Emma hearts LA (17 page)

Jessie spots me and looks a bit confused for a second before she bursts out laughing and runs over to me. We hug and jump up and down and squeal a bit. People look over and laugh.

‘It’s so good to see you!’ I say.

‘You too!’

Natalie puts an arm around each of us and says, ‘It’s so lovely to be here. Emma, you look wonderful. LA suits you.’

‘Oh, I don’t know about that,’ I tell her.

‘It does!’ Jessie says. ‘You look much more relaxed. Are you even wearing make-up?’

I wrinkle my nose. ‘Not really. I tinted my eyelashes so I don’t need to bother. It just melts in the sun anyway.’

Jessie laughs. ‘From the girl who was never without a lip gloss! I’m shocked!’

‘Well, you look wonderful on it,’ Natalie says, leading us over to a nearby Starbucks. ‘I need a coffee and then we’ll go straight to the hotel.’

She orders a black coffee for herself and Jessie and I both get Frappuccinos. While we’re waiting to collect them, Natalie phones the ‘car service’ and, by the time the coffees are done, there’s a car waiting for us out front.

‘You didn’t want the authentic LA experience?’ I ask, smiling. When Jessie and I arrived in New York, Natalie had us take a taxi rather than a car because, according to her, it was ‘more authentic’.

‘Oh, a town car
is
the authentic LA experience, darling,’ Natalie says, smiling.

The car is luxurious without being over the top. As the driver pulls away from the airport, Jessie looks out of the window. ‘Palm trees!’

I laugh. ‘I think that’s one of the first things I said too. It’s weird seeing them at an airport.’

‘So how are you enjoying it so far?’ Natalie asks me.

‘It’s actually really great. It still seems ridiculous that this is my life now – I keep thinking I’m on holiday – but Mum and Bex are really happy and I’ve started to get used to the sun and everything.’

‘It sounds like it’s going really well for Bex,’ Jessie says.

I nod. ‘It’s amazing actually. She’s been working with Emily, her agent, on how to present herself at auditions and that kind of thing. As soon as a part comes up that Emily thinks she’s right for, she’s ready to go for it. She’s really excited about it all, obviously.’

‘That’s so fantastic,’ Natalie says.

‘You never know,’ Jessie says. ‘She may end up appearing in Mum’s film.’

I laugh, shaking my head. ‘How mad is this? You writing a screenplay and Bex with an agent!’

Natalie grins at me. ‘You have to go after your dreams. I told you two that in New York.’

‘You did,’ I say. ‘I’m still struggling, though.’

‘Are you?’ Natalie says, frowning. ‘Even in LA?’

‘LA’s made it worse. It’s given me more options. And made me question the ones I had back in Manchester.’

‘Well, that’s good,’ Natalie says. ‘Questioning is good. And you don’t need to make immediate decisions, do you? You’ve got plenty of time.’

‘For most of them, yes,’ I say. ‘Anyway, never mind that. Tell me about New York. And this screenplay!’

‘Oh, New York is amazing,’ Natalie says. ‘The show’s still going really well.’

‘How’s Ben?’ I ask.

She doesn’t say anything, just holds out her left hand to show me the enormous diamond ring on her fourth finger.

‘Oh, wow!’ I say, grabbing it. ‘Congratulations!’

‘Thank you. We’re really happy.’

I look at Jessie, who rolls her eyes, but she’s smiling too.

Jessie tells me about her school as we drive through LA – stopping every now and then to gawk out of the window.

‘Have you seen the Hollywood sign?’ she asks, spotting a sign directing us to Hollywood.

‘Yes,’ I tell her, ‘but only from pretty far away. You’re not allowed to go up there any more. People kept changing the letters or hanging things from it for different protests.’

‘That’s a shame,’ Natalie says. ‘A starlet committed suicide off the H, you know? In the 20s.’

‘Wow,’ Jessie says. ‘What a way to go.’

‘Yep,’ Natalie says. ‘She got the celebrity she craved in death, rather than in life. People will do anything to be famous in this town.’

I nod, thinking about Alex. Being chased through the streets by paparazzi is a hell of a price to pay for fame.

Natalie asks about my parents and I’m still telling her about Mum’s apparent LA transformation when the car pulls into the hotel car park. They’re staying in a hotel right on the beach and only about ten minutes’ walk from us, which is fantastic.

‘The studio originally suggested The Standard,’ Natalie says, when I comment on the hotel. ‘But I didn’t want to stay somewhere quite so scene-y, you know? And who can resist the beach?’

The rooms are gorgeous: huge and bright with a balcony overlooking the beach. Natalie tells us she’s going for a bath and to settle ourselves in and we do – kicking off our shoes and curling up on one of the huge beds with Cokes and crisps from the minibar.

‘So,’ Jessie says. ‘Tell me everything.’

And I do.

Oscar is waiting for us at the Sidewalk Café and he stands up when we arrive. I’m surprised at how pleased I am to see him, but I’m nervous because I have no idea how he’s feeling about things. Or how I’m feeling about things. Talking to Jessie helped a lot, but I’m still confused.

He and Jessie aren’t quite sure how to greet each other – they haven’t seen each other for a few years and they weren’t really friends, they were each just my friend – but they eventually go for a loose hug and then we all sit down.

‘So did you two get any sleep at all?’ Oscar asks, grinning.

‘Not really,’ I say. ‘We talked pretty much all night.’

Oscar orders a Coke and Jessie and I both order lattes in an attempt to stay awake for the rest of the day.

‘This place is fantastic,’ Jessie says, staring out at the Boardwalk.

‘Segways!’ I almost yell as a Segway tour goes past.

Jessie laughs. ‘We’re not doing that.’

‘Oscar wants to do it,’ I say.

Oscar rolls his eyes. ‘I don’t,’ he tells Jessie. ‘It’s a bit Emma’s trying to make happen.’

I grin at him. ‘I’m going to try “the first one to spot them doesn’t have to pay”.’

‘I’m going to book her on it one of these days,’ he tells Jessie. ‘See how she likes that.’

We order some food – Jessie and I were so busy talking last night, that we hardly ate anything but mini-bar peanuts and we’re both starving – and while we’re waiting, Oscar and Jessie chat while I mainly think about how tired I am.

Jessie tells Oscar about the college courses she’s thinking of taking and he tells her about his plans to be an astronaut. She doesn’t even laugh.

‘Wow,’ Jessie says. ‘That’s really impressive. I really hope you make it.’

‘Now why couldn’t you have said something like that?’ Oscar asks me. ‘Instead of taking the piss?’

‘I can’t help it,’ I say. ‘I was born this way.’

The food arrives and we dig in, watching the world go by on the Boardwalk. A guy playing the piano has a cat with him and the cat seems to be waiting until he’s engrossed in playing before attempting a slow and sneaky escape. But she only gets a few metres away before the guy realises, stops playing, goes after her, picks her up and takes her back to the piano. And then the whole thing starts again.

‘Is the piano here all the time?’ Jessie asks.

Oscar’s just taken a bite of his burger, so he shakes his head and points to his mouth. Once he’s swallowed, he says, ‘No, he wheels it on and off the Boardwalk. He must live nearby though, cos it takes about four people to push it.’

I tell Oscar that Mum and Bex have gone with Emily to meet with a casting director to talk about a Disney movie. It’s exactly what I joked that Bex would want before we came here. I can’t believe it’s really happening, although it’s Bex, so I sort of can.

Jessie asks me where the bathrooms are and I point to the back right corner of the bar. She gets up and heads inside. And it’s only after she’s gone that I realise Oscar and I are alone. I stare out at the Boardwalk. Two little blond boys go past wearing wetsuits and carrying small surfboards – they don’t look older than ten, but they do look incredibly confident with their sea-tousled hair and boards under their arms.

‘So,’ Oscar says.

I look at him. ‘So…’

‘How’s Alex?’

A woman goes past on a skateboard. She’s holding the lead of a Great Dane and letting the dog pull her along.

‘I’m not…seeing him. Any more.’

‘Right. Is that your choice or…?’

I look at him. ‘Yes. My choice.’ I take a deep breath. ‘I’m really sorry I invited him that night…’

He does a kind of shooing motion with his hands and says, ‘Meh. Let’s never speak of it again.’

And then Jessie comes back.

When we’ve finished lunch, we start walking towards Santa Monica. It’s odd to be introducing Jessie to the Boardwalk and laughing at her excitement. We walk across the sand to the water’s edge and watch the tiny birds – sanderlings – run towards the waves and then desperately back up the sand to escape them. They look like children playing What’s the Time, Mister Wolf?

Jessie takes a photo of the three of us and sends it to Finn. By the sound of it, things are going brilliantly with him. I really would love to have what Jessie and Finn have. I ask her to send a copy of the photo to me too and I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket when she does.

Further along the beach, we stop for a little while to watch the surfers and then we see a dolphin jumping over the crest of a wave.

‘Oh my god!’ Jessie yells. She spends the next five minutes training her phone on the waves to try to get a photo of it. We see the dolphin a few more times, but she doesn’t manage to catch it.

‘I love New York,’ she says, as we walk along the sand, ‘but I have to say I envy you guys living here – it’s pretty cool.’

‘You’ll have to come back,’ I say. ‘And bring Finn.’

‘I definitely will,’ she says. ‘Mum seems to think she’ll be coming back too, so maybe we’ll come with her.’

‘That would be fantastic,’ I say.

Oscar decides to walk up to Third Street Promenade with us and busk up there. On the way, he tells us everything he knows about the benefit at the Griffith Observatory. Jessie and Natalie are coming too now – Natalie bought tickets – and it sounds like it’s going to be pretty fancy. It’s to raise research funds for a study on the evolution of stars.

‘I have no idea what that means,’ I tell Jessie. ‘Although Mum has tried to tell me.’

‘OK,’ Oscar says, ‘so you know that stars form in the coldest regions of molecular clouds, right?’

Jessie and I look at each other. He may know this. We do not.

‘But we don’t really understand the environment or the evolution of the clouds,’ Oscar continues.

‘And why do we need to?’ I ask him. I’m not being entirely facetious – although I am a bit – I genuinely don’t understand the relevance of my parents’ studies.

‘Well, imagine the molecular clouds are LA,’ Oscar says as we pass the gymnastics rings and stop for a minute to stare at the men swinging and flinging themselves around apparently effortlessly.

‘We’ve got a world full of celebrities – stars – and we know where they came from. We know the films are made in LA. We know how and why LA got to be the centre of the movie industry, and we know the weather’s great. But with real stars, we don’t know any of that. We’ve just got the stars.’

‘So it’s as if, say, Angelina Jolie just suddenly appeared out of the blue?’ Jessie asks.

‘Sort of,’ Oscar says. ‘But not really. It’s not the best analogy. They’ll explain it to us when we go over to UCLA.’

Mum and Michael have invited us over to have a look at the research so we understand what the benefit is in aid of.

‘It’s better than Mum managed,’ I tell Oscar, smiling, ‘but I still don’t really understand why it’s so important to know about stars. Isn’t there more important stuff on earth they should be studying?’

Oscar points to the beach. ‘Well, you know there are more stars in the universe than grains of sand on earth, right? Think about that. How can it not be important? We have no idea yet of the scale of the universe, but we know that it’s full of stars. And of course, the sun is a star – you don’t think it’s important for us to understand the sun?’

I scuff some sand with the toe of my flip-flop and shake my head. This is why I was never interested in what Mum and Dad were doing – it makes my brain hurt.

Third Street Promenade looks more like a film set than a real shopping street. It’s pedestrianised with palm trees down each side and little Parisian-style stalls and cafés in the middle. It’s very stylish and incredibly clean.

‘You’re shopping, right?’ Oscar says. ‘I’ll walk up to the top and you’ll find me there when you’re done.’

‘We’ll bring you a coffee,’ Jessie tells him.

On the way into Sephora, we pass a tall, blonde woman pulling two small children in a red Radio Flyer wagon. I elbow Jessie because I think it might actually be Heidi Klum, but she’s passed us by then and we can’t tell from the back.