Finding June (23 page)

In reality, the tank was only about seven
feet tall, so I’d only have to push off the bottom, not "swim" to
the top. But this was a fact that was lost on me in the moment.

I could feel my air running out as Lukas
pretended to throw all of his weight into opening the heavy lid. I
knew he was eventually supposed to grab an axe and cut the lock
holding the lid on, but surely they didn’t want me to stay in here
until he finally did that, right? As it was, I had already been in
the tank for about thirty seconds, which I realize doesn’t sound
like a lot of time, but when your hands are tied, your mouth is
gagged, and you’re being dragged down by tiny little weights, it
feels
a lot
longer.

I saw Lukas run to the side of the stage,
presumably to get the axe, but I didn’t think I’d be able to wait
for him to open the tank. I could feel my body involuntarily
swallowing, trying to force me to take a breath against my will as
I continued to hit the glass walls around me. Small pinpricks began
to make their way up my arms and legs, but I couldn’t tell if that
was the feeling returning to my limbs or the first signs that I was
about to be part of a freak on-set accident.

Finally psyching myself out enough, I pushed
my feet off the grated floor, my arms above my head and ready to
open the lid. At first when they made contact with the metal
ceiling of the tank, nothing happened, and the dread took all of
one second to spread through me. I saw a large bubble escape my
mouth as I opened it in shock, but only a moment later the lid
lifted seemingly by itself, letting the welcoming sight of studio
lights stream in. A strong hand reached into the tank and grabbed
the rope around my wrists, pulling me to the surface of the
tank.

Water sprayed everywhere as I tried to breath
out of my mouth, still covered by the cloth gag. I began to cough
from the unexpected barrier and quickly tore the annoyance away
from my face so that it dangled limply around my neck. Continuing
to sputter in an unattractive manner, I felt a warm hand touch my
ice-cold cheek.

“Are you okay, June?” Lukas asked, his voice
full of concern and his face the perfect picture of a prince
charming who’d just rescued his princess. Okay. Maybe that was a
bit much, but that’s still what it felt like right at that moment.
Lukas had been the one to pull me out of the tank. “I would have
opened the lid sooner, but you held your breath a lot longer than
they expected you to, so they told me to go grab the axe instead
just in case we could get that shot in. I’m sorry I didn’t just
open it,” he said, making me want to kiss him right then and there.
Of course—everything he did made me want to kiss him, so that
wasn’t saying much.

“It’s all right. I’m fine,” I sputtered,
shaking from the cold water and complete terror I had experienced
moments before. “I’m just glad you opened the lid. I couldn’t get
it open for some reason.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty heavy,” he explained,
though I wasn’t sure if this made me feel better that there was
nothing wrong with the lid or worse that even when it wasn’t
broken, I couldn’t get out of it myself. Lukas allowed his hand to
continue cupping my cheek as he gazed at me with a perfect
smile.

“Can you please not touch her? I have to fix
her makeup,” Candice said, suddenly beside us, though neither of us
had seen her approach. Her tone was dry and flat as usual, but I
could sense an uncommon menace in it. Lukas sighed, looking
unabashedly annoyed with Candice before rolling his eyes and
walking over to Will Trofeos and Jim Little, who had just
reappeared on the stage.

“Tool,” Candice muttered under her breath at
Lukas’s retreating form.

“He pulled me out of the water tank,” I said
in a shaky voice, still unsteady from my little scare.

“Yeah, and he got in the way of a dozen other
people who were rushing to get you out of the tank too,” she
countered in a hushed voice. “It’s not like he rescued a baby from
a burning building. He opened a lid.” Candice looked over her
shoulder at Lukas, who was watching her closely even though he
appeared to be talking to Will.

“He’s still a nice guy,” I attempted as
Candice removed the black makeup that had migrated from my eyes
down my cheeks. I could only imagine how scary I looked, freezing
with makeup melting all over my face and my lips trembling from how
cold I was.

“Haven’t you ever heard that sociopaths are
some of the most charming people?”

“I hardly think he’s a sociopath,” I answered
defensively.

“Oh, I don’t know. Manipulative, promiscuous,
superficial charm, inflated sense of self. Sounds about right to
me,” she responded, her mouth twitching in the corner, almost like
she was smiling.

“Fine, if you find me murdered and hidden in
a crawl space, you can name him as the number one suspect,” I said
sarcastically. “But until that happens, you should at least try to
be nice to him.”

“Yeah, that’ll happen,” she said with a scoff
as she finished touching up my makeup. “Don’t drown,” she remarked
as she walked away, shooting a dirty look in Lukas’s direction. He
walked back over to me the second she had left the stage to perch
behind the cameras once more.

“What’s with her?” he asked, looking more
amused than angry by Candice’s obviously cold feelings toward
him.

“She’s having a bad day,” I lied. I didn’t
want any conflict between them, but I also didn’t want Candice to
lose her job just because she didn’t know how to keep her emotions
at bay.

“Apparently,” he said with an eyebrow raise.
He shook his head, presumably shaking off whatever bad feeling he
was having toward Candice, and then turned to me with a winning
smile and said, “Ready for another go?”

*****

Lukas and I walked through the silent, dark
parking lot of the theatre after work that day. I was surprised
that there weren’t any paparazzi surrounding the building, although
Bates had told everyone to keep quiet about the location of the
shoot. Apparently whenever
Forensic Faculty
shot outside of
the studio, they had a bit of a crowd control issue. But at that
moment, walking alone with Lukas, I was glad for the absence of any
spectators, including Gran, who was apparently late picking me
up.

Lukas and I stopped at his motorcycle. He
leaned against it, looking like an angel, and I tried not to let my
giddiness show on my face. Here I was, standing alone with Lukas
Leighton after having spent an entire day with him fussing over me
and making sure I felt safe in the water tank. It didn’t get much
better than that.

Lukas pushed a few stray curls behind my ear.
My dark curly hair had finally dried after much persuasion from
Candice and the blow dryer. That girl could somehow work wonders
with my hair. She had managed to coax it back into the big glossy
curls she had created before, much to my amazement.

“You were really brave today,” Lukas said
softly, letting his hand rest on my jawbone. I was pretty sure
being this close to Lukas was exactly what being hypnotized would
feel like. My head grew fuzzy and all I could do was smile stupidly
at him. It was like being given laughing gas at the dentist.
Everything just felt perfect and happy. A bus could mow me down
right then and there, and I would simply giggle about it.

“All I had to do was hold my breath,” I said,
trying to sound modest even though I was pretty proud of myself for
making it through that horrible stunt.

“You can sound humble all you want, but I
know it was a scary thing to do,” Lukas whispered, the softness of
his voice making the situation seem much more intimate. I shivered
slightly at the lines his thumb was tracing on my cheek, and he
stood up to his full height, taking a step toward me. “Are you
cold?” he asked.

“A bit,” I replied, wondering what exactly he
was going to do to warm me up. All he really needed to do was look
at me and I’d burst into flames, but the fact that he was getting
closer and closer to me definitely worked too.

Lukas pressed his body against mine, his
strong form feeling warm and unfamiliar. He wrapped his arms around
me and pulled me into him so that my head rested on his chest. I
could hear his heart beating in a slow and steady rhythm. Strong
and self-assured, just like him. My heart, on the other hand, was
doing its best to imitate a hummingbird’s as it pounded
embarrassingly fast against my chest.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath,
trying to memorize every perfect detail of this moment. I felt
Lukas inhale, as if he was preparing to say something, but his
words caught in his throat and he pulled away from me, looking over
my shoulder. I could see his face illuminated suddenly by the
familiar (and unwelcome) sight of headlights.

“Gran,” I breathed, disappointment lining my
features.

“Actually, I think it’s your friend,” Lukas
said, his voiced filled with something that I’ll call
disappointment. At least, I’m hoping that’s what it was.

“My friend?” I asked, a bit slow on the
uptake, having just had my brain scrambled by Lukas’s unfathomable
perfection.

“Joe. Right?”

“Joseph,” I corrected automatically, more out
of habit than an actual desire for Lukas to get his name right.

Turning reluctantly away from Lukas, I could
see the well-known sight of Joseph’s green VW Bug. He seemed to
have developed a bad habit of showing up at the most inconvenient
times lately.

“Hey June,” Joseph said as he walked briskly
toward Lukas and me. “Annette had something come up, so I said I’d
pick you up from the shoot. Sorry I’m late.”

“That’s fine,” I said with a sigh, unable to
completely hide my exasperation over another interrupted moment
with Lukas. I turned back to him with an apologetic look on my
face. “Thanks for walking me out.” Lukas smiled warmly at me,
glancing over my shoulder at Joseph for a moment as he did so. It
wasn’t an uncomfortable, "why is this guy watching us so closely?"
kind of look, but more of a "yes, I see you standing there and I
really don’t care" glance.

“I won’t see you for more than a week if we
wait until the next episode starts shooting,” he said with a hint
of sorrow in his voice. “So let’s make sure we don’t wait that
long." He added the last part so quietly that I wondered if Joseph
had heard it at all.

“Okay,” I managed to whisper, a grin
spreading across my face.

“See you later Joe,” Lukas said.

“Joseph,” both Joseph and I said in unison,
though Joseph sounded annoyed while I just sounded dazed.

Lukas pulled me into a warm hug and gave me a
lingering kiss on the cheek, nestling my ear with his nose and
causing my body to break out in goosebumps from head to toe.

“Goodnight June,” he said before turning away
and making his grand exit on his motorcycle. I stared after him for
a minute, in a complete happiness-induced fog.

“Anyway,” Joseph said loudly, obviously
trying to snap me out of my haze, “Are you tired from working all
day, or are you up for a little adventure?”

I could hear the falseness in his voice. He
wasn’t using his normal, comfortable Joseph voice, but the one he
used when he was acting comfortable in an uncomfortable situation.
This, of course, made me feel horrible. Joseph and I had been
attached at the hip since birth, and now he was using his acting
voice with me. I didn’t think things had gotten
that
weird
between us, but I knew I had to fix it quickly. I walked over to
him and linked my arm with his.

“Allons-y!” I said in my best French accent
(which was pretty horrible) as we walked toward his car.

CHAPTER 19

I adjusted the full skirt of my knee length
navy blue lace dress around my legs as Joseph drove on the freeway
toward Simi Valley. He had been silent most of the drive, but I
could see him mentally talking himself out of his bad mood. That
was the benefit of having known each other for so long—I could read
Joseph like a book. Right now the title of his book was, "I’m mad
at June because she has a new friend she’s spending more time with
than me, but I shouldn’t really be mad at her because this is a
great opportunity for her, so I’m going to be rational and start
talking to her again: The Joseph Cleveland story."

“So, where is this big adventure going to
take us tonight?” I asked, deciding to help out a bit with breaking
the ice. After all, I could see where Joseph was coming from. If he
got a part on a big show and decided to suddenly start spending all
of his time with Joann Hoozer (who I wasn’t very fond of), I’d be
pretty mad too. In fact, I think I’d be a lot less friendly than
Joseph was, so he earned brownie points for trying so hard.

“If I told you, it wouldn’t be much of an
adventure, now would it?” he asked cryptically, his old self
shining through his cautious exterior. I almost had to wonder if he
was thinking
I
was going to be weird around him and he was
just bracing himself for new, high-maintenance June.

We had gotten off the freeway and were
driving through surface streets in an area I wasn’t familiar with.
A lot of the streetlights were out, casting the sidewalks in an
ominous darkness.

“Have you brought me here to kill me?” I
joked.

“Not quite,” he replied, pulling into a dirt
lot full of cars, litter, and children running around with balloons
tied to their wrists. We had arrived at a large (normally empty)
park that was currently filled with carnival rides, tents, and
booths. The sugary smell of cotton candy hit my nose, mixing with
the buttery aroma of freshly popped popcorn.

“A carnival!” I exclaimed, my face lighting
up. Joseph knew me so well. “I didn’t even know there was a
carnival going on right now.”

“That’s what makes it such a surprise,”
Joseph replied with a knowing grin. He seemed to be pretty much
back to his old self, much to my relief.