hard to mask coming out with her anger.

  I shook my head. “No, but earlier today, my mom married Luiz Oliviera, and I’m sure they’d both be very pleased to know that their daughter got attacked by someone in their community. Trust me. It wouldn’t bode well for your career, so I’d think twice about what you’re about to do.”

  “You wouldn’t have any proof,” she scoffed, but I could see I’d ruffled her feathers.

  “I wouldn’t really need it,” I said, confidence abounding me. “See, you know how easily rumors get started in this town, and I know enough influential people to make some waves. Just think about that, will you?”

  She opened her mouth to say something, but the door behind me suddenly burst open. I turned around to see Ellie and Nora stop short behind me.

  “Hi guys,” I said nonchalantly. They both seemed out of breath, but they didn’t say anything. I turned back to Chloe and then gestured to my friends with my thumb. “I also have a lot of friends here tonight who’d never let you lay a hand on me, so if you want to go all white trash on me, go for it, but you’re not getting far.”

  Chloe’s face turned bright red as she threw her hands up in the air and screamed. “I am NOT white trash!”

  Nora stepped to my side then, as if showing that she’d be my back-up, if needed, but she didn’t say anything.

  “Sweetie, no one’s calling you white trash,” Ellie said from behind me, sympathy for her former friend coming out. “But if you try to beat up Logan, we will.”