Abruptly, Tinsley stepped away, leaning back against the kitchen counter. Kevin, who was completely blitzed, offered to make her a martini, but instead of answering, she spun on her heel and stalked out of the room. Martini glass and bottle of vodka in hand, she returned to the guest bedroom and collapsed on the bed.
It wasn't Halloween anymore, but everyone from her past was coming back to haunt her.
EmilyJenkins: OMG, you won't believe who's at Yvonne Stidder's party.
BennyCunningham: Who? A bunch o' losers? Ha!
EmilyJenkins: Hell, no. EVERY Owl in NYC is here—including Callie, Jenny, and Tinsley…and Sleigh Monroe-Hill!
BennyCunningham: That wench told me freshman year that she knew a dermatologist who could do wonders for my face—in front of Tom Pham, who I was totally trying to get with!
EmilyJenkins: You did have some serious acne that year….
BennyCunningham: Not so! It was an allergy to my field hockey uniform. Doesn't excuse her from being a BITCH!
EmilyJenkins: I think she has some kind of folk record out….
BennyCunningham: More like a HO record. I'd like to see her and T.C. duke it out!
12
A SMART OWL KNOWS THAT THE BEST ADVICE COMES FROM UNEXPECTED SOURCES.
Jenny dabbed her Cargo PlantLove lipstick in Cherry Bliss carefully across her lips, making them look soft and sweet and extra-kissable. She'd spent an hour talking to Casey already, and wanted to spend the next hour talking to him too—and hopefully, he'd be thinking about kissing her. Would she let him? The answer was…she didn't know. She knew she shouldn't—she'd met him about an hour ago—but there was a whole list of things that she shouldn't do, and where was the fun in that? Having pulled off her heavy sweater to reveal her black, sheer gauze Free People top with the flutter sleeves, she felt much more in the mood for fun.
The bathroom door flew open, sending Jenny crashing toward the mirror, her left hand almost jabbing the mascara wand directly into her eye.
“What—” Jenny started, surprised to see Tinsley in the doorway.
“Sorry, I thought no one was in here,” Tinsley mumbled, stepping backwards. “It's okay,” Jenny insisted. “You can come in.”
“Thanks.” Tinsley closed the door behind her, martini glass in hand.
“So.” Jenny felt the need to say something, as she and Tinsley weren't exactly close enough to hang out in a strange bathroom in perfect silence. “I just met the perfect guy.” She brought her lips together to smooth out the gloss, the taste of cherry teasing the tip of her tongue.
“Me too,” Tinsley answered softly, looking at herself in the mirror sternly. Jenny noticed with interest that it wasn't a Do I look hot? look—Tinsley always looked hot, but especially tonight in her black wrap dress and dangling leaf-shaped earrings—but more like a Where am I? look.
A shiver ran through Jenny. She didn't mean she'd met Casey too, did she? “Who?” she asked, a little afraid of the answer.
Tinsley put her hands on her hips and cast her gaze toward the floor, looking like she was about to throw up. Jenny braced for the worst—that Casey was an old boyfriend and they were taking off to spend Thanksgiving in some downtown penthouse surrounded by supermodels and movie stars, leaving Jenny to crawl back to her father and the Hare Krishnas. “Julian.”
“What?” Jenny inadvertently dropped her mascara wand, and it clattered against the clear glass sink bowl, leaving black smudges in its wake. Was Julian McCafferty here? It didn't seem that long ago that Jenny was convinced she was in love with the cute, super-tall freshman—but once she'd found out that he'd been hooking up with Tinsley Carmichael just a few days before they got together, that had been the end of things.
Jenny could see Tinsley's hands were shaking. “I told you I'd been in love before.”
“I thought you were talking about that guy in Africa, or some European prince.” Julian? He was so…normal. “Or a rock star.”
Tinsley laughed, color starting to come back into her cheeks. “Nope, just a freshman.” Jenny's mind reeled—if Tinsley had really been in love with Julian, no wonder she'd gone on a rampage against Jenny after finding out that they were together. Not that it made trying to pin the blame on her for starting the barn fire any more acceptable—but maybe a little more understandable. Tinsley pulled open a drawer in the vanity and absently began sifting through it. “I've never felt the way he makes me feel before. He's so open and honest. With, like, no ulterior motives, you know?” Tinsley's eyes widened, as if suddenly remembering she was talking to someone who had hooked up with him too. “I mean, not that you would know—er, well, I guess you might, but that's not what I meant—”
“I know.” Jenny peered into the open drawer. She and Tinsley spotted the box of Trojans—extra-large, Ultra Pleasure.
“Ew, that is so gross.” Tinsley slammed the drawer shut. “Is this, like, Mr. and Mrs. Stidder's bathroom? Who the hell leaves condoms for guests?”
“Maybe they're just considerate.” Jenny's giggles quickly turned into hiccups, and Tinsley gave her a quick slap on the back to make her stop. A moment passed, and Jenny felt much more comfortable with the glamorous older girl than she ever had before. “You know, there really wasn't anything between me and Julian.”
Was that true? It certainly hadn't felt like it at the time—but over a month had passed since Jenny last spoke to him, and she hadn't exactly been pining over him all this time. In her wildest dreams she wouldn't have thought Tinsley and Julian had more than a few random hookups between them, but the look on Tinsley's face made it clear that she had fallen hard.
“I can't get him off my mind,” Tinsley admitted, leaning over the sink and splashing cold water on her face.
Jenny sat down on the closed toilet seat. Julian and Tinsley? She waited for the familiar pang of jealousy she'd experienced moments earlier when she thought Tinsley had lassoed Casey out from under her, but there was nothing. And she really thought she'd been in love with Julian. She could remember a night not so long ago when she'd stared out her dorm room window at the stars, wondering if Julian was somehow looking at the same thing.
But then she remembered the exact same scenario—that new-love feeling—except with Drew…and she shuddered.
Staring fixedly at the small tray of aromatic candles perched on the floor next to the claw-foot tub, she remembered thinking about Easy in the exact same way. She'd only been at Waverly since September—and she'd already been in love three times.
“I wish I were more like you.” Tinsley sighed, sinking down on the edge of the tub, pressing her black-stockinged knees together.
“What?” Jenny squealed. Tinsley Carmichael, the most glamorous person ever to set her Manolos onto Waverly's leafy campus, wished she were like Jenny Humphrey, who had just spent an hour flirting with a guy while wearing a giant, butt-ugly sweater? “In what way?”
“I don't know.” Tinsley sighed, tracing her fingers across the brass fixtures of the tub. “I mean, this is the only time I've ever felt this way, but I never even let Julian have any idea. I was just kind of my regular, bossy self.” She eyed Jenny again, her violet eyes beautiful and sad. “I can see why he liked you better.”
“Maybe he just wanted to get to know you,” Jenny suggested, twirling the bangle bracelet on her wrist. “And you wouldn't let him.”
Tinsley nodded and picked up a bottle of L'Occitane Lavender bubble bath. She twisted off the top, took a sniff, and set it back down. “I mean, I see the way people react to you. You're so easy to get along with.”
“It's not a trick.” Jenny stood up, brushing off her dark J Brand jeans with the crooked hems—she'd had to cut about a foot off the bottom and stitch them up herself. “I just like meeting people.”
“I don't.” Tinsley wrinkled her nose. “It upsets my balance. I hate having to constantly reconfigure everyone, who fits where and all that.”
“Is that why you're so cold to people when you first meet them?” Jenny asked her re
flection. She wouldn't have dared risk the question earlier, especially on the train, when Tinsley had been in her perpetually sour mood.
Tinsley pursed her lips together. “I guess so.”
A loud knock startled them both and Tinsley strode over and pulled open the door. “What?” she demanded of the poor girl quavering there. “There are other bathrooms, you know. This one's full.” Tinsley slammed the door closed again before the girl could get a word out.
“Well, if you want to get Julian back, you're going to have to quit the ice queen business,” Jenny said abruptly. She realized it sounded a little harsh, and that Tinsley hadn't actually asked for her advice, so she added, “In my opinion.”
“I don't know what you mean,” Tinsley said coldly, crossing her arms.
Jenny chanced it, pushing on. “That,” she said, pointing in the mirror. “You just got defensive. Don't do that. It's okay to risk rejection. You know what my brother says? ‘A pretty girl can't tell you no if you don't ask her out.’ I always think of that when I worry about failing.”
“I'm sure it's too late now.” Tinsley suppressed a smirk. “Julian would never like me again, after what I did to you.” She sucked in her cheeks.
Jenny turned to face her. “All I'm saying is, it's clear that you're really in love with Julian,” she continued, “and you need to be open with him. Don't try to outmaneuver him into liking you again, because it won't work. Just…you know…apologize to him for everything and tell him how you feel. If he won't hear it, well, it's his loss.” She stuffed her tube of lip gloss back into her purse.
Tinsley smiled. “Thanks,” she said softly. “Maybe I will.”
“Good.” Jenny opened the door, but Tinsley braced against it, shutting it again, to a chorus of groans on the other side.
“One word of advice for you, then, since we're in share mode.” Tinsley playfully wagged a finger at Jenny, but her eyes were serious. “Don't start thinking about prom with this guy you just met. You really do need to slow down and just have fun.”
Jenny stared at her lips in the mirror. Okay, so she kind of had been planning her first trip to Union already. “Does that mean I can't kiss him?”
“Since when did I become a nun?” Tinsley rolled her eyes. “Of course you can kiss him. Just don't start, you know, picking out your ring yet.”
“Okay, that's fair,” Jenny agreed.
“Break a few hearts yourself before letting yours get broken again, 'kay?”
Jenny took one last glance at herself in the mirror. Next to Tinsley, she looked…well, not as bad as she'd thought.
Tinsley caught her glance in the mirror. “We've both got our work cut out for us.” She gave her a slight push toward the door, and Jenny opened it. A crowd of girls dying to pee broke into applause.
Kara pulled Jenny to the side as Tinsley strode out. “I saw her go in there—I thought maybe she was strangling you!” She wore a questioning look. “What were you guys doing?”
Jenny just smiled. “You wouldn't believe me if I told you.”
13
A WAVERLY OWL IS NICE TO HER ENEMIES—PARTICULARLY WHEN A CUTE BOY IS WATCHING.
Tinsley pushed through the intimate crowd, making her way back to the kitchen. The penthouse smelled rank with sour cigarette smoke and too much cologne and perfume in too small a space. Her throat was dry from her talk with Jenny, and so was her martini glass.
As if fate were tempting her to test out Jenny's advice, the only person in the kitchen was the one she most—and least—wanted to see. Julian stood in front of the refrigerator, staring at the closed door. Tinsley froze in her tracks. He looked gorgeous in a green and gray striped cardigan over a white T-shirt, black Levi's, and his faded black Chuck Taylors. Her stomach fluttered.
She tried to peer over his shoulder to see what had captured his attention, wondering if there was a funny family photo of Yvonne wearing something stupid, or an overly clever refrigerator magnet with a pithy saying.
“Produce,” a voice said, and it took a moment or two for Tinsley to realize it wasn't Julian but the refrigerator. Julian opened and closed the fridge door. “Beer,” the same electronic voice said.
“Hey,” Tinsley said softly, not wanting to startle him.
Julian jumped anyway, turning to look at her. The surprise in his buttery brown eyes made her smile involuntarily. “Hey.” He ran his hand through his shaggy brown-blond hair, which he'd cut. It was no longer as sun-bleached, either, and it made him look older. In a good way. “What are you doing here?”
She searched his voice for any hint of annoyance or anger, but couldn't discern any. “My parents are having their floors done,” she said by way of explanation, though she could tell the answer only confused him. So she launched into the whole saga, breathlessly relating how Jenny's father was in a cult and how all the hotels were full and so they'd ended up at Yvonne's.
Julian smiled. The tiny dimple to the left of his mouth was like an old friend to Tinsley. An old friend she wanted to lick. “It's like that movie After Hours.”
“I don't know that one.” She loved that Julian was a film buff like her, but she also hated it when she didn't get a film reference. In fact, Tinsley felt the same way about Julian's film knowledge as she did about him: She kind of hated it, because he was a freshman and shouldn't know more than her, and she kind of loved it. “What are you doing here?” she asked, leaning against the granite countertop and trying not to look like she was trying to look sexy—which she was. “I mean, besides talking to a refrigerator.”
Julian kind of smiled. She wondered if he just felt awkward, or if he maybe felt kind of bad about the last thing he'd said to her. Not that it wasn't true or that she didn't deserve it—but she could see him feeling bad anyway, and a surge of hope dashed through her veins. “Seattle's too far to go home for Thanks giving, and I'm a vegetarian anyway, so it's kind of hard to look forward to a long flight just for some—”
“Tofurkey?” Tinsley suggested, grabbing a few cashews from the bowl of mixed nuts on the table. “I didn't know you were a vegetarian.”
Julian stared straight at her, and Tinsley felt a chill run down her spine all the way to her toes. “There are a lot of things you don't know about me.” Her heart sank, and she had a feeling he was about to leave.
“Milk,” the refrigerator said abruptly, causing them both to laugh.
“I think it's on the fritz.” Julian jammed a thumb in the air and stepped away from the refrigerator in one smooth move. “I guess it's some kind of high-tech grocery alert system.”
Neither of them said anything for a beat, the noise from the living room wafting through. Someone screamed the lyrics of a Radiohead song at the top of their lungs, but was quickly drowned out by a chorus of “Shut up!” Julian stared at the floor, toeing the tile with his sneakers. Tinsley felt a tingle as she remembered Jenny's words.
“Listen, Julian.” She gulped, staring down at the pen mark on the white plastic toe of his shoe. She hated it when people started sentences by saying, Listen. “I'm sorry.” The words came out stubbornly, but relief washed over her the minute she'd said them.
She could feel Julian's eyes on her, and she wished she had a drink or a cigarette or some other prop to hide her nerves. “What for?”
“Everything.” She turned away from him slightly, grabbing the bottle of vodka and pouring a splash into her empty martini glass on the counter. “I'm sorry for the way I treated you, for acting so cool toward you when we were, you know…” She let her voice trail sexily—she couldn't help it. Christ, why was it so hard to be sincere? To shut off the act? Then she realized she was sincere. And once she'd opened the floodgates of apology, she couldn't hold back. “I'm sorry for what happened with Jenny, too. We talked it over and we're…It's fine now.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.” Tinsley nodded slowly, staring at a dish of hummus and carrots. “She's like a thousand times nicer than me. If I were her, I probably never would have forgiven me.
”
“That's probably true.”
Tinsley had the feeling that he was being a hardass to test her, to see if she'd bristle and throw some snide comment at him. But she didn't feel that way at all, even if she was embarrassed to be so humbled in stupid Yvonne Stidder's kitchen. “But I wanted to say I'm sorry to you because I know you probably think I'm the most evil person in the world, but I'm really not.” Her voice trembled a little, unintentionally.
“I don't think you're the most evil person in the world.” Julian grabbed a Heineken from the fridge and cracked it open. Tinsley wondered if she'd imagined the emphasis on the word most. But it was too late to turn back now.
“I was just jealous.” She lowered her eyes and peeked up at him through her long, thick lashes. It was a move she'd used many times to look humble when she wasn't feeling humble at all, but now it was just too hard to look straight at Julian. It was like he was the sun or something and she had to shield her eyes. “And I completely regret it now. I can't even think about it without being disgusted by how I behaved. I'm really not a bad person.” She reined in her heavy breathing, stifling the sob that she could feel developing in her chest. “I'm nicer than you think I am.”
Julian stared at her, confused. He took his hands out of his pockets, and then sank them back in again. She'd broken through his cool reserve, she could tell.
“I'm not sure if I believe you,” he said finally, “but it would be nice if it were true.”
“Give me a chance to prove it,” Tinsley pleaded. She'd come too far to turn back, and she knew she wouldn't be denied. “Maybe we can spend some time together.”
Julian smiled and shrugged. “Okay,” he said simply. “I think I'd like that.”
“Hey, you coming, Jules?” An unwelcomely familiar voice spoke up from the doorway, and Tinsley didn't even have to raise her eyes to know it was Sleigh Monroe-Hill. Jules? “I've got my YouTube video all loaded, as promised. You said you—” She stopped short when she saw Tinsley, her wide blue eyes flying open. “Oh my God, is that Tinsley Car-michael?”