L. A. Candy (22 page)

Jane sank back against the pillows, watching the morning sun streaming through the window and making lazy patterns on the cream walls. She glanced at her clock. It was a few minutes after seven. She remembered that it was Friday. Their weekly staff meeting had been rescheduled this week because Fiona had three important meetings lined up with clients. Anna Payne was one of them; the New Year’s Eve party was still off, but she and Noah were back on, and she was hiring Fiona to plan their Valentine’s Day recommitment ceremony. Anna was pretty sure he’d be out of rehab by then. Dana had scheduled cameras to be at two of the three meetings. It was going to be a busy day.

But first…shower. She rose out of bed and started for the bathroom when her cell phone rang, stopping her in her tracks. Phone. Where was her phone? She spotted it on her floor, half-hidden underneath a white silk scarf.
She picked it up and smiled when she saw the name on the screen: Diego Neri. She hadn’t seen him since the awful night of Jesse’s birthday party. Now that she was taking a break from Jesse (and Braden, too), she had more time on her hands. She reminded herself to make a date to go out with D, maybe to a club. She should ask Scar to come with them too. They’d spent so little time together lately. She missed her friend.

Scar had been in a really good mood all week, ever since Jane had told her about taking a break from Jesse. She hadn’t even given Jane an “I told you so” lecture. Jane hadn’t told her about hooking up with Braden, though. Thankfully, Scar hadn’t heard him sneak out of the apartment on Saturday morning. She hadn’t told
anyone
that—not even Hannah.

“Hey, D,” Jane said into the phone. “You’re up early! Or have you been up all—”

“Jane!” D sounded semi-hysterical. “Oh God! I’m so, so,
so
sorry!”

Jane frowned at the phone. What was he talking about? “Sorry for what, sweetie?”

“Veronica gave me a few days off, so I had no idea what was going on. She knows you and I are friends.”

“D, what are you talking about?”

There was a pause. “You haven’t seen the new issue of
Gossip
?”

“No. Why?”

“These photos of you…someone leaked them to the
magazine. It’s the cover, with a four-page spread. Ohmigod, Jane, I feel like jumping off a bridge! I should have prevented this somehow! I should have seen this coming and protected you and—”

Jane’s blood ran cold.
What
photos of her? “Lemme call you back,” she said, hanging up without waiting for D’s response.

She jumped out of bed and ran over to her laptop. She could barely think straight as she Googled her name. What was going on? What were these photos that had freaked D out so much?

And then she saw.

They were not only on the
Gossip
website, but they were all over the Internet. Photos of her wearing nothing but underwear, looking awful…and in a very, very compromising position with Braden. Several positions, actually.

She felt as though she were watching a slow, hideous car wreck as she scrolled through the photos…and then the full story of how she had allegedly hooked up with her boyfriend Jesse’s best friend just nights after Jesse’s twenty-first birthday party, completely breaking Jesse’s heart. (There was no mention of Jesse’s own terrible behavior at Goa.) The story hinted—using the flimsiest bits of so-called evidence (Jesse had been spotted in the jewelry store Fourteen Karats…people at Fiona Chen Events had been speculating…)—that Jesse had been on the verge of giving her a promise ring to seal their “whirlwind
romance” when Jane had done this to him. The story even hinted at other possible infidelities by Jane—nothing substantive, just wisps of ugly rumors.

“Oh…my…God,” Jane whispered, unable to take her eyes off the screen. She couldn’t breathe. “Oh my God…oh my God…oh my God!”

Jane clamped a hand over her mouth and shook her head. She felt numb. She was in absolute shock. It wasn’t really happening. This couldn’t be real.

But it
was
real. Everyone in the world, including her friends, her coworkers, the people at
L.A. Candy,
her little sisters, her parents…and
Jesse
, were going to see these photos. If they hadn’t already.

Her cell started buzzing again. At the same time, the landline started ringing. “Just…go…away,” she murmured. She collapsed onto the bed, slid under the covers, and began sobbing quietly into her pillows.

Scarlett pressed Redial for the hundredth time while pulling into the underground parking garage of her and Jane’s apartment building. “Damn it, Janie. Answer your fucking phone!” she said, frustrated. She had been trying to call Jane ever since Cammy had come up to her in the library and shown her the
Gossip
website’s pictures of Jane and Braden on her iPhone.
O-M-G! Is she okay? She didn’t seem like such a slut on the show! But I guess you never know about people, right?

Scarlett ran toward the elevators, her backpack slapping against her side. She’d left the apartment at 6 a.m., heading for the library to study for final exams. She should have stayed home. Why hadn’t she stayed home?

Hurry. She had to hurry. Then again, what if Jane wasn’t home? What if she was at work, hiding in the bathroom and freaking out? But she couldn’t think about that now.

She noticed two paparazzi staked out near the elevators.
She stifled her shock. She had never seen them around the apartment building before.

As soon as they saw Scarlett, they rushed toward her. One of them began snapping pictures of her, and the other one attempted to balance a camcorder as he ran. Their voices tumbled over each other:

“Scarlett!”

“Hey, Scarlett!”

“Any comment on today’s story?”

“Is this the first time Jane’s cheated on Jesse?”

“How do you feel about Jane’s pictures?”

“Move!” Scarlett snarled at them as she pushed her way to the elevator door, got in, and punched the number of their floor. Parasites. These paparazzi were the most awful people.
They
were responsible for all this. They had somehow Photoshopped pictures of Jane to make her look half-naked, and like she and Braden had hooked up. Jane and Braden had definitely
not
hooked up. Jane would have told her if they had. And now Jane was probably having a total breakdown. Scarlett knew her best friend did
not
deal with crises very well.

Just as the elevator doors slid open, Scarlett spotted someone coming up the stairs and heading toward her and Jane’s apartment door. It was Madison. What was
she
doing here?

Scarlett strode quickly toward the apartment door, digging through her pockets for her keys. “Hey, Madison?
Jane’s not really in the mood for company right now. Could you come back later? Like maybe next week?”

Madison turned around. Relief lit up her face. “Scarlett! I’m sooo glad you’re here! I came up the back way so I could lose those photographers. We’ve gotta get in there and make sure Jane’s okay!”

“Oh, I’m on it, thanks.” Scarlett stepped past Madison and shoved her key in the lock. “Bye now.”

“Scar? Is that you?”

It was Jane’s voice, coming from inside. It sounded thin and hoarse, as though she had been crying. Scarlett pushed open the door and rushed in. Madison was at her heels. Fine, so she wouldn’t be able to lose the bitch just this second. She would get rid of her after she’d checked on Jane.

Jane was curled up on the living room couch, still wearing her pajamas, her laptop propped on her knees. Her hair was tied back in a messy knot and her face was splotchy with tears. She didn’t look up at Scarlett and Madison, but instead kept her eyes glued to her computer screen. She was clicking from website to website, her fingers listlessly punching keys.

“Janie?” Scarlett bent down and put her hands on Jane’s shoulders. She glanced quickly at the screen, at one of Jane’s photos accompanied by the blazing headline:
L
.
A
.

CANDY
STAR HAS SWEET TOOTH FOR HOOKING UP
. “Janie, are you okay?”

“It’s everywhere.” Jane’s blue eyes welled up with tears.
“I can’t believe…Did you see?” She could barely get the words out.

Scarlett gave Jane a fierce, protective hug. “This is all bullshit, Jane, and you know it. It’s gonna blow over. In the meantime, I’m gonna find out who faked those photos and—”

“Scarlett, they’re not fake,” Jane cut her off. She began crying again.

“What do you mean? They’re real? You and Braden didn’t—”

“We did. Just once. I didn’t mean for it to happen. But when he came over that night…” Jane covered her face with her hands and began crying harder.

Scarlett’s mind was reeling. Jane and Braden had hooked up? Why hadn’t Jane told her this before? She and Jane had always told each other
everything.
Although Scarlett was keeping a few secrets of her own these days. She vowed to come clean with Jane soon—to be as close as they used to be before
L.A. Candy
came along.

And then something else—something more disturbing—occurred to her. “If these photos aren’t fake, then who took them?” she asked Jane sharply.

Scarlett felt a hand on her shoulder. Madison leaned over and gestured to her, indicating that she wanted to talk to her privately. Scarlett moved back until she and Madison were standing a little ways away from Jane. “What
is
it?” Scarlett snapped. “Can’t it wait?”

“Listen, this is important.” Madison lowered her voice so Jane couldn’t hear. “I didn’t want to say anything before. But I have a couple of friends at
Star
and
In Touch.
Both of them told me that Jesse’s been shopping these photos around at all the tabloids. I don’t know how he got them, but—I guess he’s pretty pissed about Jane cheating on him with his best friend. He felt humiliated. And he wanted to humiliate her back.” Madison gazed worriedly at Jane. “Guess it worked.”

Scarlett stared at Madison, trying to process what she was saying. “Jesse?
He
did this?”

“That’s the word.”

Scarlett sucked in a deep breath. Then she turned to Madison. “Can you stay with Jane for a little while? Don’t answer the phone, and don’t let anyone in the door. Get her off that damned computer, and no TV, either. I have something I have to take care of.”

“No problem,” Madison promised. “I’ll stay here all day and night if you need me to. That’s what friends are for.”

Scarlett went back to Jane and gave her friend another hug. She could feel her trembling. “I’ll be right back, okay? Madison’s gonna stay with you. I promise everything is gonna be fine. This is all gonna go away.”

Jane hugged her back and nodded without saying anything.

Scarlett scooped up her keys and rushed out the door.

“Open the door, Jesse!” Scarlett yelled.

No answer. Scarlett had been ringing the doorbell, shouting and pounding her fists against the front door for the last five minutes—but no answer. She had a strong suspicion that Jesse was home. His Range Rover was in the driveway, and she could see lights on inside. She wasn’t sure about Braden. She didn’t see his car. But she assumed he was probably at the closest coffee shop searching for apartments in the paper.

“Open up!” Scarlett shouted. The door opened a crack, and she saw Jesse standing there.

He looked like shit, as though he had been drinking and not sleeping for several nights. He was dressed in a pair of navy cotton pajama bottoms and nothing else. Scarlett shoved her way inside, smelling stale vodka on his breath as she got close to his unshaven face. “Listen, you asshole,” she said, not bothering with any sort of greeting. “You’re such a worthless piece of shit. Do you have any idea how low you are?”

Jesse rubbed his eyes and regarded her with a sad, tired expression. “I think you’ve got the wrong guy, Scarlett. Braden’s out.”

“Yeah, I’ll take care of him next. How
dare
you? Jane
dumps
your pathetic ass, and instead of sucking it up like a man you go to the fucking tabloids and try to sell those sleazy photos of her and Braden? What makes you think you—”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Jesse held up his palms. “Wait a
second. You think
I
gave those photos to the magazine?”

“Yeah, deny it and act innocent all you want. I know the truth.”

“No, you
don’t
know the truth. It was Madison.”

“Madison?” Scarlett said, surprised. “Wait. What?”

“She asked me to meet with her a few days ago in some dive bar. I agreed, ’cause I thought maybe Jane had sent her to talk to me or something,” Jesse explained. “That’s when she showed me the photos. I have no idea where she got them. She told me I should get even with Jane by taking them to Veronica Bliss at
Gossip.
”

“She…did…
what
?” The volume of Scarlett’s voice quickly rose.

Jesse grabbed her arm. “Listen to me. Those photos made me sick to my stomach. I wanted to kill them both. I still do, to be honest. But there was no way I was gonna do that to Jane. I still care about her. I couldn’t do that to her.” He added, “I guess I shoulda warned Jane about what Madison was up to. I didn’t think about that until it was too late.”

Scarlett stared at Jesse for a long moment. She could see it in his eyes. He was telling the truth. He was still the same screwed-up, arrogant asshole who wasn’t good enough for Jane. But in this horrible, awful instant, he
was
telling the truth.

Which meant that Madison—that psychotic bitch—had orchestrated all of this.

And Scarlett had left Jane alone with her.

Scarlett was completely out of breath when she burst into her and Jane’s apartment. She looked around. Madison and Jane were gone.

“What the hell?” Scarlett muttered, stomping around the apartment. She checked Jane’s bedroom. There was no sign of them anywhere. “What did you do with her, you crazy bitch?” Her chest swelled with anxiety and worry.

And then she saw. There was a note taped up on the refrigerator. Jane had scribbled it hastily on the back of a Chinese carry-out bill. It read: