Paper Hearts

by Ali Novak

  She smiled up at him. “The fact you remember who Freddie K is makes me love you that much more.”

  Looking at the two, it was easy to see how Stella had won the heart of the music industry’s most notorious player. They fit together perfectly, all dark clothes and wild hair, prince and princess of punk.

  “You two are as bad as this music,” JJ said.

  Stella looked up, eyes ablaze, but then she spotted Alec. “Alec! You made it!” She dropped the handful of unplaced silverware and threw herself at him. “I’ve missed you so much.”

  “It’s only been a month,” he said, but it was obvious from the smile on his face that he’d missed her too.

  I snuck a glance at Oliver, who’d moved over to the oven. He had a wooden spoon in his hand and was checking whatever was simmering in the huge pot on the stovetop. He seemed unconcerned by Alec and his girlfriend’s open affection, so I tried my hardest to ignore the rock in my stomach as Alec wrapped his arms around her.

  “Yeah, but fall semester starts soon, and then I won’t see you guys until Christmas break.” I didn’t know much about Stella, but at one point during the drive, Alec had mentioned that she was studying photography at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.

  “You could always hang a poster of us in your room,” JJ suggested, which earned him a withering look from all his friends.

  “I’m sure we’ll be in New York for some reason or other,” Alec assured her.

  “So what are you doing in Oregon? Oliver said you were on a road trip or something.”

  “Yeah, we’re going to Seattle.”

  “We?” She glanced over his shoulder and finally noticed he wasn’t alone. A wide smile stretched across her face when she saw me. “Felicity? Oh my gosh, hi! I’m so glad I actually get to meet you.”

  “Hey.” I was thrown by how happy she sounded, like she was as excited to see me as she was Alec. She quickly closed the gap between us, wrapping her arms around me. And holy crap, could the girl give a hug. She squeezed me like we’d known each other forever.

  After releasing me, she scolded Alec. “Why didn’t you mention you were bringing anyone?”

  He shrugged. His gesture was causal, but from the glint in his eye, I could tell he’d wanted this to be a surprise and he enjoyed catching his friends off guard.

  I fiddled with my watch, not sure what to say or my place within the conversation. There was a level of comfort among Stella, Alec, and the rest of the band, the kind that made water gun ambushes one hundred percent acceptable and could only be achieved by spending hours of time together. It made me feel like an outsider, despite the warm welcome I’d just received, and I found myself inching toward my own source of comfort: Asha and Boomer. Asha, however, didn’t seem intimidated by the tight-knit group. Or the fact that she was standing in a room with her favorite band. She tossed her braid over her shoulder, stepped passed me, and held out her hand to Stella.

  “Hi. I’m Asha.”

  “Stella,” Stella said, slipping a hand into Asha’s. “You were on the Skype call yesterday, weren’t you? Nice necklace, by the way. Love the hearts.”

  Asha’s fingers brushed over the delicate chain at her throat, rattling the cluster of silver heart charms hanging from it. “Yeah, and thanks. Felicity made it for me.”

  “Wow,” Stella said, her eyebrows jutting up. “You made that? You’re really talented.”

  “Thanks.” Pride warmed my cheeks. I peeked at Alec, who was smiling and twisting his own piece of my jewelry around his wrist.

  A quick pause in the conversation gave Boomer the opportunity to sidle up beside Asha. “Hey, I’m Boomer.”

  Stella’s eyes went wide as she craned her neck. “Hey, nice to meetcha.”

  “Be careful not to crack any height jokes,” JJ said, spinning around on his bar stool. He pointed a finger a Boomer. “That one has a very short sense of humor.”

  I took my bottom lip between my teeth and tried not to laugh. Boomer wasn’t the most patient person in the world, and JJ clearly enjoyed pushing anyone and everyone’s buttons. I anticipated a scowl or some type of comeback—which, from someone as tall as Boomer, often came off more threatening than it was meant—but instead, he let a breath hiss past the half smile on his lips.

  To no one in particular he said, “He’s relentless, isn’t he?”

  The remaining three Heartbreakers chimed in at the same time: “Yeah!”

  JJ grinned like he’d won a prize.

  Asha opened her mouth again, presumably to barrage the boys with praise and questions, but she was interrupted by a rapid clicking noise. It sounded like a large, clawed monster was charging down the hall in our direction, and I turned in time to see a gray mass gallop into the kitchen from a second entrance. It was a dog, the largest I’d ever seen, and I took a startled step back, accidentally slamming into Alec’s chest. He put a steadying hand on my shoulder as the monster-dog hybrid came to a stop in front of us and promptly started barking, the thundering sound reverberating throughout the room.

  Oliver turned from the stove. “Poseidon, no barking!” The wooden spoon in his hand was coated with tomato sauce, which splattered on the floor, and in a flash, Poseidon was across the room and cleaning up the drippings.

  “Whoa, he’s huge,” Boomer said. As soon as the words left his mouth, JJ pressed a fist to his lips to contain his amusement.

  “Yeah, he’s a Great Dane,” Oliver said, scratching the dog behind its ears. “Sorry about that. New people intimidate him.”

  We intimidated him?

  After a few more minutes of friendly chatter, dinner was ready. Oliver had made spaghetti and meatballs—who’d have guessed he could cook?—and Stella added three more place settings to the table for Asha, Boomer, and me. Everyone sat down to eat, and Xander surprised me by dropping into the spot on my left.

  “Hey,” he said in a tone equally as excited as Stella’s had been. “Sorry I didn’t get a chance to introduce myself before. I was on salad duty. I’m Xander.”

  I offered him a warm smile. “Felicity.”

  Xander Jones instantly put me at ease. He was different from Oliver and JJ in a way I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Maybe it was because he seemed more normal—like I could show up for school in August, and he would be sitting in my biology class. His smile teemed with goodwill and friendship, instead of charm and the promise of a wild night.

  “So I hear you guys are driving to Seattle?” he said.

  On my right, Alec passed me a bowl of steaming noodles.

  “We’re trying to track down my sister,” I answered, scooping a portion onto my plate. When I offered him the serving bowl, he declined with a quick headshake.

  Even though he was seated on the opposite side of Alec, JJ must have been listening to our conversation. “How is it possible to lose one’s sister?” he blurted out.

  Both my mouth and thoughts froze at the gall of his question, but before any awkward silence built, Oliver said, “Didn’t you lose Jenny in a grocery store once?”

  JJ scoffed. “That doesn’t count. She ran away from me so I’d get in trouble.”

  The two proceeded to bicker about the incident, and the discussion quickly developed into an argument about which of JJ’s siblings was most annoying. From the way they listed off names, he had a lot.

  I glanced at Asha. She was mesmerized by the conversation—an exclusive glimpse into the private lives of the Heartbreakers—and Boomer had to nudge her shoulder a few times before she realized he was holding the bread basket for her. I was grateful the boys’ attention was no longer directed at me, because there was no way to answer JJ without the situation getting uncomfortable. I didn’t blame him though. He couldn’t have known Rose had run away.

  “Have you ever been to Seattle?” Xander asked, picking up where we left off while expertly steering away fro
m further tension. “You’ll love it. It’s one of my favorite cities…”

  But I wasn’t listening. My mind had shifted to my sister again, and all the pain that came with thinking about her. What if we couldn’t find her tomorrow? Or what if we did, and she refused to see me? The possibility was so terrifying my heart felt like it was burning, but not from the searing pain of flames. This was the slow, nerve-tingling ache of frostbite.

  A warm hand brushed against the bare skin of my knee, rescuing me from my what if, what if, what if.

  “Fel?” Alec said softly.

  “Yeah?” I asked, and he gestured to my other side with his chin.

  I turned. Xander was holding out the salad for me to take. His entire plate was filled with lettuce, so there wasn’t much left for me, but I accepted the bowl and emptied the scraps onto my own.

  “Thanks,” I said, and then without thinking, “Are you on a cleanse or something?” Hopefully he wasn’t dieting. The guy was skinny enough as it was.

  “No.” He laughed. “I’m allergic.”

  “To what?”

  He glanced down at my plate, considering. “Pretty much everything. Well, not the spaghetti sauce, but it’d be weird if I ate that without the noodles and meatballs, dontcha think?”

  “Allergic?” I repeated, not because I didn’t understand what he meant by it, but because the thought of not being able to eat pasta sounded like a nightmare. Mac and cheese—or any kind of boxed noodle, for that matter—was cheap, which made it a dietary staple in my house.

  “Yup. I can’t have gluten, nuts, soy, dairy, red meat, or seafood,” he said, ticking each item off on his fingers. The cheer in his voice was alarming.

  “What do you eat?”

  “Lots of things. Chicken, eggs, fruit, vegetables. I make a mean smoothie.”

  For the rest of dinner, Asha bombarded Oliver and JJ with questions with the seriousness of a debate moderator. Unlike Alec, they reveled in the attention, each trying to outdo the other with their answers. On our end of the table, Boomer had roped Xander into a one-sided discussion about cars, while I listened quietly as Stella and Alec discussed someone named Cara.

  “How’s she doing?” he asked. He’d pushed away his empty plate and was leaning back in his seat, arms folded over his chest.

  “Really well,” Stella answered. “Just had her annual screening, and she’s still in remission.”

  “I’m so glad to hear that. Does she have any plans now that she’s better? Go to college, travel, that sort of thing?”

  Stella nodded. “She has a list that’s at least twenty miles long.”

  Their exchange struck a chord with me. I found myself remembering the night I first met Alec, when he admitted he was only at the masquerade because he knew someone close to the cause. Whoever Cara was, she had obviously been sick, and I wondered if she was that person.

  As if sensing my confusion, Stella said, “Cara, my brother, Drew, and I are triplets. Cara had non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.”

  “Oh, wow,” I exclaimed. “I’m so sorry. That must have been difficult for you.”

  “It was, but the boys helped me get through it,” she said, gesturing at Oliver and the band. “Thankfully she’s doing much better now.”

  “That’s good,” I said. I didn’t know what else I could possibly say.

  Thankfully, JJ interrupted, pushing his chair back and standing. “I’m going to put on something dry,” he announced. “Maybe we could watch a movie afterward?”

  “Good idea,” Oliver agreed, throwing his napkin on his plate. “These jeans are seriously starting to chafe.”

  “Hey, Oliver,” Alec said. He glanced over at Asha, Boomer, and me before turning back to his friend. He didn’t say anything else, but Oliver caught his drift.

  He smiled at us. “I bet you guys want to change too. Let me show you to the guest rooms.”

  • • •

  After grabbing our bags from the foyer, Oliver led us up the massive front staircase to the second floor. Apparently Alec already knew where he was going, because when we reached the landing, he took a right without waiting for directions, and I wondered how many times he’d been here before.

  “See you in a bit,” he called to me as Oliver steered the three of us down the opposite hall.

  He showed Asha and Boomer to their room first.

  Asha peeked at me, as if looking for my approval. It felt weird for them to be sharing, but I flashed my best friend an encouraging thumbs-up. Before they shut the door, we all agreed to meet back in the kitchen in twenty minutes.

  Then, it was just me and Oliver.

  “About earlier,” he said, leading me farther down the hall. “Sorry again for the ambush. If I’d known Alec was bringing you guys, we’d have been more civilized.”

  It was the first time he’d spoken directly to me, and I took a deep breath as I tried to form a response. There was something about being alone with Oliver that put me on edge, and as I studied him out of the corner of my eye, I realized why. If Alec Williams was day, Oliver Perry was night. His hair—a mop of messy brown waves—was constantly falling into his face, a stark contrast to his bandmate’s tidy blond strands. His eyes were sapphire instead of the storm clouds I was so taken with, and unlike Alec, he was outgoing in the way that made boys like him prom king or student body president.

  “Well, you didn’t have to blast me with the water gun,” I teased, remembering his moment of hesitation when he first saw me standing in the entrance hall.

  Oliver shrugged, a lazy grin curling on his lips. “I’m an all-or-nothing kind of guy,” he said before stopping at a doorway. “Here we are. Hope this works for you.”

  He held open the door so I could step inside. The space was at least twice the size of my room back home, with a large four-poster bed, a TV sitting area, and an attached bathroom. Looking around, I felt like I was staying at a fancy hotel, not someone’s house. What did Oliver’s uncle do with so much space?

  “Thanks,” I said, setting my luggage on the end-of-bed bench. “This is perfect.”

  I expected Oliver to leave, but he settled against the doorframe. He crossed his arms and looked me over, as if trying to solve a mystery.

  “So…you and Alec, huh?” There was that slow grin of his again, the one that made girls weak in the knees. I found it unnerving, and my face went red. Did he know something I didn’t?

  “We’re not together,” I told him. It was the second time I’d explained this, but for some reason Alec’s friends seemed to think otherwise.

  “Maybe not, but there’s definitely something going on between you two. It’s…intriguing.” He rubbed his chin, as if I were a puzzling plot twist in a book he was reading.

  “Intriguing?” Was that a compliment or…?

  “Because you look so much like her,” he added.

  I ignored the irritation that pulsed in my chest. “You mean Violet James.”

  He nodded. “You’ve got a similar face and”—he paused to look me up and down—“well, pretty much everything. Except for her personality, that is. But that’s a huge improvement in my opinion.”

  Um, thanks?

  “Did they…have a thing?” I felt nosy asking Oliver personal questions about Alec, but he was the one who’d brought it up.

  Oliver shrugged. “Alec isn’t one to talk about that kinda stuff. They did a scene together in Immortal Nights, and they’ve been friends for awhile, but I don’t know anything more than that.”

  Did a scene together? What did that mean? Like a kissing scene? Something more?

  Noticing that I was deep in my own thoughts, Oliver cleared his throat and said, “Anyway, I’ll let you settle in.” He straightened and pushed away from the jamb. “Think you can find your way back downstairs?”

  I nodded.

  “Cool. See you in a bit,” and t
hen he was gone, closing the door behind him.

  For the next few minutes, I stood rooted in the middle of my room, attempting to process everything that had happened during the past two hours.

  I tried to regard the situation with a sense of nonchalance, but I’d just had a water fight and eaten dinner with the world’s most popular boy band. And now we were all going to watch a movie together. This didn’t happen to normal girls. I felt like I’d been written into some cheesy dreams-do-come-true Disney Channel movie—not that my aspiration in life was to share Italian food with the Heartbreakers.

  A door slammed down the hall, and the noise jerked me out of my head. Goose bumps rose across my skin as I quickly stripped off my damp dress and discarded it on the floor. The cool air felt euphoric against my sunburned skin. After rummaging through my duffel for a minute, I realized I didn’t have anything to wear. The only clean clothes I had were my outfit for tomorrow and a spare camisole. There were also my pajamas—a pair of yoga pants and an oversize Book Nerds Are Sexy T-shirt. I was too embarrassed to wear the tee, so I pulled on the cami. Once I’d finished dressing, I plugged in my phone and freshened up in the bathroom. With nothing left to do, I decided to find my way to the kitchen, even though I still had ten minutes to spare.

  Taking a right, I headed back the way I’d come. As I approached the corner, two voices drifted toward me from the hallway.

  “…then you should tell her the truth, Alec.” It was Stella, her tone high and insistent.

  “But it’s not like I’m lying to her,” came Alec’s deep voice. He sounded distressed, and my stomach clenched. I suddenly had the feeling they were talking about me.

  “Yeah, well, you’re not being honest either. She’ll resent you for that.”

  There was a long pause, and I thought they’d walked away, but then Alec sighed. “What do you expect me to do, Stella? This is my dad we’re talking about. He always has to control everything, and I don’t want to lose her.”

  “I already told you what I think you should do,” she said. Then, in a softer voice, “I’m sorry, but you know how I feel about your dad. He nearly destroyed my relationship with Oliver.”