Chapter 31
“Oh my God, El. It is you.” Willow prances over from the parking lot with her hands flopping around by her sides, a cross between a fairy and a T. rex. She jingles like a Christmas ornament from all the dangling jewelry she’s wearing.
“What are you doing here?” I haven’t heard from her all summer; she can’t be here to see me. Can she?
Willow air-kisses me on each side of my face. “I know. Like, what is this place, and what am I doing here?” She gags.
I’m simultaneously offended and relieved. On the one hand, she is insulting the place I now have to call home. On the other, she’s telling this to me with such brutal honesty that it occurs to me she has no idea I live here.
“Remember that show I’m doing? Parks and Trailers?”
“Oh, right. How’s that going?” I feign ignorance. How could I forget when I was the one who got her the role in the first place?
“So great.” Willow beams. “In fact, we’re on location filming an episode here. We’re on break, and this is the closest thing to an Urth Caffé within miles. I mean, can you believe it?” She snort-laughs.
I force myself to gloss over the dig on the cafe and zero in on the bigger news. “You’re shooting an episode here?”
“I know!” she squeals. “Oh my God, El. There’s so much I have to fill you in on. Is this near your retreat?”
So apparently my friends still think I’m on a silent retreat. And more importantly, they didn’t abandon me.
“Yeah,” I say vaguely. “Tell me more about this episode.”
“Okay, so my character is in a post-breakup funk that gives desperate vibes. So the director looked up the most desolate, sad place in the US, and this tiny town called Blaire popped up. I never knew it even existed. Then again, if its claim to fame is being the country’s most forgotten town, it tracks.
” She looks around in disgust. “I mean, what even is this place?”
“It’s kind of cozy,” I say, unable to help myself from feeling defensive, “in that ironically retro way.”
“Elena, no. It’s only retro if it was once cool. And there’s no way that this red-vinyl-and-wood-paneled aesthetic was ever cool.”
The sour taste in my mouth makes my lips pucker.
I think back to my first time feeling like this place was warm and inviting.
But one comment from Willow is all it takes to snatch that away.
No matter how much I try to resist it, the power of her opinion is undeniable, and it reminds me of how impressionable the public is too.
“You’re right.” I hear myself agreeing with her. “I can’t take it anymore. My parents are making me stay here until the bankruptcy is settled and my dad’s new role at the company is finalized. But that could take months.”
“Noooo,” she says, deep and guttural. As if there could be nothing worse than living in Blaire.
“That was my reaction when we got the news. I’m dying to go back to LA, but somehow my parents seem content being here. They’re even talking about me getting my GED so I don’t have to go back to Brenthaven.”
“Oh, El.” Willow cups my cheeks and makes a sad, pouty face. “No matter what your family did, no one deserves to live here like this. Least of all you.”
“Exactly! I shouldn’t be blamed for their mistakes.” Finally. Someone who understands me.
Willow gasps, suddenly lighting up. “How about you move in with me? You could stay in my guesthouse, and we could go to school together.” She claps her hands, celebrating her idea.
“Really?” I clutch my chest, touched. And Gavin said I didn’t have friends. Well, he’s wrong about that, among so many other things. “You’d do that for me?”
“You poor, poor thing.” This time her expression turns quickly from sympathy to pity. “I mean, isn’t it enough that your parents squandered the business, leaving you destitute? You have to be subjected to living here too?”
I was willing to overlook her earlier comments.
I had the same reaction when I first got here, and I understand more than anyone that living in Blaire takes some getting used to.
But something about the way she’s droning on about it is rubbing me the wrong way.
I’m about to tell her that it’s not that bad here once you get used to it.
But at that moment, a young woman approaches us.
By her cargo shorts and athletic shoewear—casual, functional attire suitable for behind-the-scenes work—I’m guessing she’s a production assistant.
“Here’s your order.” She hands Willow a paper bag.
I smile awkwardly at the PA while Willow opens the bag and inspects it.
“Ew, what is this? I didn’t order this.” She shoves it back.
The PA peers up at Willow, confused. “It’s your lunch. A burger—no patty, no bun, mayo on the side.”
By the description of the order, I can understand why the contents seem unappealing.
“That’s what I ordered, but that’s not what this mess is. And why is the mayo red?”
“It’s kimchi mayo.” The PA reads off the receipt.
“Gross,” Willow mutters. “No wonder no one wants to live here.”
The PA takes back the bag even though she doesn’t understand what’s happening. I can’t say I blame her. Willow is being utterly impossible when the order was made to her specifications.
Even though I’m mad at Gavin, a protective rage stews in my gut.
“Oh, before I forget, I have to get a photo of us.” Willow whips out her phone.
“A photo?” I self-consciously run a hand through my hair. My fingers get caught in the oily texture.
“Proof that this place exists. No one will believe it otherwise.” She plasters her cheek next to mine and purses her lips.
“No one? Who are you going to show this to?” I’m not ashamed of this town, not like I was before. But people can be mean. Without getting to know what it’s like here, they can be ruthless. Before I can protest, she angles her phone at us and takes a burst of photos.
“You’re not going to, like, share that with anyone, are you?” I hate the nervous lilt in my tone.
“Oh my God, are you, like, embarrassed people will think badly of you because you’ve been reduced to living here in this sad town?”
“No, that’s not it. It’s just that you caught me off guard.
I don’t have makeup on, and I’m dressed like a slob.
” It’s not the real reason I don’t want her to post these photos of me, but it’s also kind of true.
Because I tried to downplay my looks, I look worse than I normally would.
Of course, it’s just my luck that my disguise didn’t work on Willow the way it did on Gavin and Brennan.
“You know I don’t post anything without Facetuning it. So don’t worry.” She touches a finger to my chin and pouts, looking at me pitifully. “No one will know anything about your life has changed.”
Before I can convince her to delete the photos, a sleek black electric car rolls up.
“Gotta run. But I’ll be in touch about the guesthouse. Kisses!” She prances off the same way she approached me and follows the PA into the car. After she leaves, I stand there, frozen, trying to process what just happened.
“Elena!”
I blink myself back to the present to see Callie running toward me.
“I got it.” She’s waving a piece of paper in her hand.
“What did you get?” I ask, still wrapping my head around the fact that I was talking to Willow just a moment ago.
“The permit for the Blaire Fair!”
“Already?”
“I caught the mayor in between his meetings, and he thought it was a great idea. Said it could create more revenue for the entire town, not just the beautification fund. The observatory, the cafe, and the convenience store. He printed and signed the permit right then and there.”
“That’s amazing!”
“And just in time too. Maintenance day is coming up on Thursday.”
“I can’t believe we pulled this off.” I am so torn by the news.
Willow offered me a place to stay in her guesthouse in LA, where I can go to school, get back in the social scene, and maybe find a way to hire Kiki back without having to pay a retainer fee.
Now that Willow is an up-and-coming star, if I’m in her orbit, I can resume my life as a socialite.
I don’t need the Blaire Fair anymore. Still, it doesn’t diminish the pride I feel over seeing my idea come to life.
“It’s all because of your idea.” Callie’s face lights up so much that her pale cheeks are almost glowing. She looks angelic. Combining that with her innocence, I start to feel guilty. Or, in any case, I feel like I owe it to her to tell her the truth.
“So, Callie, I just wanted to say something. About Gavin.”
Her face lights up even brighter at the mention of his name. All the more reason she deserves to know. So I tell her about Sonya. How Gavin is technically still dating her. The apartment they share. I even show her a picture of them together.
—
As soon as Gavin gets home after his shift ends, he’s in my face before the door closes behind him.
“What did you say to Callie?” His face is red and puffy, and his eyes are bloodshot too.
I thought news in this town moved slowly, but apparently not all news.
“She had a right to know,” I say, surprised by his anger. It seems short-sighted, but I was so upset with Gavin when I told Callie about Sonya, I wasn’t thinking about how he’d react.
“I should have been the one to tell her, not you. Now it looks like I was hiding something from her. That I was some kind of two-faced fraud who was too much of a coward to be up-front.”
“Wouldn’t have been the first time.”
His head jerks back. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“What’s this?” Mom opens the door to her room to join us.
“What’s all the yelling about?” Dad follows behind her.
“It means that you’ve been secretive about a lot of things.” I narrow my eyes at Gavin.
“You wouldn’t dare,” he warns me.