L. A. Candy (20 page)

“Do you think she’s gonna break up with him?” Gaby asked Madison the next morning, over lattes at Starbucks. “I totally would. Or maybe she
already
broke up with him. Have you talked to her?”

“Hmmm,” Madison said absentmindedly. She was too busy checking out the latest issue of
Talk
magazine. Inside was a photo of Jane with the blazing red headline:
HOLLYWOOD’S NEWEST IT GIRL!

WTF,
Madison thought, irritated.

“On the other hand, he’s super-hot, and he’s super-rich, right?” Gaby went on, studying her nails. “So maybe with a guy like that, you let him get trashed and flirt with girls once in a while, as long as he makes it up to you later with nice presents. Like something that sparkles!” She giggled.

Madison turned the page, which featured a full-page spread about Jane and “her #1 new hit show,
L.A. Candy.
”
Her
show? When had it become
her
show? It was supposed
to be a show starring all four girls. Of course, Scarlett’s part was becoming more and more diminished as the season rolled on. The producers had to consistently cut out most of her footage because viewers didn’t get her. Sure, she was gorgeous. But different.
Too
different. And kind of a loose cannon. On the show, she was meant to be seen, not heard. Madison wondered if she would even be on the next season. Well, if not—then good riddance.

Madison continued reading the article. It went on and on about how viewers related to Jane because, even though she lived a glamorous life, she still had that “every girl” quality.

“Every girl” quality? Gag.

And then the next line caught Madison’s eye. “Jane is the breakout star on
L.A. Candy
.”

Madison could feel the blood rushing to her head.
Calm down,
she told herself, feeling that she was about two seconds away from picking up her piping-hot latte and flinging it across the Starbucks patio at some poor, unsuspecting customer. Damn it.
Damn
it! How
dare
this so-called magazine treat her like this?

Madison forced herself to take a deep breath and read the rest of the article. It mentioned how Jane and Jesse’s relationship was causing a major ratings spike.
Everyone
was tuning in to see America’s favorite new TV couple…. It was really nauseating. Madison kept thinking back to that conversation she had with Veronica Bliss. Jesse was
not
a one-woman man, as he had demonstrated in spades at his
party last night. Jane wasn’t so innocent either. Madison saw the way Little Miss Every Girl kept glancing at her ex-crush Braden when she thought no one was looking. And Braden seemed more interested in staring at Jane than in entertaining his all-over-him girlfriend. He was practically craning his neck to see if Jane was okay when she caught Jesse with that other girl.

Madison sat up straighter. She might have just figured out the perfect way to dethrone Princess Jane. Because enough was enough. Jane
had
to go. And Madison had the perfect ally in Veronica, who was practically foaming at the mouth for a juicy scoop. Of course, Madison had those cell phone pictures from the party to share with the
Gossip
editor. But this could be even bigger…
way
bigger. And unlike the cell phone pictures, this would doubtless result in the sad, tragic downfall of poor Jane Roberts. Star today, slut tomorrow…

Gaby leaned forward, pouting. “Madison, what are you reading? You’re not paying attention to a word I’m saying!”

Frowning at the interruption, Madison slid the
Talk
issue across the table. Gaby scanned the article, then scoffed. “Huh? That’s annoying. Why do people keep calling her the star? Seriously, she’s not even that pretty.”

But Madison wasn’t listening. She was plotting.

Madison watched as Braden walked into the bar of the Beverly Hills Hotel, aka Nineteen 12, which was relatively
uncrowded for a Friday night. She was sitting in a structured brown leather loveseat, BlackBerry in hand, a single champagne glass shimmering in front of her.

She stared at him appreciatively. He was definitely cute. No wonder Jane liked him. She pretended to be over him, to have had eyes only for Jesse, but Madison knew that was bullshit, a lie Jane wished was true.

Braden saw Madison and waved. “Hey,” he said, walking up to her table.

“Hey, Braden.” Madison set her phone aside. “How are you?”

“I’m good,” Braden replied, sliding into a smaller chair across from her.

There was a brief silence as he regarded her, his expression curious. Madison knew he must be wondering why she had called and asked him to meet with her, out of the blue.

“I know this is really random, but I wanted to talk to you about something, and I felt weird doing it over the phone,” Madison began.

“Sure. What’s up?”

“I’m just really worried about Jane right now. I’m not sure what to do. She’s upset about what happened last Saturday at Jesse’s birthday party, and I think they’re kinda not seeing each other anymore, but she won’t talk to any of us. I know you live with Jesse, and you and Jane had that little thing, so I just figured—”

“What
little thing
?” Braden cut her off.

“You know…I don’t know if anything ever happened. But before Jesse, you two liked each other.”

“Jane and I are just friends.”

“Well, maybe you were just friends with her, but Jane was really into you. In fact, I remember her telling me all about you the first time we hung out off camera. She told me you gave her a teddy bear or something.”

Braden frowned. “Wait, Jane liked me?” he murmured. He looked genuinely confused.

“Anyway, I just think she needs to talk to someone who she knows doesn’t hate Jesse. She knows we all do. No offense.”

“Um, yeah, okay. I’ll talk to her,” Braden agreed.

“Great!” Madison said with fake relief. “I think she’s home right now. I’ll text Scarlett and let her know you’re coming. Seriously, she really needs you right now.”

“Oh. Now? Okay,” Braden said, getting up from his seat. “I’ll head over now. Can you just text me her address?”

“Of course.” Madison smiled at him as he left the table. As soon as he was gone, she turned and typed Jane’s address into her phone, then she sent it…twice. The other person already had his instructions. Now with Braden on his way to Jane’s, everything was going exactly according to plan.

It was Friday night, late, and Jane was alone in her bedroom. She could hear Scarlett in the living room watching TV, but Jane didn’t want to talk to anyone, not even Scarlett. She wasn’t in the mood for an “I told you so” lecture about Jesse.

The doorbell rang. Jane could hear Scarlett walk to the door and open it. There were quiet voices, then a light knock on her bedroom door.

“What?” Jane muttered under her breath.

“Jane? It’s Braden.” She heard Braden’s familiar voice call out from the other side of the door.

Braden? Jane sat up and pulled her blanket around her shoulders, over her oversized white cotton V-neck.

“Come in,” she said. He slowly opened the door, letting blue light from the television screen pour across her bedroom floor.

“So I guess you’ve finally come over to see my new
apartment?” she said. The joke sounded completely lame to her. She smiled apologetically.

Braden gazed at her without speaking. His eyes lingered for a split second on her thin tee before taking her in with a concerned expression. The only makeup on her face was a light trace of mascara under her slightly swollen eyes. Her complexion was pale and her hair hadn’t been brushed. She knew she looked exhausted. Hannah had commented on it at work that day—not in a mean way, but in an “I’m concerned about you” way. Hannah had been the only person she felt she could really talk to all week. She’d missed a couple of days of work. Fortunately—if that was the right word?—Anna Payne had canceled the New Year’s Eve party because her husband, Noah Moody, had gone off the deep end and almost OD’d in the bathroom of Hyde.
Another girl with relationship problems,
Jane thought bitterly.

“Hey,” Braden said, standing in the doorway. “Can I come in?”

“Yeah. Sure.” Jane glanced around her room. It was more of a mess than usual. There were clothes strewn across the floor.

Braden closed the door behind him and sunk onto the end of her bed. He sat there quietly for a moment.

“So how are you?” Jane asked, wondering what he was doing there. She didn’t want to hear “I told you so” from him, either.

“Me? I’m good.” He laughed kindly. “To be honest,
I’m kinda worried about you.”

“Why? I’m fine,” Jane said, sounding a little defensive.

“No, you’re not. You haven’t returned any of my calls or texts since…since last weekend.”

“I haven’t returned anybody’s calls or texts since last weekend.”

Braden reached over and smoothed a lock of her hair away from her face. His touch felt so nice. All of the feelings she had for him came rushing back. Her throat burned as she tried not to cry. Her lip trembled, and she felt a warm tear roll down her cheek.

“Jane.” Braden reached over and wrapped her in his arms. She cried softly against his shoulder.

Jane shook her head and kept crying.

Braden hugged her tightly. “I’m so sorry. This is just what he does.”

“It’s f-fine,” Jane stammered. “It’s not like we were that serious, anyway,” she lied.

“I tried to warn you about him, but I didn’t want you to think…”

“Think what?”

Braden was silent. She pulled away and stared at him. He was looking at her with an intense expression in his eyes.

“Think what, Braden?” Jane repeated a little more firmly.

“God, Jane,” Braden said, sounding frustrated with her.
“You know what. You knew I liked you.”

What?
“I did? So you’re saying it’s my fault that you didn’t warn me?” she said angrily.

“No, that’s not what—”

“Braden. You’re dating Willow. Aren’t you?”

“I just…,” he started.

“You just what? Why are you here?”

She put her hand over her eyes. Why was he doing this? He’d had his chance to be with her. Instead, he’d chosen to lead her on while he was seeing someone else—even if it
was
an on-again, off-again relationship. He knew she cared about him. When she was available he didn’t want her. It took seeing her with his best friend for him to do something about it.

“I don’t know, Jane. What am I supposed to do?” Jane had never seen him like this. “I’ve known Willow for, like, three years. It’s complicated.”

“That doesn’t answer my question. Why are you here?” Jane snapped.

Before Jane knew what was happening, Braden leaned in and kissed her. She looked at him for a moment and said nothing. Then he kissed her again. She kissed him back. She wasn’t sure if it was loneliness or desperation or what—but whatever it was, neither of them was stopping. She felt his hands sliding over her body and slipping the cotton tee over her head.

Soft light from the moon dimly lit Jane’s bedroom. Her silk curtains rustled in the breeze that came in through her
open window. She never closed the curtains because she was on the second floor, and there were no neighbors on that side of the property. She felt okay for the first time since last weekend. As she and Braden sank back onto her bed, she felt better than okay.

Jane was only half awake when she heard her phone. She reached over, eyes closed, and felt around for it. She heard a groan next to her and sat up immediately. She looked over to see Braden still asleep. Warm light filled her entire room. It was already morning? She didn’t even remember falling asleep. Her phone beeped. She glanced at it to see that she had another message from Jesse. It read: JANE. I NEED TO TALK TO YOU. YOU WONT PICK UP MY CALLS SO IM ON MY WAY OVER.

“Shit!” Jane said out loud. Jesse was on his way over and Braden was still in her bed. He lived only fifteen minutes away. She glanced at Braden again. What had she done? Jesse would freak out if he found Braden here.

Jane shook Braden. “Hey, wake up!” He didn’t move. She shook him again, harder. “Braden! I forgot I have to film this morning and the crew is almost here,” she lied, sounding a little frantic. She felt bad about lying to him, but she
had
to get him out of the house before Jesse showed up. If she told him the truth, he might insist on staying, to protect her from Jesse.

“What?” Braden blinked at her, dazed, then glanced around her room. “When did we fall asleep?”

“I don’t know, but the crew is on their way.” Jane wrapped a blanket around herself and stood up. “They can’t see you here.”

“Okay.” Braden sat up and reached for his jeans.

“I have to take a shower before they get here. Sorry.” Jane rushed into her bathroom and locked the door behind her. She quickly twisted the shower handle, the water hissing as it began to run, but she didn’t get in. Instead she slid down the wall and onto the floor with the blanket still wrapped around her, and pressed her ear against the door. She could hear Braden moving around in her room. “Leave,” she whispered. A moment later, she heard her front door open and close. She sat on the cold bathroom floor praying that Braden didn’t run into Jesse in the parking lot. Her heart was pounding. She shut off the shower and just sat against the wall, listening. She grabbed her bathrobe off the floor next to her and slipped it on.

About five minutes later, she heard a knock on the front door, then someone opening it. There were muffled, angry voices…Scar and Jesse. Was she trying to get rid of him? A moment later, she heard knocking on her bedroom door, and Jesse calling out her name. Jane prayed that he and Braden hadn’t crossed paths.

She opened her bathroom door and peered out. Jesse was standing in her doorway. He looked as awful as she did. He stepped in, shutting the door behind him. The room was silent. He just stared at her. Her heart melted a
little. He looked so broken. Without a word, he walked toward her and hugged her.

“I’m so sorry, Jane,” he whispered.

“I know,” Jane said, hugging him back. She was so confused. She had just been with Braden. And now she was with Jesse. She had feelings for both of them.
You’re a mess,
Jane scolded herself.

Then Jane’s blood went cold. As she looked over his shoulder she saw a note, taped to her bedroom door. It said:

Jane hugged Jesse tightly. What was she going to do? She couldn’t let him see that note. He would know what she had done.

Jesse started to pull away and she hugged him harder, trying to find a way to keep his back to the door. After a moment he slipped out of her arms and turned to sit on her bed, where her door was in plain sight. Jane panicked. She grabbed his face and kissed him. “You taste like cigarettes,” she improvised. It was the best she could do. “I didn’t know you smoked.”

“Oh, sorry,” Jesse apologized. “I quit before, but then I started again a few days ago.”

“I have mouthwash,” Jane said, pointing in the direction of her bathroom.

Jesse stood up quickly and headed toward the bathroom. The moment he was out of sight, Jane ripped the piece of paper off her door and quickly shoved it into her laundry hamper.
What the hell am I doing?

There was another knock on her bedroom door. “Janie, you okay in there?”

“I’m fine, Scar,” Jane lied. “I’m totally fine.”