Infamous (10 page)

She didn’t know what made her look up at that moment into the dining room, but she did. Her eyes landed on a guy standing by himself, staring at an enormous red and orange Jackson Pollock-y painting, deep in thought. Julian. Julian was here. She actually felt her heart shiver, if that was possible. She could still hear Julian’s last words to her, when she’d asked why she hadn’t seen him at the Waverly Halloween party:
Even if I had gone, I wouldn’t have wanted to hang out with you.
It was far from the meanest thing anyone had ever said to her, but coming from Julian, who was the coolest guy she’d ever met, it had stung more than anything else.

Abruptly, Tinsley stepped away, leaning back against the kitchen counter. Kevin, who was completely blitzed, offered to make her a martini, but instead of answering, she spun on her heel and stalked out of the room. Martini glass and bottle of vodka in hand, she returned to the guest bedroom and collapsed on the bed.

It wasn’t Halloween anymore, but everyone from her past was coming back to haunt her.

Instant Message Inbox

EmilyJenkins:
OMG
, you won’t believe who’s at Yvonne Stidder’s party.

BennyCunningham:
Who? A bunch o’ losers? Ha!

EmilyJenkins:
Hell, no.
EVERY
Owl in
NYC
is here—including Callie, Jenny, and Tinsley…and Sleigh Monroe-Hill!

BennyCunningham:
That wench told me freshman year that she knew a dermatologist who could do wonders for my face—in front of Tom Pham, who I was totally trying to get with!

EmilyJenkins:
You did have some serious acne that year….

BennyCunningham:
Not so! It was an allergy to my field hockey uniform. Doesn’t excuse her from being a BITCH!

EmilyJenkins:
I think she has some kind of folk record out….

BennyCunningham:
More like a HO record. I’d like to see her and T.C. duke it out!

Jenny dabbed her Cargo PlantLove lipstick in Cherry Bliss carefully across her lips, making them look soft and sweet and extra-kissable. She’d spent an hour talking to Casey already, and wanted to spend the next hour talking to him too—and hopefully, he’d be thinking about kissing her. Would she let him? The answer was…she didn’t know. She knew she
shouldn’t
—she’d met him about an hour ago—but there was a whole list of things that she shouldn’t do, and where was the fun in that? Having pulled off her heavy sweater to reveal her black, sheer gauze Free People top with the flutter sleeves, she felt much more in the mood for fun.

The bathroom door flew open, sending Jenny crashing toward the mirror, her left hand almost jabbing the mascara wand directly into her eye.

“What—” Jenny started, surprised to see Tinsley in the doorway.

“Sorry, I thought no one was in here,” Tinsley mumbled, stepping backwards. “It’s okay,” Jenny insisted. “You can come in.”

“Thanks.” Tinsley closed the door behind her, martini glass in hand.

“So.” Jenny felt the need to say something, as she and Tinsley weren’t exactly close enough to hang out in a strange bathroom in perfect silence. “I just met the perfect guy.” She brought her lips together to smooth out the gloss, the taste of cherry teasing the tip of her tongue.

“Me too,” Tinsley answered softly, looking at herself in the mirror sternly. Jenny noticed with interest that it wasn’t a
Do I look hot?
look—Tinsley always looked hot, but especially tonight in her black wrap dress and dangling leaf-shaped earrings—but more like a
Where am I?
look.

A shiver ran through Jenny. She didn’t mean she’d met Casey too, did she? “Who?” she asked, a little afraid of the answer.

Tinsley put her hands on her hips and cast her gaze toward the floor, looking like she was about to throw up. Jenny braced for the worst—that Casey was an old boyfriend and they were taking off to spend Thanksgiving in some downtown penthouse surrounded by supermodels and movie stars, leaving Jenny to crawl back to her father and the Hare Krishnas. “Julian.”

“What?” Jenny inadvertently dropped her mascara wand, and it clattered against the clear glass sink bowl, leaving black smudges in its wake. Was Julian McCafferty
here
? It didn’t seem that long ago that Jenny was convinced she was in love with the cute, super-tall freshman—but once she’d found out that he’d been hooking up with Tinsley Carmichael just a few days before
they
got together, that had been the end of things.

Jenny could see Tinsley’s hands were shaking. “I told you I’d been in love before.”

“I thought you were talking about that guy in Africa, or some European prince.” Julian? He was so…normal. “Or a rock star.”

Tinsley laughed, color starting to come back into her cheeks. “Nope, just a freshman.” Jenny’s mind reeled—if Tinsley had really been in love with Julian, no wonder she’d gone on a rampage against Jenny after finding out that they were together. Not that it made trying to pin the blame on her for starting the barn fire any more acceptable—but maybe a little more understandable. Tinsley pulled open a drawer in the vanity and absently began sifting through it. “I’ve never felt the way he makes me feel before. He’s so open and honest. With, like, no ulterior motives, you know?” Tinsley’s eyes widened, as if suddenly remembering she was talking to someone who had hooked up with him too. “I mean, not that you would know—er, well, I guess you might, but that’s not what I meant—”

“I know.” Jenny peered into the open drawer. She and Tinsley spotted the box of Trojans—extra-large, Ultra Pleasure.

“Ew, that is so gross.” Tinsley slammed the drawer shut. “Is this, like, Mr. and Mrs. Stidder’s bathroom? Who the hell leaves condoms for guests?”

“Maybe they’re just considerate.” Jenny’s giggles quickly turned into hiccups, and Tinsley gave her a quick slap on the back to make her stop. A moment passed, and Jenny felt much more comfortable with the glamorous older girl than she ever had before. “You know, there really wasn’t anything between me and Julian.”

Was that true? It certainly hadn’t felt like it at the time—but over a month had passed since Jenny last spoke to him, and she hadn’t exactly been pining over him all this time. In her wildest dreams she wouldn’t have thought Tinsley and Julian had more than a few random hookups between them, but the look on Tinsley’s face made it clear that she had fallen hard.

“I can’t get him off my mind,” Tinsley admitted, leaning over the sink and splashing cold water on her face.

Jenny sat down on the closed toilet seat. Julian and Tinsley? She waited for the familiar pang of jealousy she’d experienced moments earlier when she thought Tinsley had lassoed Casey out from under her, but there was nothing. And she really thought she’d been in love with Julian. She could remember a night not so long ago when she’d stared out her dorm room window at the stars, wondering if Julian was somehow looking at the same thing.

But then she remembered the exact same scenario—that new-love feeling—except with Drew…and she shuddered.

Staring fixedly at the small tray of aromatic candles perched on the floor next to the claw-foot tub, she remembered thinking about Easy in the exact same way. She’d only been at Waverly since September—and she’d already been in love three times.

“I wish I were more like you.” Tinsley sighed, sinking down on the edge of the tub, pressing her black-stockinged knees together.

“What?” Jenny squealed. Tinsley Carmichael, the most glamorous person ever to set her Manolos onto Waverly’s leafy campus, wished she were like Jenny Humphrey, who had just spent an hour flirting with a guy while wearing a giant, butt-ugly sweater? “In what way?”

“I don’t know.” Tinsley sighed, tracing her fingers across the brass fixtures of the tub. “I mean, this is the only time I’ve ever felt this way, but I never even let Julian have any idea. I was just kind of my regular, bossy self.” She eyed Jenny again, her violet eyes beautiful and sad. “I can see why he liked you better.”

“Maybe he just wanted to get to know you,” Jenny suggested, twirling the bangle bracelet on her wrist. “And you wouldn’t let him.”

Tinsley nodded and picked up a bottle of L’Occitane Lavender bubble bath. She twisted off the top, took a sniff, and set it back down. “I mean, I see the way people react to you. You’re so easy to get along with.”

“It’s not a trick.” Jenny stood up, brushing off her dark J Brand jeans with the crooked hems—she’d had to cut about a foot off the bottom and stitch them up herself. “I just like meeting people.”

“I don’t.” Tinsley wrinkled her nose. “It upsets my balance. I hate having to constantly reconfigure everyone, who fits where and all that.”

“Is that why you’re so cold to people when you first meet them?” Jenny asked her reflection. She wouldn’t have dared risk the question earlier, especially on the train, when Tinsley had been in her perpetually sour mood.

Tinsley pursed her lips together. “I guess so.”

A loud knock startled them both and Tinsley strode over and pulled open the door. “What?” she demanded of the poor girl quavering there. “There are other bathrooms, you know. This one’s full.” Tinsley slammed the door closed again before the girl could get a word out.

“Well, if you want to get Julian back, you’re going to have to quit the ice queen business,” Jenny said abruptly. She realized it sounded a little harsh, and that Tinsley hadn’t actually asked for her advice, so she added, “In my opinion.”

“I don’t know what you mean,” Tinsley said coldly, crossing her arms.

Jenny chanced it, pushing on. “That,” she said, pointing in the mirror. “You just got defensive. Don’t do that. It’s okay to risk rejection. You know what my brother says? ‘A pretty girl can’t tell you no if you don’t ask her out.’ I always think of that when I worry about failing.”

“I’m sure it’s too late now.” Tinsley suppressed a smirk. “Julian would never like me again, after what I did to you.” She sucked in her cheeks.

Jenny turned to face her. “All I’m saying is, it’s clear that you’re really in love with Julian,” she continued, “and you need to be open with him. Don’t try to outmaneuver him into liking you again, because it won’t work. Just…you know…apologize to him for everything and tell him how you feel. If he won’t hear it, well, it’s his loss.” She stuffed her tube of lip gloss back into her purse.

Tinsley smiled. “Thanks,” she said softly. “Maybe I will.”

“Good.” Jenny opened the door, but Tinsley braced against it, shutting it again, to a chorus of groans on the other side.

“One word of advice for you, then, since we’re in share mode.” Tinsley playfully wagged a finger at Jenny, but her eyes were serious. “Don’t start thinking about prom with this guy you just met. You really do need to slow down and just have fun.”

Jenny stared at her lips in the mirror. Okay, so she kind of had been planning her first trip to Union already. “Does that mean I can’t kiss him?”

“Since when did I become a nun?” Tinsley rolled her eyes. “Of course you can kiss him. Just don’t start, you know, picking out your ring yet.”

“Okay, that’s fair,” Jenny agreed.

“Break a few hearts yourself before letting yours get broken again, ‘kay?”

Jenny took one last glance at herself in the mirror. Next to Tinsley, she looked…well, not as bad as she’d thought.

Tinsley caught her glance in the mirror. “We’ve both got our work cut out for us.” She gave her a slight push toward the door, and Jenny opened it. A crowd of girls dying to pee broke into applause.

Kara pulled Jenny to the side as Tinsley strode out. “I saw her go in there—I thought maybe she was strangling you!” She wore a questioning look. “What were you guys doing?”

Jenny just smiled. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

Tinsley pushed through the intimate crowd, making her way back to the kitchen. The penthouse smelled rank with sour cigarette smoke and too much cologne and perfume in too small a space. Her throat was dry from her talk with Jenny, and so was her martini glass.

As if fate were tempting her to test out Jenny’s advice, the only person in the kitchen was the one she most—and least—wanted to see. Julian stood in front of the refrigerator, staring at the closed door. Tinsley froze in her tracks. He looked gorgeous in a green and gray striped cardigan over a white T-shirt, black Levi’s, and his faded black Chuck Taylors. Her stomach fluttered.

She tried to peer over his shoulder to see what had captured his attention, wondering if there was a funny family photo of Yvonne wearing something stupid, or an overly clever refrigerator magnet with a pithy saying.

“Produce,” a voice said, and it took a moment or two for Tinsley to realize it wasn’t Julian but the refrigerator. Julian opened and closed the fridge door. “Beer,” the same electronic voice said.

“Hey,” Tinsley said softly, not wanting to startle him.

Julian jumped anyway, turning to look at her. The surprise in his buttery brown eyes made her smile involuntarily. “Hey.” He ran his hand through his shaggy brown-blond hair, which he’d cut. It was no longer as sun-bleached, either, and it made him look older. In a good way. “What are you doing here?”

She searched his voice for any hint of annoyance or anger, but couldn’t discern any. “My parents are having their floors done,” she said by way of explanation, though she could tell the answer only confused him. So she launched into the whole saga, breathlessly relating how Jenny’s father was in a cult and how all the hotels were full and so they’d ended up at Yvonne’s.