Reach the Stars, page 3
“You think I’m cute,” Emmy laughed, twirling in front of me. People from across the street looked up, and I shoved Emmy around a corner and into an alcove behind the bookstore.
“Are you out of your mind? Don’t shout things like that unless you want to feed rumors.”
She batted her eyelashes at me. “Rumors of what? People knowing we’re friends?”
“We are not friends,” I deadpanned. “And that’s not what the rumors are about, and you know it. Have you thought for one second about publicity?”
“Nope,” she laughed, carefree as could be. I sighed, rubbing my temple.
“You are hopeless. People got pictures of you knocking me down in the elevator and there was a rumor—you know.”
She blinked. “That I knock people down?”
I rubbed my forehead tighter. “You know where that’s going. Don’t be dense.”
She lit up. “Oh. I guess we looked pretty intimate.” She laughed, shaking her head. “You’re way out of my league. People won’t give it any thought.”
I told her I hated flattery. I looked away, leaning against the wall and trying not to think too much about Emmy on top of me. “It’s the rumor mill, Emmy. They don’t care if you’re the straightest in the world, they’re just looking for something sensationalized.”
She cocked her head, leaning back against the wall. “I’m not straight.”
Christ. Of course she wasn’t. “Great,” I sighed, dropping my arms and staring up at the sky. “Perfect. Tell me that’s not public information.”
“It’s in my Instagram bio,” she laughed. “It says gay as rainbows. And there’s three rainbow emojis. And a sparkling heart emoji.”
“Of course there’s a sparkling heart emoji.” I pushed away from the wall. “All right. In that case, you absolutely are not coming near me. Okay? I’m going on ahead, alone. You will go nowhere near me the entire time we’re at the damn amusement park, and we will not talk about each other to anybody. And from here on out, we do not interact. Not unless we are physically forced to. I can’t afford a stupid rumor like that, and I didn’t want to be around you anyway. Goodbye, Emmy. Have a nice day.”
She waved as I pushed out of the alcove and stormed off. “Thanks! I am having a really good day! I’ll see you around!”
“You will not!” I called back to her.
“Statistically, the odds of me never seeing you around again are almost zero!”
“I’m not listening!” I called back over the good half a block between us now.
“You totally are listening!” she called back.
“I am not!”
“Katarina, you can’t cross there—”
I stopped, my foot in the air just above the street where, sure enough, there was no crossing. Right. Maybe I’d gotten a little distracted by Emmy.
I turned and took a corner I didn’t need to take, just to get out of line of sight of Emmy, and huff down the longer way towards the damn amusement park.
I was so ready to not see that damn woman again for a long-ass time.
∞∞∞
“We’re putting you into pairs,” Georgia said, ticking things off on her clipboard. “Just by the numbers, so it looks like you’re with… ah, yes. Emma Montford.”
God dammit.
The amusement park, a small thing tucked into the elbow of the coast right next to the beach and crowned with a Ferris wheel decorated with lights, was a little more crowded today with the lot of us contestants and a whole host of staff, too many cameras for my liking, and one too many Emmy Montfords for my liking.
“Oh my god, that’s me,” Emmy said, lighting up, turning to me with her hands clasped at her chest. “Did you hear that, Katarina? This is so exciting!”
I closed my eyes. “I heard it.”
“Try to relax and enjoy it,” Georgia laughed, lowering her clipboard and smiling at me. “Just smile for the cameras. And have fun. It’s an amusement park.”
“Exactly,” Emmy laughed. “Oh my gosh. This is so exciting. I looked up everything here. And Sonia told me all about the place—she’s been here once before—I can show you around to all the attractions and it’ll be so exciting.”
I inched closer to Georgia, lowering my voice. “Can I bribe you to switch my number?”
She laughed, giving me an odd look. “No, I’m afraid not. Look, I know you’re worried about the rumors, but… there’s no need to be. People will speculate no matter what.”
“You relax, too, Georgie,” Joyce’s voice said, and I glanced to where Joyce swept in from the side and put an arm around Georgia’s shoulders. Joyce—a tall and curvy Black woman with long locs—still carried the unmatched levels of glamor from when she was a star, dramatic makeup and bold gold jewelry, looking unnaturally flawless as always, somehow pulling off a slinky gold tracksuit and making it look good instead of weird. She pulled Georgia into her chest, and Georgia squeaked. “You know you can’t get sense through to Kitty.”
My stomach dropped. “Do not call me that—”
I didn’t get out the in front of Emmy part before Emmy gasped, lighting up like she’d just won the lottery. She whirled on me, and I felt sick. “Kitty? Oh my god. That’s so cute. Joyce never called you that to me.”
Joyce winked at her. “I may have just let it slip just now. Honest slip of the tongue.”
“Joyce, we are working,” Georgia said, scrunching up her face a little.
“It’s still an amusement park, Georgie. Come on. Kat and Emmy will be just fine. Let’s go grab some pretzels. With cinnamon sugar, of course.”
“I don’t like them with cinnamon sugar—” Georgia started, but Joyce pulled her away, blowing me and Emmy a kiss on her way out, back towards where there was a stall by the boardwalk selling pretzels to a line of people. The rest of the performers had all headed off for their day of fun under the microscope of the camera crew crawling around us, until it was just me and Emmy standing at the entrance.
“So…” Emmy started.
“After this,” I sighed, “we are not interacting ever again.”
She laughed. “I think they’re going to keep sticking us into things like this again.”
“Please don’t say that. I’m trying to hold onto my remaining scraps of faith.”
She clasped her hands at her waist, looking up at me through her eyelashes. “I’ll try not to be too annoying, if you’re having a bad day. Do you want to ride the Comet? There’s single-file seating so you’d at least get a seat by yourself.”
I put my hands up. “You know? Sounds great.”
I didn’t want to give Emmy credit, but it was a good call. The Comet was a sleek rollercoaster in shiny purple, and with so many people in pairs around right now, seemed like its single-file seating made it a less attractive choice, and the line was shorter. I wasn’t a rollercoaster person, but the ride looked smooth and not too fast, and there wasn’t too much screaming coming from the ride, so I felt okay once it was time to sit down in a cramped seat behind Emmy and let an attendant push down the seat bar over my lap.
Emmy glanced back at me and grinned. “I should have asked this earlier, but you’re not scared of heights or anything, are you?”
“Ha, ha. I’m fine.”
She grinned. “Good luck. If you get vertigo and throw up, don’t do it on me, because I love this dress.”
I raised an eyebrow. “That’s almost reasonable, for you.”
She winked at me. “I told you, I contain multitudes.”
The cars jerked, and we pulled out onto the track. I clasped the bar harder than I needed to, my stomach turning, and Emmy went wider-eyed.
“Whoa. You’re pale. Are you sure this is—”
“Shut your mouth,” I said.
“I’m bad at that.”
“Yeah, I’ve noticed. Now try your best.”
The cool air of the ocean hit my face when we pulled out of the station and over the water, and I pressed my back against the seat and clutched at the bar for dear life.
My heart hammered the whole time we climbed the first slope, and then—
Of course, Emmy put her hands up and cheered too damn loud as we went down.
And of course, the whole thing was awful. The wind threw my hair around my face too damn hard and made it hard to breathe, and the turns and hills and drops all made my stomach turn like a fighter jet doing barrel rolls, and it was much faster than it looked from the ground, but—
We got to the highest point on the coaster, cresting a hill slowly, and I had to admit, the view from up here—the sea spilling out in one direction, low enough below that the waves were small, with the setting sun lighting it up in peach and gold, and the park stretching out in the other direction, leading into the town with all its gleaming lights as the evening crept in deeper—it wasn’t… bad.
Emmy glanced back at me, and she winked. I rolled my eyes.
“Isn’t it beautiful?” she said.
“You’re going to break your neck if we go down while it’s craned like that.”
“I’ll be fine,” she laughed, but she turned her head back forward and put her hands up. The rest of the train all did the same, and I didn’t want pictures to get out of me being the only one clutching to the bar looking pale like a loser, so I grudgingly put my hands up just before we went over the edge.
It was a mistake. My heart went into my mouth and I think I accidentally screamed as the car plummeted, and then it was just whirling motion everywhere as we looped around the final turns with sickening speed until we finally swept back into the station, coming to a blessed stop, my heart pounding, a dizzy sensation in my head, exhilaration racing through my veins as the seat bar popped up.
And Emmy glanced back at me, and of course, she lit up at the sight of me. “Katarina,” she said. “You’re smiling.”
I put on a scowl. “It—was a grimace. Come on. I need my feet on solid ground again.”
She laughed, like she’d never in her life been happier. “Sounds good,” she said, and she just about danced her way off the car and through the station ahead of me.
Christ. No way in hell was I smiling. Not for one second we were here.
I dragged myself out of the car and after her, plunging into the horrible, thick crowds.
Chapter 5
Emmy
I only paused in the kiosk for a second to grab a digital copy of the photo of me and Katarina on the coaster, down the final drop—damning proof Katarina had been smiling—before Katarina joined up with me, battling her way out through the crowds, her sunglasses back on despite the fact that the sun was getting lower on the horizon.
“If you’re hungry,” I said, eager to distract her before she realized I got a picture of us on the coaster, “we should grab some hot dogs and really go full amusement park celebration!”
She scowled. “I don’t want to celebrate. You know I didn’t even want to be here, let alone with you.”
“I know. But you still want a hot dog, right?”
She sighed, her shoulders drooping. “Yeah, I guess I do.”
The last of the daylight vanished in a blur from there, as I dragged Katarina grudgingly around the park—she had some kind of supernatural sense for detecting when cameras were around, and I was always eager to help her get out of camera view, and one way or another, we hit up half a dozen different attractions until, finally, the night had come on fully and the first few pairs of contestants started to trickle from the park, glimpsing Jason taking his partner Bri back to the entrance, walking past where Katarina and I were seated at a little drink shop.
And, like—yeah, I was having the time of my life. Letting Emmy Montford loose in an amusement park was like putting a dog in a room full of bouncing tennis balls. But I guess I kind of felt obliged to Katarina for yesterday with Liam, so I clasped my hands at my waist and looked up at where she was finishing her drink.
“Looks like people are leaving now,” I said. “Do you want to get out of here?”
She wrinkled her nose. “Not yet. Let’s go somewhere secluded. Ferris wheel.”
I think I fell through a hole in reality and into a universe where Katarina was a different person. I blinked. “You—want to stick around and ride a Ferris wheel?”
“I don’t want to attract attention by being the first to bail. Let’s try to be in the middle of the departures. Kill time somewhere camera crews won’t find us.”
Oh. Okay. She was still Katarina. That was a relief. I brushed my hair back and laughed lightly. “Okay,” I said. “Sounds great. I really wanted to ride the Ferris wheel, but I didn’t think it would be your style.”
She shrugged, looking away. “I like a nice view. It’s human nature.”
Oh my god. There was something else for the Kindness Board. I couldn’t contain my excitement.
The line was getting shorter for the Ferris wheel now that there wasn’t a breathtaking sunset to see from the top, so Katarina and I got on quickly enough. The doors shut behind us, and I dropped into a seat with a big whoosh of air, Katarina sinking into the one opposite me and looking pointedly out the window.
“Thanks for joining me here,” I said.
“I had to,” she said.
I laughed. “You could have feigned sickness or something. You’re important enough they would have let you get away with it.”
She rubbed her forehead. “Ugh. For once, you’re right. I wish I’d thought of that.”
But I knew she had, and I knew she’d decided to stick around, because—after all—she really was a sweetheart.
The wheel shifted, and we moved slowly upwards, lifting up higher to see over the water, and Katarina sank back into the seat.
“It’s slow. That’s good, though.”
I giggled. “You just like getting secret time together with me, after all?”
She frowned suddenly, brow furrowed. “God. Maybe this was a stupid idea. I hope nobody got a picture of us getting into a Ferris wheel together. That’s rumor food.”
I paused. “Hey… Katarina. Is there some reason you’re so particular about avoiding rumors? Everyone else just says they’re inevitable.”
She narrowed her eyes, but she didn’t say anything. After a minute, I held my wrist, the place where Liam grabbed me yesterday, and I looked down.
“Sorry,” I said. “You don’t have to answer.”
She fidgeted in her seat. It wasn’t like her. “Are you… okay?” she said, and I cocked my head.
“Uh, yeah. I’m fine. Despite how I may look, I’m also okay with occasionally not talking.”
She rolled her eyes, but she smiled a little. “You’re hilarious. I mean, with Liam.”
I flushed, looking down. “Oh. God. Uh, forget about that. I know it’s silly.”
“There are clear lines about these things. I don’t care even if it’s you of all people, I’m still a professional, and when I see repeated, unwanted physical contact—”
“It’s really fine,” I said, laughing nervously. “I don’t have anything against Liam. I just have a whole thing about my wrists, and he couldn’t have known that. I had this abusive ex who used to grab me by the wrists and drag me places I didn’t want to go.”
She stared at me for a minute, studying, before she, uh—softened a little, I guess? It was hard to tell the difference between grumpy Katarina and slightly-less-grumpy Katarina. “It would be okay to be affected by that even without a reason, but I’m sorry you had that, too.”
I blinked, just staring at her for a second. She smiled wryly.
“What? Are you pleasantly surprised to find I have tact sometimes?”
I laughed. “I mean, I’m not gonna say no.”
She rubbed her arm, looking away. “It’s not as rare an experience as it should be. I’m sorry.”
My heart ached. Poor Katarina was no stranger to it herself. I clasped my hands on my lap. “Thanks for helping and stuff. It really means a lot.”
She waved me off. “Yeah, whatever. Just let me know if I should tell someone Liam was grabbing you.”
“Oh, no, no, no,” I said, putting my hands up. “It’s not really his fault. I don’t want anything to happen to him.”
She sighed, leaning against the wall of the carriage. “Because you’d blame yourself for anything that happened to him, and minimize what happened to you to convince yourself you overreacted.”
I blinked. “Uh, yeah,” I said. “I guess you’ve been there. I mean, that’s invasive to ask. You don’t have to answer.”
“Welcome to the business,” she sighed, shooting a hard-edged look out the window at where we were cresting over the waters. “We’re just pretty objects on display.”
I chewed my lip, looking down. “I’m sorry,” I said. “You didn’t deserve to have anything happen to you, either.”
She sighed, and rubbed her forehead, looking like she was nursing a massive headache. “I told you not to talk to me again after this, and I meant it,” she said, and I straightened my back.
“Yeah. You got it. I’ll try my best. I mean, it’ll be hard, and I promise it’ll fail, because, like, we’re right next to each other in everything, but—”
“God, you talk a lot,” she said. “I still mean it, but… if you need help with anything like that, if anyone does anything to you or makes you feel unsafe, I guess… that’s different. You can talk to me about that. I don’t want you to… I don’t want anyone to feel alone in that situation.”
My heart swelled up until it was ready to explode into flowers and glitter and happiness. “Thank you so much,” I said, barely restraining myself.
“Ugh. Don’t get all mushy about it.”
“I told you, you really are sweeter than you let on.”
“Stop. You’re going to make me gag. Don’t you dare take advantage of that to talk to me about trivial crap.” She winced. “I mean, not to give you room to trivialize when people hurt you. I don’t know why I’m even bothering. You have a million other friends, and you don’t need me.”
I laughed. “I like having friends.”
“Yeah, I’ve noticed,” she said. “Trust me, I have noticed that. You’re just walking around with half the competition and most of the staff on your arm. You and that damn board and your stupid jar.”
