It had been the worst summer of her life.
But her best friend didn’t need to know that.
Of course, it was never easy keeping things from Anthony. He was always able to detect when something was wrong or when she was keeping a secret from him.
Seventeen-year-old Paige Crane took a deep breath and rang the doorbell of Anthony’s penthouse apartment. A few seconds later she could hear the sound of approaching footsteps. She pasted a smile on her face as the door began to open.
“So what do you think?” she exclaimed, throwing her arms up in the air and twirling in front of Anthony. “Do I look like I just spent the summer in Los Angeles?”
Anthony blinked in disbelief, rubbing his eyes. “Who are you and what have you done with the real Paige Crane? The Paige I know hates the sun.” Anthony gave Paige a huge hug and then inspected her from head to toe. “I almost didn’t recognize you! Where did you get that great tan?!”
“It’s a fake bake!” Paige exclaimed, walking into Anthony’s apartment. The icy air-conditioning that greeted her felt great after the steamy humidity of Manhattan’s city streets. “I went to this Brazilian spa on Madison and 81st. You strip down to your underwear and step into a chamber that’s about the size of a locker. Then they spritz your body with this liquid that makes your skin golden brown.”
“The other girls are going to be so jealous.” Anthony gazed at himself in a hallway mirror. “What do you think of my tan? It’s not fading, is it?”
“Please! If I know you, you spent the entire summer lying on the beach.” Paige followed Anthony into the kitchen and hopped up on a stool next to the breakfast bar as he began pulling carrots, celery and other veggies from the stainless steel fridge, placing them in front of her.
“So where’s Ian?” she asked, reaching for a cutting board and knife. She began slicing a zucchini into thin strips. “I thought he’d be helping set up.”
“Who?”
“Ian. Tall, dark and handsome Ian. Remember him? Your boyfriend?”
“You mean ex-boyfriend.”
“What?!”
Anthony held up a hand, silencing Paige. “You don’t want to hear the details. Trust me. Let’s just say he’s ancient history and leave it at that. Now, tell me all about your summer in La-La Land.”
Paige put down the knife she’d been using. “Oh no you don’t, Mr. DeMarco. I want details and I want them now. We’ll get to my summer later.”
Anthony opened a package of onion soup mix and added it into a bowl of sour cream. “I’m single again.”
“Obviously. What happened?”
Anthony sighed. “You’re really going to torture me by making me relive the entire nightmare, aren’t you?”
If there was one thing Paige knew Anthony loved, it was talking about himself. Especially when something dramatic had happened to him. Telling her about his break-up with Ian was not going to be torture.
“Yes, I am. Now spill!”
“Okay, I’ll tell you but we’re not talking about it at the party,” Anthony said. “Deal?”
“Deal.”
“He broke up with me in Provincetown after a week. He gave me the ‘It’s not you, it’s me’ speech.”
“You didn’t believe him?” Paige asked while slicing a green pepper and arranging it on a platter.
Anthony shook his head. “I didn’t believe him. Ian got a look at all the guys in P-Town and suddenly decided he could do better than me. You should have seen it, Paige. Everywhere you looked there were hunks. On the beach. In the water. Riding the bike paths. We’re talking GQ material. Ian’s head was spinning around in so many different directions, he didn’t know where to look first. He was like that possessed girl from The Exorcist.”
Anthony began stirring the sour cream furiously. “One day we were at the beach and there were some guys tossing around a Frisbee and they asked Ian if he wanted in on the game. Do you think he asked me if I minded if he went off to play with them? No! He ran off, leaving me alone on our blanket.”
“What did you do?” Paige asked, knowing there was more to the story. And if she knew Anthony, there was going to be plenty of drama.
“I left and went back to the beach house. Ian followed after me because he knew I was mad. Of course, I had also taken their Frisbee after it had landed on our blanket and they couldn’t continue the game without it.”
“And then?”
“When we got back to the house, that’s when Ian gave me his speech and asked if we could be friends.”
“What did you tell him?” Paige asked, even though she was sure she knew the answer.
“I told him no!”
Paige had been right.
“Who wants to be friends with their ex? Especially one who’s a cheater.”
“You think he cheated on you?” Paige gasped.
“If he hadn’t, he was going to. It was only a matter of time.”
“Where did he end up spending the rest of the summer, then? Wasn’t he staying at the beach house with you?”
“That’s right, he was. After dropping his little bombshell, he took back the Frisbee and went off to join his new friends. You’ll be proud to know that I didn’t lose my temper. After Ian left I put a note on his bedroom door telling him I wanted him out of the house by the end of the day.”
“That’s it?” Paige asked skeptically. “That’s all you did?”
Anthony stuck a finger in the bowl of onion dip he had finished making and took a taste. “Delish!” He held out the bowl to Paige. “Want a taste?”
Paige dipped in a carrot. “You didn’t answer my question.”
Anthony gave Paige a wicked grin. “Did I forget to mention that I accidentally left a bottle of cologne open in one of his drawers?”
Paige giggled. “You didn’t.”
“I did.” Anthony put the bowl of dip into the fridge and began taking bags of potato chips and pretzels out of the grocery bags that lined the granite counter. “It was the latest fragrance from the L & F line. Expensive stuff.”
“Where did he stay after you kicked him out?”
“I don’t know. He probably came back to the city. Or maybe he bunked with one of his new friends. I never saw him again after that day.”
“Really? P-Town’s a pretty small place.”
“I didn’t spend the rest of the summer in P-Town. I spent it on Martha’s Vineyard by myself. Call me a coward, but I didn’t want to run into Ian. It would have hurt too much. My folks have friends who own a house on the Vineyard and I knew they were in Europe so I asked if we could go out there. My dad wasn’t too happy about losing the money we spent renting the house in P-Town, but my mom worked her magic. During the day I went to the beach with my folks, and at night I either read, listened to CDs or watched TV.”
“That’s it?” Paige asked in disbelief. “You didn’t try to meet someone else?”
Anthony shrugged. “I didn’t want to.”
“Why didn’t you call me?!”
“I didn’t want you feeling sorry for me, okay? I know I could have called and believe me, I was tempted—I even picked up the phone a couple of times—but I was feeling sorry for myself. Enough for the both of us.”
Anthony sighed as he began opening bags of potato chips and pouring them into bowls. “I needed to be alone. Ian was my first real boyfriend. Okay, we only went out for like three months and yeah, he’ll be at Boston University this year, but I thought it was the beginning of something, you know?”
The expression on Anthony’s face was so sad that at that moment all Paige wanted to do was give him a hug and tell him everything was going to be alright. Anthony DeMarco had been her best friend since the seventh grade. She had been the new girl in school and notoriously shy. Her first week in class, she’d kept to herself. Then, during a field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art the following week, she’d been paired with Anthony. Secretly, she’d been pleased. The dark-haired, blue-eyed boy with dimples had caught her attention the first day she arrived at Peppington Prep, a private school on the Upper East Side. He looked so adorable in his oversized navy blue blazer and loosened burgundy striped tie and it seemed like everyone in their class was his friend. Paige instantly knew she wanted to be friends with him, too.
During the field trip, they were supposed to be studying Modernist paintings. But after an hour, all the canvases started to blur together.
“This is soooo boring,” Anthony whispered to Paige, his first words to her that afternoon, looking up from his notebook where he’d been taking notes. He took off the headphones he’d been wearing during the museum lecture and pushed his straight black hair off his forehead. A second later it flopped back down on his forehead. Paige had to resist the urge to push it away. She’d seen some of the other girls in her class do it on various occasions, but she hardly knew Anthony. “We can buy one of these tapes on the way out and learn everything we’re supposed to. Why don’t we cut out?”
“But we’re supposed to stay here,” Paige whispered back, afraid one of her classmates would overhear their plans and possibly snitch on them. But Anthony was asking her to do something with him! And wasn’t that what she wanted? “We could get in trouble.”
Anthony rolled his eyes. “It’s the last class of the day. Nobody will miss us.”
“But what will we do if we leave?”
“The Museum of Television and Radio is showing the first five seasons of The Simpsons. That’s way more fun than this. And we can stop at Serendipity for a frozen hot chocolate on our way down. My treat.”
Paige’s eyes lit up. “The Simpsons? A frozen hot chocolate? D’oh! Those are two of my favorite things!”
Anthony smiled and put his notebook in his backpack. “Then I guess you’re coming with me.”
After that, Paige and Anthony were joined at the hip. From the second they left the museum, they started talking and never stopped. They had lunch together every day at school, hung out at each other’s homes after classes ended and spent as much of their free time together as they could. Sometimes there were fights—Anthony was always more adventurous than Paige, wanting to take risks and try things that were different, and she was more of a scaredy cat, always afraid of what could go wrong—but they never stayed mad for long and always made up. Why wouldn’t they? They were best friends, and that’s what best friends did.
In the early days of their friendship, Paige never once considered Anthony boyfriend material. When she thought of Anthony, she thought of him as a friend—someone to hang out with, have fun with and confide in. And she’d never gotten any sort of vibe from Anthony that he was interested in dating her (of course, there had been a reason for that, but at the time, she didn’t know it). She didn’t think of him as a possible boyfriend because if she wanted a boyfriend, she could have one. Easily. Like most of the girls in their class, she had started dating and there was always a guy calling to invite her to a movie or school dance. Usually the dates were a disaster—seventh grade boys didn’t have a clue about what to do on a first date, although they all seemed to think the date was supposed to end with an open-mouthed kiss. Not!—and the best part was when she got home and called Anthony to give him a recap.
Paige nibbled on a potato chip while Anthony began cutting up blocks of cheese and arranging them on platters with crackers and grapes.
“You do that so well,” Paige pointed out. “I can’t even make a decent-looking peanut butter and jelly sandwich.”
“It’s a skill I’m going to need if I don’t make it as a screenwriter in Hollywood. Professional cater-waiter. At least the one perk of the job will be meeting cute guys. All cater-waiters are either aspiring actors or writers. And let’s not forget the most important thing. Many of them are gay!”
It never failed to amaze Paige how at ease Anthony was with being gay. It was no big deal. Just part of who he was. She could still remember when he had told her he was gay three years ago. It had been a snowy afternoon and they’d been at her apartment, flipping through issues of Teen People. Anthony had held up a page featuring Leonardo DiCaprio.
“Leo’s so cute.”
Paige glanced at the photo with mild interest. Unlike her other female classmates, Leo didn’t do much for her and she hadn’t seen Titanic ten times. “I can see that.”
Anthony flipped to another page in the magazine. “God. So is Christian Bale.”
“That is definitely true,” Paige agreed.
“Oooh! Now here’s a real hunk.” Anthony held up a page with Brad Pitt wearing a pair of faded jeans. “I wonder what it would be like to kiss him.”
“Excuse me?” Paige wasn’t sure if she’d heard Anthony correctly. Then the light bulb went on over her head. “Are you trying to tell me something?”
Anthony went back to his magazine. “I just did.”
And just like that, Anthony had told her he was gay. It was no big deal. For a while, Paige had suspected that something was up. When they were shopping at department stores, Anthony always made a point to linger in the men’s fragrance department, talking to the cute older guys holding cologne bottles and gathering free samples.
“What’s going on in here?” a deep voice asked.
Paige turned around on her stool to see Anthony’s older brother, Paolo, walk into the kitchen. Paolo was two years older than Anthony and starting his sophomore year at NYU. While Anthony wore his dark hair long and had blue eyes, Paolo had lighter hair that he wore in a buzz cut and his eyes were more of a blue-green. He was wearing shorts and a T-shirt with cut-off sleeves. Unlike Anthony, Paolo was a major sports buff. Cradling a basketball under one arm, he wiped a sheen of sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand while sticking his head in the refrigerator. Seconds later he emerged with a bottle of Gatorade that he began drinking directly from the bottle.
“Ugh!” Anthony exclaimed. “Must you share your germs? And you’re dripping sweat all over the kitchen.”
Paolo looked around at all the trays of food on the counter.
“Not another party?” he groaned.
“Don’t worry, this isn’t one of my usual extravaganzas,” Anthony said, throwing ice cubes and strawberries into a blender as he prepared to make nonalcoholic daiquiris. “I’m saving that for Halloween. I just invited a few friends over for an end-of-summer party.”
“How many is a few?”
“Around twenty or thirty.” Anthony put the lid on the blender and pressed a button. Soon the sound of crushing ice filled the kitchen. “I can’t remember,” he shouted over the din.
Paolo slapped himself on the forehead. “Mom and Dad would flip if they knew how many people you were having over.”
Anthony gave his brother a pointed look. “They won’t know unless someone tells them.”
Paige loved Anthony’s parents. They were both so glamorous and she never tired of hearing how they fell in love when they were both students at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Anthony’s parents were Lorenzo and Francesca DeMarco, fashion designers who were known around the world. The L & F logo—which first appeared when they were students and Lorenzo had carved a heart on a tree with an L & F inside of it—appeared on everything from jeans, shirts, dresses, underwear, shoes, and perfume bottles to sheets and housewares. If there was a spot on an object where the L & F logo could be stamped, it was!
Because they were constantly opening up boutiques across the country and overseeing the production of their merchandise in Europe, Anthony’s parents were rarely in New York. They made an appearance at least once a month and Paolo was usually responsible for taking care of Anthony, although one of their many aunts usually stopped by to make sure the refrigerator was well stocked with food and the penthouse was still in one piece.
Paige’s home life was no different. Her mother was the soap actress Camille Crane. She starred on the daytime soap opera The Yields of Passion, where she played the much-married and much-divorced Priscilla Foxworth—not much of a stretch from Camille’s own life. Fans of the show loved Camille and the wicked character she played.
Paige wished she had a closer relationship with her mother, who lived year-round in Los Angeles, where The Yields of Passion was taped, but the only person Camille seemed to care about was herself. Even though her mother had let her down in the past, Paige had hoped that this year things would be different. She had so been looking forward to spending the summer with Camille. She figured that she and her mother could spend a lot of time together. She would hang out on the set of the soap, they’d go shopping and maybe even take a car ride down the coast for a long weekend, stopping in cute little towns along the way. Camille would ask what was new in her life and she’d tell her.
None of that had happened.
With the exception of a once-a-week phone call with Camille, Paige hardly had any contact with her mother during the school year; it was no different in July and August. First, Camille forgot to pick her up at the airport. Then, when she arrived at Camille’s house, she wasn’t there. When her mother finally put in an appearance after three days—she’d been rejuvenating herself at a health spa—she apologized for her forgetfulness and then flew off to the Bahamas, where The Yields of Passion was filming some episodes on location (Priscilla had been kidnapped by a voodoo priest who was obsessed with her and was preparing to sacrifice her on his altar of love unless she married him). When Camille finally returned from the Bahamas after three weeks, she still didn’t have time for Paige. She was either busy taping her show or running off to some party with her latest boy toy. Paige had kept herself busy with shopping and movies, but she didn’t have any friends in California and by the end of July, she was bored out of her mind. When August finally rolled around, Paige couldn’t stand it anymore. She left her mother a note and hopped a plane back to New York.
She hadn’t heard a word from her mother since leaving.
Paolo put the bottle of Gatorade back in the refrigerator. “I’m going to be in my room doing some reading. Classes have already started for me and my professors have really doled out the work. Try to keep the noise level down, okay?”
“Okay, okay,” Anthony promised, pouring a daiquiri for Paige and adding a swirly straw. “Now beat it. Your antiparty buzz is destroying the mood.”
“Bye, Paolo,” Paige called, taking a sip of her daiquiri as Paolo left the kitchen. “Mmmm. Good.”
Anthony poured himself a daiquiri. “Now that you’ve heard all about my depressing summer, it’s my turn to hear all about your fabulous one. Cheer me up! Confess! I want to hear everything. Did you meet any hot young actors? Dance on table tops? Make a naughty video? Paige Crane in Girls Gone Wild Part Thirty! Go to any fun parties? Camille must get tons of invitations.”
“Yes, she does, but she didn’t share any of them with me.”
“How come?”
“She never asked me. She either went by herself or with whoever the latest boyfriend of the week was. I think the new one’s name is Bruno, but that could have changed since I left.”
“Did you ask her if you could tag along?”
“No.”
“Well, duh!” Anthony took a sip of his daiquiri. “How would she know that you wanted to go if you didn’t tell her?”
“Why should I have to ask? Besides, the parties don’t matter. I just wanted to spend time with her. That’s why I flew out there!”
“Did you tell her that?”
“Why should I? She should know. She’s my mother!”
“Paige, sweetie, I’ve met your mother. She’s such a diva. So over the top. Big hair. Big clothes. Big jewelry. Big ego. She’s into herself and the character she plays on TV. I think she just needs to be reminded that she’s supposed to be doing Mom-like things.”
“Next time she calls I’ll tell her I need a dozen cupcakes for the school bake sale,” Paige said dryly. “I can just see her becoming the new Betty Crocker. Not.”
“Look, I know Camille is never going to be Mother of the Year, but cut her a little slack. She’s not that bad.”
“I suppose you’re right,” Paige grudgingly admitted. “It’s just that I’m still mad at her! I spent the entire summer by myself.”
“Then why didn’t you call me?” Anthony demanded. “Misery loves company. We could have consoled each other.”
“I didn’t want to spoil things for you and Ian. I knew you’d be worried about me and probably insist that I fly out.”
“That’s exactly what I would have done.” Anthony shook his head. “We’re both two of a kind. Here I thought we were going to be like Sandy and Danny in Grease, telling each other about our hot summer nights. Instead they were lonely summer nights. Okay, new promise. You ready?”
“Ready.”
“When we go off to college next year, we talk or e-mail each other every day. Deal?”
“Deal!”
“So you want to take a look at the outside?”
Paige nodded and followed Anthony out of the kitchen, daiquiri in hand, eager to see his decorations. Anthony’s parties always had some great theme.
“What do you think?” Anthony asked, throwing open the French doors that led outside to the penthouse deck.
“Wow! I thought you said this wasn’t going to be one of your usual extravaganzas.”
“I lied.”
Anthony had transformed his deck into a Hawaiian paradise. There were palm trees with coconuts, pineapples and bananas on their branches, lush orchids and other tropical-looking flowers, thatched huts, tiki torches and piles of white sand everywhere. There was even a roasted pig turning on a spit!
“How did you do all this on such short notice?” Paige asked.
Anthony flipped out his cell phone. “There’s a prop shop that my parents use when they have their fashion shows. I gave them a call and told them I needed whatever they had that was Hawaiian.”
“They even had the pig?”
“The caterer provided that. I’m good with putting together munchies, but that’s about it. You know I can’t cook to save my life. We’re going to have a chef who’s going to barbecue burgers and hot dogs and chicken. And he’ll also slice up the pig.”
“Is that the ocean I hear?” Paige asked, still amazed by what she was seeing.
“It’s a sound machine. I figured we could listen to some lapping waves and the screech of seagulls before we switch over to music.” Anthony glanced at his watch. “I better go change before everyone gets here. You better go change, too.”
“Into what?”
Anthony’s mouth dropped open. “Paige Elizabeth Crane! You’re not telling me you didn’t bring a swimsuit, did you?”
“What’s wrong with what I’m wearing?” Paige was wearing a short-sleeve hot pink cotton blouse tied in a knot at her waist with white shorts and flip-flops. Her light brown hair was worn in a ponytail tied in a matching pink ribbon and she had a pair of sunglasses perched on top of her head.
“Nothing, but you don’t look like you’re going to the beach. You look like you’re going to a family barbecue out in the suburbs.”
“I do not!”
Anthony grabbed Paige by the hand and dragged her back into the apartment. “Come with me.”
After depositing Paige in his parents’ bedroom, Anthony returned with a box filled with brightly colored fabrics. He handed the box to Paige.
“What’s this?” she asked suspiciously, knowing Anthony was up to something.
“Swimsuits from this year’s L & F line. My parents have a whole storeroom full of stuff next to the kitchen. You should be able to find something that fits in there.”
Paige fingered through the string bikinis. “These don’t leave much to the imagination.”
“They’re not supposed to!” Anthony huffed in exasperation. “You’ve got a great body, Paige! Show it off! Use it to find yourself a boyfriend.”
Paige’s lack of a boyfriend was a sore point and a topic she didn’t like discussing. She was seventeen years old and still hadn’t had a serious boyfriend. Sure, there had been dates and a few kisses here and there, but she still hadn’t had a deep, feel-it-all-through-your-body-toe-curling kiss from the one guy who you know is the one. Of course, one needed to be asked out on a date in order to acquire a boyfriend, and for the last few months her phone hadn’t been ringing. Hopefully that would change with the beginning of senior year.
“I’ll meet you outside in fifteen minutes,” Anthony said. “Make yourself into the gorgeous babe I know you can be!”
After Anthony left, Paige went through the box. There had to be something in here that she could wear. After digging through the tiny bits of fabric, she finally found something she could live with.
“Leave it to you to find the only one-piece swimsuit,” Anthony sighed fifteen minutes later when Paige joined him back outside wearing a one-piece L & F swimsuit in neon yellow.
“You said to find something in the box,” Paige said with an innocent smile.
“Okay, you win this round, but I’m not giving up. One of these days I’m going to unleash the sexy babe that I know is inside you.”
“If it’s any consolation, you look like you could star on the WB.”
Anthony was wearing a pair of boxer-cut swim trunks with a lime green and yellow diagonal stripe pattern. Around his neck he had a white shell necklace on a thin leather strap and he was wearing a white tank top.
“If we had more time I’d do something about your hair but we don’t,” Anthony said.
Paige reached up to her ponytail in a panic. “What’s wrong with my hair?”
“Nothing! But straight guys love chicks with long flowing hair.”
Paige raised an eyebrow at Anthony. “And how would you know that?”
Anthony raised an eyebrow right back at Paige. “Gym class. Locker room. Straight guys. You do the math.”
“Gotcha.” Paige plopped herself down on a chaise lounge. “When is everyone supposed to start arriving?”
“Eight o’clock. I’m sure the place will be packed by nine. Have you spoken to anyone since you’ve been home?”
“Colleen and I have been playing phone tag and I haven’t heard from Bianca and Rachel.”
“I wonder what kind of mischief those two have been getting into. They sent me an e-mail, saying they were coming.”
“I’m sure they were auditioning all summer long.”
“For what?” Anthony asked. “You know I love them both, but when are they going to get a clue?”
Bianca and Rachel Torres were identical twins and heiresses to the Torres Taco fortune, which included a line of frozen Mexican dinners. Bianca and Rachel were two of the richest teenagers in Manhattan, but there was one thing their family fortune couldn’t do for them: make them stars.
Paige didn’t want to be mean, but Bianca and Rachel were desperately untalented. They were constantly trying to find a way to claim their fifteen minutes of fame, often with disastrous results. First they tried to be models (they were bored walking down the runway and didn’t like the constant changing of clothes), then actresses (they couldn’t remember their lines and asked if it were possible to have cue cards made) and then pop singers (dogs AND cats howled when they heard the twins sing). Now they were determined to claim their fame via reality TV and were always trying out for shows.
Anthony glanced at his watch. “They’ll be here soon enough, so I’m sure they’ll let us know what they’ve been up to.”
“Why can’t they be happy running for something like Homecoming Queen?”
“Don’t even suggest that! We’re only allowed one homecoming queen. Can you imagine what would happen if one of them lost?”
“We’d have one pissed-off runner-up,” Paige said.
“You think? Anyway, let’s forget about Bianca and Rachel,” Anthony said, raising his daiquiri glass. “How about a toast?”
Paige clinked her daiquiri glass against Anthony’s. “To us! And the best year ever!”
“That includes finding ourselves boyfriends,” Anthony added.
“But if we don’t, then we’re each other’s date for the Senior Prom, right?”
“Right!”
Just then the doorbell rang and Anthony’s eyes lit up. He took a sip of his daiquiri and then grabbed Paige by the hand, dragging her with him to the front door.
“Let’s get this party started!” he exclaimed.