Junior Year Box Set

I’d agreed to go to the beach house and hang out with Trip and Craig Wild, my costar in Star Academy. Hopefully, Kent would be there as well. He and I had become friends, and he seemed to be the one who had common sense in Craig’s little entourage.

I was introduced to how scary paparazzi can be on the way to the beach house. Two motorcycles chased us through traffic on the highway to try to get pictures. I now understood why Rita had security and why the windows were tinted.

“Do you have your seatbelt on?” Fritz asked.

“Yes, sir.”

Fritz used the Bluetooth in the Range Rover to call 911 through his phone.

“911, what’s your emergency?”

Fritz explained the situation and where we planned to go. When we pulled onto the Pacific Coast Highway, two police cars were waiting and turned on their lights. One of the motorcycles decided to make a run for it, while the other was pulled over.

We pulled into the driveway of what appeared to be a one-story house. When I got out of the car, Trip looked down from the roof.

“Go in the front door and come up to the roof. We’re going to barbecue some steaks and then go surfing.”

I entered and discovered this was, in fact, a two-story home. The back of the house was glass from floor to ceiling and looked out over a large patio that overlooked the Pacific Ocean. I walked down the stairs to take in the view. It was easy to understand why people loved this area. From the living room, I could see that over the kitchen was a large bedroom that had a balcony. The rest of the bedrooms were at the front of the house, two downstairs and two more upstairs.

Fritz showed me how to get onto the roof. There was a complete outdoor kitchen, a large fireplace, and a hot tub. A portion was under an awning so you could get out of the sun.

“There he is,” Craig called out.

“Hey, good to see you. Hey, Kent.”

Craig, Kent, and I caught up while Fritz and Trip made dinner. We had steaks and baked potatoes with a salad. After we’d eaten, we decided to go surfing. Well, Fritz taught me to surf while the other three showed they’d been doing this all their lives. I was happy when towards the end, I got up and was able to make a couple of runs without falling off. I’d just discovered another reason I loved it here.

When we were done, we started back to the house. I saw a group of cute girls and walked up to them. Something I’d noticed about LA was there was no shortage of beautiful women. The three looked like they’d been enhanced because natural breasts are not that round and firm.

“We were just going to enjoy the sunset and relax in the hot tub. Would you ladies like to join us?”

The Asian girl tilted her head.

“Do you own the house?” she asked.

“I do,” Trip said, moving forward.

The look she gave him had me worried.

“You’re Craig Wild,” the brown-haired woman said, eyeing Craig with a slightly possessive expression.

“I’m Kent, Craig’s manager,” Kent said to the blonde. She looked him up and down and smiled. We all walked up to the house. There was an outdoor shower on the lower patio, and Trip asked us all to rinse off before going into the house and hot tub. The six of them went upstairs, and Fritz and I relaxed on the downstairs patio to give them some privacy.

“It looks like they stole the girls I found.”

“I think you’re better off. All those girls saw were dollar signs,” Fritz explained.

“Do you think they’ll be okay?”

“Those three have been doing this for years. They’ll be fine.”

“I noticed there was no alcohol. Do you think Trip will make it this time?” I asked.

This rehab had been his third try in five years. Craig had done his stint before shooting our movie. I hoped Kent could keep temptation away.

“One can only hope. I know how much Rita worries about him,” Fritz said.

I was finding I liked Fritz. He was easy to talk to and had a good sense of humor. He also saw more than I realized. Fritz warned me to be careful around Zak. While Zak didn’t have a mean bone in his body, he could easily lead me astray. He enjoyed everything you would imagine an actor would get up to, including drugs, alcohol, and plenty of women.

While I watched the sun go down, I called home and updated my mom about my day. I also called Tami, Yuri, Tim, and Jim. I’d decided that I needed to be sure to rotate calling my friends when I got a chance. Uncle John had mentioned that I needed to be sure not to forget about them and how important their friendships would be in the future.

I also called my old high school friend Bill Callaway. We made plans to get together either Friday or Saturday. He promised to bring Sage, Ridge, and Penny.

I thought of someone else and called Hunter Green. He’d been at the USC and Elite camps with Ridge and me and was now at San Diego State. Hunter said he would call Ridge and get the details. It would be nice to get everyone back together.

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