Sweet Little Lies: An LA Candy Novel

Which was the truth.

The second Jane got to her bedroom, she closed the door and flopped down on the bed, which she’d forgotten to make this morning. The breeze through the open window was pleasantly cool and carried with it the sounds of the surf outside. Her cell was on her nightstand, with a full mailbox. She used to love her phone; now she hated it. Over the last couple of days, she’d somehow managed to listen to all thirty-one messages that had accumulated during her time in Cabo, as well as a few more that she had received since then. They were basically variations on the same theme: her parents, Trevor, Fiona, Scar, and others asking her where she was and if she was okay and could she please call them immediately? There had been some messages from Diego among the bunch, saying he was so, so, so sorry that he hadn’t known about the photos of Jane and Braden being leaked to the magazine until it was too late. D worked as Veronica Bliss’s assistant at Gossip, and from the sound of it, she wasn’t a very nice boss. Or, Jane could now attest, a very nice person.

Reporters had called, too, offering her the chance to tell her side of the story. Yeah, right. Likely they just wanted to trick her into saying too much about Jesse and/ or Braden, then twisting her words and printing more crazy headlines.

In addition to her daily “where/how are you” messages, Scar left a few confusing ones about Madison. Jane remembered the note Scar had left at their apartment, saying, I have to talk to you about Madison ASAP. What was that about, anyway? Jane figured she would find out soon enough. She planned to return to L.A. the day after tomorrow. Maybe Scar would be back from Aspen by then, and they could talk in person? They were long overdue for a heart-to-heart.

There were no messages from Jesse. Or Braden. None. Jane had checked and double-checked, and bitten back her disappointment each time. Why hadn’t they tried to contact her? On the other hand, why was she so surprised?

She wasn’t sure how she felt about either guy these days. She missed Jesse, missed the way things were before everything fell apart. But she couldn’t deny that she was also attracted to Braden.

Not that she was in a position to choose one or the other. Jesse was likely never going to speak to her again. And Braden’s silence spoke volumes. He was a low-key person who valued his privacy. Why would he want to be friends with—much less date—a publicity magnet like her, especially after what had happened?

Jane glared at her phone. She knew she was being kinda (well, definitely) irresponsible, not returning anyone’s calls (although she had sent Scar that one text message). But she wasn’t ready. She would be soon. Just not today.

As if on cue, her phone began ringing. “Go away!” Jane said out loud, as she looked at the screen to see which friend, producer, boss, coworker, or reporter was hounding her now.

Jane stopped when she recognized the number, which was still familiar to her after seven months of not seeing it appear on her screen.

It was Caleb. Caleb Hunt.

Caleb had been her first love and her first real boyfriend. They’d dated for a couple of years in high school. When he left to go to Yale the summer before last, they’d decided to try a long-distance relationship. She had been fine with it. He hadn’t. At the end of his freshman year, he’d told her that he wanted to take a break. He’d spent the summer volunteering in New Orleans while she prepared to move to L.A. with Scar—and while she tried to get over him. Which hadn’t been easy, although meeting Braden, then Jesse, had certainly helped.

Jane hadn’t seen—or heard from—Caleb since their breakup back in May. Why was he calling her now?

Don’t pick up, Jane told herself. Just let it go to voice mail. But then she remembered her mailbox was full. She grabbed the phone on the fifth ring and pressed Talk. “Hello?”

“Janie?” Caleb was the only person who ever called her that, besides Scar. “Hey. Am I catching you at a bad time?”

“Oh, hi, Caleb,” Jane said casually. Although casual was the last thing she was feeling. The sound of his voice could still make her heart race, after all this time. “Nope, I’m just hanging out.”

“You home for the holidays?”

“Yeah. Are you?”

“For now. I’m leaving tomorrow morning for Vail, though.”

“Sounds fun.”

“Hope so. Listen, Janie,” Caleb said. “I’m calling because I’d heard some stuff, and I was worried about you. Are you doing okay?”

Jane realized that Caleb had seen the Gossip pictures. Along with everyone who had internet access or a TV set or who stood in grocery store checkout lines. “Oh, thanks, Caleb,” she said, meaning it. “Yeah, I’m doing okay.”

“You want me to beat anybody up?”

Jane laughed. “Yeah, maybe.”

“Just say the word.”

“Thanks. How’s Yale?”

There was a pause. “It’s…you know,” Caleb said after a moment.

What does that even mean? Jane thought.

“How’s Hollywood?” Caleb asked her.

“It’s…you know,” Jane mimicked him.

Caleb laughed. “Yeah, funny. So I guess you’re with this Braden guy now?”

Why was he asking her this? “No, we’re not together.”

“Oh. So you’re still with that Jesse guy?”

“Um, not exactly. It’s kinda complicated.”

“It always is with you, Roberts.”

“You seeing anybody?” Jane asked him, wondering why they were quizzing each other on their love lives.

“Not exactly. It’s kinda complicated.” This time Caleb was mimicking her.

“Ha, ha.”

Someone banged on her door. “Helllooooo?” It was Nora. “Everyone’s waiting for you! We’re gonna watch Twilight on Blu-ray!”

“Be there in a sec!” Jane called out. “I gotta go,” she said into the phone.

“Nora-Bora’s being a pain in the butt, huh?”

“Yeah, kinda. I haven’t seen them in a while.”

“No worries. I’ll talk to you soon, okay? Call me if you need anything. Merry Christmas, Janie.”

“Merry Christmas, Caleb.”

As Jane clicked off and put her phone back on her nightstand, she wondered about his parting words: I’ll talk to you soon. They hadn’t talked at all in seven whole months. Why would they be talking anytime soon? And why was she supposed to call him if she “needed anything”? Had something changed? Of course, she was on TV now, but Caleb didn’t care about that kind of stuff. He wasn’t the type to track down an old girlfriend for a chance to be closer to a so-called celebrity.

Forget “kinda complicated”; everything in Jane’s life was downright confusing.

8 YOU’RE TWO OF MY BEST FRIENDS

Scarlett sat cross-legged on her bed, clicking through channels, wondering what to do with the rest of her evening. She’d always hated Sundays. Sundays meant weekend over, back to school, back to work. These days, Sundays also meant receiving the upcoming week’s shooting schedule from Dana. This week, Scarlett was scheduled to meet Gaby for lunch at La Crêperie…and at Kinara for a spa day…and at the Standard for a launch party for the Marley twins’ new perfume.

It was two days after Christmas, and Jane and Madison were still not back. Which was why Trevor and Dana were (obviously) continuing to scrape the bottom of the barrel and force Scarlett and Gaby into social situations just so they had something to tape. She knew they were desperate for material, since the season finale was coming up in a month or so—and season finales were supposed to be full of drama and cliff-hangers, not scenes of faux friends eating crepes or getting mani-pedis. But that wasn’t Scarlett’s problem.

If only Jane would come home already. Then everything would return to normal. Well, sort of normal. How long did she plan on staying in Santa Barbara (or wherever she was these days)? How long did she plan on not picking up her phone or answering her emails?

“Scar?”

Scarlett muted her TV. Jane? She jumped to her feet and ran into the hallway. “Janie?” she called out.

“Yeah, it’s me!” Jane’s voice came from somewhere in the front of the apartment.

Scarlett ran down the hall and found Jane in the living room. She had obviously just walked through the door. Dressed in a pale yellow top and skinny jeans, her hair tied back in a messy knot, she was holding an overnight bag in one hand and a big shopping bag in the other filled to the brim with what appeared to be Christmas presents and Tupperware containers of homemade cookies. She looked kind of lost, like a little girl all alone at a train station.

“Janie! Ohmigod!” Scarlett rushed up to her and gave her a big hug. “Where the hell have you been? I’ve been so worried about you! Ohmigod, I am so happy to see you!” She hugged her again.

Jane hugged her back. “I’m glad to see you, too! Did you have a good Christmas?”

“What? No, it was lame. I’ll tell you later. First, what about you? Are you all right?” Scarlett had a million questions to ask her; she didn’t know where to begin.

Jane shrugged wearily. “I guess.” She set her bags on the floor and walked over to the couch, sinking down.

Scarlett was right behind her. “Where did that psycho take you in Mexico? What did she say to you? Did she—”

Jane pulled back, her blue eyes wide. “Uh, Scar?” she said slowly. “I know you don’t like Madison, and I respect that, even though I don’t really understand it. But she’s been a really good friend to me. So I’d appreciate it if—”

“Friend?” Scarlett cut in, practically shouting. She took a deep breath and forced herself to lower the volume. “Janie? Listen carefully to me, okay? I’m really, really sorry to have to tell you this, but Madison is the one who gave those pictures of you and Braden to Gossip.”

There. She had said it. She sat back, waiting for Jane’s reaction. Would Jane burst into tears? Start screaming? Pick up her phone and call Madison and end their friendship right then and there?

But Jane did none of those things. Instead, she gave Scarlett an icy smile. “Oh, really? You know what’s funny? Madison said the same thing about you. I’m getting tired of your stupid feud. You’re two of my best friends. Can’t you at least try to get along? It’s getting old, Scar.”

You’re two of my best friends? Scarlett heard the words but couldn’t quite process them. When had Madison become one of Jane’s best friends? She, Scarlett, was Jane’s best friend. Madison was the enemy.

Scarlett took another deep breath. She had to get Jane to believe her. “I can prove to you that Madison did this.”

“You can prove it?”

“Yes! See, right before you guys took off for Mexico, she told me that Jesse gave the photos to Gossip. So I went over to his house to confront him, right? But when I got there, he told me that Madison was the one who did it. He said she showed him the pictures earlier and tried to get him to deliver them to some woman at the magazine—you know, what’s-her-name, D’s boss. Veronica.”

Jane was silent for a moment. “Why would he say that?” she said finally.

“Um, because it’s the truth? Why would he lie about something like that?”

“I don’t know. Because he wasn’t thinking straight after those pictures came out? Because he was drunk…or on something? Because he doesn’t like Madison? Or maybe because I just cheated on him with his best friend in the world and he wanted me to feel the same betrayal? There are a million reasons he would say that.” Jane let out a frustrated yell. “I just want to forget about the pictures and get on with my life. I’m the one who messed up here. Not Jesse. And definitely not Madison. She pretty much saved my life, do you know that? If she hadn’t gotten me out of here and taken me to her parents’ condo in Cabo, I don’t know what I would’ve done.”

“But—”

Jane held up her hand. “Let it go, Scarlett.”

“Seriously—”

“No more.” Jane took a deep breath and smiled the icy smile again. “Now, tell me about Christmas in Aspen.”

Scarlett opened her mouth, then closed it. She could see that Jane didn’t want to hear the truth about Madison. She would have to find another way to get through to her…to prove to her that Madison had manipulated her and lied to her from day one.

“Yeah. Right. So Trevor actually sent cameras to film our Christmas Eve dinner, can you believe it?” Scarlett said, figuring she should go along with Jane’s attempt to change the subject.

“Seriously?” Jane glanced at her nails, distracted.

“Yeah. And I’m pretty sure Dana was texting my parents during the shoot…”

Scarlett went on, describing the crazy Harp Christmas Eve dinner. But she could tell that Jane’s mind was elsewhere. She knew her best friend—loyal to a fault. Scarlett had totally alienated her by going off on Madison.

Scarlett tried to bite back the sadness welling up in her—the sadness over this distance in their friendship that she couldn’t seem to bridge. Sure, Scarlett hadn’t told Jane about her noncrush on Liam…yet. Not that there was anything to tell, because nothing had actually happened between her and Liam. Still, Scarlett wasn’t used to keeping secrets from Jane, big or small. Keeping secrets felt too much like telling lies.

How am I gonna fix this? Scarlett wondered miserably. And for once, the girl with all the answers didn’t have a clue.

9 CRAZY GIRL

Just before 9 a.m. on Monday morning, Jane pulled into her usual parking spot behind Fiona Chen’s building. She turned off the engine and carefully searched the entire lot through the window. Good—no photographers. She’d had to fend off two of them outside the apartment earlier. They were so obnoxious, shouting questions at her about Braden and Jesse—“Jane, why did Braden move to New York?” “Jane, what do you think of Jesse’s new girlfriend?”—and snapping picture after picture of her while she gritted her teeth and tried to ignore them. She hadn’t heard anything about Braden going to New York or Jesse having a new girlfriend. But she knew better than to talk to paparazzi.

Still…the thought of Braden and Jesse moving on without her, and so quickly, made her heart feel heavy. Neither had tried to contact her since the Gossip story broke. She knew she had to reach out to them at some point. She owed Braden an apology—for hooking up with him when she was so mixed-up about everything, and for inadvertently getting him involved in this whole mess. And she owed Jesse an even bigger apology. She had no idea how she could possibly make things right after cheating on him, and in front of the whole world, too.

There was one guy she didn’t owe anything—and he seemed to have no problem getting in touch with her: Caleb. He had texted her yesterday, from Vail—something about the awesome powder, and did she remember when they went to Tahoe during her senior year, and she wiped out on her new snowboard, like, twenty times? A few minutes later, he had texted her a photo of her lying in a pile of snow and laughing hysterically. Jane had no idea why he was sending her this stuff. It was nice that he was thinking about her. But confusing. And she didn’t need “confusing” right now, on top of everything else.

Riding up to her office in the crowded elevator, Jane felt butterflies in her stomach. And not the good kind. She hadn’t been to work in over a week, and she was really nervous about facing Fiona. She had sent her boss a quick email yesterday, saying that she would be back in the office on Monday. Fiona had responded right away, writing simply: See you tomorrow at 9 sharp.

So what was in store for Jane at 9 sharp? A furious Fiona waiting with a long lecture? A pink slip, telling her that she had two weeks to find new employment? Maybe one followed by the other. Can’t wait.

To make things worse, the L.A. Candy cameras were up there already, prepared to shoot Jane’s return to work. When Trevor had called Jane yesterday, Jane had felt compelled to pick up after ignoring him for so long. He asked her if it would be okay for them to shoot her at work the following day. After going MIA on him, what could she say but yes?

Much to her surprise, Trevor had been really sweet on the phone and didn’t sound angry at all about the Gossip

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