Next Door to a Star by Krysten Lindsay Hager Page A

well, not best friend necklaces, but something matching that showed we were friends like all the girls at my school in Goodacre had. It seemed everyone had matching something or other. Lexi and I had the same school bags, but that was it. I always wanted to have matching jewelry with someone—that feeling of belonging. I really hoped we would hang out on the Fourth. Maybe Lauren would be in town then and we could all hang out. Instead, Simone said she had plans.
    “Pilar’s parents are having everybody over to watch the fireworks from their place,” she said. “They have people over each year because you get a better view from up on the hill.”
    I would have died for an invitation to Pilar’s party, but I knew it wouldn’t happen. Pilar had never even spoken to me. I wished Simone would offer to ask if I could come, but she didn’t say anything. After all, Nick had mentioned it to her that she should bring me along, right? As I was getting up the nerve to ask her if she would, she said the mosquitoes were bothering her and she was going to go inside. I had the same sick feeling I always got when I missed my chance to do something. The feeling only got worse when I went inside.
    “Hadley, did you see the new Celebrity Snooper blog today?” Aunt Faith asked. “Simone is in it with Lauren Gere.”
    “What? She didn’t say anything about that. Were these super old pictures?”
    “Here,” she said. “I’ll pull it up on my phone. It’s Simone and Lauren walking along the boardwalk with some blonde girl and a boy.”
    “Does it say when that happened?” I asked. I couldn’t believe Simone wouldn’t have mentioned Lauren had already been here.
    Faith found the site on her phone and stared at it. “I’m not sure, but I guess it was pretty recent. Here, look.”
    Simone was on the phone in the picture and the blonde girl with them was Morgan. But what was worse was that the boy was Nick and Lauren had her hand on his arm. Great, it was probably the same night I called Simone and she was too busy to talk. Maybe I was the one on the other end of the phone in the stupid picture. I had missed my chance to meet Lauren, and Simone never even told me when she was in town. I guess I wasn’t cool enough for her to admit she was friends with me to somebody like Lauren. Who was I kidding? A TV star wanting to hang out with me? We weren’t friends at all. I was somebody she ran to when she needed something. And Nick was probably humoring me until his new celebrity girlfriend called him back. I wanted to throw up all over the table.
    “Didn’t Simone mention it to you?” Aunt Faith asked.
    “Maybe she did and I wasn’t paying attention. I’m super tired, so I’m gonna go to bed. Night.”
    I went up to my room and cleared my clothes off my bed. The gratitude journal fell on the floor and I kicked at it with my foot. Here I thought I had finally made some new friends and it turned out one was using me and neither one of them cared enough to invite me to the Fourth of July party. I don’t know why I thought I would fit in somewhere or that some great guy would like me. I guess I got lucky with Lexi, but now even she had forgotten about me. All her posts online were with new people, and she never tagged me or messaged me back. I guess I wasn’t important enough to be anyone’s priority.

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Twelve
     
     
    While Simone got ready for the party everyone but me was invited to, I went to the grocery store with my grandmother. Grandma went to buy stuff for our little family BBQ, and I went to check out the fake tanning creams. I stuck a bottle of self-tanning cream in the cart. I planned to tell Grandma it was sunscreen if she asked. It did have an SPF of 4 in it, after all. Charlotte’s grandpa was talking to Grandma in the meat aisle when I came back to the cart with some ice cream.
    “Judd Lidstrom’s coming over tomorrow to watch the fireworks,” she said. I was excited until