The Beautiful Truth

// 137

Hadley had tried on about fifteen different outfits, all impeccable. For a split-second, I turned my attention toward the ocean-front view outside of the floor-to-ceiling glass of the western wall of her bedroom atop the house she shared on Hermosa Beach with one of her co-stars from The Palisades.

My mind was blown again—the girl she shared the house with was her arch-enemy on the show.

"Further proof to her acting abilities, right?" Alli Turner had told me, upon seeing my jaw-dropped reaction to her presence in the house when I first showed up.

Now, the two of us were sprawled on Hadley's plush bedroom furniture while she had a one-woman fashion show.

"Seriously, this is what I am wearing to dinner with my best friend," I told her for the tenth time, again, looking down at my white lightweight sweater and green shorts. "I don't think you need to go all Malibu Barbie on me."

Alli scoffed. "Yeah right. Hermosa Hadley doesn't know how to turn that off."

I laughed. "You've noticed?"

"How do you think I was able to act like I hated her so much on the show?" she rolled her eyes and tucked her legs underneath herself on the couch. "Easy, I did. I do!" she exclaimed, tossing the nearest pillow at our blond friend while she pulled yet another top off and started rifling through her closet for another one.

"Come on, guys," Hadley pleaded earnestly. "This is the first time I'm seeing this guy in like, almost two years. I have such a crush on him. I..."

Alli and I looked at each other.

"You're fucking Hadley Catalano," Alli reminded her. "Who doesn't love you?"

"Uh, remember, I made a career for myself making people think I'm a Hollywood über-bitch?" she said, finally settling on a gray silk tunic.

"Yes," Alli agreed immediately. "That top with white skinnies. Now can I go take a shower? I feel disgusting."

Hadley held up the top to her reflection in the mirror. "Yes, fine. Thanks, Als."

Alli had patiently waited to take a shower after her long run on the beach in order to bear witness to Hadley's fashion show.

Alli pushed herself up from the sofa. "If I'm not done getting fresh before you girls head out for the night, Sawyer, it was great to meet you. Hadley, try not to be a Hollywood über-bitch to Talyn Parrish tonight, yes?"

I laughed. Hadley continued to check out her reflection in the mirror, and otherwise ignored her friend.

"Hadley, you look gorgeous," I assured her.

She looked at me and smiled nervously. "Did you tell him I was coming?"

"Yeah, he pretty much expected you to," I told her. "He's fine with it."

"Have you talked about me much?" she asked, moving to find the pants Alli had ordered her to wear.

"Uh, not for a while," I hedged. Then I kind of laughed to myself. "Man, I freaked out when I found out he was hanging around with you when we first got to school."

Hadley smirked at nothing in particular and slipped into her Tory Birch sandals. "I can only imagine."

I laughed softly. "Oh, I'm sure you can, given the warm welcome I gave you at your audition."

Hadley looked up at me and smiled genuinely. "Right, well, I'm glad we're both proving each other wrong, huh?"

I nodded, smiling despite myself. "Yeah, me too."

Soon thereafter we headed out to another one of Hadley's favorite places in West Hollywood. We walked up to the restaurant to find Talyn waiting out front, nervously pacing back and forth.

I hesitated and let Hadley move ahead of me by a few steps, pretending to check my phone. I glanced up at them before I started walking again—Talyn's face lit up and he beamed at her as soon as she caught his attention.

I suppressed a hysterical laugh. He likes her.

Or at the very least he was nervous about seeing her. For a split second, I felt a pang of jealousy. Not too long ago, he probably looked like that when he saw me, but I was too dumb to notice. Those days were a million miles in the rearview, and my fleeting envy was replaced with supreme contentedness. Dinner was going to be even more fun than I thought!

I knew Hadley had real feelings for Talyn, but I had no idea Talyn had anything in him for her. This would be interesting. And where I'd thought it might be awkward for them, being two friends of the same girl, but who weren't necessarily friends themselves, I was beginning to think that it would be more awkward for me.

I smiled widely while neither of them was looking at me. This wasn't going to be awkward. This was going to be great.