Chapter Thirty-Four
“What are you doing here?” I can hardly breathe.
“Well,” Luca says, “I came to stand up for you because I didn’t think you’d stand up for yourself. But that speech was pure dead brilliant.”
It hurts so much to see him, it’s like the last bit of wind has been kicked out of me.
I turn back to the screen. “I need to go.” I nod a thank-you at Mr.Lackland and rush past Luca.
“Story, wait,” he calls, but I can’t. He runs after me and grabs my arm in the hallway.
“Why won’t you talk to me?”
When I look up at him, it’s like trying to grab sunlight. He’s right there in front of me, but he’s not mine.
“Luca, I appreciate you wanting to help, but I’m begging you not to make this any harder.”
Some janitors are coming down the hallway, and Luca looks up at them. I pull away and throw the front door open. Paparazzi line the narrow sidewalk. I push through them to the familiar whir of cameras and my name being shouted as my tear-filled eyes adjust to the daylight. Jack is coming through the crowd toward me.
He motions at a cab he must have just left. We run to it and jump in. The driver peers at the paparazzi surging toward us. “Avanti,” I say, and he nods and hits the gas pedal. I look back, and Luca is standing on the sidewalk watching me go.
Jack gives the cabbie my address. The man asks who I am.
“The most famous girl no one ever heard of until two months ago,” I say. I look at Jack. “What are you doing here?”
“I got worried about you. I thought I should at least come and see you home.”
My phone vibrates. My mom is calling. Luca is calling. Anna Maria is texting me.
“Yeah, Mom?” I say as I tap Accept.
“How did it go?”
“I’ll explain later, but I won’t be going to school there.”
“Okay, I’ll be home as soon as I can.”
“Okay.”
When the cab pulls up to my apartment building, Jack asks if I’m going to be okay.
“I’ll be fine,” I say, wiping tears from my cheeks. I can tell by the way he looks at me he doesn’t believe this any more than I do. What I really mean is I’ll be fine enough. For the foreseeable future, that will have to do. “Thanks for the getaway car. I really owe you.”
He squeezes my hand, then tells the driver to take him to the embassy as I step out.
When I walk into the lobby of the apartment building, they’re there. They’ve probably been hanging around in the hope of catching me.
“Oh, my God, Story,” Guin says, “you look awful! Are you okay?”
“I’m great, Guin.”
Kelsey laughs. “You are so pathetic.”
“Honestly, Story,” Guin says. “You really are.”
I look at Alicia to see if she’s going to chime in, but she bites her lip and shuffles on her feet. I’m sorry, she mouths.
I push the elevator button and turn around. “You know what? I may be pathetic, but at least I’m not mean. I never did anything to any of you, and you’ve treated me like trash since I got here. Well, Kelsey and Guin, you have. Alicia, you should find nicer friends and stop following these two because I don’t think you enjoy making other people feel bad. And I may not be Jasmine, but I do know one thing, because he told me. Luca Kinnaird wouldn’t give any of you five minutes of his time.”
Kelsey and Guin drop their jaws, but Alicia looks away as if she’s embarrassed. The elevator door opens.
“Have a nice day,” I say as the doors close.
I guess this is why people stand up for themselves. It actually feels good. I mean, losing my school and having people hate me for no reason and, most of all, losing Luca is absolutely horrible. But at least I’m standing up for myself as I go down in flames, and that feels really good.
When I get in the apartment, I decide there’s one more place I need to stand up for myself. Social media.
I choose the platform for pretty pictures. I pick a photo of Luca and me that’s never been shared, one I’ve treasured because Andy took it when we didn’t even realize, and there’s just so much joy passing between us. We were in the Rose Garden near the Circus Maximus, and Luca was teasing me about the lack of occult attractions in the garden when a bee came and hovered in front of his face before flying off. We both cracked up. I write:
This post is using all the hashtags, as the #MarquessOfDunrobin told me to do in my first ever post about us. Two months ago, I was grabbed outside of a gelateria near the #PiazzadiSpagna by an impossibly handsome and entitled #ScottishRogue and asked to cover for the #SuperStar he was secretly dating. He told the #Paparazzi I was his tour guide, and I reluctantly played along and took him to the #Trevi. I gave him an almost impeccable history of the fountain, and then took him back to the Via Condotti, where we said goodbye, never expecting to see each other again.
That night, I was stalked by paparazzi. They showed up at my school the next day, determined I must be the new girlfriend of this #ScottishRoyal. So we let them believe that.
This supposed bad boy was simply trying to protect the girl he was dating. He also wanted to protect her ex-boyfriend, who was in rehab and needed some space. My dad died of an #Overdose, so I wanted to protect her ex-boyfriend, too. Ever since I lost my dad, I’ve wanted to start a memorial scholarship in his name, because everyone likes to forget people who die from overdose. The Marquess made that happen for me, and he never cared if I kept my end of our agreement. He did it because it’s a good thing to do.
Somewhere along the way, I didn’t need to pretend anymore. I didn’t tell him that, though, because I thought he wanted to be with someone else. Meanwhile, he discovered the person he was dating wasn’t actually the right person for him, so he broke up with her. It turns out he wasn’t pretending anymore, either. We shared a few barry hours where it seemed like we might be #HappyTogether.
Then the news broke, and things that never happened were reported by people who are supposedly #Insiders. Some of us had to be #Victims and others #Villains. None of us is really either. We’re just people trying to live our lives, with impossible expectations. No one should have to sacrifice all their privacy, or live being hounded, or have to hide just to spend time with other people. No one should have the right to take your photo and use it to make up stories about you. No one should think that the most precious moments in your life exist for their entertainment just because you haven’t successfully hidden them from a telephoto lens.
In our #Digital #OnDemand culture, it’s easy to forget that celebrities are people who need to get to know each other to decide if they even want to date, without everyone expecting to know every awkward moment, every intimate laugh, or every bumpy tear.
I’m really sorry for having misled anyone. I didn’t realize how this would involve so many people. I’m very grateful for the bonnie people I’ve met, and for everyone who is standing by me.
I don’t know what’s next for me. I only know that I love Luca Kinnaird more than I ever thought I’d love anyone, even if we can’t be together. The last two months have been a fast sail on a perfect day, and I know now that the world is meant to be tasted and felt, and not just wondered at. The world is still scary to me, but it’s okay to be scared because the things that are true can’t ever be really lost. Rome taught me to love, and love taught me to believe.
The story of Story Herriot is now beginning. It starts like this: Once upon a time, I met a bonnie marquess who taught me how to stand up for myself…. #Love #BelieveInYourself #AllRoadsLeadToRome
I click Post, and, while my heart’s still broken, I feel better than I have since I left Scotland.