The Year of the Great Seventh by Teresa Orts Read Free Book Online Page A

felt about me. This wasn’t my suspicion anymore; now it had become the plain truth.
    It didn’t matter how long I postponed going back to school; sooner or later, I was going to have to face Nate.
     
     

 
    CHAPTER IV

     
    THE NEXT MORNING, MEGAN picked me up on her way to the set of Criminal Defense, where she had a guest role for five shows. Most teenagers would be thrilled with the idea of spending a day at a TV set, but ironically, even with Mom in the industry, I hadn’t fallen under the Hollywood spell. The only thing that mattered to me was history. At least I was glad to have something to keep my mind occupied. After the way Nate treated me the day before, it was going to be difficult to trust anyone ever again. I couldn’t forgive myself for having believed in Cinderella stories. I’d learned the hard way that clichés exist for a reason. The high school pretty boy was always a heartless narcissist, and that was never going to change, whether I liked it or not.
    I longed anxiously for the end of my high school years. Nate’s cruelty had been a wakeup call. As of this day, I’d accepted defeat. I didn’t fit in and never would. Now, more than ever, I knew L.A. wasn’t going to be where I would find my space in the world. I was counting down the days to get onto a plane to New York, never to return. The end of my high school years seemed more distant than ever.
    Megan had never asked me before to spend the day with her at a set, which is why I felt compelled to accept. I understood the gesture as a silent cry for my attention. She usually loved acting and was more than happy to be at the set by herself.
    Thankfully, Mom provided no resistance to me skipping the day’s classes. I suspected she was still hopeful Megan would lure me into an acting career. The chance of that happening was bordering on zero.
    Today, my self-esteem was at a record low. I was sure I was never going to get over Nate’s bitter words. I couldn’t stop replaying them in my mind.
    Trying to piece myself together, if only for a moment, I intended to make Megan my priority. She’d asked me to accompany her today because she needed my help, and I didn’t want to fail her.
    Megan was focused on her driving, as it was the morning rush hour. The street was busy with cars. She bit her lip, frustrated by the traffic jam. She was wearing an old blue-checked shirt and a pair of ragged jeans, showing that none of her show business success had gone to her head.
    “Grrrrr.” Megan groaned under her Ray-Bans as a car cut her off.
    There was something about Megan’s body language that told me something was deeply tormenting her. Megan and I knew each other so well that we could almost read each other’s mind. For that same reason, I was a bit worried she could intuit that something had happened to me, too.
    I really wished I could share with Megan my anger toward Nate, but now it was too late; I’d chosen to act behind her back. Megan wasn’t fond of Nate, and she would’ve advised me not to meet with him. I’d been in absolute denial. I didn’t want to hear the obvious. This is why I kept it from everyone. My friends would’ve told me this was a mistake from the first moment.
    I’d once again let my imagination weave out of control. I secretly wished Nate would turn my monotonous life into an adventure, and now I was paying for my daydreaming. He’d burst my bubble with a slap of reality. Nate revealed the secret that forces you to become a grown up: life is sadly not a fairy tale and tends to be quite unfair.
    I tried to leave my gloomy thoughts to one side and focus on Megan. My intuition was telling me she needed my full attention. My silence was making her uncomfortable. I wanted to ask directly what was going on with her, but I didn’t know where to begin.
    She turned on the radio and skimmed through stations. None of them seemed to suit her, as she finally turned it off. Eventually, she spoke. “What’s up with you today?