Born to Perform

Chapter 29

I feel a pang of sadness to see my best friends turn away from me like that, but then I remind myself that this is my fault. I blew them off and now they feel rejected, it’s totally natural. 

I keep walking on, trying to keep up my celebrity image by strutting like I’m on a catwalk, but then my heart nearly stops when my eyes rest on a group of people by the entrance. At first I thought it was just a group of jocks and cheerleaders but one of them stands out to me with his cute blonde hair and tanned skin. Sam. But then I notice the arm wrapped around his waist belonging to a girl with bleach-blonde hair wearing the shortest mini-skirt I have ever seen. I feel a little sick when I remember that he’s dating Ariel now. Maybe it hadn’t really sunk in back in LA but seeing them as a couple in person feels a lot worse than I thought it would. 

As I pass the group, no one even turns at first but then I see Sam’s eyes meet mine. He has to do a double take to realise it’s me and then he looks as if he’s seen a ghost. I flash him a tiny smile as I pass but he just keeps his eyes fixed on me and his expression blank. Luckily none of the others see me and they just carry on with their conversation - I’m not quite ready for a full-on confrontation with Ariel yet, and yes I know there is one coming. Out of her, Elisha and Lyla, Ariel was always the loudmouth one and she always loves to make a scene. 

I take deep breaths once I enter the school building to calm my nerves. I notice now that my heart is beating ridiculously fast and my hands feel a little shaky but I feel better now I’m away from Cassie, Sienna and Sam. I hadn’t expected it to feel quite so awful to see them all annoyed at me but it had felt like being dropped from the top of a building, as if my safety net fell through. 

Having managed to locate my old locker, I take out some of the books I’ll need for my classes but nearly have a heart attack when I hear a voice from behind me. 

“Melody! Oh my god, I didn’t know you were back!” a girl squeals. I wonder to myself who the hell this person is since I thought all my old friends hated me but then I turn to see Emily, the school gossip, bouncing up and down. She’s practically famous for only speaking to people when she wants information so I’m not surprised that she’s so interested. 

“Um, hey Emily,” I reply a little uncertainly, wondering if she has actually spoken to me more than once in the last two years. 

“Wow, you look so amazing!” she gushes in her honey-sweet voice she uses to manipulate people with. “You have to tell me everything about LA!”

“Uh well, what do want to know?” I say in the friendliest voice I can manage even though it feels pretty awkward being welcomed back by an almost total stranger. 

“Okay, first things first: what was it like working with all those celebrities?” she asks, her eyes wide with enthusiasm. 

“Yeah, it was pretty cool…” I answer nonchalantly. “I mean, Kassidy and Dakota were pretty hard work but I was very close with Jenna.”

“You were friends with Jenna Mansfield?” she says with dramatic pauses between each word. God, she’s annoying. 

“Yeah, I shared a room with her. We were almost like sisters,” I explain. People nearby start to drift towards us to listen to the conversation and hear about the celebrities I met. 

“And what were the guys in California like? Were they all, like, surfer dudes?” she asks in a hushed voice as if it’s top-secret information. I feel like I’m rehearsing some kind of intense play since all her sentences are practically ‘performed’. I don’t really know how to answer this as I didn’t even look at the guys once I was dating Austin but I really don’t want to go into the details of that, especially not with Emily queen of the gossip circle.