Junior Year Box Set

I stuck my tongue out at her. She just gave me a self-satisfied smirk. My naked butt had made the rounds. I would swear that Hollywood was worse than high school, as far as the gossip mill is concerned. At least I hadn’t given them the full Monty like that singer Blake Seaver had. I still chuckled when I remembered Hollywood Central making fun of his junk. No guy wants his package compared to an eggplant. There had to be something seriously wrong with that. At least they hadn’t called it a gherkin.

“Let’s hope this calms down. We don’t want you to have to call ahead and close a store just so you can go shopping,” Rita said.

She was right. I didn’t want to have to be like Beyoncé and Jay Z. That would be nuts.

I think Rita threw that out there just to get my attention. She was right; I needed to reevaluate some things before this got out of hand.

When we arrived home, I was happy when Fritz handed me my sandwich. He was now officially my favorite security person.

◊◊◊

Halle hadn’t just said ‘No,’ but ‘Hell, no,’ when I asked if she wanted to go to Zak’s party. When she found out I planned to attend and take some of my football friends, she decided to hang out with her old high school buddies. I figured it was a good plan because I had no desire to hang out with a bunch of posers.

We first picked up Ridge and Bill from their dorms. Then we met Penny and Sage at Penny’s apartment. Hunter wasn’t able to meet us, so they suggested a restaurant where we could get some good food and then go to the party at Zak’s. We drove to the Food Haus Café, and everyone had Blue Burgers and Truffle Fries.

Fritz finally let me ride shotgun as he drove us all to Zak’s house. Zak was in a subdivision called Malibu Colony. The guard at the gate gave us the third degree before he let us in. If we hadn’t been on the list, we would’ve been turned away.

All the houses in the neighborhood were upscale, and when we pulled up in front of Zak’s home, it was no exception. Zak met us at the door.

“Everyone’s excited you’re here,” he said.

I wasn’t sure what that meant, so I introduced him to my friends. Fritz insisted that he’d hang out with the other bodyguards while we had fun. We walked into what looked like a large hallway with a twenty-foot vaulted ceiling and a fireplace at the end. Zak took us to the right, and we found a huge kitchen with food on all the countertops. That led to a dining area and then out back to a large patio where everyone seemed to be. I would later discover a path that led to a pool and tennis court where another group had congregated.

Ridge and Bill hit the bar while Zak took me around to meet everybody. It turned out he’d used my name to entice people to come to the party. I got the impression Zak had a bad reputation as a skirt-chaser. I hadn’t expected to recognize so many people from both film and TV.

There was some emergency with the food, which allowed me to finally ditch Zak. I found myself alone with a cute blonde.

“Sorry about that. I’m David,” I said to excuse Zak’s rude behavior.

“Sasha,” she said as she shook my hand.

“I never know what to say at one of these things,” I said.

“How about you get me another drink, and I coach you on what you need to know to survive these parties?”

She had a hint of an accent I couldn’t place. I got her drink and came back to find her fending off a young actor who was on Modern Families. I never realized he was so short in person. He had to be five-seven at the most.

“Daniel, this is David. He’s my date tonight,” Sasha said.

“I heard you were single,” Daniel said, and then turned to look up at me.

It was funny to watch his confident demeanor take a hit when he saw who I was.

“You’re that flash-in-the-pan that just hit town,” he snapped.

“You got me,” I said and smiled. “I’ve enjoyed watching you grow up on TV. You’re a funny guy.”

Sasha gave me an appreciative look because I hadn’t reacted to his snide remark. Daniel wasn’t sure if I was being sincere or not.

“Sasha was about to introduce me around. You’re more than welcome to join us,” I offered.

I was surprised when he did. Sasha gave me a dirty look as I made her introduce me to all the celebrities she knew and tell them that I was her date. I’ve never been one to ham it up, so you can imagine how embarrassed she was. Many of these ‘celebrities’ were people I’d never heard of.

I was a little starstruck when I met Forest Graham, who played a werewolf in the Twilight movies. I also met Danica Denton, most famous for being Blake Seaver’s ex. If Sasha hadn’t been my ‘girlfriend,’ I might have made a run at Danica, even though she was seven years older than I was. I was willing to date an older woman.

When Daniel took his shot, I had to bite my tongue. I found out he was my age when Danica pointed out their age difference. Sasha rubbed up against me when Danica checked me out; I guess my new girlfriend was staking her claim. Danica found it amusing. I decided we needed to move on before it got ugly.