From Twinkle, With Love(66)

Skid gave me a fist bump. “Yo, T,” he said, grinning. “Guess what? I finally talked to Portia. Told her about Midsummer Night like you said?”

“Yeah? And?” I crossed my fingers without even thinking about it.

He nodded, a smug grin on his face. “She was into it. She’ll be there Saturday.”

“Oh my God, I knew it!” I clapped, and then hugged him. “Congrats, Skid. Now all you have to do is be your charming self and it’s in the bag, dude.”

Sahil snorted. “This guy? Charming?”

Skid glared at him. “Don’t be jealous, Sahil. Green isn’t your color.” Then, laughing, he swaggered off to get another hot chocolate. In the distance, I saw Aaron and Matthew huddled together under a tree, their arms wrapped around each other. I felt this warmth in my chest. I was happy for my friends. Extremely happy. But I wanted to be in that lovestruck, gooey place too. I glanced at Sahil and amended silently, In a guilt-free way.

“It’s finally here,” Sahil said, smiling at me and spreading his arms wide. “The wrap party. We’re almost done.”

I sighed happily. “I know.” Then I looked around again, searching.

“You okay?”

“Hmm?” Looking back at Sahil, I saw him frowning at me. “Oh, yeah.” I stuck my hands in my hoodie pockets and scuffed my sneaker on the ground. “I just … I want to set things right. You know, for how I acted that day with Lewis and all of them.”

Sahil’s frown morphed into a small smile. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. I don’t know what happened. … I lost my head or something. Anyway.” I looked him in the eye. “I’m sorry I acted like that.”

“’S’okay, T,” he said, gently bumping my shoulder with his. “I hear it happens to all the greats now and again.”

I rolled my eyes. “Maybe my problem is that I was starting to think of myself as one of the ‘greats,’” I said. “A little humility never hurt anyone.”

Sahil smiled fondly at me. “Yeah.”

I caught sight of Francesca and Brij, standing off to one side talking. That was one of the coolest things the movie had done. It had brought together the groundlings and the silk feathered hats for the first time in the history of PPC’s existence. (Okay, there was no way for me to prove that, but it was my claim to fame and I was sticking with it.) “Oh, hey, there’s someone now. I’ll be back in a bit, okay?”

Sahil nodded and I rushed off. “Hey, Francesca! Brij!”

Francesca turned to me, her hands around a thermos, a plaid scarf around her neck. Only in the mountains would you need a scarf when it was almost July. “Oh, hey, Twinkle.” Brij just waved. He looked a little thunderstruck, his eyes all wide, like he was having trouble believing he was here. Ha. I so got that.

“Listen,” I said to both of them. “I just wanted to say sorry. For the other day, when we were filming that scene? I pitched a hissy fit with you guys and Lewis and it wasn’t cool at all.”

Francesca smiled and waved a hand. “Ah, it’s not a big deal. Lewis should’ve learned his lines.”

“Oh yeah,” Brij agreed, huddling into his camo jacket as the wind picked up. “It wasn’t just you.”

“Maybe. But I shouldn’t have said all that stuff and acted like a giant brat. That was wrong. So, I’m sorry, again.”

“Apology accepted,” Brij said.

Francesca grinned. “You and Skid just make me look unbelievably gorgeous in the final version and I’ll never mention it again.”

I laughed just as Victoria walked up, her thick red mane blowing in the wind. “It’s a deal.”

“Twinkle!” Victoria screeched, throwing her arm around my neck. “How’s my fave director?”

“Good!” I smiled at her. “How’s my fave, uh, Victoria?”

She grinned. “I’m fantastic. Listen, come with me.” Before I could protest, she grabbed my hand with her leather-gloved one and pulled me toward the bonfire, where most of the people were clustered. “People!” she said, her voice like a bell in the night. “People, listen up!”

Everyone gradually got quiet. “Victoria,” I said nervously. “What are you doing?”

She ignored me. “I want you all to listen up! Because our very fearless and very talented director is about to make a speech!”

Everyone began to cheer and clap. I held up my hands. “No, no,” I said. “I’m not so great with speeches. How about Sahil instead? He’s the producer, and this entire thing was his idea anyway!”

I pointed to him, where he stood a few yards away, but he laughed and held up his hand. “No way,” he said. “The producer’s meant to just blend into the background.”

“Speech, Twinkle!” Victoria said again, and soon everyone was chanting, “Speech! Speech!” in that embarrassing way and staring at me. So I threw my hands up in the air.

“Okay, okay, settle down!” There was a titter through the crowd, but they did settle. I looked around at all their faces, glowing in the crackling firelight. Across from me, Maddie and Lewis were standing together, with Brij off to Maddie’s side. Brij was watching them glumly, though she didn’t know because she was watching me, her face serious, her eyes steady.