Ivy’s heart pounded in her chest. The newspaper with the photo of Ivy at a concert in America was still spread out on the table before her.
Miss Avisrova had been waiting for this.
Chapter Six
Olivia kept working her jaw open and shut, trying to get her ears to pop. They hadn’t stopped ringing since last night. And to top it off, her throat was raw from singing – well, more like screaming – up on stage with The Pall Bearers. Actually, she was sort of thankful for the sore throat. It meant she didn’t have to say much to Brendan in the Meat and Greet. They had been here for half an hour and had probably said less than one word for each minute.
‘So did you enjoy last night?’ asked Brendan, looking a tad sheepish. And so he should be, thought Olivia. After all, he’d dragged her into it.
‘If by “enjoy” you mean “endure”, then yes, it was OK.’
Brendan looked out of the window, squirming in his seat. Olivia inspected her nails. She had never realised their friendship was so dependent on Ivy being around, but that was becoming painfully obvious. Um, I could tell him about my bio-dad’s wedding plans? No, that would be a violation of her dad’s trust. Her heart sank.
Brendan’s knees bounced up and down under the booth. It was clear his mind was elsewhere. Olivia was pretty sure she’d caught him counting the ceiling tiles!
When they’d left the concert the previous night they should have been picking over every minute detail. Olivia knew that’s what Ivy would have been doing with her boyfriend, if she’d been there. But that was just the problem – Brendan was Ivy’s boyfriend and he was only Olivia’s friend because of that connection. Without Ivy there . . . Once Sophia had gone they’d waited for their lift home in near-silence as all the other fans screamed and chatted around them. It couldn’t have been more awkward – and now things were no better. They had to have something in common, didn’t they?
We do, thought Olivia. Ivy. But too much talk about the one person they both missed would only bum them out – and this outing was supposed to be a fun distraction.
It had been Olivia’s idea to hang out together at the Meat and Greet; she’d suggested it last night in the hope that they’d connect more when they weren’t surrounded by screaming fans.
She took a sip of her fruit juice, looking out the window at the street. Hopefully she would see something that could spark a conversation.
‘Hey, look at that bag!’ Olivia cried, pointing to a girl in the street with a tote over her shoulder. ‘Leopard print is so up-to-the-minute . . .’ Her voice trailed off when she glanced back at Brendan. He was frowning at the bag as though it were an alien invader. Clearly, accessories weren’t his thing. Brendan didn’t care about this season’s fashion, or any kind of fashion at all for that matter. He had worn the same rock band T-shirts for as long as she’d known him. She sank further into the booth.
There was a cute puppy being walked by a little girl with pigtails. Would that work? She snuck a glance at Brendan, but he was busy rubbing a thumb over his filed fangs. Olivia wrinkled her nose. Yeah, Brendan didn’t care about puppies – cute or not.
Olivia sighed. Parked alongside the curb was a flashy red Mustang with white racing stripes painted down the hood. Cars . . . Boys liked cars. Ugh, but I don’t know an engine from an exhaust pipe, thought Olivia. Besides, she wasn’t sure Brendan liked cars anyway. He was more a music guru than a car buff. It was just too bad they didn’t like any of the same bands!
A waitress in a grease-spattered white apron stopped by the table with an open notebook, pulling a pencil out from behind her ear. ‘Can I get you anything else?’ she asked. Then a grin stretched across her lips and she began pointing at Brendan and Olivia with the rubber on the end of her pencil. ‘Hey, are you two on a date? I could get you one milkshake with two straws!’
‘No!’ Olivia and Brendan burst out in unison. Olivia could feel her cheeks burning. This was so embarrassing, being mistaken for her sister’s boyfriend’s hot date. I’d never do that to Ivy!
‘No, no, not at all,’ Brendan said, shaking his head emphatically. ‘You’re totally wrong there.’ He gave Olivia a desperate glance, as though to say: How did we get ourselves into this? She gave him a smile back. This had seemed like such a good idea, and now it was all going wrong.
The waitress flipped her notepad shut. ‘Woah! Just asking,’ she said and scurried away with a backward glance at their table.
Brendan sank back in his booth. ‘What chemistry could the waitress possibly think she’d seen?’ he asked, frowning in confusion.
‘I don’t know,’ Olivia said, crossing her arms across her body. ‘She must be having a bad day or something. I think we probably need to find a way of getting out of here.’
‘Past her?’ Brendan asked, chuckling and nodding to the waitress. She was telling off another customer for something. ‘Our glasses are still full – she’ll never let us leave.’ He jerked a thumb at the glasses of juice. He was right.
Olivia began to tap her fingers on her glass, but froze mid-tap. She had an idea. Looking out the window, she swished her hand across the table, knocking the glass off. ‘Oops!’ she said, trying to sound surprised and staring at Brendan hard. ‘I’m such a klutz . . .’
But Brendan had used his vampire reflexes and caught the fruit juice before it had even fallen from the table. Olivia’s heart sank. He didn’t get it at all! Ivy would have understood the escape plan straight away.
Brendan offered a wry smile, setting the glass back on the table. Then he pointed out of the window. ‘I can see Camilla outside.’ Olivia turned. How did I miss that?
Olivia’s best friend, Camilla, was squatting down in the bushes with a video camera and a French beret, filming one of her crazy scenes. Her lens was pointed at a boy in a snazzy pinstripe suit wearing full zombie make-up and lumbering down the pavement with his arms stretched out in front of him.
‘Yeah! I guess I’d better go say hi. Do you want to come? That waitress can’t make me finish my drink!’ Olivia slid out of the booth and waited.
‘No, you go ahead.’ He smiled at her as if to say: It’s probably best if we leave it here. She knew he wasn’t being mean; it was just that there was a big Ivy-shaped space between them.
‘See you later then,’ Olivia said, and walked quickly past the waitress who was scowling at a receipt.
At the door of the Meat and Greet, Olivia looked back to see Brendan breathing a big sigh of relief and resting his head back on the cushioned booth behind him. Any other day she would have been offended, but today, she knew how he felt.