“Look, you can invite Jack,” I tell everyone. “I don’t mind, but just give me a warning beforehand. Because I’m leaving if you do.”
Akara is quick to say, “We don’t have to invite him, Oscar.”
I nod once.
So deep in my feelings, that I tell them I’m going to use the bathroom. But I take my two books and just head inside to cool off.
14
JACK HIGHLAND
“I just don’t get why you live in a closet,” Jesse complains over the phone, his choice of words icing me over, even if he’s just referring to the size of my apartment. “My surfboard can barely fit next to yours.”
I ride the elevator up thirty-three floors to the penthouse. My camera hangs at my hip, the strap across my chest, and I remind myself to breathe. In, out.
Ride the swell.
“I don’t know why you brought your board, Jess,” I tell my little brother. “You’re my PA, when do you think you’ll have time to drive an hour and a half to New Jersey and surf?”
“After doing PA stuff.” He pauses. “I’ll have some breaks di ba?” Di ba means right?
I’ll have some breaks, right?
I smile and stay quiet, letting him sweat it out.
“There are labor laws, Kuya,” Jesse says, sounding more worried.
“You’ll get breaks,” I smile more, pressing the phone firmer to my ear. “But you didn’t come out here for a vacation. I need your help, remember. And you need this on your resume.”
Since Ali and Ambrose said no to my pitch yesterday, I decided rather than hire a stranger, I’d hire someone I trust with secrets.
My brother.
Jesse flew in on a red-eye last night, and now he’s finishing summer school online.
Over the phone, he mutters under his breath, and the elevator doors glide open. I land in the empty private foyer facing the penthouse’s front door.
“Ano?” I ask what? to Jesse.
“I get why Mama’s worried about you now. She doesn’t want you to turn out like them, working super long hours. That’s actually why she let me come out here, you know. Maybe I’ll be a good influence on you, she said.”
I smile. “Mama did not say that.”
“She implied it.”
She’s more understanding of me working hard than Jesse slacking, which is probably why she let him come out to Philly. For the opportunity.
Can’t pass it up.
I pull the phone down to check the time: 7:54 a.m.—I’m supposed to meet Oscar at 8. “I have to go,” I tell Jesse. Even though I’m early, I feel late. “Make yourself at home. Pantry is stocked—oh and my neighbors were hijacking my WiFi and slowing the internet, so I had to change the password since the last time you were here. The new one is LeChatRouge0502.”
“How do you spell it?”
I spell out le chat rouge and describe the capitalization.
“Why 0502? Don’t you usually go for 1118 in passwords?” 11/18 is my birthday. November 18th.
May 2nd is Oscar’s birthday.
And I didn’t think anything of the password when I created it, other than having Paris and Oscar on the brain. Didn’t seem like a big deal.
But hearing Jesse ask, I feel tilted sideways. Switching my phone to my left ear like I’m trying to balance, I tell him, “It’s the birthday of Charlie’s bodyguard. You’ll meet him during filming.”
“Sweet.” He sounds distracted like he’s typing in the password. “You know I’m amped to be here. I get to flex my camera skills, hang with my big brother, travel wherever Charlie Cobalt flies off to. It’s gonna be a gnarly summer.”
I smile, one that vanishes fast.
This summer has been a cyclone of feelings and missed opportunities for me. It’s already been gnarly, but not completely in the positive way Jesse used the word.
Still in the empty foyer with the elevator behind me, I thank Jesse again for flying out so fast, and we say our goodbyes.
“Talk later, Kuya.”
We hang up, and I rap a fist on the penthouse door.
Two seconds and it swings open to a six-foot brunette. Sulli towers, her biceps cut and abs visible in a bikini, towel bunched in her hand. It doesn’t feel that long ago that we sat down together at Superheroes & Scones and had her first production meeting. It was really our first introduction to each other too.
A Secret about Sullivan Meadows: at 13, a swim coach told her that she needed to shave around her bikini line better. It was one of the only things she feared telling her protective dad, who she tells everything to.
“Oh hey, Jack.” She motions behind her shoulder. “Oscar’s in the library.”
I tense. She knows I’m here for him?
Off my confusion, Sulli frowns. “You have a meeting with him, right? Fuck, did I get that wrong?”
“No, no.” I shake the thoughts from my head. I’m an idiot. “Yeah, that’s right. That’s why I’m here.” I recover with a wide smile. “So I heard about your speed climb. First place. Congrats.”
“Thanks.” She twists her hair in a bun with one hand. “It was a fun event. But I think that’s probably the last speed-climb for a while, oh cumfuck—”
A fluffy dog and calico cat scamper towards us. I slip through the door and quickly shut it behind me as the pets skid to a halt.
Sulli bends down, rubbing behind the dog’s ears, while the calico cat prances off. “Orion, you know fucking better,” Sulli says, and then tells me, “Luna says her dog is trying to commune with his star people and that’s why he tries to leave.”
I laugh. “Yeah, what’s Carpenter’s excuse?”
“He’s a little shit-stirrer.” Sulli smiles.
As she stands up, I ask, “Why no more speed-climbs?”
“It’s getting fucking boring, honestly. I’ve already won what I set out to win. There’s not much left, it feels like.”
My smile weakens as I mull over her words.
I have no clue what it truly feels like to reach the pinnacle of my goals. I’m close, but I’m still climbing. Talking to Sulli over the last couple of years, I realize now how empty it must feel once you’re
