Finding June (20 page)

“I can’t even imagine being a regular on the
show,” I admitted. “It seems too good to be true.”

“I’m not saying anything for sure. Just what
I’ve overheard,” he said with a sly, beautiful grin.

The waiter arrived once more, placing our
drinks on the see-through plastic table between us. The table
reminded me of a squat golf tee and I had to resist the urge to say
"Fore" as the oversized mugs were placed there, realizing that this
would be a June Laurie joke, not a Lukas Leighton joke. Our waiter
looked over at Lukas, obviously realizing that I wasn’t famous and
was therefore not worth his time, and asked if we wanted anything
else.

“We’re fine, Raul,” Lukas answered
distractedly. I couldn’t help but think that someone named Raul was
by default more interesting than someone named June, even if he was
a waiter and I was an actress on a show as huge as
Forensic
Faculty
. That put me in my place pretty quickly.

Lukas and I sipped at our drinks for a
moment, looking around the room at all of the people who
undoubtedly led interesting lives. I wondered for a moment if Lukas
had an ulterior motive for bringing me to this place. If he really
was as bad as Candice and Benjamin seemed to imply, I could see him
thinking this would be a good way to show me I didn’t belong in the
glittery world of celebrities. But then I remembered that Lukas was
a human being and not some caricature.

I wouldn’t ever describe myself as a brave
person. Joseph would willingly attest to that fact. But being
surrounded by beautiful people and wondering to myself if I should
trust Lukas or not, I found some undiscovered reserve of
courage.

“Why did you ask me to have a drink with you
tonight?” I asked, meeting Lukas's perfect blue eyes with my
average brown ones. He kept his eyes locked on mine, which I
thought was a good sign. After all, what dishonest person would
look so intently into an innocent and vulnerable girl’s eyes if he
was about to lie to her?

“I think you’re interesting and different
from the other girls I meet in this industry,” he said with such
brutal honesty that any doubts I had about his intentions were
swept away. “And you’re beautiful,” he added as a welcome
afterthought.

I blushed, turning what I’m sure was a deep
shade of scarlet and letting my eyes fall to the plastic table
between us. I hadn’t really managed to hold onto my courage for
long, apparently.

“You think I’m beautiful?” I asked, like the
self-conscious sixteen-year-old girl I was.

“I know you’re beautiful,” he said smoothly,
putting his drink down and leaning over the awkward table so he
could hold my free hand.

My head was spinning and the constant
rhythmic beat in the background of the coffee shop suddenly seemed
to match the pounding of my own heart in my ears. Lukas Leighton
said I was beautiful—and not because some clever writer had
scripted that for him. He said it because he actually thought that
I, June Laurie, was beautiful. I didn’t know how I should reply to
a statement so unexpected and fantastically unreal. If I said
"Thank you," it would seem conceited, but if I tried to play it off
like I didn’t agree I’d look like I was fishing for compliments. So
instead, I just smiled at him. A big, happy, clumsy smile that
spread easily over my face.

“This might be the best night ever,” I said
honestly, wondering why I sometimes let words escape my mouth
before consulting my brain first. Lukas laughed his deep, perfect
laugh and sat back in his chair, taking in his surroundings with
mild interest but keeping me on his radar enough to send chills
through my entire body.

*****

I can’t remember exactly what we talked about
for the rest of the time we sat in those squishy armchairs. I did
remember learning that Lukas didn’t like any soda that wasn’t clear
because he thought it looked dirty, but that he’d drink coffee like
a chain smoker goes through cigarettes. Personally I thought coffee
looked way dirtier than Coke, but I definitely wasn’t going to
disagree with him. He told me about how he liked to sleep with his
face buried in his pillow, but how it always gave him dreams that
he was breathing underwater. I, naturally, thought this was
adorable.

I told him about living with Gran and how it
was a constant adventure. I told him how I loved coming home and
finding weird concoctions in the kitchen, not for eating, but for
slathering on my face. I told him about Joseph and how he was like
the brother I never had. And then we talked about nothing in
particular.

It was much easier to talk to someone as
perfect as Lukas than I would have thought. He was so socially
adept that there was never an awkward silence or a moment when we
both tried to talk at the same time. It was like he made up for my
lack of conversational timing and put me at ease. It was no
surprise, then, that as we turned onto Pullman Avenue at ten
o'clock that night, I was feeling fully in-tune with him. After
talking with him for a few hours, it was obvious to me that he
wasn’t any of the things Candice and Benjamin said. They had
obviously gotten a bad impression of him, because he was the
epitome of a sweet, charming prince.

Lukas's motorcycle pulled noisily up my
driveway before he turned it off suddenly, drenching our
surroundings in silence. I stepped off the bike and returned his
helmet to him, feeling a little lightheaded at how perfectly
everything was going. Lukas got off of his bike and stood close to
me, looking down into my eyes with confident determination. I
didn’t want to get my hopes up or anything, but if I didn’t know
any better, I’d say he was revving up to kiss me goodnight.

I didn’t want to ruin this perfect moment by
saying something stupid, so I kept my mouth firmly shut and just
smiled up into his face in the chilly night air. He leaned toward
me just a bit and I let my eyes close slightly as I tilted my head
up to meet his. I prepared myself for this perfect moment in this
new perfect world with an intense anticipation.

But of course, we don’t live in a perfect
world now do we? We live in a world where good things happen to
June Laurie, but great things are snatched away at the last second,
which is exactly what happened when a very familiar male voice
said, “You must be Lukas Leighton. It’s
so
good to finally
meet you. June’s told me so much about you!”

Lukas and I backed away from each other
quickly, as if we had been caught in some guilty act. It was funny
to see that as suave and experienced as Lukas was, he still had
that gut instinct to pull away when he thought he had been caught
in a sneaky situation.

I was confused, at first, about what had
happened, until I realized I was looking at Joseph standing right
beside us, grinning up at Lukas like a star struck girl. Only he
didn’t look like he was actually pleased to meet him. He actually
looked a bit odd. The vein on the side of his forehead that always
showed up when Xani talked to him was standing out like a huge
flashing Vegas sign at the moment, which didn’t match his friendly
tone and smile at all. It was an odd combination, to say the
least.

I wasn’t sure how I had missed his forest
green VW Bug outside of my house when we had pulled up, until I
remembered that I had pulled up with my arms wrapped around Lukas
Leighton. I couldn’t be expected to notice little details like
Joseph’s car when I was focused on something else so completely
perfect.

“What are you doing here?” I asked through
gritted teeth. It wasn’t really fair of me to be mad at Joseph for
having such horrible timing, but I couldn’t help it. Would it have
killed him to stay in his car for another minute? He wasn’t
socially inept, after all. I’m sure he could tell when two people
were about to kiss.

Lukas looked over at me, mild confusion
lining his beautiful face before a light bulb seemed to click.

“You must be Joseph,” he said, looking my
friend up and down. Joseph’s fake smile faltered for a moment and
he actually looked a bit startled and pleased that Lukas had known
his name. But only for a moment. Seconds later, he was back to
wearing his strained smile and trying to keep his vein from pulsing
out of his head.

“I am,” he answered without moving his mouth.
Both boys continued to stare at each other in silence for a moment,
exchanging some unspoken words between them. Joseph had to look up
just slightly to meet Lukas’s eyes since he was a bit shorter than
him. “I just came to bring June her homework assignments,” Joseph
finally said, catching me off-guard since this was a total lie. My
studio teacher had given me my homework assignments on set.

“That’s nice of you,” Lukas replied shortly,
keeping his eyes locked on Joseph like a lion looking at a baby
zebra. There was quiet again for a moment and I wondered if I had
missed something. I could swear the two boys were holding an entire
telepathic conversation that I hadn’t been invited to join.

“Well, it was nice to meet you. I hope we’ll
see you again soon,” Joseph said, breaking the awkward silence that
had fallen. From my experience that night I had learned how
artfully Lukas sidestepped any awkward silence, so the fact that
the three of us were caught in one right now suggested something
more was going on than I was aware of.

“Right,” Lukas answered, flashing Joseph a
winning smile before turning back to me. “I’ll see you tomorrow
June,” he said with a softer smile. He leaned over and kissed my
cheek, lingering there a moment longer than was normal for a cheek
kiss. My face was instantly engulfed in the happy fire that seemed
to accompany any closeness I shared with Lukas, and I grinned after
him as he took off down the street on his motorcycle. Once he was
out of sight and the giddiness had worn off, I turned to Joseph
with a look of annoyance.

“What was that all about?” I asked with a
frown.

“What? Suddenly I’m not allowed to stop by
anymore just because you’ve started hanging out with
him
?”
Joseph asked, the hurt obvious in his voice. This softened my
rage.

“Of course you’re still allowed to stop by,”
I said warmly, letting the sad sight of Joseph’s hurt fill me with
goodwill. “You just surprised me.” I didn’t mention the fact that
he had definitely interrupted what would have been the most perfect
kiss of my life. It didn’t seem like something that would help him
out of his sour mood.

Joseph looked down at the ground, almost
guiltily, then back up at me. “Sorry I kind of ruined your moment,”
he said, sounding sincere despite how much he seemed to dislike
Lukas. I shrugged my shoulders as if a kiss from Lukas wouldn’t
have completed my life, and as if he had simply interrupted some
mundane activity.

“There probably wouldn’t have been much of a
moment anyway,” I lied. To him and to me.

“Yeah,” Joseph said, playing along.

“So what
are
you doing here so late?”
I asked, curious as to why Joseph would show up at my house at ten
o'clock at night when that was usually when I was getting ready for
bed.

“It’s Friday and I was bored. I thought maybe
you’d be up for a late night movie since we don’t have to get up
early for school tomorrow,” he offered, sounding more like his old
self than he had in a while. “Plus, I had to inform you that Xani
will be playing Juliet in the school play, and my life has
officially become very awkward.”

“Oh, I bet that’s been fun,” I said
sarcastically, already imagining Xani showing up to Joseph’s house
at midnight saying they needed to practice their kissing
scenes.

“Yeah, it’s been a blast,” he answered with a
big, fake smile. “So that’s why I need you to distract me tonight.
No more worrying about Xani popping out of the bushes to attack
me.”

“It's just . . . I’m filming a really intense
scene tomorrow and I still need to be on set at seven,” I said,
biting my bottom lip and letting my remorse show on my face. “I’m
really sorry Joseph. But maybe we can hang out after that?”

His warm Joseph smile faltered for a moment,
and he adopted the look of a child who just turned around to find
that their parent wasn’t standing next to them in the mall.

“That would be great,” he said, though I
could hear the disappointment in his voice. I knew it bothered
Joseph that I didn’t have as much time for him anymore, but he knew
what a big opportunity this show was for me, so he’d be
understanding, even if he didn’t want to be. Besides, maybe having
a little time apart would be good practice for when he disappeared
on his mission for two years.

“Well, you probably need to get some rest, so
I’ll go,” he said awkwardly, turning and heading back to his car by
the curb.

“Hey Joseph,” I called after him, causing him
to stop and face me. I ran up and threw my arms around his neck,
pulling him in for a tight hug. “Thank you for being so
understanding about all of this,” I said into his neck as I
continued to hug him. His arms encircled my waist and he hugged me
back, holding onto me like he’d never let go. “You’re such a good
friend.”

I pulled away from him and looked into his
warm, chocolate brown eyes, which held just a touch of sadness at
the moment.

“I always will be.”

CHAPTER 17

Having my hair and makeup done on Saturday
morning was an unusual experience. For the first time since I’d
joined the show, we weren’t shooting at the studio. Instead, all of
the cast and crew were inside a small old theatre downtown, trying
to find places to squeeze equipment, the craft service table, and
the makeup and wardrobe setup. Candice had been shoved into one of
the theatre’s smaller dressing rooms backstage; her makeup bags all
sat overflowing onto the floor.

I sat patiently in the swiveling vanity chair
and listened to Candice mumble about lack of respect and doing
makeup in a sardine can. Miraculously, Ryan and Benjamin had
somehow managed to find small, uncluttered spots on the floor to
sit amidst the chaos of makeup brushes and bottled makeup
sealer.