Star Power (14 page)

T
he blacktop was getting ready to meet her face. It was all happening so quickly, yet so slowly. Inch by inch, every miniscule detail of the driveway—cracks, ladybugs, weeds—was in her vision, growing bigger and larger as her head drew closer to the pavement that was supposed to be under her feet. And would've, had she not stumbled out of the backseat of the car, tripping over her own shoes. Charly reached out her hands to prevent her fall, but it wasn't possible. Her palms slapped the ground, stinging, but she didn't care. She laughed, loud and hard, and tears were forming in her eyes.

“I told you to watch out! But no!” Mya said, getting out of the car. She was laughing and holding her stomach with one hand, and was equipped with two shopping bags in the other.

In a push-up position, Charly pushed up her body a foot from the blacktop, and saw feet walking toward her. She looked up higher and locked eyes with Liam, who just smiled at her. He adjusted his baseball hat, wiped his hands on his jeans, and made his way over to her. “C'mon, love. You're too pretty to be down there,” he teased, complimenting her and squatting down. He put his hands under her arms and lifted her completely off the ground as if she were as light as air.

Charly was still laughing when he spun her around in a complete circle, then put her down. “Thank you,” she said, wrapping her arms around him and squeezing tight. She'd only been gone from him for hours, but she missed him, his sanity and evenness. With Liam there was never a problem, and nothing he couldn't seem to handle or get through.

“What a nice surprise. You should go shopping more often.” Liam embraced her, then rocked her slowly. “Seems like someone had a good time,” he whispered in her ear.

“I did,” she admitted, forgetting that Mya was standing nearby. For a quick second, she worried how Mya felt about Liam and her hugging, but dismissed the thought. Liam was hers, period. It didn't matter that they weren't really an item, that they hadn't made anything official. That they hadn't even had a discussion about being involved or not. It just was what it was, and he wasn't available.

“Well, I wish I could report to you that that feeling was felt across the board today,” he said, tilting his head toward the house. “Your girl has had a bit of a rough day, I'm afraid.” His beautiful accent made Nia's dilemma sound better than Charly knew it was. Liam's pronunciation made everything sound delicious. He looked into Charly's eyes and told her everything she needed to know without words. Something bad had happened.

Charly looked toward the house, and, sure enough, she caught sight of Nia in the upstairs window. She was certain that, like before, Nia would disappear from view, but she was wrong. Nia stood there taking in the whole scene, and she didn't look too happy about it. Charly was about to wave to her, then realized she couldn't. She was still in Liam's arms. “Um . . .” she began, looking at him.

“Um, what, love? Didn't you do excellent in your English class? You know
um
isn't a word, right?” he joked.

Charly rolled her eyes and smiled. “Do you think it's a good idea for us to be all hugged up in front of them?”

“Oh,” Liam said, sounding surprised like he didn't know he had her wrapped in his arms. He released her quickly, jumping back like Charly was fire and he didn't want to get burned.

“Hi, Liam.” Mya finally spoke from behind, her tone light and friendly.

Charly looked over her shoulder at the girl she'd been hanging with all day—the girl she'd learned a lot about and now liked—and hoped she wouldn't have to check Mya. It would've been bad for everything to go sour now that they'd made so much progress. Thankfully, Mya didn't display her usual overly flirtatiousness. Instead, she gave Charly a look that said do-your-thing, and smiled pleasantly.

Liam spoke back, then went over and took Mya's bags from her, then turned to Charly. “Where are your bags, love?” he asked, standing by the car. Charly pointed to the trunk. He smiled. “I knew you couldn't go shopping and come back empty-handed.” He walked to the back of the car, meeting the driver, who handed him one small robin's-egg blue bag. Liam turned and looked at Charly. “
Tiffany?
” He raised his brows in approval.

Charly waved him over, waiting for him. “Mya, I'll meet you in the house. I need to get some work in, then we'll finish where we left off. Cool?” she asked, then laced her arm through Liam's when he walked over to her. “I need you to catch me up on Nia, but I need to tell you about today with Mya. This is complicated, but easy. An oxymoron, I know, but it seems everything around here is. I don't know who should go first. I got a lot to tell you,” Charly said to him as low as she could. “In the pool house, though. We definitely can't speak around anyone,” she began.

They walked around the side of the property on the cobblestone path. Liam looked at her. “Trent's here—”

Charly stopped in her tracks. “Already?” She shook her head, knowing it couldn't be good. When they'd dropped him off he was hotter than fish grease, he was so mad his temperature had to be bubbling.

“Rory, too,” Liam said. “You need to do a lot of damage control. A whole lot.” He resumed walking. “Trent and Rory got into it, and Nia overheard them. Trent, though, is a good guy. He was defending Nia, blaming “pill heads” for Nia's scar and depression. I think that only made her feel worse.”

Charly's sight dropped to the ground, watching her feet as if they held the answers she knew she'd have to come up with. She hadn't expected her truth-seeking lie to surface so soon. Really, she hadn't planned on anything coming out. Her plan was to get to the truth, fix it, then maybe, just maybe, tell them what she'd done. The cobblestone path gave way to the concrete patio, and Charly looked up. The pool house was in view, and so were Rory and Trent who, thankfully, were on the other side of the backyard preoccupied with building materials. Liam hustled over to the door, opening it before anyone caught sight of Charly.

“Hurry,” he rushed. “C'mon in, love. I really don't want to have to use some of the power equipment to save you, but I will.” He winked, standing to the side so any view of her would be blocked from the other side of the yard.

Charly stepped inside, then moved her body to the side of the doorway. Trent and Rory and Nia, all meeting and clashing because of her was too much. Her heart raced now, and her thoughts stared to twirl over and over in her mind as she tried to find the words to defuse the situation.

Liam shut the door, then turned the lock until it clicked. He walked over to a box, then sat on it. He patted it. “It's good. There's a minifridge in here, so it's not going to collapse under me, love. I don't want you to have to hurt yourself, coming to my rescue and all.” He tried to make light of the situation. “So, you want to go first?” he asked calmly.

Charly slid down the wall, then sat with her legs folded one over the other. She put her face in her hands. She needed a moment to digest having to face an angry group after she left the safety of the pool house. Running her fingers through her hair, she exhaled, then sat up. “It's simple, really. Mya and Nia were twin everything until something that happened recently to drive a wedge between them. The only thing they didn't share was time, thanks to their parents, who probably thought they were doing the right thing.” Liam raised his brows in curiosity. “It seems that Mommy and Daddy Dearest didn't want the girls to ever feel like they'd missed out on any kind of love or affection—or be treated like twins, where they'd have to share everything—so the parents divided their attention. Nia was Mommy's girl. Mya was Daddy's.” She shrugged her shoulders. “This, in my opinion, makes perfect sense because each baby had constant care from a parent, and didn't have to deal with being juggled. The problem came in later. Nia excelled academically, Mya didn't.”

Liam interjected. “So while Nia was receiving praise, I'm assuming from both parents, Mya felt abandoned. That's why she resents her sister.” He pressed his lips together, looked up to the ceiling, then nodded. “Makes sense.”

Charly shook her head. “It gets worse. Everyone praised Nia—Mommy, Daddy, the school. Pretty much the whole town after Nia was scouted heavily by universities after taking her pre-SATs two years earlier than most.” She got up, then walked over to the window facing the pool, and peeked out. “So,” she said, turning around. “It's a small town, which means her news made the local newspapers and television. Mya didn't say it, but that's when she decided popularity was easier to attain than scholarships.”

Liam removed his hat, then scratched his head. “But the thing I'm struggling with, is why Nia excelled and Mya didn't. They have the same genes, so they should be equally smart.”

“I guess, but sometimes smarts don't play into it. In high school, as you know, you get different classes. This really started as a schedule problem; Nia got classes she loved, and studied hard. Mya wasn't so lucky, and didn't put in the effort,” Charly was saying when someone started knocking on the door.

Liam put his hat back on, then stood. He put his finger to his mouth to quiet Charly, but he didn't have to. With the first knock, she hushed. “One second. I'm almost done in here,” he yelled out.

The person kept banging on the door as if Liam hadn't spoken.

“Give me a second, please,” Liam yelled louder.

Mumbling could be heard from outside, but Charly couldn't match the sounds to a particular person, not even their sex. “Give you a second or y'all?” Rory's voice bellowed. “Mya's out here, and we know Charly's in there.” More mumbles sounded. “C'mon out, Charly.”

Charly was stuck. She knew she had to face Rory, Mya, and Trent, but she couldn't. Not yet. It wasn't that she was afraid; she had to get to Nia. She had to talk to her, get to the root of some things, and hopefully dig up weeds that had infiltrated her happiness and her and Mya's relationship. She knew if she could do that, she would be able to plant new seeds that would give her the confidence to be outgoing and make Charly's mission complete. She looked at Liam, then to the walls, scouting for a window she could fit through and not be seen. “Over there. I need you to help me sneak out.”

Liam was dumbfounded. “You don't need to be scared, love. I got you. I won't let anything happen to you. You know that, don't you?” He winked.

“I know,” she assured him. “But I have to get to Nia. If I have it out with them, she may overhear more than she already has. That's what just happened, right? So help me please,” she said, walking toward one of the windows. She stopped, then turned around. “And Liam?”

“Yes, love?” he asked, following behind her.

“Don't be looking at my booty either.” She smiled.

C
harly was out of breath. She'd slid out of the window, then run like she'd stolen something. She'd skirted the pool house, G.I. Janed her way through the bushes that stretched from the backyard to the side of the house, then gone through the front door and up the main staircase, only to have to turn around. She'd forgotten that the girls had their own set of stairs, and she wouldn't forget again, not after the way her aching feet kept reminding her with each throb. Finally, she'd hustled through the house and up to Nia's room. Before her hand knocked on the door, Nia opened it. Charly bent over, resting her hands on her knees. She felt like she'd just finished a marathon.

Nia stood quiet and motionless as if she were waiting for something major to happen while Charly tried to catch her breath. Then, as if nothing different was taking place, as if having a television reality star doubled over in her room was normal, she turned on her heels and walked over to her desk and sat down. She kicked up her heels on the desk, then turned and looked at Charly. “I guess Mya's won you over too,” she said, her tone reminding Charly of how Heaven's had sounded. There wasn't an ounce of life to it. It just was.

Charly looked up, then gathered her strength. She took baby steps to Nia's bed and collapsed across the foot of it. She faced the ceiling, still panting. “I don't know so much about winning me over.
Convinced
would be a better word.” Charly turned and looked at Nia. “Does that bother you?”

Nia shrugged. “Why would it? It's usual. Everyone likes Mya, eventually. Even the ones who start out hating her end up loving her. We're only twins by appearance . . .” She drifted off, then touched her face. “Well, we used to be, but that's it. We're day and night, oil and vinegar, heaven and hell. That's how the family describes us,” she said, staring at the wall.

Charly rolled over onto her stomach, then propped herself up on her elbows, her chin in her palm. “And which would you be? Day or oil and heaven or night, vinegar and hell?” Charly asked. She was curious which category Nia would identify with. Did she view herself as positive and Mya as negative?

“Depends on who you ask, Charly. My dad would say Mya's day, oil and heaven, and our mother would say I was,” she said, still staring into space.

“I'm asking you, Nia. Which one are you?”

Nia said nothing for almost a minute. So Charly tried again. “Okay, maybe it'll be easier to categorize your sister. Is she day, oil and heaven or night, vinegar and hell? Is she good or bad?”

Nia spun around in her chair to face Charly. “She used to be good, way back when. When she was still herself and not trying to be like other people, she was happier, nicer. She was my sister.” Nia voice tapered off, and the look she wore was laced with hurt and regret.

“But she's still your sister, Nia.” Charly slid off the bed, then walked over to where Nia was sitting, and sat on the floor. She looked up at her. “And she loves you. She does.” Charly held up her hands, making quotation marks in the air. “ ‘I love Nia,' she said.” Charly nodded. “She and I had a long talk, and you know what? Just like you think she gets all the attention and everyone loves her, she felt the same way when you were getting all the light for being so smart when she was struggling.”

Nia lit. She sat up superstraight and scooted to the edge of the chair. Her brows rose, and she stopped blinking. “What do you mean by
struggling?
Mya never struggled in school, she just stopped going to classes.”

Charly shook her head. “No, that's not what she said. You may not have known—I don't think anyone did.” Charly wasn't one to divulge information that she'd been trusted with, but this time it was different. She had to accomplish her mission of remaking Nia from the inside out, but even more important than that, she realized, she had to help the sisters heal, and that would require her breaking her promise to Mya to keep her secret. “Nia, what I'm about to tell you, you have to promise me that you'll never tell. Do you hear me?” Nia nodded. “I mean it. Never. Say. A. Word. Promise!”

“I promise.” Her gaze bore into Charly's eyes. “What is it?”

Charly gulped. She'd always prided herself on keeping her silence. For her it wasn't golden, like some said. It was more than that. Someone told you something and you forgot about it. It was that simple. Usually. “Mya is hiding behind her popularity. She doesn't feel as smart as she used to be. She said it was like one day none of it made sense. The AP calculus, AP chemistry, and something about switching to French from Spanish.”

“Yes!” Nia interrupted. “I never understood that. She chose French, and I didn't get it. She'd always spoken Spanish, but then when we got to high school, she switched.”

Charly nodded in agreement. “That's what she said. She said she switched languages, and couldn't switch back. The school wouldn't let her, and, after she saw how you were excelling, and everyone was so proud of you, she couldn't bring herself to admit she needed help. I guess you two never needed help before,” Charly said, feeling a little jealous. She'd always struggled with at least one subject, so she didn't understand their long streak of near genius, but she'd witnessed it in her sister so she knew it existed.

Tears trekked down Nia's face at full speed. She shook her head. “So you mean to tell me that all this time my sister was hating me, it was because she was struggling with her classes?” Nia looked numb at the news that her twin could have something major like this happen, and she be totally in the dark. “I would've helped her, Charly. All she had to do was ask—hint—anything. But she didn't. She—”

“Ran to popularity. It was the easier choice,” Charly assured.

Nia shook her head. “What did I do? What have I done? She's hated me, and made my life awful.” Nia looked up at Charly. “I'm going to pay her back, Charly. I'm definitely going to pay her back.”

Charly froze. She didn't know what to do. Here, she thought she was making progress, and she wasn't. Nia wanted retaliation. Retaliation for what? What happened to sympathy? “No, Nia. Not that.”

Nia nodded. “Yes, just that.” She got up from the chair. “Charly, I need a moment. Will you please leave?” Nia asked, then walked toward the bathroom.

Charly cleared her throat. “Well, are you still going to help me with your father's makeover?” she asked, not knowing what else to say.

Nia looked behind her. “I told you I would, right? You're confusing us twins again, Charly. I know your crew's setting up, and we have to make nice for the audience and the cameras. I know how to pretend to be a normal, happy family. I've been doing it for years. I told you I would help, and I am. I don't go back on my word.”

Charly nodded, whipping out her phone. She texted Liam to come meet her. She knew she had to come face-to-face with Rory, Mya, and Trent, and after the way things had turned out with Nia—completely opposite of how they were supposed to—she didn't know what to expect.