Aries Rising (19 page)

“No, I’m not. I am such a loser. Josh was disgusted. I know I’ve lost him this time.”

“I don’t think so. He loves you.” That brought on a new round of tears from both of us.

“I’m sorry I was so horrible to you, Logan,” she said. “I thought if I introduced you to Cory, you’d get distracted from the astro thing and trying to investigate Alex Keen. I knew you suspected something was going to happen tonight.”

“What about Alex Keen?” I stopped before I revealed what I knew about that situation.

She shook her head sadly. “That’s really what broke Josh and me up the last time. When I did the Canadian tour last year, Alex decided he was crazy about me for a hot second. I called him the night you came to San Francisco, and he came by after you left so that we could get our stories straight.”

“Why would you want to lie?” I asked.

“Publicity. Dating me wouldn’t be good for his image. But the boy has his secrets. Don’t let those eyes fool you.”

“You have to tell me,” I said. “For my friend’s sake. She thinks he’s into her now.”

“He won’t be for long. Besides, he’s a kid.” She got up from the bed and turned to face me with a smile that was still more sadness than anything else. “Alex Keen pretends to be this sexy young chef. He just doesn’t say how young. He’s only seventeen.”

Alex Keen, celebrity chef and wannabe womanizer, was a teen. What a weird ending to this outrageous day. No wonder he made sure his birth year didn’t show up anywhere. It was-n’t the fact that he was so young that bothered me. It was his deception. Enough people had been hurt tonight. I didn’t want Chili to have to join that club.

24

EACH SIGN HAS ITS OWN CHALLENGE TO OVERCOME. AN ARIES LEARNS TO CHOOSE BATTLES. A TAURUS LEARNS THAT SOMETIMES WE MUST LET GO. A LEO LEARNS IT’S OKAY TO SHARE THE STAGE. A GEMINI LEARNS THAT WORDS ARE NOT ALWAYS ENOUGH. A CANCER LEARNS THAT NO ONE LIKES VICTIMS. A VIRGO LEARNS THAT PERFECT PLANNING DOES NOT GUARANTEE SUCCESS. A LIBRA LEARNS TO TAKE A STAND. A SCORPIO LEARNS TO SPEAK UP. A SAGITTARIUS LEARNS TO LISTEN. A CAPRICORN LEARNS TO LIGHTEN UP. AN AQUARIUS LEARNS THAT BRILLIANT IDEAS MUST BE PUT INTO ACTION. A PISCES LEARNS THAT ALL OF THE DREAMING IN THE WORLD WILL NOT
MAKE IT SO. A WISE PERSON LEARNS. EVERYONE ELSE KEEPS MAKING THE SAME MISTAKES.

 

 

 

 

 

Arianna and I walked back up to the suite together. Almost everyone had gone. Paige spoke quietly with Graciela Perez. Chili and Alex sat at a table with Bobby, Mary Elizabeth, and a couple of other people from the magazine. I still wasn’t sure how I was going to tell Chili that her sophisticated celebrity chef was a teenager.

Everyone turned to look at us as we came inside.

“I need to just hide out and get my life together,” Arianna whispered, “but I don’t know where to go.”

I thought of Terra Bella Beach, where everything was low-key and laid back. Where some people still left their houses unlocked at night.

“Let’s talk later,” I said. “Maybe we can come up with something.”

Just then Josh stepped out from the catering suite. He had changed out of his Dr. Jekyll costume and had on jeans and a deep brown sweater the color of his hair.

He flashed that bleach-strip smile and put out his arms.

Arianna whimpered and ran to him. I stood watching. At least something had turned out right.

My Sherlock notebook had come in handy after all. Josh and Arianna left with her mom. I sat trying to look invisible and gazed out at the city while

Chili and Paige said their goodbyes to Alex and Graciela. I had made enough notes about the evening’s events to almost fill it when I became aware of someone behind me.

“What a night.” Henry Jaffa sat down beside me. He had ditched the coat and raven. Only the forgotten moustache remained. “I had no idea about Stacy,” he said. “I just thought she was, well, ambitious.”

“She wanted the glory, that’s for sure, and she didn’t care how she got it.”

“If you hadn’t become involved, she might have pulled it off. You realize that, don’t you?”

I hadn’t thought about it. Could he be right? “And all I wanted was the astrology column. Funny how important it seemed, at the time.” I bit my lip to keep from crying again.

“I hope you’ll forgive a personal question,” he said, “but is there something going on in your life right now?”

“The usual stuff,” I told him. “Parents getting divorced, boyfriend not into me.”

“You know, there’s a theory—I’m not sure how accurate it is—that bad experiences actually make one a better writer.”

“I remember reading something about that in one of your interviews,” I said. “I sure hope it’s true. Thank you for all you’ve tried to do for me, Mr. Jaffa. I can’t tell you how much it means to me.”

He gave me that weird but warm Aquarius grin. “Don’t you think it’s time you called me Henry? All of my writers do.”

My lip trembled. Couldn’t help it. Thank goodness I was an Aquarius like him. I managed a weird grin of my own.

“Yes, Henry,” I said. “I guess it is.”

 

YOUR SUN SIGN ISN’T A LIFE SENTENCE. IT IS A MENU
OF POSSIBILITIES. ARIES CAN SETTLE DOWN. TAURUS
CAN BE FLEXIBLE. GEMINI CAN BE FAITHFUL. CANCER
CAN CONQUER THOSE MOODS. LEO CAN SHARE THE
STAGE. VIRGO CAN RELAX AND SEE WHAT’S RIGHT AS
WELL AS WHAT ISN’T. LIBRA CAN COMMIT. SCORPIO
CAN FORGIVE. SAGITTARIUS CAN LEARN TO LISTEN.
CAPRICORN CAN LIGHTEN UP. AQUARIUS CAN ACT
IMPULSIVELY. AND PISCES CAN TAKE THE SPOTLIGHT.
THAT’S WHAT BEING AN EVOLVED SIGN IS ALL ABOUT.
YOU CAN BE WHATEVER YOU WANT TO BE.

The party was almost two weeks ago. It’s already November, and the changes have been as crazy as the weather. I have been cold all day, but it doesn’t have much to do with the sharp wind. I’ve felt this way since I talked to Jeremy’s girlfriend, and I can no longer ignore the fact that my summer with him is far behind me.

My dad agreed to let my new friend from Los Angeles come to stay in our guestroom for a couple of weeks. I didn’t mention that the Gemini friend would be arriving with a few secrets and a lot of baggage. For now, at least, it looks as if that was a wise decision. Arianna stayed with us until the media heat died down. Tonight she will return to L.A. with Josh.

Alex Keen thanked Chili for her mom’s Armenian recipes and said they had “influenced” him for some of the material in his new cookbook. He’ll list her in the acknowledgments, of course. And, by the way, he has a girlfriend in Napa. Underage or not, that unevolved Sadge has lived up to the most unreliable aspects of his sign.

The official story is that Stacy resigned from her position. Mary Elizabeth is the new editor of
CRUSH
. When that was announced, Danielle, Stacy’s assistant, quit on the spot. Mary Elizabeth told me that although I still have my internship, she has decided against an astrology column. At least for now. As my Gram Janie says, you win some, you lose some, and you refuse some.

So, yes, I wrote all of the
CRUSH
love columns for nothing. But maybe not. I learned a lot about how different Sun signs fall for
each other. Maybe that information will come in handy one day.

Jeremy tried to phone me twice. Both times the message on my voicemail was too garbled to hear. All I got was, “traveling in Ireland with my dad” and “a girl I met.” One day we will speak, and I will force myself to wish him well and pretend that I am not devastated by the way he left me.

Terra High will still be featured in the beach issue of
CRUSH
. Today the rain has stopped, and we’ll actually be able to see the sun setting at our photo shoot this evening. Odd that an evening beach shoot will have to take place beneath coming-and-going storm clouds, but that’s the way it is here on the California coast. Sweaters in summer. Bikinis in the rain. The uncertainty is part of what I love about this place.

I’m riding in front again, and I have to admit, I like it better up here. But it’s worth the backseat to see the way Paige has come out of her shell. I never realized how we just assumed it was her job to take up the rear. Being a Pisces, she had assumed it too. No more, though.

She’s in taupe, and Chili in a short strapless black-and-white print, belted at the waist. My white pants are rolled up, and the shirt over my white tank is that orange sherbet color kids in the rest of the country think California girls wear every day.

There’s a knot in my stomach, a twinge of anticipation. It’s as if I’ve had back-to-back espressos since morning, and I realize that for the first time since the party, I am actually excited about something.

As we pull into the school parking lot this late Saturday afternoon, I see that Sol is already there. He has dressed California style as well, in shorts and a pale blue shirt that accentuates his eyes. I remember that he’s been wearing that color all week.

I get out of the car and say, “Hey, Sol.”

“How’s it goin’?” he replies in a bored kind of way. He’s acted like that all week too.

“What’s the matter?” I ask.

“Nothing. I’m just waiting for my girlfriend.”

“Your girlfriend?” Cute as he is, he’s not for me.

“You sound surprised.” He gives me a wounded Cancer smile that he probably thinks is soulful.

“Not at all,” I say. “Good for you.”

“And you’re still into that Ireland guy?”

“Yes, I am,” I say, and pretend to look happy.

Just then Kat’s car screeches up beside us.

“Freaking watch it,” Chili shouts. “You almost ran over us.”

“Sorry. That would be a shame.” She gets out wearing her cheer outfit, of course, and flounces up to Sol.

What follows is a PDA of such proportion that it would get both of them sent straight to the Student Responsibility Center if a civic-minded teacher were watching. Then, Kat takes Sol’s hand, shoots us a smug, self-satisfied look, and heads for the campus.

“Terra High, Terra High,” Chili chants as they walk away.

“Poor guy,” I say. “She’ll burn through him in a week.”

“He deserves better.” Chili eyes me as if to say that I should have taken advantage of her efforts to get Sol and me together.

The magazine people are already here. I realize that I should have brought a sweater. Bobby waves from the other side of the grassy area that leads to the beach. They will snap some photos here, and then, we’ll walk down to the water, where they will take the celeb shots.

There he is, the official Terra High celeb, Josh Mellick, his deep brown hair spiked, wearing shorts and a shirt that makes his teeth gleam even whiter. Alex Keen was supposed to have had the job but was replaced at the last minute. The gossip leak about his age and his true-to-his-Sadge sign love life might be getting him lots of publicity, but not in
CRUSH
.

Josh drove in from L.A. earlier today, and we all had lunch at Chili’s house. As thrilled as Chili’s mom Stella was, she respected Arianna’s desire for privacy and restrained herself from inviting the entire neighborhood to drop by. Arianna is still there, probably getting cooking lessons and a month’s supply of food. I’ll miss her when she goes back, but I’m pretty sure her life is finally on track now.

Josh joins the photographer and Bobby, and grins at us.