Chapter 4 #2
Then again, she hadn’t been there. She hadn’t heard the strain in Alec’s voice when he admitted who he was, or seen the look on his face after the woman asked for an autograph.
I’d wanted to go to the ball for a Cinderella-esque night, a few magical hours where I could put on a mask and pretend to be someone else.
And I’d gotten the impression that Alec did too.
The masquerade had given him a chance to be a regular guy instead of a teenage heartthrob, and asking for a picture or an autograph would have spoiled that for him.
“It wasn’t worth it,” I responded and shrugged.
Asha sighed. “But—Alec Williams.”
She was still shaking her head in disappointment when my mom knocked on the door.
“Felicity?” she asked, stepping inside my room.
Dave must have just dropped her off, because even though she’d already slipped into her bathrobe, there was a Starbucks to-go coffee in her hand. “Oh, morning, Asha. How are you, dear?”
“Hi, Brenda. I’m good. Thoroughly enjoying the comfort of your AC.”
“Wonderful,” my mom answered, but I could tell she wasn’t listening. “Do you mind giving me and Felicity a moment? There’re muffins on the kitchen table.”
“Ooh, muffins!” Asha was out the door without another word.
I watched as my mom took a spot on the end of my bed. There was a funny look on her face, and I had a feeling she was still upset about our conversation yesterday.
“Felicity, there’s something I need to talk to you about,” she said, confirming my suspicion.
“I have something super exciting to tell you too,” I exclaimed, hoping my enthusiasm would warrant a subject change. I didn’t want to revisit Rose or her birthday. That was supposed to be something I only had to deal with once a year.
“Does it have anything to do with this?” Mom pulled a newspaper from behind her back and tossed it between us. Only it wasn’t a newspaper. It was one of those daily celebrity tabloids filled with scandals and gossip.
“Holy shit.” With a trembling hand, I picked up the tabloid. The front page was a picture of Alec helping me into his car. I quickly flipped to the article inside.
Alec Williams Spotted with Look-Alike of Rumored Girlfriend Violet James
Alec Williams, bass guitarist for the Heartbreakers, was seen leaving the Children’s Cancer Alliance charity ball Saturday night with an unidentified woman.
What has Hollywood buzzing is not that Williams’s date was a mystery, but her resemblance to his rumored girlfriend, Immortal Nights actress Violet James.
Williams, 18, and James, 20, were first romantically linked after the Heartbreakers filmed a stint on the hit TV show, and then when the two were photographed together at a Malibu restaurant earlier this month.
Reps for Williams and James did not respond to a request for a comment.
Everything suddenly made sense: Why Alec noticed me in crowd. Why he brought up Violet. Why it seemed like he knew her. I scanned the rest of the article, which recapped how we left the masquerade together and called me a less-pretty version of Violet.
Ouch. That definitely stung.
“Are you listening to me, Felicity?”
“Huh?” My gaze snapped from the picture to my mom. Her face was pinched.
“Explain this,” she said, jabbing her finger at the tabloid.
Explain what exactly? The picture said it all. I twisted my comforter in my hands. “I met Alec Williams last night?”
“So you let a complete stranger drive you home?”
Crap. Her tone was soft, but my stomach dropped. That was my mom’s I’m-disappointed-in-you voice, and I hated that voice.
“He’s not a stranger. He’s Alec Williams,” I said as if that explained everything.
“And since you listen to his music, you think you know who he is?” She shook her head. “Felicity, anything could have happened to you. I thought you were smarter than this.”
Okay, so was this my best decision ever? No, but it wasn’t like I climbed into the back of a sketchy van with the words Free Candy painted on the side. I never would have left with Alec if I didn’t feel safe.
“Mom, he’s a nice guy.”
A vein pulsed at her temple, and I knew she’d crossed the line between irritated and angry. “A nice guy wouldn’t have paraded you around in front of the paparazzi or flaunted his fancy car,” she snapped.
“Hold up.” I folded my arms across my chest. “Are you upset because I let him drive me home or because he’s rich and famous?”
“Boys like that only want one thing,” she said through pursed lips. “I don’t want to see you get hurt.”
“God, Mom!” I exclaimed, springing up from my bed to move away from her. “It wasn’t like that at all.”
“Good,” she said, matching my tone. “I don’t want you getting caught up in the glamour of that kind of lifestyle. You can’t be distracted from school or your dreams. Stanford.”
All right, now my mom was being weird. What did she think I was going to do? Drop out of school and become a groupie? How had we gone from discussing a picture in the tabloids to talking about college?
“I’m not Rose, Mom,” I said.
I hated that every time we talked about my future, it was as if she thought I was going to make some colossal mistake that would ruin my life.
As if I would turn into my sister. And that was a slap in the face.
I wasn’t the daughter who got a nearly perfect score on my ACT yet didn’t graduate from high school because I was too busy partying and wasting my potential.
I worked hard for my grades, and I would never, ever abandon my family.
“Honey.” The bedsprings squeaked as my mother stood, and two seconds later, her warm arms wrapped around me. “You know I’m incredibly proud of you, right?”
I nodded, and she kissed my forehead.
“You don’t have to worry about Alec Williams, Mom,” I mumbled into her shoulder. “I doubt I’ll ever see him again.”