and supporting this great cause. It’s an honor to be here tonight on this stage with the sponsor of the event, Miss Violet St. Lyons.” I cleared my throat. “We have a very special treat for you. V has agreed to play a song with us tonight.”
I took off my mink, tossed it on a stool, and turned back to a cheering crowd.
Spider started in with his bass guitar, the sound deep and melodic. Rich with a twist of grunge. The notes rang clear and slow as V kicked in a few bars later, cutting into me like a knife, the prick of pain in the music personifying her.
Elation lit me as I turned to watch her play. There she was, just a simple girl on stage cradling a violin, her music enough to make the hairs on your arms stand up.
She wasn’t leaving. She believed in us. She loved me. I loved her.
We played the song and the audience went nuts. Sometimes in your life you just know things, and my gut knew with certainty that that song would blow up the charts and that tonight wouldn’t be the last time V performed with us on stage.
The song ended, and I took a deep bow, grabbed V’s hand and dashed off stage.
It wasn’t the end of our set, but I had to kiss her. I fused our lips together and everything else faded away.
It was the beginning of a thousand stage exits we’d take together.
THE END
AT THE BRIARCREST Academy five year reunion, a rock star, an heiress, a former Hello Kitty lookalike who did not wear pink, an Englishman, a prima donna ballerina, a pre-med student, a sexy genius, a gym owner, and a slew of high society people converged in the gymnasium of the prep school in Highland Park, Texas. It was a virtual kaleidoscope of the rich and famous. Limousines, high-octane sports cars and foreign imports dotted the parking lot. More champagne was consumed that night than at any other reunion, guests would later claim.
It was the party of the year—according to Emma Easton, the organizer and local resident who’d never gone to New York and become an actress, but had instead found herself stuck in her hometown, twenty pounds heavier and married to Matt Dawson, the father of her four children.
When Sebastian Tate strolled in the place with a gorgeous violinist on his arm, she peed herself. Literally. She’d never expected him to be the one who made it big and she berated herself for not being true to him. Her husband had recently given her the clap, and when he showed up to the party with the secretary he was banging, they got into a girl-fight with lots of hair pulling and cheek slapping. Emma left the party early with a ripped dress and a pee stain on the back.
When Sebastian saw Emma for the first time in five years, all he felt was a big fat nothing, except regret that he’d wasted a lot of time and energy thinking about her. In truth, she’d done him a favor. If things had been different and he’d ended up with Emma, he likely would have never left Texas. Her betrayal proved that sometimes bad things can turn into the best things in our lives.
Sebastian and Violet danced most of the night, in between laughing with their friends. Magazines and tabloids everywhere had announced that she’d just signed a movie deal for ten million dollars and he’d agreed to star in it. They’d also come out publicly about their relationship. As far as his love for the spotlight and her tendency to hide, they’d learned to balance each other out. They kept a low profile, and V was collaborating with the Vital Rejects on their next album. One year later that album would win the Vital Rejects two Grammys: Song of the Year for the song Sebastian wrote for Violet and Record of the Year.
They continued their work with the orphanage and would later open another facility where most of the kids came from Sebastian’s old neighborhood. You’d often find the couple hanging out by the pool, stargazing, or playing with their dogs.
Blair left the gala that night thinking she was on top of the world. Apparently blackmailing perfectly nice people and being a bitch seemed to work. Later that week, she’d fallen madly in lust with an eighteen-year-old waiter who worked at Java and Me. They got trashed and drove all night to Vegas where they