Over It (The Kiss Off #2) (20 page)

“What is going on over there, Poppy?” she asked, sounding concerned. I could almost hear her chewing on her fingernails.

My stomach plummeted to my toes. “What have you heard?” I asked. “
How
have you heard? How do you know stuff all the way in New York?”

“It’s all over Twitter and my Facebook newsfeed. The gossip blogs and celebrity sites…”

Oh God…

“Is it true? Are you into the Himbo?”

I came to an abrupt halt. “No!” I shouted, then flinched at how loud my voice was in the quiet row of tents. Nothing moved; nobody stirred.

“Okay. Good. Second, did he and Ty really get into a fight at a club?”

“How do you freaking know about that? It wasn’t even an hour ago.”

“That sounds like a yes.”

“It was truly the most pathetic fight I’ve ever seen,” I said (not that I’d seen that many fights. Aside from on TV), “but yes.”

“Did they really have to be hospitalized?”

“Hell no.”

“And was it really over you?”

“I knew that’s what it would look like. Did I say ‘hell no’ already?”

“You did.”

“Well hell
freaking
no, then.”

“That’s what they’re saying. You dumped Ty for the guy from The Himbos and they got into a massive brawl about it. It’s what every reader of celebrity gossip online thinks right now. I mean, all the ones who are still up this late, and international ones, I guess.”

I hadn’t even thought about that. Did people in like… Australia think I was cheating on Ty and flaunting it in his face? How was I supposed to get the truth out there?

“And they’re making some pretty mean connections, too,” Vanya said.

My stomach filled with butterflies hopped up on caffeine. “Oh God, like what?”

“Like it’s ironic that you wrote
The Kiss Off
because you were angry at your boyfriend for cheating on you, and now…”

“Shut up,” I said, covering my face with my free hand. “Shut
up.
”

“So what are you all doing about it?”

“They’re having a crisis meeting about it right now,” I said. “I don’t know about Ty, but personally, I’m thinking ignore the whole thing and hope it goes away.”

“Poppy.”

I pictured her frowning at me disappointedly in a hotel room somewhere in Manhattan. “It had nothing to do with me, Van! I’m just here to see some kick-ass live music, make out with my long–distance boyfriend and force two girls to be friends or die trying.” And I thought it might come to that, too.

“It’s just all gotten fucked up, Van,” I said.

“Are you okay?”

I thought for a moment, my eyes closed, rubbing my forehead wearily.

“Yeah,” I said, “I’ve got bigger fish to worry about.”

As soon as I had ended the call with Van, striding toward the camp site entrance, I held down my speed dial and somewhere, God knew where, Mads’ phone started ringing.

As soon as she answered, I said, “Where the hell are you guys?”

“Poppy?” Mads said, “Where are
you
?”

“I asked you first,” I said. “I’m at the camp site, where are
you
?”

“We’re at the hotel.”

Of course they were.

“You guys, she’s at the camp site,” I heard her say. Someone groaned. “We took the shuttle,” she continued. “Are you okay? What are you doing there?”

“I came to see you. What are
you
doing
there
?”

“We came here to see
you
,” Mads said.

It would have been almost comical if it hadn’t been so frustrating. I wanted to see my friends now, and that clearly wasn’t going to happen.

“Van called me earlier,” Mads said, as if that was all the explanation I needed. “She told me about the fight tonight. She saw it on an
E
! news flash thing. They had some footage of Ty and Gordo beating the crap out of each other that someone took with their phone, so I looked it up on YouTube.”

Van hadn’t told me it was on TV as well.

“Was it there?”

“Yep.”

Man. The digital age sucked.

I decided to ask the most important question there was: “Since when does Van watch
E
!, anyway?”

She ignored me. “Is it true that Ty had to be taken away in an ambulance?”

“No!” I covered my mouth again as I remembered I was surrounded by sleeping strangers. I glanced around the quiet row of tents and trailers and realized some of them could very well not be sleeping anymore, but listening, whether they wanted to be or not. I couldn’t remember exactly which tent those tween Academy fan–girls were in, but they were somewhere close by, I knew that much. “We met the car around the back at the staff entrance. And they’re both fine,” I whispered.

“Oh.” She sounded almost disappointed. “It didn’t look like much of a fight, anyway. So what should we do now? Should we come back?”

“No,” I said. “Is someone at reception? Can you book a room?”

“Aren’t you staying with Ty?”

“No one is sleeping in that room tonight,” I said. “They’ve got too many stories to quash. And I’ll never be able to concentrate on my song.”

“We can help you,” Mads said.

A wave of relief washed over me ”Really?”

“Yeah, of course,” Mads said. “I’m sure I can help some way. Nikki and Hamish too, probably. We’ll get this done, Pops. We’ll knock it out of the park.”

She knew exactly what I needed to hear. “I’ll be there soon.”

Armed with Mads’s suitcase and a request from both girls for pajamas, having sent Don the driver home for some much needed rest, I’d fluked it by walking out to the archway and main reception building just as a cab pulled up, letting a giggling couple out. As the driver helped me load the case into the trunk, Astrid wandered into the camp site from the street.

“Hi Poppy,” she said with a bright smile. “I haven’t seen you all day.” She spotted the suitcase as the driver slammed the trunk and headed back to the cab. She frowned. “Are you leaving?”

“Sort of. I don’t know,” I said, feeling guilty. I was touched; she really did look disappointed. “I’m just going to stay with the boyfriend,” I said. “Turns out I’m not such a fan of camping. Who knew?”

“Oh…” Astrid said. Her shoulders slumped.

I really felt for her. She obviously didn’t fit in with her girlfriends, just like Hamish didn’t fit in with his frat brothers; if they had, Hamish wouldn’t have been an afterthought and Astrid wouldn’t have kept losing her friends and would have spent more time with them having as much fun as they seemed to be having, which she totally deserved. She was a cool chick; I liked her a lot. But if I wasn’t camping here anymore, I wasn’t sure if I would ever see her again.

“Yeah,” I said awkwardly.

I didn’t know what to do. I wasn’t exactly going to swap numbers; it wasn’t likely we’d call each other from thousands of miles away. I didn’t want to add her as a friend on Facebook because then she’d discover I wasn’t just ordinary Poppy, but
that
Poppy, Poppy of ‘Ty and Poppy’ and our whole relationship would change when she found out I’d lied to her.

I
had
only known her a day, after all. Wow. Had it really only been a day?

“It was great meeting you,” I said. I opened my arms and stepped over to give her a gentle hug. I braced myself for her hands on my burnt back, but she didn’t touch it, which was good.

“You too,” Astrid said. She stepped back and smiled at me uncertainly. “I’m sure I’ll see you around tomorrow,” she said. “We’ll dance to Lexie De Graff together.”

I paused and wondered why, of all the acts, she’d picked Lexie De Graff.

“Yeah,” I lied as I slid into the cab, “cool. See you there!”

I knew we weren’t going to dance together to Lexie De Graff, because I was probably going to be holed up in a hotel room for the rest of the weekend, working on my song. I’d probably seen all of Bay Fest that I was going to.

I’d lied to her, ditched her, been no better than her other friends. I was a horrible human being.

When I got to the hotel, I bought a four–pack of Red Bull from the surprisingly 24–hour convenience store in the lobby. I stepped into the empty elevator and looked at the room key card Ty had given me. I punched the button for the twelfth floor and took a deep breath as the doors slid closed. My stomach churned as I ascended toward Ty's room. As the elevator glided past the third floor (on which Mads had texted to say she’d secured us a room for the night), I contemplated pressing the button and stepping out, bypassing Ty's room and all that drama altogether, but I needed my lyric book from the bedside table. And Ty's laptop in the middle of the bedspread. And I really wanted my PJs.

The elevator continued upward, then stopped with a jerk.

I waited. Nothing happened.

“What…”

I pressed the button for the twelfth floor a couple more times, but the elevator just sat there, stuck between the seventh and eighth floors.

I slumped against the back wall of the elevator and closed my eyes. Just perfect. This was exactly what I needed. This would only happen to me. Of course the-

There was another jerk and the elevator continued on up, putting an end to my premature freak out. Someone should tell the repairmen about that or something.

When I reached Ty’s door, I paused for a second and listened. I could hear the faint sounds of conversation. Male voices. It sounded busy in there.

Maybe they wouldn't even notice me. Maybe I could sneak in, grab my stuff and sneak back out again with no one any the wiser.

I swiped the key card through the lock and the red light turned green. Shoving the heavy door open with my shoulder, I looked into the living room and found all eyes on me. So much for going unnoticed.

"Pop–pyyyyyyy!" Archie and Seb cheered from the couch. They both jumped up and I braced myself for impact as they barrelled toward me, arms outstretched. I dropped the suitcase immediately, turned my head and cringed as I was body slammed by two grown men. Two drunken, grown men. Seb had me in a bear hug, my arms pinned to my sides, and Archie squeezed my cheeks and patted me on the head.

"It's the Popster!"

"The Popinator!"

"Poppomatic!"

"Have a good night, guys?" I asked. My gaze warily roamed the room, scanning for Ty. Could I still get out without getting sucked into all this?

Dexter was still there, pacing, talking into his Bluetooth. His collar was loosened and his hair stood on end as if he'd run his hands through it a thousand times. Gordo and Kenny were deep in conversation by the window and I spotted Tommy out on the balcony, also on his cell. He ran his fingers over the metal railing again and again, distracted. I wondered what that was about. He hadn't even noticed the commotion inside.

"Better night than you guys had, by the sound of it," Archie said.

"Ducky's party was sick. Someone brought some bubble bath up to the roof and now the fountain is a giant bubble pool. It was raining bubbles down to the dolphin in the garden.”

“There’s a dolphin in the garden?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Seb said, “a bush thing.”

“A topiary,” Archie corrected.

Oh, right.

“Anyway, it was
amazing
." Only then did I notice that Seb was damp. From head to toe. I wiped down the front of the hoodie I'd borrowed. It was now damp too.

"Sounds rad," I said, shoving the boys off me, manoeuvring around them toward the bedroom. "I can't stay, though. I'm just picking up some things." I nodded toward Tommy with a questioning look, and whispered, "What's going on?"

"Lana," Archie and Seb said at once.

Archie continued. "I think they're making up."

"For real?" I asked as they followed me into the bedroom. Suddenly Tommy was yelling something outside. He started swearing and Archie and Seb’s shoulders slumped with disappointment.

“But I might be wrong,” Archie said.

I rounded the bed to where my lyric book and pen sat on the bedside table by the window. Ty’s laptop was in the middle of the bed, just where I’d left it, but there was a new addition: my Academy of Lies tee shirt and cotton pajama shorts were laid out on the bed, waiting for me. I pictured Ty placing them there, ready and waiting for me to return, to spend the night with him. It would have been our first night sleeping together. Just sleeping, and… you know… maybe…

It was so sweet.

I was such a bitch.

I walked around the bed, scooped up my stuff and shoved it into my bag. That was when I heard the toilet flush and the bathroom door opened.

Ty jerked to a stop when he spotted me, his gaze quickly taking in my packed belongings. "Hey," he said, his expression guarded.

I felt like I'd been caught red–handed. But was I even doing something wrong? I couldn’t tell. I was so confused.

"Hey," I said back.

"Where are you going?"

"Mads got a room. I'm going there for the night."

"I know. I called her to see if she'd seen you, since you disappeared and weren't answering your phone."

My phone? "What are you talking about?” I asked. “It didn't even..." I pulled my phone from my pocket and checked the read out. Huh. Two texts and three missed calls from Ty.  And also one from... oh great. My parents. I sure was popular tonight. "It's on mute," I said sheepishly. "I didn’t even realize. My bad."

He watched as I picked up my bag.

“Is it still okay if I borrow this?”

"I thought you were staying here tonight."

"I can't write a song with all of this going on," I motioned out to the living room. We could both hear Dex being very diplomatic with someone. Sounded like a reporter.

Ty heaved a sigh and shook his head. A muscle in his jaw twitched. “Fine, run away. Whatever.”

Wow
. Wow.

“‘Whatever’ yourself, Ty,” I said. “You know, you’re such a jackass, sometimes. Both of you. We wasted our time going out tonight, to make everything better, but it’s not. It’s a zillion times worse.”

“I’m sorry spending time with me was such a waste.”

“I’m going to pretend you didn’t just say that,” I said, eyes narrowed and lips in a thin line. “You know I have, like, sixteen hours to write an amazing song, Ty, and I have nothing. This is my shot. I’m freaking out and I don’t have the head space for all this stuff with you as well.”

“Stuff with me?”

“You know what I mean! The drama. The completely unnecessary, stupid drama, I might add.”

“I thought
I
was your big shot,” he said. He crossed his arms and lifted his chin.

“You know what I mean,” I said. Though, thinking about it, hadn’t
I
been
his
big shot?