The Sweetest Summer

Chapter Twenty-Four - Lie

It wasn't two minutes after Eli and I were dressed and I ran my fingers through my sex ravaged hair that the front door opened. Collins was the first one through the door and she grinned at me knowingly before climbing the grand floating staircase.

"So did you turn it off?" My dad asked Eli, wrestling a large takeaway bag through the doorway. He must have ordered double of all of his favorites for leftovers for the week. I envied his ability to eat whatever he wanted and still look like rock royalty.

"Turn what off?" Eli asked confused, but tried his damndest to appear unfazed. After our month together, I'd learned to see through his fantastic acting skills.

"The curling iron." My dad gave him a strange look.

"Oh, that. Yeah, luckily she had turned it off after all." Eli smiled easily, and my father shook his head walking toward the kitchen.

"Why did you make a mess of the living room?" My mother's voice was only somewhat amused.

"What?" I asked, barely fighting my own flustered response. We hadn't done anything in the living room, now the kitchen was a different story...

I rounded the corner and walked into the all white living room. White couches, white rug, white coffee table with dark blue walls. It reminded me of a room in my grandmother's house in Newport. Cold and not livable. Much like my grandmother herself.

My mother was crouched on all fours in her black YSL dress, picking up the contents of my small beige Prada purse that had somehow exploded all over the room, leaving change and tampons and lipstick in its wake.

"Crap. I'm sorry mom. I just tossed it in here before we headed up to check on the curling iron." I lied, knowing that made no sense, but my mother was nice enough not to say so.

"It's okay. These things happen." She winked at me before looking to Eli who was now leaned against the wall. She knew. My cheeks burned, feeling like I was still naked.

"What's this?" She asked suddenly, holding a small piece of paper between her two slim fingers. My cheeks burned further. It was the business card the model scout Franc had given me at Eli's party. I had thrown it into my bag, without a second glance, but now I had wished I'd just thrown it away. I wasn't a model.

"It's just a card some guy at Eli's party gave me..." I said noncommittally and Eli was quick to pull it from her grasp, I was sure because he was concerned I had picked up a phone number. I rolled my eyes, but my stomach still flipped at the fact he felt jealous over me.

"Franc at the modeling agency?" Eli's voice was beyond confused and my butterflies died immediately.

"Yes." I snapped, snatching the card back from him. "What, you don't think I'm pretty enough to be a model?" I said more quietly.

"Of course not. You're absolutely gorgeous." I blushed as we made eye contact and I could feel my mother's eyes on us. "I just didn't think that would be something you would be interested in..."

"I don't know." My mother interjected, and I forced my eyes away from Eli's perfect profile. "I think you'd be perfect for it."

"Thanks, mom." I smiled shyly. "But they were requesting me to move to Europe at the end of the summer, which would be a little difficult considering I'm already enrolled for the fall at UCLA." I put the business card back into my purse. "Last time I checked, they haven't invented a way to be in two places at once."

"So, don't be." She blinked at me, standing and brushing off the lint from her dress. "Take a year off and go to Europe."

"WHAT?!" Eli and I shouted practically at the same moment.

"College will always be there. This opportunity will not..." My father's eyes bugged as he joined us in the living room and caught wind of the conversation. "Don't look at me like that, Asher." She laughed. "You'll be there in a couple of months on tour and can check in on her. You'd probably end up seeing her more than you would if she was at school." My father blinked a few times, trying to process what she said.

"All I'm saying is to think about it. I know the summer I spent away changed my entire life..." She crossed the living room and reached for my father's hand and he softened a little. It wasn't a secret that they'd met when she took a chance internship in LA while on college summer vacation.

"Okay. I'll think about it." I relented, pushing my hair behind my ear and ignored the way both my father and Eli glowered at the idea. I understood my father's reservations about putting a hold on my education, but Eli's reasons were a little less clear. He'd be gone in a couple months, around the time Franc wanted me to leave, so I wasn't sure why he cared.

"Eli, you wanna go do a bonfire on the beach?" I asked, watching as my mother smiled again. I could only hope she wouldn't share her new findings with my father. If she did I had a feeling we would not be meeting our sex quota for the summer, and instead be under constant surveillance.

"I can't." Eli smiled tightly and I frowned. "I need to look over some scripts for my agent."

"Well you can bring them over, and I can help you read..." I offered, but he shook his head again, backing away toward the door.

"I can't. Next time." He waved. "Thanks Asher and Samantha for dinner."

"Of course." My father waved back, completely unaware of my distress that Eli was suddenly so distant. So cold. I turned and headed toward the staircase before the front door could even close. I supposed Eli West's mood swings were just another thing to be added to the list of things I didn't understand...