Promising You (The Jade Series #4)

by Everhart, Allie

  She answers on the second ring. “Jade, come down to my room.”

  “I didn’t know you were here. I thought you were still at Sean’s.”

  I wait for her to respond but she already hung up the phone, so I walk down to her room. Her door is open and as soon as I walk in she grabs me for a hug.

  “Hey, neighbor!” She lets me go and I shut the door. “I still can’t believe we’re going to be living next to each other all summer. My parents can’t wait to meet you guys. They have the greatest summer parties. Full of A-list stars. We’re totally going to at least a couple of them.”

  “You look great, Harper. You always do, but today you’re almost glowing.”

  “Because I’m in love.” She spins around with her arms out which makes me laugh, but also makes me sad because it reminds me how much I love Garret and how I can’t be with him.

  “Sean is so great.” She stops spinning. “You know how taking a trip with someone can be super stressful? You’re tired. You get on each other’s nerves. You start fighting. We didn’t do any of that. Even at the airport when that asshole delayed our flight, Sean was so cool about it. He kept me calm the whole time and made up these silly games every time I complained about being bored. God, I love him.” She gazes dreamily at a spot on the wall behind me.

  “Um, Harper.” I get in her line of vision to wake her out of her trance.

  “Oh. Sorry. So where’s Garret? I thought the three of us could go out to eat. Sean can’t come with us because he had to go to the restaurant to prep for tomorrow.”

  “Yeah, about that. Garret’s still at his parents’ house.”

  “Why? I figured you two would’ve been shacked up in his room since the second you got back.”

  “I need to talk to you about something. And you can’t tell anyone about this. Even Sean.”

  She hesitates because she doesn’t like keeping secrets from Sean. “Okay, I won’t tell anyone.”

  “Garret and I broke up.”

  20

  “What?” Harper grabs my shoulders, almost knocking me over. “When did this happen?”

  “It’s not real. It’s just an act so I can stay out of this media frenzy he’s got going on right now.”

  She pulls me over to sit on her bed. “But that’s been going on for months. Why are you doing this now?”

  “Because it’s gotten really bad. The photographers are getting really aggressive. I’ve already been hurt once by those guys and if they found out I was dating Garret they’d start following me around.”

  It’s the fake story Garret’s dad gave me, and from her expression and nodding, Harper seems to be buying it.

  “Garret’s dad should just sue the show. That would stop all of this.”

  “It’s not just the show. Garret’s got tons of fans now and fans buy magazines, so even when the show ends the photographers will still be following him around wanting to get his picture.”

  “How long does this fake break-up have to last?”

  “Long enough for the fans to stop caring about Garret so the photographers will leave him alone. It could be months.”

  “So you guys can’t spend the summer in California?”

  “I’m still going, but Garret probably won’t be able to.”

  “Jade, this totally sucks. How are you going to go all those months without being together? Can you meet somewhere private so you could at least hang out a little?”

  “Probably not. We can’t risk people seeing us together. I’m not even supposed to call him. And just so you know, Garret’s going to be doing some strange things during our fake break-up.”

  “Like what?”

  I describe how Pearce hired people to purposely make Garret look bad so people won’t like him. And how in the next few months she may see photos of him or read stuff online that will make him seem like a jerk but that none of it is real.

  “That’ll just make people even more interested in him,” she says.

  “If he were a real celebrity it might. But once the reality show ends, he’ll go back to being a regular guy and start losing some of his fans. We’re hoping the fans he has left will get tired of him being a jerk and will eventually lose interest in him.”

  Harper’s right. The plan could make Garret even more popular. But being popular because you trash hotel rooms or crash cars won’t make you a popular presidential candidate someday. And that’s all we care about. Of course I can’t tell Harper that.

  “Doing that will ruin his reputation,” Harper says. “It could mess up the rest of his life. Or at least the next few years.”

  “He’s willing to risk it. He doesn’t want to keep living this way. You should see how many texts and phone messages he gets. He changes his number and his fans still find him. And he can’t leave his house without photographers following him around.”

  “Yeah, my sister has the same problem. The paparazzi are already taking photos of her and her movie hasn’t even come out yet. But they haven’t been aggressive like they’ve been with Garret. They keep their distance and shoot from across the street, so it hasn’t been that bad.”

  “Remember that you can’t tell anyone about this, including Sean. Just tell him that I broke up with Garret and that Garret didn’t take it well and that’s why he started partying and drinking again.”

  Harper’s eyes narrow. “Okay, but I wouldn’t do this for anyone else. I’ve never lied to Sean and I hate doing it now.”

  “I know, but I really need you to keep this a secret. Even Garret’s stepmom doesn’t know the truth.”

  “This is so weird. But I understand why Garret’s doing it.”

  “I just hope we won’t have to do this for very long. The fake break-up just started and I already miss him.”

  “I’m sorry.” She pouts her lips, then scoots off the bed and races over to her suitcase. “I have some gifts that might cheer you up.”

  “Harper, you didn’t have to get me anything.”

  “I didn’t.” She sorts through the clothes in her suitcase taking certain items out and forming a pile off to the side. “These are some more freebies my sister got.”

  I go over and sit next to her on the floor. “Did you bring me more t-shirts?”

  “A few t-shirts, a few more skirts, a couple casual dresses, some bikinis.” She holds up a neon green bikini that Garret would love and I can’t even model it for him. There’s also a red one, a hot pink one, and a white one.

  “I know this skirt looks kind of frumpy, but I have one just like it and it’s totally cute on.” She hands me a white, cotton skirt with an elastic waist. “And I really love this dress. I wish it was in my size, but it’ll look great on you.”

  I take the dress and hold it up. It’s a short, navy blue, sleeveless knit dress. It’s more sporty than fancy, so definitely my kind of dress.

  When she’s done making me a pile of new clothes she insists I try them all on which is good because it’s something to do. It’s better than sitting in my room wondering what Garret is doing and wishing I could be with him.

  “You should wear that to dinner,” Harper says.

  I have on a dark denim mini skirt with a light blue sweater. The sweater is super soft and comfortable. Harper knows exactly what I’d buy if I had money to buy new clothes. She could be a personal shopper.

  “I don’t have the right shoes for this,” I tell her, checking myself out in the mirror.

  “Shoes! I almost forgot.” She opens another suitcase and pulls out several pairs of shoes; a few pairs of sandals, and some shoes that are almost like sneakers but nicer. “I knew you’d say you didn’t have shoes, so here. Now you don’t have any excuses. Put these on and let’s go.” She hands me the sneaker-like shoes.

  “Where are we going for dinner?” As I ask I remember my empty wallet that was drained by the taxi ride to Garret’s house. “I can’t go. Sorry, I’m out of money. I had to take a taxi earlier and—”

  “It’s my treat. Don’t worry abo
ut it. You know my family’s loaded and you never let me pay for anything.” She’s at the mirror, applying lip gloss and smacking her lips together.

  “Because you shouldn’t pay. I should pay for myself.”

  “I thought you agreed never to mention the money thing again.” Now she’s adjusting her ponytail which always takes forever. She has to get it just right. Not too high, but not too low.

  “That was only with Garret.”

  “Well, I’m making it a rule with me, too. No more complaining if I offer to pay for stuff. I’m not saying I’ll pay all the time, but tonight I want to take my friend out for dinner. And don’t say it has to be fast food because I don’t feel like having that tonight.” Her ponytail is finally where she wants it. She turns away from the mirror and grabs her purse, linking her arm with mine and dragging me out of her room.

  “Where are you taking me?”

  “I haven’t decided yet. Maybe a sushi place.”

  “Ugh,” I mumble.

  She laughs as we go outside. “I was kidding. I know you hate sushi.”

  It’s 7 now and everyone appears to be back from break. The parking lot is packed with cars.

  Harper gets her keys out. “There weren’t many spots left, so I had to park down by Lisker Hall.”

  When we get to her SUV a car pulls into the space next to hers just as I’m going around to the passenger side. The bright headlights blind me and I shield my eyes while I wait for the driver to turn the car off. I look up and see that it’s a black BMW. Garret’s car. Seriously? What are the odds? I sigh as I watch him get out of the car.

  People are all around us on the sidewalk and in the parking lot, so it’s time to start playing my role of the ex-girlfriend, but it’s freaking hard when he’s right there and I just want to run up and kiss him.

  I’m not sure what to do. Ignore him? Say hi? We should’ve discussed this before I left his house. Harper’s waiting inside her SUV and even though it’s dark out I’m sure she sees it’s Garret who pulled in next to her. I walk to the side of the SUV. Garret’s standing there, pretending to look at his phone.

  “New outfit?” he asks, his eyes still on the phone.

  “Yeah. It’s from Harper.” I smell his cologne and out of habit I step closer to him. He shouldn’t be allowed to smell that good when we’re not dating.

  “I like it.” He’s trying not to look, but I catch him staring at my bare legs, then up to my fitted sweater and it totally turns me on.

  “Kensington!” a guy yells out. He’s standing on the sidewalk in front of Garret’s car. “I gotta hear about Bermuda. Two girls at the same time? Was that shit true?”

  Obviously the fake stories about Garret are already spreading.

  “I should go.” I put my hand on the door handle but don’t open it.

  “Hey, Shane,” Garret says to the guy. “I’ll tell you about it upstairs.”

  Garret’s hand brushes the back of my skirt as he walks away.

  I quickly get in the car before I lose all control.

  “What did you say to him?” Harper whispers as if the people outside could somehow hear us talking in the car.

  “Nothing.” I put my seatbelt on.

  “You said something. The way he was looking at you I thought you two were going to jump in his car and do it.”

  “He just hadn’t seen me wear this before so he asked if it was new.”

  She starts the car and backs out. “I don’t know how this fake break-up is going to work. It’s obvious you two can’t get enough of each other. Maybe I need to give you some acting tips. I took lessons growing up. It’s basically a requirement for a kid in LA.”

  “Yeah, I think you might have to. This is harder than I thought.”

  Our brief encounter in the parking lot just proved it. Being forbidden from Garret made me hyperaware of everything about him. The pitch of his voice. His scent. His proximity to me. He barely touched me and my body got all hot and tingly.

  “Jade.” Harper says my name in a way that sounds like she’s already said it several times.

  “Did you say something?”

  “I was thinking of going to Fresh, that organic restaurant. But it’s like 20 miles away. Are you in a hurry to get back?”

  “No. That sounds good.” The farther away I am from Garret right now the better.

  By the time we drive there, eat, and drive back it’s 9 o’clock. I thank Harper for dinner, then go to my room and watch my new TV. It’s still strange to have a TV in my room but I’m really glad Garret got it for me. It’ll hopefully take my mind off him.

  Or maybe not.

  As I’m flipping through the channels, I see a photo of Garret on Hollywood Today, a celebrity news show.

  “Garret Kensington, on-again, off-again boyfriend of Ava Hamilton, star of The Prep School Girls’ Reunion, had quite a spring break,” the perky blond show host says. “Rumor has it he traveled to Bermuda on his father’s jet and hooked up with numerous women, despite recently getting back together with Ava. Fans of the reality show are saying Ava deserves better, but for now it seems that she and Garret are still together.”

  They cut away to Ava walking through a parking lot wearing big sunglasses, tight dark jeans, and a low-cut black sweater.

  “Garret’s always been a bad boy,” she says, tossing her hair around as she walks. “I can’t change him. It’s one of the reasons I fell in love with him. I’ve always been attracted to bad boys.”

  “So you’re still dating him?” someone off camera asks. The camera shakes a little as the cameraman tries to keep up with her.

  “Yes.” She gets into a black SUV and drives off.

  They cut back to the show host. “Sources say Kensington nearly destroyed the house he rented in Bermuda and trashed the beach behind the property.”

  They cut to the fake footage I watched earlier in Pearce’s office. An old man with a deep tan and white hair says, “That kid broke everything in my house and left the place uninhabitable. I won’t be able to rent it out again for months. And then he doesn’t even apologize. His parents should be ashamed.”

  The host appears again. “We contacted Kensington’s PR rep but haven’t received a response. Stay tuned for more updates.”

  I flip the channel and find an old movie to watch just as my phone rings.

  “Jade, are you okay?” It’s Frank. I totally forgot to tell him the story I told Harper.

  “Yeah, why?”

  “Chloe just called Ryan and said that Garret was in Bermuda destroying some guy’s house.” Frank doesn’t mention the girls.

  Ryan picks up the other phone. “That asshole’s cheating on you! I swear, I’m going to kill him!”

  “Both of you need to calm down and let me explain.”

  I tell them the made-up story I told Harper.

  “We didn’t realize the fans and the photographers had become so aggressive,” Frank says. “I know it’ll be tough for you to be away from Garret, but I think it’s for the best, honey.”

  Once I’m convinced Frank and Ryan bought the story, I say goodbye and watch the rest of the movie. But my mind wanders to the situation I’m now stuck in. It’s hard to fathom that just a few days ago everything was going great, and today I’m part of a conspiracy to make Garret one of the most hated men in America. Not to mention the fact that I’m one of the few people who know that our presidents are chosen by a small group of rich, powerful people and not the public. It’s a secret I wish I didn’t know and one I can never tell anyone. Doing so would definitely get me killed. Not that anyone would believe me.

  Monday morning I check my phone and find three messages from Carson. I’m sure he heard the Garret news by now and can’t wait to ask me about it. Or more accurately, he can’t wait to gloat. This is like a Christmas present for him. Garret misbehaving? I’m surprised Carson didn’t text me ‘I told u so’ a thousand times.

  I arrive at physics class with not a minute to spare hoping to avoid any pre-clas
s conversation with Carson. But then the professor is late. Of course.

  “I’m sorry about Garret,” Carson says when he sees me. He doesn’t sound the least bit sorry.

  “It’s no big deal.” I pull my laptop from my bag and set it up on the table.

  “No big deal? Did you hear what he did?”

  “Yes. But he can do whatever he wants. We’re not together anymore.” I don’t look at him as I get my laptop fired up. “I broke up with him last week. That’s why Garret is acting this way. He didn’t want us to break up.”

  Carson is quiet and when I glance over at him, he’s staring at me like he doesn’t believe me.

  “Listen, Carson. I didn’t tell you about this during our road trip because I didn’t want another one of your lectures about Garret and how I never should’ve dated him. So on the drive back here, I just pretended to be calling and texting Garret but I really wasn’t.”

  “You could’ve told me. I wouldn’t have lectured you. I swear. Do you want to go somewhere after class and talk about it?”

  “No, I’m okay. I had a lot of time over the break to think about things and although part of me still loves Garret, it just wasn’t working. I don’t fit in his world. He knows that. He just doesn’t accept it.”

  “Are you still talking to him?”

  “I haven’t since we broke up, but I’m not going to ignore him. If I see him on campus I’ll still say hi and be friendly. It’s not like I hate him.”

  “Even after what he did last week?”

  “I knew he was like that when I met him. You’ve heard the stories about him from high school. He likes to drink and party and be with lots of different girls. He gave that up when he was with me, but now that I’m gone it makes sense that he would do that stuff again. I can’t worry about what he does.”

  “Sorry I’m late everyone.” The professor appears, hurrying to the front of the room. “Bring out today’s notes and let’s get started.”

  After class Carson walks back to the dorms with me. “You want to have dinner with me tonight?”

  He’s asking me out already? Wow. I thought he’d at least wait a couple weeks.