A Friend, Indeed

FREYA

I was beginning to squirm under the intensity of both Jeb’s and Liam’s attention.

As much as I didn’t want to concede to Liam’s demands, I’d come here to pretend to be his girlfriend.

So I could ~also~ pretend to obey him right there, in front of his band, and then give him hell later on.

Locking eyes with Liam, I slowly pulled off the jacket.

“Happy?” I spat at him.

He grunted in approval. “We still need another hour,” he said in a low voice. “Can you behave yourself that long?”

“Yes, sir,” I said with a wide, spiteful grin plastered onto my face.

He grabbed the jacket, and when he walked back into the recording booth, he threw it at Jeb.

“Let’s take it one more time from the top,” Liam said, strumming his guitar a little too vigorously.

***

When the studio session was finally over, Liam and I retreated to the car in silence.

I waited for him to say something—anything—to break it, but he wouldn’t.

On the ride over to the studio, he’d looked at me with gentle, kind eyes.

Now, just hours later, he refused to look at me at all.

And I couldn’t understand why.

Was he mad at me for wearing another man’s jacket while I was pretending to be his girlfriend?

Or was he genuinely jealous about it?

His outburst ~did~ seem real.

All I knew was that we couldn’t just continue to avoid the situation. We lived together.

And if we were going to effectively keep up this relationship ruse until his tour, then communication would be essential. Otherwise we’d drive each other to the brink of insanity.

“Liam,” I mustered, turning to face him.

He said nothing.

“Hey,” I said, reaching for his hand.

He was noticeably startled at my advance.

A soft gasp escaped his mouth, and then his cheeks immediately reddened.

“Why are you mad at me?” I asked him. “It was just a jacket. I was cold and he offered it.”

“It’s never just a jacket,” Liam finally said. “Especially with Jeb.”

“I don’t know anything about Jeb,” I said. “I don’t know what kind of guy he is.”

“He’s not the kind of guy you should be flirting with.”

“Listen, Liam,” I said softly. “I’ll do what you want when the cameras are around. But otherwise, I’m not your pet, okay? You can’t just boss me around.”

“I know that,” he said, and I could sense the frustration in his voice. “But something happened to me when I saw you in it…it was like when Ryan put you in that dress…”

“What?” I asked him, but he didn’t respond.

So I continued to press him. I wasn’t sure what I was fishing for, but I had the bait ready.

“You hated that dress,” I said. “You thought I looked bad.”

“Freya,” he said my name harshly. “The only thing bad about that dress was the fact that the world got to see you looking so fucking good in it.”

With that, he grabbed a pair of over-ear headphones out of his bag and shoved them onto his head.

I was glad that he drowned me out with music so that he couldn’t hear my heart racing at record speed.

~Holy shit.~

~Does Liam Henderson actually find me attractive?~

Just then, my phone buzzed. When I looked at the screen, my stomach tightened.

It was Darla.

Darla

Waiting 4 u!

Darla

What’s ur ETA?

~Shit.~

She still showed up for Central Park Sunday, even though I didn’t respond to her last message.

I was still supremely pissed at Darla for how she’d treated me the last time we’d met, but I also felt a pang of guilt at the thought of her sitting alone, waiting for me.

Besides, the car was taking us back up Fifth Avenue, so we were already driving parallel to Central Park.

~Ugh.~

~Fine.~

Freya

Be there in 10

Darla

YAY! <3

I tapped on the partition to get Daryl’s attention.

“Hey,” I said. “Can you pull over when you get the chance? I’m gonna hop out and meet a friend.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said, signaling right and pulling to a stop.

Liam ripped off his headphones. “What’s going on?” he asked.

“I’m just gonna jump out and meet a friend,” I said, remembering to unbuckle my seat belt this time as I moved toward the door.

“Oh.” I thought Liam might put up a fight—try to stop me from getting out of the car—but instead he just said, “Are you gonna come home after?”

~Home.~

It sounded crazy, but despite having only been there for under week, his apartment kind of ~was~ starting to feel like home.

“Yes,” I said. “I’ll be ~home~ soon.”

Before he put his headphones back on, he said, “Be careful out there.”

“I’ve lived in New York for a while, Liam.”

“But people know your face now,” he said. “Just make sure nobody messes with you. I’m sure you won’t let that happen, anyway.”

I smiled at him and then emerged into the crisp evening air.

***

When I arrived at our usual meeting place—a nondescript boulder that we had become overly attached to—Darla looked more excited to see me than ever before.

“FREY-FREY!” she shouted.

“Dar-Dar,” I deadpanned, but my mocking tone didn’t seem to register with her.

She just giggled and pulled me in for a tight embrace. Then she sat me down onto the big, slightly damp rock.

“Tell. Me. EVERYTHING!” she shouted. “How did you meet? What’s he like? Is he nice? Are you guys in love?”

“Slow down, Darla,” I said. “We just started seeing each other. It’s nothing serious.”

“But he took you to Mako!” she squealed. “That place is always crawling with paparazzi. He must have wanted to show you off.”

I shrugged nonchalantly, relishing in how casual I was acting about something that was clearly so mind-blowing to Darla.

This was the first time since we’d become friends that I had something more exciting to share than she did.

Our chats were always ~her~ auditions, ~her~ job, ~her~ engagement.

Now it was her turn to hear about ~me.~ But I wasn’t talking much.

“He’s just so beautiful,” she said, practically drooling. “You’re so lucky. And he’s lucky too, of course. You must be so happy.”

As she said those words, her face fell a little, and for a second, I felt sorry for her.

When she’d started dating Marcus, we’d both known why.

He afforded her a quality of life that she had coveted for quite some time.

She didn’t come from much, and she convinced herself that her fantasies were worth sacrificing for financial security.

But I could tell that she was trying to live vicariously through me in that moment.

“Listen,” I said, “the press is making a bigger deal of it than it really is. We’re just getting to know each other.”

“That’s so hot,” she said, and I couldn’t help but laugh.

I wanted to make her feel better, so I decided to ask her a question about the thing that bored me the most in this world. “How’s the wedding planning going?” I said.

“I just had the final dress fitting,” she said with a grin, but it appeared more dampened than usual.

“Can I see a picture?”

“Sure,” she said. “Or…would you rather wait and be surprised on the big day?”

“But—wait—I thought you said it was only close friends and family at the wedding.”

Darla’s cheeks flushed. “You’re both of those things to me,” she said, pulling out an invitation and handing it over.

“~Now~ I am?” I asked her, and her cheeks reddened even more.

I stared incredulously at the envelope, a mixture of disappointment and rage bubbling inside me.

Suddenly, I understood why Liam was so untrusting of other people. Connection to fame made them horrible, greedy, and completely fake.

I tore through the envelope and retrieved the thick card stock, embedded with gold foil and tasteful calligraphy.

At the bottom, in sharpie, it said, “For Freya (and a Plus One!!)”

~Absolutely shameless…~

I looked up at Darla with a sad smile. “I don’t think I can make it,” I said. “But thanks anyway.”

“I understand,” she said. She didn’t try to push me. Darla knew that what she had done was pathetic.

We sat in silence for several moments. When I couldn’t take it anymore, I rose from my seat. “I’m gonna head to Liam’s,” I said.

She nodded, and I left without saying another word.

Darla had let me down before, but never this badly.

And she knew it too. I could feel her eyes on me as I walked away.

***

As I walked up Fifth Avenue toward Liam’s apartment, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was being watched.

Not by Darla, but by someone else.

Liam’s words from earlier reverberated in my head. ~People know your face now. Just make sure nobody messes with you.~

Night was falling.

I clutched my phone in my pocket, ready to dial for help if I needed it.

But then I let go of it again, realizing that I was being completely ridiculous.

Still, I kept stopping in my tracks and turning around.

Every time I did, I found that I was alone.

But then, as I stepped onto Liam’s block, I turned around once more and saw a man in a blue baseball cap watching me.

As soon as we locked eyes, he swerved and ducked into a storefront.

I quickened my pace to a run, only stopping to breathe when I had crossed the threshold into Liam’s apartment building.

Was I being paranoid?

Or was that man in the hat really following me?