Midnight Memories

t w e n t y // f o u r

"The world is full of monsters with friendly faces." - Anonymous

"So," I said, taking a sip of the iced coffee I had forced Louis to stop for. "Are you going to tell me who this Remy person is?"

Louis chuckled. "Well, it's sort of difficult to explain Remy. He comes from old, old old, money, his grandmother was an Astor and his mum's related to the Kennedy's. His dad is some sort of Silicon Valley tech genius, he just sold this software he developed to Apple for a couple billion. But Remy's even smarter than he is, he graduated from high school at Exeter Academy when he was thirteen, then went undergrad at Stanford before completing two masters degrees at MIT. He's probably one of the smartest people in the world, but all he does now is sell drugs for fun and travel around the world with Jet and their whole group drinking and partying. He's a total pompous ass, but he means well."

I had to admit, this Remy character sounded interesting. "You think he'll be willing to help us?"

"Remy likes to hack into classified government files for fun. He lives for this kind of shit." Louis didn't seem worried, so neither did I.

"Also, I wanted to talk to you about what you said, about Ryder having a
crush on me. You know that's not true, right?" I said seriously. The last thing I wanted was for Louis to think that Ryder and I were some sort of thing.

"Oh yeah, duh." He scoffed. "I just said that to make Avery think you had them all wrapped around your finger."

I sighed in relief. If there was one thing I knew was never going to happen, it was me and Ryder Hartley.

We got home quickly and quietly, the day's events already laying heavily in our minds. Tonight at the Vanderbilt Gala was going to be an event all in it's own. I had to admit, I was nervous at the thought of seeing Derrick, Ryder, Tripp, Louis, Jet, Ash, and all my old friends in the same place at one time. It was going to be one hell of a reunion.

"Alright." Louis said as we pulled up in front of my apartment building. "So i'll see you tonight?"

I nodded. "Good luck at your meeting."

"Thanks." He frowned. "I'll need it."

I waved goodbye to him as he drove away, heading upstairs to the penthouse.

When the elevator doors opened, I was met by absolute chaos. There were racks of dresses, fold out tables covered in hair tools, and cases full of make up. In the middle of all of it was Tori, who had five people surrounding her, poking and prodding her face and hair.

"Stella!" She screamed. "Where have you been?"

"Um, I was at class." I lied, now grateful that I had forced Louis to run into the Vineyard Vines boutique while I was getting my coffee to buy me a pullover not covered in dirt and blood.

"Well sit down, you need to start getting ready for the Vanderbilt Gala." Tori instructed.

I sighed. "Do I have too?"

"Stella, it's best you just listen too her." Hunter, Tori's brother, came out of nowhere. He was an esteemed fashion photographer who worked at Vogue, and was probably the one who had set this all up.

I plopped down in a chair, and immediately a team of people came over and started attacking me with curling irons and mascara wands. This went on for two hours, when Tori finally said we could all stop for some dinner. By this time, Ash was home too, getting his hair blown out. Luckily, he hadn't mentioned anything about me cutting class. If there was one person I could count on to have my back, it was him.

I ate a plate full of Chinese take out before the stylist who had been working on Tori's outfit handed me a garment bag. "This is fresh off the runway Dior. Don't drink, don't eat, don't even sit down. If anything happens to this dress, i'm dead."