Prologue
Five Years Before
I stepped up to Sean’s house and knocked quickly before letting myself in. “It’s me,” I hollered.
“Hey, Libby,” Sean’s mom called from the kitchen.
“Hi, Debbie,” I answered, already heading for the basement door. “Is Sean downstairs?”
“Yep. Though I haven’t heard his guitar in a while, so he might be stuck.”
“That’s what I’m here for,” I threw over my shoulder with a smile as I headed down to the basement. We needed to work on nailing down his next song, really fine tune it before we could figure out a time to record it. None of his songs were studio quality, but the mic we had invested in and the sound booth we had rigged up were getting the job done.
Sean was sitting on the couch, his guitar across his knees, but he wasn’t playing it. He was staring at the cell phone in his hand instead.
“Girl problems again?” I joked, crossing to the keyboard and switching it on. “Let the pain fuel your music,” I said in my best guru voice. “Come on. It’s a school night, so I can’t stay late. We gotta get to work.”
“They called me.”
I looked up at him, put on alert by the bewildered monotone of his voice. He slowly looked up from his phone, his eyes blinking heavily, his mouth slightly agape. “They called me.” This time he was breathless with excitement and his eyes were wide and bright.
“Who called?”
“Eclipse Studios.”
The bag full of music that I had slung over my shoulder fell to the ground. “The record label?!”
He nodded, his mouth still hanging open. “They said they like my stuff.” A huge grin spread across his face. “They want to meet with me.”
I stood in utter shock for two seconds before screaming at the top of my lungs as I jumped up and down and then tackled him with a hug. “You’re going to be so amazing, Sean,” I told him, breathless with excitement. “I can’t wait to watch you take the world by storm.”
Footsteps pounded down the stairs as both Sean’s mom and sister raced down to see what was happening.
“Why are we screaming?” Sean’s twin Serena demanded, her hands out in front of her, as if bracing for what was to come.
Debbie put a hand to her chest. “I expected to find one of you bleeding down here.”
“Sean’s going to get a recording contract!” I shouted as I raised both hands in triumph.
“What?” they both said in unison, turning their wide eyes on Sean.
“They didn’t say that.” Sean held up his hands as if warding off their enthusiasm. “They just said they wanted to talk.”
It was Serena’s turn to scream and tackle her brother while Debbie caught her breath and beamed with pride.
Sean and I got no work done that evening. Instead we talked with Serena and Debbie about all the possibilities and what it might mean and what Sean should wear when he met with the representative from a real live RECORD LABEL! We ended up moving up to the kitchen so we could celebrate with ice cream. I texted my dad, telling him to come over, and when he showed up, we got to share the amazing news with him too. He lifted Sean off his feet and pounded him on the back, teasing him about remembering us little folk when he made it big.
And I just soaked in the joy of basking in Sean’s starlight. Because he would be a star. I’d known it for a long time. It was just who he was.
PART ONE
CHAPTER ONE
I tried to get control of my angry face as I paid the Uber driver and then dug into my purse for my disguise. The fact that I had a disguise at the ready should have been a clue that my life was a little out of control. I had my best friend to thank for that. The best friend whose butt I was going to kick as soon as I managed to pry him out of this club.
New York City made me crazy, probably because I was only ever here to clean up Sean’s messes. I liked my little apartment outside the city.
I slipped the wide-rimmed fashion specs on my face, put on the loose-knit bohemian hat, and wrapped a scarf around my neck before slipping through the crowd. Randy was waiting for me at the entrance, giving the bouncer the signal to let me in.
“Hey, Libby,” Randy said with a look of defeat. “I’m really sorry about this.”
“Not as sorry as he’s going to be,” I muttered, my face set in stone.
He tried to give me a commiserating smile, but it was more of a grimace. My best friend’s manager was just as sick of this situation as I was. I scanned the crowd, pegging several reporters who were sitting around with cameras resting on their tabletops, pointed in Sean’s direction. They all looked pretty bored, which was normal. Sean didn’t spiral in loud, obnoxious ways. He didn’t dance on tables or make out with girls. He just sat there on his stool, signaling to the bartender to keep them coming. The only time he made a scene was when Randy tried to get him to leave.
Enter: me.
The seats on either side of Sean were empty, no doubt thanks to Will, Sean’s security guy who stood several feet behind him. I sighed and slid past him, hoping he’d block the view of some of the cameras. I lifted myself onto the stool beside Sean, keeping my eyes straight ahead, hoping to have a somewhat incognito conversation with him.
“What are you doing here, Sean?”
He didn’t bother to look over at me. “I’m celebrating. Didn’t you hear? I’m a big star.”
So it was one of those nights. A self-pitying, nobody-loves-me-for-me night. A night of resenting his own success. “Well, big star. What do you say we get out of here before there are even more photos of you getting sloppy drunk?”
“Leave me alone, Libby.”
“You know me better than that. Let’s go.” I stood and grabbed hold of his arm, hoping he’d let me heft him. He usually did, even if he was belligerent about it.
“I said leave.” He shoved me back. Shoved me.
I blinked in shock, stupefied until I managed to shake it off. This time I grabbed hold of his wrist with one hand and his thumb with the other, locking his joint just enough that he had to move where I guided him if he didn’t want to get hurt. “You will get up and you will leave right now if you don’t want photos of you being demolished by a girl,” I hissed in his ear.
He groaned in pain but gritted his teeth and stood, turning his glassy glare on me. Moments like this made me really miss my best friend. The boy I’d known before he started “living the dream.”
Randy stepped in behind me to handle whatever bill Sean had racked up while Will escorted us to the back exit. There was an SUV with dark-tinted windows waiting for us, as usual.
Tucker, the driver, opened the door and I shoved Sean inside with more force than necessary. He fumbled the one and only step as he climbed in, falling haphazardly into the far seat as I jumped in after him. He sat in stubborn silence as I methodically removed my hat, glasses and scarf, placing each item carefully inside my bag.
Randy jumped into the front seat and we pulled away from the club just as I was zipping my purse closed. Then I released the tight hold that I’d had on my emotions and let loose. I gripped my bag with both hands, turned toward Sean, and smacked him over and over with it. “What. Is. Your. Problem?”