Secrets of My Hollywood Life #5: Broadway Lights (29 page)

"We are sick of the drama," said Kaitlin, who claimed she was calling from her New York City apartment (although we heard airplanes taking off in the background). "Sky and I are tired of the back-and-forth between the so-called Team Sky and Kaitlin and Team Ava and Lauren. We just want this whole fight to end," Kaitlin added. "It doesn't matter who started it or why it started. We want the negative energy to go away. No one can win this. We're going to continue to hurt each other. Why? Because we don't get along? We don't have to get along. We can stay out of each other's space and live our lives. That's what I intend to do. I've been doing a lot of thinking and I realize now that nothing good comes of being vengeful and hurtful. You're better off letting some things slide and this is one of them. After tonight, Sky and I won't be answering any more questions about Lauren and Ava's behavior--no matter what they throw our way."

This statement is in sharp contrast to another interview that was posted online just twenty-four hours ago by a less-reputable entertainment outlet. Kaitlin admits the quotes were hers, but says she wasn't thinking clearly at the time of the interview. "I had a rough night and I think I took things too far," she admits. "I apologize for being just as down-and-dirty as Lauren and Ava have been. I don't normally act that way and I regret my behavior. If my statements hurt anyone reading them, I apologize."

Sky was in full agreement with her former
Family Affair
costar on the silent treatment Kaitlin is suggesting. "What good is going to come of this fight?" Sky asked. "Nothing. It's a way to get more headlines and public attention, and K and I are not the type to crave that. Those two keep doing more and more public displays of hatred to try to keep their fifteen minutes of fame going. Well, their fifteen minutes are over because we are not firing back anymore."

Sky was Tweeting while she spoke, saying she was "hoping to get my last two cents in before we shut down this whole discussion completely!" Her Tweets during the midnight hour included: "LET THE HATERS CONTINUE TO HATE. WE ARE OUT OF THIS!" And: "LAVA knows what they've done and they've got to live with that. This star refuses to be dimmed by their callousness." Our favorite: "LAVA, you will not get any more press out of us. We've got bigger fish to fry, you guppies. Go back to the small pond where you belong."

Hearing SKAT on the same page had this reporter wondering: Are the former frenemies now just plain friends? Both skirted around the issue, with Sky even asking, "How did K respond to that question?" But there is one important thing to note: They were together, late at night, somewhere loud (airplanes!), going somewhere else together. Isn't that the sort of thing friends do? Sky laughed when
CIO
suggested that, but she wasn't so quick to laugh off our question about rumors that the pair could work together again on a fall pilot. "I can't comment on that, but you know you'd love it if we would." Kaitlin was equally coy. "If that's true, I'd be pretty lucky," she said, as Sky chided her in the background. "If there's one thing I can say about Sky, it's that at least with her, I know where I stand. With Lauren and Ava I never did. Wait. That was sort of a dig, wasn't it?" she said with a laugh. "I take that back! I'm done hurling insults. Insulting people is not what I'm about. New York was my summer to try new things and I have, but the important thing is not to forget who I was before," Kaitlin added. "I realize that now and that's why I'm stopping this feud craziness. Hopefully
Celebrity Insider
will help us too."

So what do you think? Should we stop the Team SKAT and Team LAVA coverage? Tweet your thoughts to @celebinsider.

FIFTEEN: Texas or Bust

"The snack machine had Chex mix!" Sky looks happy as she bounds onto the hotel room bed, shaking the frame and causing Liz to almost spill her Sprite all over her nightshirt. I brace for the impact. "Oh, God, so sorry, Lizzie!" Sky races to her half of the bed in way-too-short black pajama shorts and a pink bedazzled tank that says TEAM SKAT. "Did you get wet? You can wear my new green tank I got at Topshop if you did."

It's amazing what can happen when you spend a six-hour plane flight and car ride with people you normally dislike. Maybe instead of sending a message to Lauren and Ava via
Celebinsider.com
, we should have asked them to come to Texas with us. It's done wonders for Liz and Sky. Somewhere over Tennessee they bonded over their love of Ryan Reynolds and started trading their favorite movie lines. By the time we crossed the Texas border, Sky had agreed to star in Liz's final class project--a five-minute video that she has to write and shoot within a week.

"Look, it's just a little drip," Liz tells Sky, pointing at her kickboxing T-shirt. "No biggie."

No biggie? Ha! If I had done that to her favorite shirt, she would have squirted her Sprite back at me. I give her a look.

"Chex?" Sky holds out the bag for me and winks.

"No, thanks." All I want is get a little sleep before I see Austin. I wanted to show up at his dorm room tonight when we got in, but Nadine said that arriving at his dorm at five AM might cause a small commotion. So instead we checked into the nearest hotel ("A Doubletree?" Sky scowled. "Eww.") and everyone made me agree to set the alarm clock for ten AM so that I didn't show up "with huge bags under your eyes and a major zit." (Liz. Sky laughed though.) The only room they had left was a two-bedroom suite in a full-on Texas motif so Nadine and I are bunking together and Liz and Sky are in the other bed. Matty and Rodney are already snoring in the other room, but I can't sleep.

"K, if you don't shut your eyes soon, you're going to have a meltdown, and I really don't want to take you to a hospital in Texas." Sky shudders.

"Enough breakdown talk." I sigh. I hug my way-too-fluffy pillow to my chest and lean back against the wood headboard. I pull my custom Ahsoka Tano shirt that Austin had made for me over my mouth. "I'm already"--
yawn
--"freaked out enough as it is."

"Kates, you know Austin is totally going to forgive you once he sees you." Liz smiles. "I called Josh earlier and he didn't even mention you two having a fight. If it was major, he would have told Josh. And if he told Josh, Josh would have told me."

I stare at the picture of the cattle ranch on the far wall, not sure if I buy her logic. "I keep trying to rehearse what I'm going to say to Austin, but the words get all tangled up. I don't know where to start."

"Just make out with him." Sky shrugs. "That always works for me. Then they forget why you were fighting in the first place."

"On that inspiring note, it's time to sleep," Nadine says. She leans over and turns off the light next to me. Sky turns over and flips off the light next to her bed as well. It's dark, but I can already see the sky lightening between the cracks of the window curtains.

"Guys?" I ask through the blackness as my eyelids get heavier. The only thing I can hear is the whir of the air-conditioning unit in the wall and Nadine twisting and turning next to me. It feels like the safest time to admit my darkest fear. "What if all this bickering and all the missed phone calls are a sign of a bigger problem? What if Austin likes De-Manda?"

"You deal with that road if you come to it, which I don't think you will." Liz sounds so calm that I'm jealous.

"But what if we break up?" I almost whisper.

"If that happens, then I'll be there for you." Liz's voice is strong and reassuring.

"
We'll
be there for you," Sky corrects, which makes me a little teary. But I'm too tired to cry.

"We'll all be there for you," Liz amends.

"You're not alone, Kaitin." Nadine is not asleep yet either, apparently. "We've got your back. That's what friends are for."

And that's the last thing I remember hearing before I fall asleep.

* * *

The next thing I remember is my alarm going off at ten AM. Sky hits the snooze three times and then Liz says she's changing the wake-up time to eleven since we don't have a specific time we're meeting Austin anyway. I think about fighting her, but I'm too tired and a little worried that Liz might be right about the under-eye circles. By eleven-thirty we're all up. Nadine's BlackBerry keeps going off and to keep her from hurling it against the wall, I read the latest message to her then immediately regret doing so. It's Mom asking where we are. She had called the apartment twice and gotten no answer. Nadine jumps up to call her from the closet and warns the rest of us to keep our voices down. While Matty and Sky take showers in the two separate bathrooms, and Liz watches
The View
, I check my phone. For some reason it's off, even though I don't remember turning it off. As soon as it powers up, I see the text. It was sent at eight-thirty this morning.

AUSTIN'S CELL: Tried calling all night, but no answer. Call me, okay? We need 2 talk.

"Guys, Austin texted me!" I scream.

"Let me see!" Liz jumps up and reads the text. "He tried calling? When?"

"I know I had my phone on all night, but it was just off. " We stare at the screen as the low-battery light blinks menacingly and the phone shuts off again. Liz smacks me in the shoulder.

"Kates, you forgot to charge your phone? You know how quickly iPhones run out of juice!" Liz reprimands and places her hands on her low-rise Juicy Couture cropped denim jeans (she's paired them with the cutest Alice & Oliva yellow silk ruffle camisole). I don't know how I can be thinking about clothes at a time like this. "Austin could have been calling you since we were in New York! When was the last time you looked at your phone?"

I bite my lip. "I don't know." She looks at me. "I was checking during the show last night, but then I guess I got so wrapped up in leaving for Texas I threw my phone in my bag and forgot about it. Don't tell Nadine," I beg loudly and scramble in my bag for the phone charger. When I find it, I quickly plug the phone in to charge. It's completely dead now.

Nadine rushes out of the closet she was in and shushes me angrily and then points to her phone. She's already dressed too (a pale blue Gap V-neck empire top and her favorite white Ann Taylor Loft cargo shorts). I'm the only one procrastinating.

"I am trying to not let on that we're out of state," Nadine hisses. "I'm trying to throw her off by changing the subject. I told her you have an appointment at the DMV in Los Angeles the week we get back from New York."

"Good one," I tell Nadine.

HOLLYWOOD SECRET NUMBER FIFTEEN: Getting my license isn't really a secret, I know. I've been trying to get it forever and I really am taking the test when I go home at the end of the summer, but how celebrities deal with things like the DMV is sort of a juicy tidbit. Ever wonder why you never bump into Kim Kardashian renewing her license? That's because she probably never waits in line. Certain places, like the DMV in Hollywood or Beverly Hills, have a side entrance, and from time to time they let celebrities use it. You could say it's getting us out of the two-hour line, but the DMV sees it as helping them as well. If a star causes a commotion in line, that would be a lot harder to take care of than letting us cut to the front of the line to get new license plates.

I reread Austin's text twice. "Him texting me has to be a good sign, right? He didn't say anything about the message I left him saying I didn't want to break up. Do you think that means he does want to break up? And then there's this 'We need to talk' part. That can't be good, can it?"

"Oh, God, get in the shower already so we can get you over there and shut you up," Sky barks, as she walks out of the bathroom in an olive green polka dot Walter dress. I'll forgive her attitude because I know she's cranky from the lack of eight hours sleep.

Matty emerges and I do as I'm told. By one-thirty we're out the door and Rodney is driving the rental minivan to Austin's camp, the Longhorn Lacrosse Clinic, which is held at a local college. I was so nervous about the trip that I didn't give a lot of consideration to what I'd be wearing for my big confrontation with Austin. Luckily I was able to cobble a decent outfit together from Sky's, Liz's, and my stuff. I have on Sky's white Marc by Marc Jacobs cotton chambray pleated top and Liz's royal blue Leanne Marshall linen ruffle skirt. Around my neck is the necklace Austin gave me last Christmas.

I realize when we pull up to campus that I have no clue what dorm Austin is in and there are four. Then Nadine remembers that I sent Austin a care package the first week I arrived in New York--I haven't sent one since. Gulp. She finds the address on her BlackBerry and pulls up the dorm name. We get inside, thanks to a girl who recognizes Sky and me, and make it to Austin's room, but there's no answer. The whole floor is deserted.

"Um, guys? It's midday, there's no one here, and this is a lacrosse camp," Matty says. "Want to take a guess where they might be?"

"The lacrosse fields?" Rodney is hopeful.

"Austin told me they didn't play during the heat of the day," I tell the others.

"That girl said they were on a different schedule this week," Liz points out. "Maybe they're playing. It's worth a shot, no?"

"Let's go." I take off ahead of the group. I can't wait another minute to see Austin.

We don't have to go far to find the fields, which are swarming with players in blue and yellow pinnies.

"How did we miss this?" Liz marvels as we hurry across the grass. The heat is brutal here. I'm sweating already and we've only been outside for a few minutes. I can't imagine why they'd practice in this. Austin said they usually worked out in the morning and late afternoon, but it's almost two and they are all on the field. The question is, with so many guys and girls running around, how am I going to find Austin?

"Hey, aren't you Sky Mackenzie?" A guy with sweaty tousled brown hair leans on his lacrosse stick and stares straight into Sky's eyes. She smiles and sashays her olive green dress side to side.

"Yes I am. Hi, cowboy," she purrs.

Liz laughs. "What makes you think he's a cowboy?"

"We're in Texas," Sky points out.

"This is camp, he could be from anywhere!" Liz is incredulous.