The Year of the Great Seventh

by Orts, Teresa

  “I wanted you to be who you were before I intervened in your life,” Nate explained with resentment in his voice. “I thought if I stayed away from you, you’d forget about me, about what was happening to me. I don’t know how to fix it. I just don’t want to see you looking depressed all the time. I don’t know what to do!”

  The expression on my face suddenly changed. “But you never looked at me once after the day at the Getty. How did you notice?”

  Nate spoke in disbelief. “Sophie, I may be a bit more discreet than you are, but I was aware. Just like probably everyone else at school. In fact, I couldn’t bear seeing what I did to you.” He was staring at the road as though he was avoiding meeting my gaze. “You had no idea what I was going through. That day at the cafeteria, I had to check that you were still breathing. You’d been staring blankly at the wall for the entire lunch break!”

  “It was you who threw the piece of eraser at me.”

  Nate half-smiled back at me. It had been him.

  The afternoon sun was blinding. Nate grabbed a pair of sunglasses from the glove box and put them on. I wanted to scream. He had to stop looking so handsome.

  I breathed deeply and nervously spoke. “Is that a yes? Let’s break free?”

  Nate took a turn onto my street and brought the car to a halt by the gate. Turning to look straight into my eyes, he tucked a lock of hair behind my ear. “I don’t really know what’s going to happen to me. The doctors said I’m going to get worse as I grow older. If you think you can handle my situation, I’ll go with you.”

  This was the story with Nate. Good news always came together with fatal news. He always managed to overshadow the positive side of life. In this moment I should be overjoyed. Nate had just said that he would come with me to the premiere. But I just felt empty.

  Nate seemed to be waiting for an answer. My voice quivered, as a liar’s might. “I think I can handle it. I think I know what you do. You just take one day at a time without worrying about tomorrow. I guess I can do the same.”

  Nate smiled back at me. “Thank you. You don’t know what this means to me.”

  And right there, the beginning of my life with Nate started. All it took was a wicked lie. I was sure I would never get over it if he got worse, and by spending more time with him, I was magnifying my pain. But that was the least of my worries at the moment. I wanted to be with him, and that’s all that mattered to me.

  “Is that a yes, then?”

  He looked at me and grinned. “Yes.”

  I couldn’t believe he agreed to come with me. I couldn’t believe it had been so easy, and I couldn’t help wondering why. What was different? Was this a trick?

  “Wait a minute. Why? What’s changed? Why is it okay for us to be around each other now?” I rushed through each word.

  “I don’t know. I have to admit I’m being selfish by getting you involved in my problems, but as you said, something’s changed. I couldn’t describe what exactly it is, but since the day at the Getty, I feel different when I’m around you. It’s as if I’m under control when you’re around.”

  It didn’t make any sense, but I didn’t care. All that mattered to me was that Nate would be my plus one at the premiere. The adrenaline rushed through my body at the thought of our arrival together. I had a lot of planning to do. I had to decide what makeup I was going to wear and how I was going to get a nice dress. Maybe with a bit of luck, a friend of Mom’s who was a makeup artist at the studios could do my makeup for free. Also, I needed to buy a pair of high-heeled shoes. Nate was very tall, and I didn’t want to look like a midget next to him.

  When I walked into the house, Mom was in the living room, reading a book, the news resonating in the background. The late afternoon sun was reflected off the ceramic tiles.

  I wondered what was up with Mom, as she normally read in her room, but she was probably about to start cooking dinner.

  “Hi, Sophie, how was school?” Mom asked, looking at me over her reading glasses.

  “It was okay,” I said, rushing up the stairs. I didn’t have time to chat today. I needed to go through my old dresses to see if there was any one even mildly suitable for the premiere.

  “Sophie, hold on a minute. Dad and I want to talk to you,” Mom said, taking off her reading glasses and closing her book. I knew I was in trouble if Mom and Dad wanted to talk to me together, and the first thing that came to my mind was my F in Spanish. Had Ms. Sanchez called them? That seemed unfair after I’d redone the paper and received an A.

  “Charles! Sophie’s here!” Mom called, staring at the door of Dad’s office. Then he appeared with a big box with a blue ribbon around it. He held it toward me.

  “Is that for me?” I rushed to say, running over to Dad to grab the box.

  Mom and Dad laughed at my excitement. I yanked the box from Dad and unwrapped it to find a beautiful Dolce and Gabbana red silk gown inside.

  “That’s for Friday’s premiere,” Mom said.

  I stood in the middle of the living room like a statue with the beautiful dress in my hands.

  “This is beautiful. This is a really expensive dress!” I said, stunned.

  “Mom borrowed it from the studios. It was used in some movie,” Dad explained, sitting next to Mom on the sofa. The sports news had just come on TV. I could tell Dad wasn’t very interested in premieres and girls’ dresses.

  “You’re going to have to tell us who is that Nate you’re taking to the premiere? Is he your boyfriend?” Mom asked.

  Thankfully, Dad was absolutely immersed in last week’s L.A. Lakers highlights. He was aware of Nate’s problems, and if he realized Nate was the one taking me to the premiere, that would be the end of the story.

  “He’s just a friend. Wait a minute! How did you…? Have you been spying on…?” I said, unable to finish the sentence.

  Mom broke into a laugh. “Sophie, Megan’s publicist is an old friend. She told me that Megan had invited you to the premiere and that you were bringing a friend named Nate. I have my contacts!”

  God! With Mom and her friends in the film industry, she was way too connected. She’d known about the premiere before I actually did. She even knew I was taking Nate with me probably before I did. I had to confess I was impressed with Megan’s intuition. How had she discovered that I was hanging out with Nate? She hadn’t even been in L.A. the last few weeks. Mom and Megan should open a detective agency. I reckon they would be very good at it.

  “Hey, that’s your friend Megan with Jay Leno!” Dad said with incredulity.

  “Turn the volume on! Turn the volume on!” Mom and I ordered at once.

  Megan was wearing a gorgeous short black dress and Alex a black suit. Jay Leno was joking about the high-tech gadgets that Alex and Megan used in the movie to spy on the terrorists. He also joked about how they made Montreal look just like Paris.

  Megan and Alex were giggling at Jay’s jokes. Alex began to cough and Megan passed a cup of water to him. He placed his hand on hers to thank her while he gulped it down.

  Megan was explaining to Jay Leno how she’d taken karate lessons for the movie, and she also had to learn acrobatics.

  Megan looked stunning. She sounded very confident and mature in the interviews. Even I could tell she was going to make it in Hollywood.

  Jay Leno showed a clip of the movie. Alex and Megan were running on the roof of a skyscraper, and they were getting shot at by a helicopter. In the last frame, they held hands and jumped off the building. Two parachutes unfolded and they finally landed in the middle of a garden party with perfect hair and makeup.

  “Sophie?” Mom said without being able to look away from the TV.

  “Yes?” I replied, knowing exactly what she was going to ask me next.

  “They’re together, aren’t they?” It was more of an affirmation than a question.

  “I thought your contacts updated you on everything that happened in Hollywood.” I joked.

  Mom shook her head from side to side. “Megan! At this
age she should be focusing on her career, not dating her costar.”

  Megan was sixteen, and contrary to what Mom thought, this was the best age to fall in love. In fact, she shouldn’t have to work at all, and even less, worry about her career. I was really happy for her. Alex seemed like a very nice person. Hollywood was a tough place where you never knew who you could trust. At least I knew he was going to look after her.

  CHAPTER IX

  THE LIMOUSINES WERE LINING up in the street. We could see the masses swarming the red carpet. Like everything else in Hollywood, the glitter vanished once you crossed the line and became an insider. Contrary to what we’re led to believe on TV, movie stars don’t spontaneously arrive at the red carpet. They’re made to wait inside their limousines parked on the street for ages. Our driver had a walkie-talkie and was waiting for one of the event managers to give him the green light to drive up to the velvet rope and let us out. The windows were tinted, and we’d been expressly told to keep them shut. The premiere organizers didn’t want the paparazzi to know which limousine was Megan and Alex Giordani’s.

  “This is weird,” Nate mumbled, staring out at a paparazzo pressing his face against our window. He was trying to see through the tinted glass. Nate tapped on the window and the paparazzo’s face disappeared like a fish in a tank.

  Nate stared out in boredom at the line of limousines ahead of us. His tailored black suit, which he wore with a simple white shirt and black tie, made him look like a movie star. He ran his fingers through his hair, pushing away the locks that spilled over his face. The perfection of his face made me tremble.

  “We’re finally moving!” Nate exclaimed, bringing me back from my daydream.

  Our limousine moved at a slow pace following the others ahead of us. It seemed we were going to be on the red carpet soon.

  “God, I’m so nervous. I don’t think I can do this,” I said, biting my bottom lip.

  “Don’t worry. You look beautiful. And I’m quite sure your friends suspected you’d been up to something anyway.” Nate brought his arm around my shoulders, making me feel like the luckiest girl in the whole state of California.

  My legs were shaking. The thought of openly admitting to the world that I’d been hanging out with Nate made me really anxious. I could picture Ethan and Stacey’s faces once they discovered I’d been with Nate all along.

  Deep inside I didn’t care how people reacted. This was my dream come true. Nate and I had decided to come out in the open and break all the rules. We didn’t care what the world thought. This was a statement. We wanted to break free from our scripted lives. Probably, the high school underclasses had tried to break free before, but this time was different. This time, the rebellion came from an alliance of the top and bottom hierarchies.

  What really mattered to me was that I found someone who understood me. Maybe we were outcasts. In different ways we both thought we had to fit the roles assigned to us by our families and friends—Nate, the overconfident high school prince from an affluent family where appearances are more important than real feelings, and me, the invisible girl who’d been doomed to live in the movie mecca where looks mattered more than content.

  “Do you think Megan’s already in?” Nate asked as we slowly approached the red carpet.

  “I think she’ll be the last one. That’s how they normally do it. First the wannabes, then the real stars.”

  I couldn’t stop playing with the stones of the necklace Dad had given me.

  The car stopped right in front of the velvet rope. All the paparazzi turned our way. They were arranged in rows on top of a tiered stand. All we could see was a wall of camera lenses.

  Nate buttoned his suit jacket and inhaled. “Let’s do this. Three, two, one.”

  He opened the limousine door, but it felt like he was opening Pandora’s box. There was no way back, but by getting out of the limousine together, we were laying all our cards on the table. Nate stepped out. I followed behind. The camera flashes twinkled randomly and we stood awkwardly on the red carpet. The photographers shouted at us. The flashes resonated in the middle of the chaos.

  Teenagers waiting on the other side of the barricade screamed in madness and waved their Alex and Megan posters. I didn’t understand anything. What was all the hysteria about? They didn’t even know who we were.

  Nate strode down the red carpet. I was hypnotized by the flickering lights, unable to move. He grabbed my hand and gently guided me behind him.

  A woman with a walkie-talkie waved at us and we followed her to the middle of the red carpet. She pointed at a huge movie billboard with Megan and Alex’s face plastered all over it. We stood in front of it while another lot of photographers shot their dazzling flashes at us. I was having trouble believing this was for real. People were screaming at us for no good reason.

  Nate didn’t seem intimidated at all. He was as confident as always, flaunting his Hollywood smile for the photographers. He squeezed my hand trying to help me relax, letting me know we were together in this.

  I forced a smile for the cameras and posed next to Nate, not really enjoying the moment. The temperature of my face rose quickly.

  Surprisingly, the cameras were mostly pointing in Nate’s direction. I suspected that Nate’s charm hadn’t gone unnoticed by the photographers.

  “Can we take a picture of you alone? What’s your name?” a photographer shouted.

  My hands began to sweat. This was too embarrassing.

  I brought my gaze down and when I was about to step away, Nate put his arm around me, bringing me as close to him as physically possible. Facing the photographer, and with a half-smile, he shook his head from side to side, refusing to accept the photographer’s orders.

  The flashing slowly relented. Another limousine arrived at the red carpet, and thankfully, we became invisible again. The photographers’ intimidating lenses pointed at the new arrivals. Alex and Megan’s fans were becoming delirious awaiting their arrival. Their screaming hadn’t lost any steam.

  Nate and I looked at each other and burst into laughter. It was bizarre the way paparazzi could almost make you believe you were someone important—worth fighting for to get the best shot—and then seconds later, completely lose interest in you.

  The woman with the walkie-talkie waved at us. We followed her to the entrance of the theater where we could witness the others arriving, safe from the crowd.

  I was quite sure I couldn’t have done this without Nate. There was something about him, about his presence, that made me feel more secure about myself. Nate’s magic was contagious.

  A parade of limousines arrived and beautiful people strolled down the red carpet. Some of them, the real celebrities, were interviewed by TV hosts as they walked along. A slim brunette was working the crowds as she paraded through the red carpet in a silver gown. The walkie-talkie woman looked particularly surprised at her arrival. She was signing autographs and posing for fans.

  “Who’s that?” I asked Nate, intrigued.

  Nate shrugged. His eyes fixed on the mysterious girl.

  “She played the mean girl in Street Gangs,” the security guard leaning on the theater door whispered to us. “She was dating Alex Giordani, but he dumped her for Megan Layton, his costar in this movie.”

  “It looks like there’s going to be a cat fight. I’m sure she’s not supposed to be here.” The security guard, who was the size of a closet, giggled like a teenage girl.

  Nate and I looked at each other with wide, open eyes. It wasn’t fair that this girl was trying to crash Megan’s premiere. Megan had worked hard to get here, and she didn’t deserve this.

  By the guard’s comments, it seemed I wasn’t the only one who knew Alex and Megan were together. I guess it wasn’t easy to hide your feelings when you had an army of paparazzi following you around all day.

  Emerging from a white Hummer limousine, Emma, Tyson, and Chase waved their hands at the screaming fans. Tyson and Chase were in tuxedos and Emma was wearing the open-back Armani sequin
ed black gown. Tyson and Chase looked a bit shocked as they hadn’t properly anticipated the hysteria that ensued.

  Emma was getting interviewed along the red carpet, and it looked like Chase and Tyson were trying to hide behind her. Emma was the only one who had a real reason to be here. At least she was part of the movie industry.

  Suddenly, it hit me. I could feel my legs shaking. This was the moment of truth. All the times I had ferociously denied anything to do with Nate to my friends ran through my mind. What if this was a turning point in our friendship?

  Tyson and Chase followed Emma along the carpet, seemingly stunned by the frenzy. Emma stood in front of the billboard, and the paparazzi unleashed the fury of their flashes on her. Emma smugly worked the camera. Chase and Tyson waited to one side, observing the fireworks of flashes reflecting on Emma’s sparkling dress. Emma changed poses, turning her back and staring coyly at the photographers over her shoulder. Locks of curling hair fell over her bare back.

  Suddenly Emma’s eyes fixed upon us, and her smile faded. Some of the paparazzi looked our way to see what Emma was staring at. Tyson and Chase’s eyes widened.

  Cold fire ran down my back. This wasn’t the sort of reaction I was expecting. Emma strode toward us, leaving the photographers flashing at an empty billboard. Tyson and Chase followed close behind. The disappointment in Emma’s eyes made my stomach squirm with guilt. Tyson and Chase looked down, as though they didn’t have the courage to meet my gaze. I knew they weren’t disappointed because I was with Nate, but rather because I’d lied to them over and over in these past weeks.

  The three of them stood in front of us, looking thunderstruck.

  Emma took me slightly to the side and whispered in unflattering disbelief, “You must be joking! This can’t be for real!”

  “Please, Emma, don’t do this,” I murmured in her ear, begging her to spare me from this embarrassing moment.

  “I can’t believe it. So it was him you were dating, wasn’t it? That’s why you didn’t want to tell us,” Emma said, raising her voice from a whisper to a louder tone and ignoring that Nate was, in fact, standing next to her.