Diamonds are Forever

by Michelle Madow

  His eyes darkened. “I told Brianna not to tell anyone anything.”

  “That’s all she said.” Madison didn’t want Brianna getting in trouble with Oliver. “That you needed physical therapy, but that you would be fine and would talk to everyone when you were ready.”

  “I am fine,” he said. “I’m talking to you now, aren’t I?”

  “Yeah, you are.” Madison ran a hand through her hair, not wanting to push this. She couldn’t drive him away when she’d gotten this far. “So what’s been going on? Your mom said you’ve been able to walk, and you look much better than I imagined you would.”

  “My knee hurts like a bitch, but the doctors are impressed by my progress,” he said. “The mental-health-care shit my parents have been making me go through...that’s another story.”

  “Oh.” Madison picked at a hole in her sock and glanced at the pill bottles on his nightstand. Three of them total. She’d assumed they were pain meds for his knee...but why would he need three different types of pain pills? She noted the prescriptions on the labels so she could look them up later. After all, if he hadn’t wanted her to see them, he would have hidden them. “What kind of mental health stuff?”

  “Why do you care?” he asked.

  “How could I not care?”

  “Forget about it.” His eyes were so empty that it gave Madison chills.

  “I can’t do that,” she said. “But you don’t have to tell me now if you don’t want to.”

  “Fine,” he said. “This conversation is over the minute Damien comes back in, but since I know you won’t give up until you get your way, here are the basics. My blood-alcohol level was over the legal limit when I got in that accident. When they brought me into the hospital, the doctors found the coke I’d had on me to bring to the party. My parents paid enough to make any legal problems go away, but since then I’ve had more psychiatric appointments than I can keep track of.”

  “For outpatient treatment?” Madison hoped he was getting help, but she kept her voice steady and neutral, since he’d probably had enough judgment from his parents.

  “That and some other shit.” He ran his hands through his hair, which was longer than usual. He must not have had a haircut since the accident.

  “What ‘other shit’?” She didn’t want to push him, but she also wanted to know. And she couldn’t know if she didn’t ask.

  “This is the part I haven’t wanted to tell anyone—it’s why I’ve been avoiding everybody,” he said. “My doctors told me I don’t have to tell anyone if I don’t want to. But you’re staring at my pill bottles, and knowing you, you’ve already memorized what’s on them and will look up what they’re for the moment you get home. So I guess you can know.”

  Madison nodded three times—she’d read in a medical article that that clued someone in that you were listening—and waited.

  “I have all these mental issues.” Oliver let out a short laugh, even though it wasn’t funny. “My mind’s all fucked up. You already know I have ADHD—I’ve known about that for years. And it’s no big deal, because everyone knows people with ADHD aren’t crazy. But apparently I have bipolar disorder, too. Fucking bipolar disorder. Can you believe it?”

  “Wow.” Madison leaned back into the pillows, curling up in the bed and facing Oliver. She’d had an interest in anything medical for as long as she could remember, so she knew a little about bipolar disorder, and honestly—yes, she could believe it. The way that Oliver’s drinking, partying and gambling had been out of control over the summer and all of first semester, and then how he’d locked himself away and refused to talk to his friends for weeks after the accident...it all fit together.

  “You think I’m crazy, right?” he asked.

  “No,” she said. “I just wish you’d told me earlier, so I could be there for you, like you were there for me after I found out the truth about Adrian.” She glanced down after saying it, because had he been there for her? Or had it been part of Peyton’s dare? Her heart panged at the reminder of his betrayal. But this visit was about him, and he’d just confessed something huge to her, so she asked, “How’re you holding up?”

  “Well, I’ve spent the past few weeks avoiding school. The idea of going back...” He sucked in a deep breath and shook his head. “I would be fine if I never had to go back. I don’t trust anyone anymore.”

  Madison scooted closer, leaving only inches between them, and he watched her with so much intensity that her cheeks heated. “You have to come back eventually,” she said. “School sucks without you. I miss you.”

  “Do you, though?”

  She reached for his hand, her fingers intertwining with his. The air buzzed between them, her heart feeling like it was being pulled toward his, and she wanted to lean forward and kiss him so he would know how much she cared about him.

  She wasn’t supposed to have these feelings for him...not after finding out about the bet. But he’d promised Madison that his feelings for her went beyond the bet—that while it started out that way, it had turned into more than that. Now he watched her with so much intensity, as if he truly cared about her and could see all the way into her soul.

  Then there was a knock on the door, and Damien came inside, carrying three drinks in one arm. Madison yanked her hand out of Oliver’s, the spell between them broken.

  “It took you fifteen minutes to figure out how to bring three glasses in at once?” Oliver asked.

  “Your mom was in the kitchen, and I talked to her for a bit,” he said. “You guys look cozy. What’s been going on while I’ve been gone?”

  “I’m trying to convince Oliver to come back to school,” Madison said, since she didn’t want to break Oliver’s trust and tell Damien what they’d really been talking about.

  “Yeah, man.” Damien settled back into the chair. “What’s taking so long? You look ready to come back to me. You’re walking fine now, right?”

  “The knee still hurts sometimes, but I’m off the crutches,” he said. “My doctors say I should go back to school in the next week or so.”

  “Don’t sound too excited,” Damien joked. “But I can’t blame you. You’ve been getting to sleep in, while the rest of us have been waking up at dawn.”

  “I wish,” Oliver said. “My parents are making me work with a tutor to keep up with my classes, and they’re forcing me to wake up at the same time I would for school. And working with a tutor is harder than being in class. In class I can zone out. That doesn’t fly with a tutor. I actually have to do shit.”

  “So come back,” Damien said. “Everyone’s wondering where you’ve been.”

  “Really?” Oliver asked. “What’ve they been saying?”

  “The biggest rumor is that you got disfigured in the accident and you’re afraid to face everyone,” Madison said. “Which is clearly wrong. You look great. You look...” She searched for the right word. “Rested.” And it was true—the circles that had been under Oliver’s eyes last semester from the partying, drinking and barely sleeping were gone. He looked better now than he had before. Except now that he’d pulled away again, the distant look had returned to his eyes. Even though he’d opened up to her earlier, she still felt like he was holding something back.

  “Don’t worry about convincing me, because I’m being forced to go back this month,” he said. “So, what’ve I missed while I’ve been gone?”

  Madison launched into the story of what had happened recently—­most important, about what had happened this past weekend with the Diamonds. It was hard to imagine that it was only that morning that she’d sat in the condo talking to Peyton, Courtney and Savannah as sisters for the first time. And as she’d expected, it hadn’t gone well. Peyton hated her, Savannah didn’t trust her and Courtney seemed hesitant to let her in. None of them could understand why she hadn’t told them immediately. But they didn’t know what thos
e few months had been like for her—how much she’d wanted to tell them the truth. It just hadn’t been that simple.

  And while she planned on telling only her close friends, with a secret this big, it wouldn’t be long until their whole school—and the rest of the world—knew, too.

  www.campusbuzz.com

  High Schools > Nevada > Las Vegas > The Goodman School

  MADISON’S A DIAMOND?!?!?!

  Posted on Wednesday 2/11 at 6:11 PM

  the title says it all! SOOO many people are talking about this around school. Is it true???

  1: Posted on Wednesday 2/11 at 6:35 PM

  hell yeah it’s true!!! Apparently she’s known for MONTHS and the Diamond girls just found out last weekend!!!

  2: Posted on Wednesday 2/11 at 6:42 PM

  So she found out months ago and didn’t tell anyone until now? THAT explains why she was acting so weird last semester...

  3: Posted on Wednesday 2/11 at 7:11 PM

  HAHAAHAHA is this for real? Madison HATES those girls!

  4: Posted on Wednesday 2/11 at 7:39 PM

  YES it’s true. Over the past day, articles have been popping up about it all over the online tabloids. Madison didn’t even tell her close friends until early this week. I would be so pissed if one of my best friends kept something like that from me.

  5: Posted on Wednesday 2/11 at 8:02 PM

  You would be pissed if you were one of her best friends? I would be pissed if I were Peyton, Courtney, or Savannah! If what you’re all saying is true (and from what I’ve heard around school, it is) then Madison knew she was their half sister for MONTHS and didn’t tell them. Seriously, how messed up is that?

  chapter 13:

  For the past week, Savannah had been teaming up with YouTube star (and agent-sister) Emily Nicole on a professional video, and it had been a complete whirlwind. Every day after school she’d rushed to wherever they needed to go to film, and they’d worked until late at night. All it had taken was an offer from Adrian to produce the video, and Emily was on board.

  In the beginning of the week they’d gone to the studio at the Palms to record the vocals, where they had professional musicians playing with them and everything. Once the music was recorded, they moved on to the video. During the week they could only record at night, which was fine because they were using Vegas as a backdrop and Vegas looked the best at night, anyway. There was a lot of waiting around between shots—more than Savannah had expected—but there were fun parts where they got to play around in the arcade in New York, New York, ride the roller coaster and bungee jump off the Stratosphere. Everyone walking by stopped to watch what they were doing, and a few people recognized them and asked for autographs.

  Between volleyball practice and filming, Savannah hadn’t had time to do homework, but her grades would recover. And at least all the busyness was an excuse not to hang out with Jackie, Alyssa and Brooke, and it distracted her from the revelation that Madison was her sister. She’d barely spoken to any of those girls this past week, which was fine by her.

  Friday after school, she slammed the volleyball over the net and checked her watch to see how much longer it would be until practice ended. Ten minutes. Then she would run straight from practice to the car, get home, and rush to get showered and ready to meet up with Emily Nicole for filming. The entire process was positively exhilarating—and exhausting.

  Except that as she was packing up her bags in the locker room, Jackie, Brooke and Alyssa surrounded her. Jackie smiled as if they were best friends, Alyssa flipped her hair over her shoulder and Brooke stood behind them, her arms crossed. Savannah’s stomach dropped. This couldn’t be good. But whatever they wanted, Savannah would do what she’d been doing for the past week—pretend like she was too busy to speak to them. It wasn’t even pretending. She actually was too busy to stand around chatting.

  “Hey, girl,” Alyssa said. “Are you coming to Tegan’s party tonight?”

  “Nope.” Savannah yanked the zipper of her bag shut.

  “Really?” Jackie raised an eyebrow. “It’s been so long since you’ve hung out with us. And it’s Friday night! You have to come out.”

  “Can’t.” Savannah breathed deeply, trying to keep her cool. “I’m finishing up that video with Emily Nicole.”

  “Of course you are.” Alyssa rolled her eyes. “You’re always too busy to hang out with us now.”

  “Sorry.” Savannah shrugged, not meeting their gazes. “Maybe another time.”

  Part of her wanted to say something to them—to let them know she’d heard them talking about her, and that they weren’t actually her true friends. But just the thought of conflict made her tense up. So instead, she grabbed her bag and hurried past them, avoiding glancing over her shoulder as she made her way to the parking lot.

  * * *

  The filming went well on Friday, and by Saturday, Savannah, Emily Nicole and the rest of the team were finishing the daytime scenes to wrap up the video. They’d started at the tennis courts that morning, where they did a choreographed dance with tennis rackets while wearing tennis gear. Now they were at the rooftop pool at the Diamond, shooting the summer party scene, complete with inflatable tubes, colorful sunglasses and teen models dancing behind them as extras.

  “You’re all partying at the pool and having the best time of your life!” their director shouted from behind the camera. “Jump, jump, jump, throw your hands in the air, dance to the imaginary music that’s not playing right now but will be in the video, smile, laugh—it’s a beautiful, hot day and you’re all having a blast!”

  This would be easier to believe if they weren’t wearing bikinis in windy, sixty-degree weather. It was the third time they’d tried this scene, because apparently Savannah’s energy wasn’t high enough, and it was coming through to the camera that she was freezing cold, and they were running out of time before the sun set. She had to get it right this time.

  So she tried to ignore how freezing she was and jumped and partied and pumped her fists in the air as if it was a hot summer day, smiling and laughing with her heart-shaped sunglasses on as if this were the best summer party ever. She even hip-bumped one of the sexy male models, flipping her hair over her shoulder and shooting him a flirtatious smile.

  “And...that’s a wrap!” The director pushed the button to stop recording. “Everyone can get some clothes on now and warm up!”

  Savannah rushed to the back corner where they’d left their clothes in a pile. Why hadn’t she brought a comfy sweatshirt instead of her zip-up hoodie?

  “Before we get dressed, let’s take a behind-the-scenes picture for Instagram,” Emily Nicole said, handing her phone to one of the extras. She and Savannah posed for a few shots—first for Emily Nicole’s phone, then for Savannah’s. The moment they were finished, Savannah pulled her clothes on. Then she picked her favorite photo and posted it on her Instagram, which was also linked to her Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr.

  Had the best day EVER shooting a new video with @Emily­NicoleMusic! Can’t wait for you all to see it! xoxo <3 <3 #Vegas #YouTube #MusicVideo #SavannahDiamond #EmilyNicole #Fun #Happy #Love #PoolParty #Summer #EvenThoItsFeb. She added summer-themed emoticons at the end and clicked Share.

  Once the photo was online, and she was finally warming up, she and Emily Nicole walked over to the director.

  “Thank you so much for everything,” Savannah said to him, still breathless from jumping at the “pool party.” “I had a blast.”

  “I’ll have the edited video to you soon,” he said, pushing at the bridge of his hipster glasses. “I have a feeling that this one will be a hit.”

  “I hope so!” Emily Nicole beamed and turned to Savannah. “It was so awesome of you to ask me to do this video with you. I can’t wait to see how it turns out.”

  “Me, too,” Savannah said. “And thank you for
agreeing to do the video with me! I know I’ve already told you, but I’ve been a fan of your channel since you started, so recording with you is so amazing.”

  They said thanks to the extras, the microphone guys and everyone else they’d been working with for the past week. By the time the goodbyes were said, the sun had set and it was getting colder, so everyone was clearing out.

  “Want to get hot chocolate and warm up?” Savannah asked Emily Nicole.

  “Hell yes,” she said, and they headed down to the Diamond Café. The coffeehouse was packed, but they eventually managed to get their drinks—a Diamond Signature Hot Chocolate for Savannah, and a pumpkin-spice latte for Emily. When Courtney had worked at Starbucks, she’d made fun of the people who ordered pumpkin drinks when it was past fall, and Savannah smiled to herself at the memory when Emily ordered it. She put the drinks on her dad’s card and they snagged a table in the corner.

  “So,” Emily said, blowing into her drink. “There’s been talk all over the internet, and I’ve been dying to ask—what’s going on with you and Perry Myles?”

  Savannah’s cheeks heated, and she ate a whipped-cream-filled spoonful of hot chocolate. “We’ve been texting since my party in December,” she said. “He’s on his world tour, so I haven’t seen him. But he does want to see me over spring break, and my dad’s letting my sisters and I bring friends to his house in Aspen, so I think I might invite him...”

  “On a family trip?” Emily asked.

  “It was supposed to be,” Savannah said. “But yesterday my dad said he had to go to China that week for business, and Rebecca’s staying in Vegas to do wedding-planning stuff. I guess Adrian felt guilty for having to cancel, because he said my sisters and I should all go anyway, and that we can invite friends. Courtney, Peyton and Brett don’t want to invite anyone, so they told me that I can have all their invites.”