But Eli didn’t wait, wait, wait at all. Instead, he kissed Natalie on the cheek.
Sarah stared down the train tracks, impatient for Brynn’s train to arrive. She was going to tell Brynn she was going home. Brynn deserved that. Then she was gone.
When she got on the train, she thought she’d be able to handle the last day on set, at least with Brynn making sure to keep Chace away from her again. But she’d started feeling sicker and sicker the closer she’d gotten to Guilford. Make that the closer she’d gotten to seeing Chace. She couldn’t handle another day like yesterday. She had to go home. And she would, as soon as she told Brynn.
Sarah felt the air begin to vibrate. The train was coming. Okay. Good. All she had to do was talk to Brynn for a minute, then Sarah would be buying her ticket home.
The train pulled into the station, and Sarah tried to watch every door at once as they whooshed open. Brynn, Brynn, Brynn, where was Brynn?
“Brynn!” she cried, rushing over to her friend.
“Hey!” Brynn called. “Ready for the last day—and the big wrap party in Manhattan?”
“No!” Sarah almost shouted.
“What?” Brynn asked.
“I’m sick. I realized I was sick on the train. I have to go home. Because I’m sick,” Sarah explained in a rush.
Brynn studied Sarah for a minute, then shook her head. “You’re not sick.”
“Maybe not right this exact second,” Sarah admitted. “But if I have to see Chace, I really will be. You’ll have to ride with me in the ambulance to the emergency room.”
“Sarah, I’ll keep him away from you. Just the way I did yesterday,” Brynn told her.
“I don’t know if you can!” Sarah burst out. “He’s been IMing me, and calling me, and texting me. All last night. And he’s already started this morning.”
“What did you say to him?” Brynn asked.
“Nothing!” Sarah cried.
“Okay, good. That’s good. So we’ll just keep up the no-contact. We did it yesterday. We’ll do it today.” Brynn looped her arm around her friend’s shoulders.
“That’s not good enough!” Sarah shook Brynn’s arm off, unable to stand still. “Because I’ll still see him. And that’s what’s going to send me to the hospital!”
“Oh.” Brynn nodded. “With layers of your heart ripped off.”
“Exactly,” Sarah answered. “This is the last day I’ll probably ever see Chace, and if I see him, it will hurt too much.”
“Look, Sarah. Maybe you made the wrong decision. Maybe instead of avoiding him, you should have just been honest and told—”
“Nooo!” Sarah wailed.
Brynn held both hands up in surrender. “Okay, okay. Never mind.” She lowered her hands. “All I can say is, Chace really wanted to be with you yesterday. I should know.”
“Which means Avery didn’t say anything,” Sarah said. “Unless it came up last night. Maybe it did. Maybe that’s why he kept calling and texting and IMing. He just kept saying he had to talk to me. Maybe that’s what he wanted to talk to me about.” She grabbed Brynn’s arm with both hands. “I need you to find out for me!”
“Without letting him know that I know Avery’s his sister.” Brynn gently began prying Sarah’s fingers away from her arm.
“Obviously. You can’t tell him that. Just figure out a way to find out how close he is to Avery. How much they talk. Think of it as an acting assignment,” Sarah suggested.
Brynn rolled her eyes. “How can I turn down an acting assignment?”
“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Sarah exclaimed. “Oh, and you have to keep him away from me until you get the intel.”
Brynn smiled. “You know me. I love a challenge.”
Operation Chase Chace Chace, Day Two, Brynn thought as she scanned the quad for her prey. Or acting partner, to see it another way.
There he was, playing hacky sack with the stand-in for the boy who had the part of Sam Quinn’s son. Brynn decided to casually walk past in Chace’s sightline. She was almost positive he’d ask her about Sarah. That way the whole conversation would seem like Chace’s idea. Was she brilliant or what?
Brynn got into character. Which was Brynn, not thinking about Chace. As she strolled past the hacky sack game, she forced herself to concentrate on the backstory for Letshon, the 2040 character she’d come up with yesterday. That’s what the Brynn character would be doing.
She must have done an excellent job acting like her normal self, because she soon heard someone running up behind her. “Brynn, wassup?” Chace asked.
“Not much,” Brynn said. Because while a lot was actually up with Brynn, not much was up with Brynn the character. “Sad it’s the last day, but looking forward to the wrap party.”
“So where’s your partner in crime?” Chace used both hands to shove his hair away from his face.
Partner in crime. Did that have some double meaning? Did Chace suspect something? Was he trying to pump information out of her while she was trying to do the same to him?
“Sarah? She wasn’t feeling that well. She went to the infirmary to get some aspirin,” Brynn answered. It was always good to use as much truth as possible in acting. And Sarah wasn’t feeling well. She probably could use an aspirin.
“Maybe I should go over there, see how she’s doing,” Chace said.
“She’s probably already on her way back here to get in the wardrobe line,” Brynn told him. “It doesn’t take long to get aspirin. We should save her a place.”
“Yeah. That’d be good,” Chace answered.
After they joined the line, Brynn opened her backpack and started to paw through it. While she’d walked over from the train station, she’d come up with an awesome plan to get the info she needed.
“I’m going to massacre my brother!” she growled. “I keep telling him not to touch my stuff, and he took my iPod out of my backpack. I know it was him. He broke his. He’s always breaking his stuff, then taking mine.” She zipped the pack. “Do you have any brothers or sisters?”
“Huh?”
Huh? As in he hadn’t been listening? Brynn had just given a great performance. “Brothers and sisters? You have any?” she asked, trying not to sound annoyed.
“A sister,” Chace answered, looking around, for Sarah, Brynn figured.
“Does she mess with your stuff?” Brynn asked.
“Not really,” Chace said. “We don’t like that many of the same things.”
That sounded good. Not liking the same things. Maybe Chace and Avery weren’t close at all.
“Avery thinks if a movie’s in black-and-white, it’s defective,” he added.
Brynn laughed, frantically trying to figure out what she should say next. “Uh, you should make her watch Psycho. It’s so much scarier that the blood is black. At least I think so.”
“Me too!” Chace said, his gray-green eyes brightening. “Did you know they used chocolate syrup for the blood?”
“Yeah. Isn’t that cool?” Brynn answered. “Although do you think it made acting in the scene harder for Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins? The smell of sweet, delicious chocolate while you’re screaming or stabbing, depending if you’re Janet or Anthony.”
“That’s the kind of acting challenge you have to deal with sometimes. Do you think it’s harder to act in front of a crowd of people, or to act with a cameraman three feet away from you?” Chace asked.
“That’s a tough one,” Brynn admitted. “At least in the theater, the audience is in darkness. You don’t see them until the lights come up at the end. It’s easier to escape into the world of the play.”
Off track! she told herself. “So would she do it? Your sister? Watch Psycho?” Brynn asked.
“Nah. She’s wouldn’t be into it. Just like I’m not into her horseback riding and the decorating shows she always has on. We used to hang more when we were little, but now I’ve got to stay focused,” Chace said. “I read this article by an agent and it said only about one percent of people w
ho want to be stars get to that level. I figure if I’m going to be in that one percent, I’ve got to be eating, drinking, and sleeping acting. I’m not even going to play tennis this summer. Half my friends are mad at me because I won’t hang with them, but that’s the way it’s got to be right now.”
Chace had handed her the intel Brynn needed. It really didn’t sound like he and Avery sat around trading stories about what they did over the summer. So Sarah’s secret would be safe.
The only weird thing was that Chace was soooo focused on his acting and Sarah was only doing the extra thing for fun. She’d probably never even do it again. She definitely didn’t want to be a star.
So why was Chace so into Sarah? Brynn gave a mental shrug. Who could explain somebody in luuurve?
“You know what?” Brynn said. “I think I’ll go check on Sarah. She’s taking way too long to deal with a headache or whatever little thing was wrong. Hold our place in line, okay?” she added before Chace could volunteer to go with her.
“Tell her I hope she’s feeling better,” Chace said.
Brynn smiled. In about five minutes, Sarah is going to be feeling fantastic.
“So I’m safe?” Sarah knew she’d already asked that question a bunch of times, but she had to ask it again.
“You’re more than safe,” Brynn told her. “You’re golden. That boy really likes you. I think he’d like you even if he found out the Horrible Truth.”
Sarah gasped.
“But he’s not going to. Really,” Brynn reassured her. “He and Avery don’t talk much. And I doubt she would start telling him camp stories now. Why would she? It’s not like we just got back.”
“I wonder if he’ll want to see me after we’re done being extras,” Sarah said. “We live sort of far apart.”
“You’ll never know unless you leave this bathroom,” Brynn answered. “I’m going to go get in the wardrobe line. He’s holding our place. Are you coming?”
Sarah looked at herself in the mirror. She’d bitten off all her lip gloss while she’d been waiting for Brynn to bring her the news. “One sec.” She recoated her lips and considered putting on some perfume, but decided she was wearing enough. “Okay, let’s go.”
Brynn opened the door for Sarah with a flourish. I’m going to see Chace! I’m going to see Chace! The words skipped along with the fast beat of Sarah’s heart. Thereheisthereheisthereheis. Her heart accelerated into the hummingbird-wing zone. She hoped Brynn wasn’t really going to have to take her to the emergency room!
“Hi, Chace,” she managed to say in a normal tone, as she and Brynn joined him in line.
“Sarah! I was trying to talk to you all day yesterday!” Chace exclaimed.
“Well, here I am.” She threw her arms out to the sides, then pulled them close when she felt patches of pit sweat. Had he seen them?
“I wanted to know if you’d go with me to the wrap party tonight,” Chace went on. “I know we’re all going, but I wanted us to go together. I wanted you to be my date. If you want to.”
Sarah didn’t think she’d ever heard Chace sound uncertain before.
“That would be wonderful. Yes. Absolutely,” Sarah told him. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Brynn smiling.
“Good.” Chace let out a long breath. “Yesterday it almost seemed like you were avoiding me.”
chapter THIRTEEN
Natalie had a hard time swallowing even the small bite of brie and cracker she’d just taken. How could she not have noticed that Eli really liked her? And obviously—so obviously—he thought she liked him, too.
They had been IMing pretty much every day. And whenever Eli suggested they get together, Natalie said yes. They’d met up once after school this week for dessert at Serendipity. But they weren’t boyfriend and girlfriend. Natalie was just trying him on. Like a pair of jeans. To see if they fit.
And boy, did this pair really not fit.
Natalie had to stop this. Now.
“Eli, this was so great of you. Thank you,” Natalie said. That was the easy part. “But it seems like you’re thinking of us as boyfriend and girlfriend . . .” She let her words trail off.
“You don’t like me?” Eli asked, and she could see the hurt in his eyes.
“I like you!” Natalie assured him. “I do like you. It’s just . . . I don’t think the two of us have much in common. Except our love of Serendipity’s frozen hot chocolate.”
“You didn’t have fun at the train convention?”
“Uh . . .” Natalie nibbled on her lower lip. “Not really.”
“You seemed like you were having fun,” Eli protested.
“It felt like everyone was speaking a language I didn’t understand,” she tried to explain.
“It’s like that for everyone at the beginning,” Eli told her. “I can teach you. No problem.”
“I don’t think I want to learn,” Natalie admitted.
“What about the boats? You had fun learning to sail the day we met, right?” Eli asked.
Natalie gripped her water bottle so hard it made a crunching sound. How much could she say? Should she say? “It was kind of fun.”
“Why did you say yes when I asked you out again? You must have known model trains weren’t your kind of thing,” Eli said. “You must have known we didn’t like the same stuff.”
Natalie forced herself to put the water bottle down. She was going to demolish it if she didn’t. “I got braces a couple days before I met you,” she confessed.
Eli just looked at her. Clearly he didn’t get it.
“I guess I thought since you had braces and I had braces, and no one without braces would be interested in someone with braces, it made sense for us to hang out,” Natalie explained.
“Who cares who has braces?” Eli asked.
“No one at school can even look me in the face!” Natalie insisted.
“That guy right over there has braces and the girl he’s with doesn’t.” Eli pointed to a couple Rollerblading by. “That girl has braces and no one is running in terror.” He pointed to a girl selling hot pretzels who was laughing with a customer. “You can’t be telling me you are the only one at your school who has braces?”
Natalie thought about it. Really thought about it. “My Spanish teacher has braces. But she’s a teacher, so that doesn’t really count.” She thought a little more. “I think there’s a guy in my chemistry class with braces. And there’s a girl in math, too . . . I think . . .”
“You think! See, you don’t know for sure, because it doesn’t matter if she actually has braces or not,” Eli pointed out.
Suddenly, people at her school who wore braces—at least a dozen just in her grade—flooded Natalie’s mind. “You’re right,” she said slowly.
“Of course I’m right.” Eli smiled.
“I’m really sorry, Eli. I didn’t mean to use you. I just was so freaked out. And I guess I assumed you felt the same way I did about braces,” Natalie said. “I thought we could be miserable together. But you weren’t looking for misery.”
“It’s okay,” Eli answered. “I guess I knew that we weren’t exactly a great match. But I didn’t care that much, because you’re beautiful, even knocking off a few points for the braces. I’m shallow that way.” He grinned.
“You’re pretty cute, too. I love your freckles,” Natalie told him. “Hey, just a thought, but what’s your opinion on Rachel?”
“Great at wiring. Great at construction. Not so great at painting,” Eli immediately answered.
“I don’t mean as a train geek, geek,” Natalie said. “I mean as a girl. Do you think she’s pretty?”
Eli raised his eyebrows. “Rachel? I don’t know. I feel like the last time I looked at her was when we were seven.”
“I suggest you look again. Model skillz. And hot,” Natalie said.
“Really? Rachel?”
“All I’m saying is think about it,” Natalie told him. “So, friends?”
“I think we could be Serendipity friends,” Eli
agreed. “We could meet up for the occasional frozen hot chocolate and add more stuff to the list of all the things we don’t have in common.”
Natalie shook his hand. “Deal.”
Chace dipped Sarah, sweeping her so low to the ground that the tips of her hair brushed the floor of Suzette’s Garage. Best night of my life! Sarah thought as Chace pulled her back up and close to him. And the wrap party was just getting started.
“Want a soda?” he asked.
Sarah nodded.
Chace pointed to a deep purple sofa and Sarah happily sank down on the velvet to wait, taking in the scene. The studio had rented the whole massive NYC club. It belonged to the cast and crew for the night. There was a huge dance floor, a live band to back up anyone who wanted to sing karaoke, and way too much food.
Bloopers from the movie were playing on a loop on the many big screen TVs. Someone had added captions to them. Sarah didn’t get all of them—inside jokes from times the extras weren’t around. But she felt very TMZ when she did catch a reference.
The loop started to play again. How long did it take to get a couple sodas? There were four bars. Sarah checked the closest one. She didn’t see Chace. She checked the next closest. No Chace. She had to stand up to check the third. No Chace. She looked up at the balcony to see the fourth—although there was no reason for him to be all the way up there. Didn’t see him.
Maybe he made a pit stop in the bathroom first, she thought. The bathroom lines were always long. Although not as long for guys. Sarah sat down again. The velvet felt itchy and prickly. Why would you put a velvet sofa in a club? Clubs were always too hot, weren’t they? She hadn’t been to many others—well, any others. But with all the people and the dancing, they had to be.
Sarah watched the blooper loop all the way through again. Okay, it was crazy to keep sitting here. Chace had probably run into Lowell or Temple and started talking. He probably thought she’d go find him. Probably.
She got up and started wandering through the crowd, making sure to look at every person she passed. Not Chace. Not Chace. Not Chace. Not Chace.
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