The Heartbreakers (20 page)

On the morning of the movie premiere, I still didn’t have an outfit to wear. Oliver was planning on taking me shopping, but then his phone rang.

“Hello?” He started to pace around the room, answering whoever was on the other end with a series of “yeses.” Finally he told the caller that he would be there shortly and hung up.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“Have to run downtown and stop by Mongo headquarters,” he explained. “You don’t mind going shopping without me, do you?”

“No, but is everything okay?”

“Yeah,” he said, shoving his phone into his pocket. He leaned over and kissed my forehead. “Have fun, okay? See you tonight.”

Five dresses, three pairs of heels, and two necklaces later, I managed to make it back to the hotel without spending all the money I had earned over the past month. JJ was on the couch playing a video game when I stepped in, so I dropped my shopping bags and plopped down next to him.

“I’m wiped,” I told him. Maybe I’d have time for a nap before we needed to get ready.

“I can see that,” he said. “Looks like you bought an entire mall.”

“I couldn’t make up my mind,” I told him sheepishly.

“On what?”

“Which dress to wear tonight, so I just got them all.”

JJ set down the controller and turned to me. “Well, let’s see them. I’ll help you pick.”

So I pulled each dress out of the bag. First was the flowing, purple A-line with a sparkly bodice.

“Nope. Too prommy,” JJ said as I held it up against my chest. Next I pulled out a long, red mermaid gown, which had probably been my most expensive purchase of the day. “Hmm,” JJ said, stroking his chin as he considered. “That has potential. Next.”

Then there was the light-blue high-low dress, which JJ nixed because he thought it was too little-girlish, and a halter that he didn’t like because it was overwhelmingly pink. There was only one dress left, and I was worried that my shopping trip had been a complete failure.

“Last one,” I said, pulling the dress out. I’d spotted it in the window of a boutique on my way back to the hotel, so I’d stopped to try it on. It was the definition of a little black dress—vintage cocktail, but with edgy lace and tarnished golden studs—one that could only be described as Marilyn Monroe meets modern day.

“That one, definitely,” JJ said without hesitation as the tissue paper fell away.

“You really think so?”

“No contest.”

“Okay.” I smiled to myself, happy that one of my choices would work. “But don’t tell Oliver. I want it to be a surprise. Is he back yet?”

JJ shrugged, so I left my bags on the coffee table and went in search of him. After knocking on his door, I poked my head inside. On the bed was his suitcase. It was flung open and a few clothing items had spilled out onto the comforter. A pair of shoes had been kicked off next to the armchair, but there were no other signs of him.

The reading lamp had been left on, so I went over to the table to turn it off. Only then did I notice the book resting on the cushion of the armchair. Scooping it up, I sat down and opened the cover. When I saw the first page, I realized that it wasn’t a book. It was a photo album. Smiling up at me was a picture of us together, the first day we’d met in Chicago. God, that felt so long ago.

As I flipped through the plastic pages, I realized that Oliver had been printing out photographs I posted on my blog and adding them to his personal collection. The pictures were mainly the ones just of us, but there were a few with the other guys as well. By the time I reached the last page, a huge grin spread across my face. Knowing that I was important enough to Oliver for him to make a photo album of us made me feel loopy in a happy-go-lucky way.

“Stella?” Xander asked, pushing open the door. “Is Oliver here?”

“No,” I said, smiling like a crazy person. “I have no clue where he is.”

“Why do you look so happy?”

“Oh nothing,” I said, biting back my grin.

“Okay,” Xander said, giving me a strange look. “Well, we should probably start getting ready for tonight.”

“All right,” I said. “I’m going to head back to my room and shower.”

“When you’re done, Julie and Ken will be here.”

Julie and Ken were the boys’ makeup artist and hair stylist. I’d met the beauty team a plethora of times when the boys needed to get ready for concerts or interviews or any other kind of public appearance, but they’d never styled me before.

“They’re going to help me get ready?” I asked, bouncing from foot to foot.

“Yeah, silly,” he said with a grin. “You are making a public appearance with us tonight.”

“Oh my God,” I gushed, and I knew I sounded exactly like Cara. “This is so awesome.”

I hurried through my shower routine, barely able to rein in my excitement for the night. After stepping out onto the mat, I wrapped a robe around myself and rushed back to the boys’ suite. The kitchen table had been turned into a salon complete with makeup, styling gel, a hair dryer, a curling iron, and a large range of combs and brushes. Alec was already sitting in one of the chairs while Ken worked on his signature hair style.

“Hi, Stella,” Julie said when she spotted me. “I hear you’re going to the premiere tonight.”

“Yup,” I said, grinning at her.

“All right, why don’t you sit down and I’ll get started on your makeup.”

My whole transformation took nearly three hours. Julie went slowly, planning everything from my eye shadow down to my lips. After a year of only doing the boys’ makeup, which consisted of a layer of foundation to smooth out any blemishes, working on a girl must have been a treat. In the end, she decided on a golden, smoky eye and bright-red lips.

After my makeup was finished, Ken took his turn. First, he curled my hair into elegant waves. Then he took the bottom layer of my hair, pulled it back into a ponytail, and pinned it up. After almost a full can of hair spray, he managed to mold my hair into a beautiful marcel wave with my blue streak running through the middle like a bolt of blue lightning.

“You like?” he asked when he finally held up a mirror for me to see.

“Can you do my hair every day?” I asked jokingly.

I never thought I’d use the term to describe myself, but I looked sophisticated. After I pulled on my black dress and heels, I twirled in front of my bathroom mirror to see my completed look. Not to brag, but Oliver was going to be blown away.

“Damn,” someone whistled. I turned to see JJ resting against the door frame, looking smart in a black tuxedo. “Looking like a hot mama tonight.”

“You think?” I asked, glancing at my dress.

JJ looked me up and down in a not-so-subtle way. A slow smirk pulled at his lips, and he stepped up to me. “Oliver’s gonna blow his load when he sees you.”

At this, I gasped and smacked JJ on the arm, pretending to be offended. In reality, his words were flattering even if I was too embarrassed to admit that out loud. “Do you always have to be so vulgar?”

“What?” he asked, pressing a hand to his heart in mock-offense. “That was a compliment.”

I rolled my eyes. “In your own nasty, perverted way, I know you were trying to be nice,” I said, “but still.”

“What about me?” he asked with a pout. “Aren’t you going to tell me how dashing I look?”

“I suppose you clean up nicely,” I teased, which was stingy of me—JJ always looked handsome.

“That’s it? Not so hot that you’re going to dump Oliver for me?”

I shot JJ a pointed look. He cracked a grin in response, and soon we were both laughing. As much as JJ flirted with me, I knew he didn’t mean anything by it. JJ was like that around any girl, he was just that type of guy, and it never affected our relationship in a negative way. Truthfully, he was always so easygoing and entertaining that I felt like we’d been friends for years, ones that were so comfortable around each other that we could joke about anything.

It surprised me that he didn’t have a girlfriend. He was hilarious and kind, not to mention that most of the female population would bend over backward to date him. I’d asked him about it one afternoon, and he explained that he took relationships very seriously. Since the boys’ lives were so hectic and busy, JJ said he’d never be able to devote enough of his time to make a girl happy, and I thought that was adorable.

“Hey, Stella?” Xander called, bursting into the bedroom.

I looked up at him, noting the concern in his voice. “Yeah?”

“Oliver hasn’t—whoa,” he said, stopping when he saw me.

“She’s hot, right?” JJ asked, nodding at his friend.

Xander blushed. “Yeah,” he said sheepishly. “You look nice, Stella.”

“Thanks. You look good yourself,” I told him. “What were you going to say about Oliver?”

“He hasn’t called you, has he?” he asked, trying to sound hopeful.

“No, why?” I’d checked my phone several times today, so I knew I had no new messages, but I reached for my cell out of instinct.

“He still hasn’t shown up yet,” Xander said, his forehead wrinkling with worry. His words made me frown. “It isn’t like him to just disappear.”

“Have you talked to Courtney?” I asked. If anyone knew where Oliver was it would be her. She always kept tabs on the boys, not because she was a control freak and it was her job, but because if she didn’t, they’d probably get in to some kind of mischief.

“That’s the strange thing,” Xander said, the lines in his brow deepening. “I called her, and she doesn’t seem worried at all.”

“What?” JJ responded, and joined us in frowning. “That doesn’t sound like Courtney. Normally she’d freak out.”

Xander nodded quickly in agreement. “I know, right? She told us to meet her in the lobby in ten, so I guess we’ll have to ask her then.”

Ten minutes passed quickly, and Oliver still hadn’t returned. All the excitement I felt for the evening was slowly trickling away, and it was being replaced with a stomach dropping feeling.

Alec looked down at his phone. “Guys, we need to leave.”

“I think I’m going to stay here,” I told the boys. If something bad had happened to Oliver, I didn’t want to show up at the movie premiere without him.

“You sure?” Alec asked me.

I nodded and said, “So I guess I’ll see you guys there?”

“You bet,” Xander said and gave me a hug.

“Good luck,” JJ added, flashing me a wicked grin. “Don’t trip on the carpet.”

“Thanks,” I said sarcastically, my heart suddenly racing.

When the door slammed shut, leaving me alone, I perched on the edge of the couch and waited for Oliver to arrive.

I waited. And then I waited some more. I looked down at my cell phone and saw that it was ten o’clock, and I knew that he wasn’t coming. I sat there anyway, hoping that I was wrong. After that, I didn’t keep track of the time, and the night passed in a blur. It must have been a little after midnight when the front door opened and a concerned voice called my name.

“Stella, are you here?” I hardly noticed as Xander joined me on the couch. “Hey, are you okay?” I didn’t respond. I could barely hear him over the sound of the blood rushing in my ears.

“Stella?” JJ asked, crouching next to me. He waved a hand in front of my face. “Stella, snap out of it.”

I blinked and looked up at them. Xander looked horrified, like he had been told someone died, and JJ was red in the face. Alec was standing behind them and he looked…deadly. The gleam in his eyes was almost frightening.

“He didn’t come,” I said finally and looked up at my friends.

“We know,” Xander said. “We saw him there.” He bit his lip, and I knew he was holding something back.

“What is it?” I asked. My heart was hammering against my chest in anticipation, but I could feel the dread like poison in my veins. In that moment, I knew what he was going to say. Xander hesitated, as if he was afraid he was going to break my heart with a few simple words.

Alec said it for him. “Oliver went with someone else.”

• • •

She was a model. The boys hadn’t wanted to tell me, but I made them. I had to see the girl Oliver went to the premiere with, the one he ditched me for. Apparently the two arrived shortly after the rest of the band, and when Oliver walked her down the red carpet, the paparazzi and reporters went crazy with speculation. It didn’t take me long to google her, and I discovered that Amelia Rose had long, endless legs and stunning red hair.

“She’s not Oliver’s type at all,” JJ said, snapping me back to reality. He was sitting on the opposite couch, and his mouth briefly settled into a white line. “When she stepped out of the limo with him, I was so shocked I almost…” He trailed off and shook his head. “I don’t understand.”

“Yeah,” Xander added. “We’ve never met her before. She just came out of nowhere.”

“Seriously?” Alec hissed, glaring at both of his bandmates. “You guys aren’t helping.”

“Right, sorry,” JJ muttered, looking at me apologetically. Then a fierce look crossed his face and he leaned toward me. “When he gets back, I’m going to beat him senseless.”

“Stella, you have to believe us,” Xander said then, cutting off JJ before he could make any more threats. “As soon as we realized you weren’t with Oliver we wanted to leave, but Courtney wouldn’t let us.”

“It’s fine,” I said, brushing the comment off. I wasn’t upset with the boys—I was merely trying to sound removed, like Oliver’s actions hadn’t torn my insides apart and left me feeling gutted. They’d done nothing wrong. There was only one heartbreaker in this band.

Xander and Alec exchanged concerned looks, but I took no notice. As I stared at the picture of Amelia Rose glowing back at me on the computer screen, I realized that it didn’t matter who Oliver went with. He could have gone with a gorilla and I would still have felt betrayed. Sure, it hurt that he had taken a beautiful girl instead of me, but what really upset me was how he’d stood me up with no warning. It just didn’t make sense. The last time I saw Oliver, he was so excited to go with me. What had changed?

Obviously something had happened between when I saw him this morning and the premiere tonight. I just couldn’t figure out what. Before I could think of an explanation, the front door slammed shut and we all froze. I knew it had to be Oliver finally returning, and the panic that rose in my chest made it hard to breathe.