Love Struck Page 2

  “What happened to me talking to Marc?” Cole asked when they were out of earshot.

  “I got a little carried away.”

  “A little?!”

  “I know! Did I blow it completely?”

  The sound of the late bell saved Cole from answering. But I knew what he would have said. I messed up. Again.

  I didn’t even need to use my powers this time.

  chapter 3

  “We are about to meet Lance Gold!” I was just short of shouting as we walked through the mall. “This is so cool.”

  “It’s not that big a deal,” Cole said as he held my hand a little tighter. “He’s just an actor.”

  I wasn’t positive, but I thought I detected a little jealousy in Cole’s tone. It was better when he was the one all nervous over nothing than when it was me.

  “Just an actor. Are you nuts?” Gabi asked, throwing her hands into the air. “He’s so much more than that. Not only can he act, but he can sing, play the drums, hit a fastball, and rock climb.” She clearly had his Teen Wow bio memorized. “Plus,” she went on, “he does tons of charity work. He’s always helping people. Last week alone he raised tens of thousands of dollars for the Heart Association and did the Walk for the Cure race. He’s even nice to his enemies. The other day, he made his limo pull over to help some paparazzi guy who had fallen off his bike. Most stars would have just left the guy there. But not Lance. He checked to make sure the photographer was okay and even posed for a picture.”

  “A regular saint,” Cole said.

  “Aww, come on,” Gabi said. “You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t want to meet him, too.”

  “I just came for Angel,” he said. But he wasn’t fooling either one of us. We both knew he was excited to meet Lance. After all, wasn’t he the same guy who wanted his (and my) favorite band, Mara’s Daughters, to play at his Bar Mitzvah? The same guy who snuck peeks at my magazines when he thought I wasn’t looking? He was just as—okay, almost as—celebrity obsessed as Gabi and me.

  We weren’t the only ones. The mall was packed. I had never seen it this busy. Not even the day after Thanksgiving.

  “Let’s try to get closer,” Gabi said, grabbing my free hand and pulling me toward the stage area. The three of us squirmed through the crowd. It was so tight, we got pressed up between strangers. At one point, the back of one guy’s sweaty T-shirt rubbed up against my face, I got an elbow to the side, and some tall girl’s stinky armpit was pressing up against my nose—all within moments of one another.

  “Watch it,” some guy said as I smashed right into him.

  “Sorry.” I didn’t mean to hit him, but I didn’t really avoid him, either. My new strategy for the event? Face down, forge ahead, and anyone that got in my way would get head-butted.

  “Angel?” the guy I bumped into asked.

  I looked up. “D.L.? Didn’t expect to see you here.”

  “Courtney dragged me,” he said, letting out a deep breath.

  “Know the feeling,” Cole said. I didn’t correct him. If he wanted to tell people the only reason he was there was because of me, I had no problem with it. I actually liked it. My boyfriend didn’t care if people—even the popular ones—knew he did things just to make me happy.

  “Aren’t you going the wrong way?” Gabi asked D.L. “The stage is that way.” She pointed to the direction he’d just come from.

  “I’m over it. Courtney made us all get here three hours ago just to hear the guy sing. He’s an actor. What does he know about music?”

  “A lot,” Gabi answered. “He’s singing in his next movie, and he’s planning on releasing his own CD. He can do everything. He’s incredible.”

  “Whatever,” D.L. mumbled. “I’m done waiting. I’m gonna go get a piece of pizza,” he said. “Reid and everyone are over there,” he told Cole and nodded his head behind him.

  Reid was Cole’s best friend. “Thanks,” Cole said.

  “Good luck getting there,” D.L. said and then fought his way against the crowd.

  I used to think he was just as awful as Courtney, but lately he had been acting a lot nicer. I was beginning to think he wasn’t so bad—well, except for his taste in girlfriends.

  “Let’s go,” Cole said. “I see Reid. He’s not too far away.” Gabi and I just stood there. Because while I didn’t have any real issues with Reid, his girlfriend, Lana Perkins, was another story. She was one of Courtney’s best friends. And spending the afternoon around her and Courtney was not something Gabi or I wanted to do. But I didn’t want to tell Cole he couldn’t hang out with his friends, either. That wasn’t fair.

  “Come on,” Cole said again, this time leading the way. He squeezed my hand. “Don’t worry about Courtney. She’s all talk. She won’t care if you’re there. Besides, someone else might be over there, too.”

  He mouthed the name Marc. But he was not exactly discreet. Gabi caught the whole thing.

  “You told him I liked Marc!” she whispered as we made our way toward Courtney and Co.

  “Not exactly . . . kind of . . . okay, yes.” I caved as she stared me down. “But only because they’re friends,” I whispered back. “I wanted to know if he thought Marc would go out with you.”

  “And?” she asked.

  Her voice sounded so excited. I didn’t want to be the one to bring her down, so I fudged the truth. A lot. “He thinks you guys would be awesome together.”

  “Really?” she asked.

  “Really,” I echoed. Gabi looked like she was going to combust with happiness.

  “Hey,” Cole said as we approached his friends.

  A couple of them called out his name and Reid even fist-bumped him. For a whole second I thought everything was going to be fine. That Courtney and I could be within a small radius of each other without insults flying. That we could ignore each other and go on with our lives. But who was I kidding? It was Courtney Lourde we were talking about, and she took her mean-girl status seriously.

  “Well, look who’s here,” Courtney said in her singsong voice. “Cole and his community service projects.”

  “Courtney!” Cole warned.

  “What?” she asked, opening her eyes superwide and trying to look all innocent.

  “Lay off,” he said. I liked that he was coming to my defense.

  “Sorry,” she said, giving him an almost angelic smile. “But I just don’t understand why you like her. Is she blackmailing you? Offering you money to hang out? Did she pull some elaborate trick?”

  “Enough,” Cole said. “You’re not funny.”

  She ignored him. “Or maybe she just pleaded with you. She’s good at that. Right, Marc?” Courtney giggled. I felt my blood turn to ice water. I actually had goose bumps. I knew where this was going.

  “You’ll never guess what I saw yesterday,” Courtney announced to everyone around her. “Double-A begging Marc to hang out with Gabi. She kept going on and on, trying to make it sound like Gabi was actually normal. It was so pathetic, I was almost embarrassed for her.”

  I could feel Gabi’s eyes on me, but I didn’t dare look up.

  “Like Marc would want to go out with the school joke,” Courtney said. “Would you, Marc?”

  This time she actually waited for him to answer.

  He snorted. “No way, would never happen.”

  I snuck a look at Gabi. She was gripping her braid hard. She didn’t blush the way I did—I made stop signs look pale. But I could tell she was embarrassed and angry. Livid, actually.

  “Hey,” Courtney said, her voice perking up. “I saw Max a couple of minutes ago stalking the stage.” Max Richardson was Goode Middle School’s other unofficial human target. Courtney treated him like toe fungus. “Now there’s a guy for you, Gabi. It’ll be perfect—if you can tear him away from Angel. You guys can be ‘class couple.’ I can see the yearbook picture now. Only people might get confused and think it’s an ad for the circus freak show. The giant and the world’s ugliest woman.”

  She laughed at her
own stupid joke. And she wasn’t the only one. Marc did, too.

  I felt awful. How could I have gotten Gabi’s hopes up about such a creep!? Who needed Marc? If he was going to join in on the Gabi bashing, he didn’t deserve her.

  Gabi needed somebody better. Somebody nice. Somebody who didn’t care what the stupid A-list at Goode Middle School thought. Somebody who’d make them all jealous. Somebody who was an A-lister in their own right. A real one.

  And I knew just the person.

  chapter 4

  Lance Gold.

  I was going to fix up Gabi with everyone’s favorite teen idol. She’d show them all. This was no longer about playing matchmaker to make sure Gabi didn’t fall for Cole. This was about something way bigger: protecting my best friend. Courtney and Co. didn’t have the right to make her feel like a deflated kickball. Especially because of something I did.

  My new plan was perfect. Not only would Gabi get an awesome boyfriend, but no one would ever make fun of her again. They’d be too busy trying to get on her good side so they could get autographs and invitations to celebrity parties.

  “I need to go to the bathroom,” I told Gabi. “Come with me.”

  Gabi nodded. I could tell she was mad at me, but she didn’t want to be around Courtney any more than I did.

  “We’ll be right back,” I told Cole.

  “’K,” he said. “Sorry about this.”

  “Not your fault.” And it wasn’t. I gave Courtney a quick glare.

  “I’ll talk to her again,” he said, following my gaze.

  “Thanks, but don’t bother. I can handle her.” While I appreciated Cole’s offer, I couldn’t take him up on it. Having him talk to Courtney would only make things worse. She’d just torture us more but make sure not to do it in front of Cole. And I’d rather him see what a horrible person his “friend” was firsthand.

  I led Gabi through the crowd.

  “How could you do that to me?” Gabi said through gritted teeth once we were away from Courtney. “It was bad enough you told Cole about my crush—but Marc? What were you thinking?”

  “I was just trying to help.”

  “Well, you didn’t.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said quietly. And I was. She’d see. I was going to make it up to her big time.

  The tone of her voice lightened a little. “Just stay out of my love life from now on.”

  I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t. Not without lying. And this was for her own good. By the time the day was over, Gabi would be showering me with gifts for butting in. I was sure of it. After all, she’d be on the path to becoming Mrs. Lance Gold.

  “Wait,” she said. “Where are we going? This isn’t the way to the bathroom.”

  “Shortcut,” I told her.

  No reason to tell her what I had in mind until the last possible moment. That way she couldn’t back out.

  “This is not a shortcut,” she said as we inched closer to the fake wall that separated the crowd from Lance’s backstage area. “Where are you taking me?”

  “Trust me,” I said.

  “Angel, what’s going on?” she demanded. “I’m not moving another inch until you tell me.”

  “Okay,” I said. “That”—I pointed to the side entrance of the old Clothes Therapy store—“is what’s going on.” The store had moved locations, and the mall was using the empty store as a backstage area for its guest star. “Our chance to meet Lance.”

  There was a stage built in front of the main entrance with a curtain where the door was supposed to be. So there was no way of getting to Lance that way. Not unless we wanted a mob of people to try to stop us. But with the exception of two guards, there was no one standing by the side entrance. We just had to slip in there and we were golden.

  “Are you nuts? We can’t break into the store!” she said.

  “It’s not breaking in,” I clarified. “It’s actually more like trespassing.”

  “Who cares?” Gabi’s fingers clutched her arms. “Either way, it’s wrong. If mall security finds out, they’ll throw us in jail. Or worse, call my mom.”

  Gabi’s mom was pretty scary. The woman could dole out punishments like no one else.

  “That’s not going to happen,” I said. “I have a plan.”

  “No offense, but that doesn’t make me feel any better. Your schemes always backfire.”

  “Not all of them. And this one is simple.” Well, the part I was letting Gabi in on, anyway. “Just get inside and snap a photo of us with Lance. Think about how crazed Courtney will be when she finds out we got to hang out with Lance and she didn’t.”

  I could tell Gabi was holding back a smile at the mere thought of it.

  “Come on,” I said, egging her on. “I know you want to. Let’s stick it to Courtney for a change. Make her jealous of us.”

  “I don’t know, Angel. This sounds crazy.”

  I didn’t want to hear any of her negativity. This was going to work. I knew what I was doing. “Are you in or not?”

  “Well . . .” She hemmed and hawed.

  “I’ll take that as a yes,” I said. She’d thank me later. “Shh. ” I held up my finger to my mouth as Gabi started to speak. “No backing out.”

  “Fine,” she conceded. “I’ll go meet Lance with you. But just how do you plan on getting past those guards?”

  “Like this.” With a wave of my arm, I made a trash can move ten feet forward. When one of the men went to go check it out, I made it move farther. Thank goodness I actually had one power mastered. It felt dangerous. It felt fun.

  “What’s going on?” the other guard asked.

  “Some prank, I’m sure. I bet some kid is hiding in there,” he said, chasing the can around the corner.

  Now it was time to keep guard number two busy. With another simple movement, I made some guy’s soda lurch forward. It splattered over the fake wall built to keep fans away from the side entrance. “Who did that?” the guard asked, walking toward the mob. I hoped I didn’t get the guy in trouble, but I couldn’t worry about it at that very moment.

  It was now or never.

  “Run,” I said to Gabi.

  We booked it to the door. I quickly opened it and pulled Gabi inside. She was about to have a date with destiny.

  chapter 5

  “Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh,” Gabi whispered as we made our way through the store. “I can’t believe we are really doing this. OH. MY. GOSH.”

  The last part was a shout. Because standing right in front of us was none other than Lance Gold himself.

  And while he was hot on TV, he was a million—no, a zillion—times hotter in person. His hair was a brownish-red mess on top of his head—a perfect mess. Like it took days to make it look like that. His face had a light tan that highlighted his perfect features, and there was not a zit to be found. And his eyes. They were just like his name. Gold. Seriously. The color, the sparkle, everything. They were so mesmerizing that it was hard to take in much else. Like the fact that he was talking to us.

  “Answer him,” Gabi said, poking me in the side with her elbow.

  “Huh?” I asked, snapping back to reality.

  “I said, ‘How’d you get in here?’” Lance questioned us. He didn’t seem so thrilled to see us there, but I could tell he was trying to be nice. Which was exactly what I was counting on. If everything Gabi and the magazines said were true, then Lance would never be mean to a fan. He was a genuinely good guy. Maybe even good enough to go out with a girl who had just gotten her heart creamed by a jerk.

  “Oh,” I said. It was hard to talk and look at him at the same time. “We were invited. See, Gabi here, she was supposed to have a photo shoot with you. That’s why you were originally scheduled to come to Pennsylvania in the first place. It got canceled. But the producer still gave us the okay to meet you.” My storytelling ability under pressure was pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. I totally would have believed me.

  “Nobody told me anything about it,” he said.
>
  “They probably just forgot.” I flashed him a big smile, showing off my dimples. Everyone always said they made me look cute and sweet. I was hoping that translated into more believable as well.

  “My manager never forgets anything,” he answered.

  “First time for everything.” I was still smiling. However, the power of my dimples was not working. But if it came to it, I knew powers that would. “Anyway,” I continued. “This is Gabi. Gabi, this is Lance Gold.”

  I nudged her forward.

  “Hi,” she said, putting out her hand. It was trembling. He took it, but he looked skeptical. Not like a guy falling in love. Or even one willing to go out on a mercy date.

  “I really don’t think you should be back here. You need to go before my manager sees you. She’s not very fan friendly.”

  We couldn’t go. He had to talk to Gabi and realize how cool she was. How she’d make the perfect girlfriend. “Sorry,” Gabi said. “We don’t want to bother you. We were just hoping to get a picture.”

  Yeah, and an engagement ring. Gabi was thinking too small. “I’ll take it of the two of you,” I offered. “Now get closer.”

  They just stood there.

  “Lance, put your arm around Gabi.”

  He didn’t do it. Instead he shook his head. “You two really need to go before my manager sees you.” His eyes darted to the door in the back of the store. There was an office back there.

  Gabi walked back next to me and grabbed my arm. “Let’s go, Angel.”

  I wasn’t ready to give up. “Lance, wait! You didn’t even get a chance to talk to Gabi. She’s really funny. She’ll have you laughing up a storm. Say something funny, Gabi.”

  “What are you doing?” she whispered at me, keeping a fake smile plastered on her face the whole time.

  “Helping you,” I whispered back. “And,” I said, this time to Lance, “she’s supersweet. I heard that you donate your time to charities. Well Gabi is always doing nice things. She never litters, once she saved a bird she found with a broken wing, and she even refuses to dissect frogs in science class.”