PoV: RORY

By Monday Jake's managed to get me a pass into the trailer lot so we can hang out during lunch. He didn't get passes for Annabelle and Sari, though, so I tell them I've got a monster test coming up in biology and I'm going to be studying in the library every lunch this week. While they love me so, I know neither one of them would voluntarily set foot in the school library if their life depended on it.

I do, however, tell Leo and Amanda about my visitation. "That's awesome!" is Amanda's response. "I won't tell, promise. I'm a good secret keeper."

"I know," I say, glancing between her and Leo. "I trust you. Both of you," I add, eyeing Leo squarely this time. He holds up his hands in defense.

"My lips are sealed!"

Despite having a pass, it still feels like trespassing as I approach the trailer lot. I show the badge to the on-duty security personnel, and she lets me in without a second glance.

A few of the trailers are labeled, but most aren't. When Jake gave me the pass before school this morning he told me he'd make it very clear which trailer was his.

So when I get towards the back of the lot and see the poster-board-sized sign on one of the larger trailers with THIS ONE! written in gold glitter, accompanied by a bunch of arrows pointing to the door, I can't help but laugh out loud.

Jake swings the door open with an expectant look of pride on his face. "So how'd I do?"

"Very elaborate; I approve."

Upon stepping inside his trailer, it's apparent that he's made himself at home here. A forest-green shag carpet covers most of the floor, and LED lighting that changes color is strung up all around the trim. There's a neon-orange lava lamp sitting on top of a desk that's spilling over with papers and binders, and beanbag facing a small TV monitor in one corner, with a controller sitting in its charger nearby. Directly in front of me is a vanity with sticky notes posted all around the border, reminding Jake to do things like finish his science project and call his grandparents. A rack of clothes sits underneath a shelf containing a microwave, and in the opposite corner on the left there's a small mini fridge humming happily.

"Nice place you've got here," I tell him. "I'm impressed."

"Why thank you," Jake replies jocularly. He glances absently over my shoulder before his eyes widen and snap back onto mine. "Oh! I almost forgot! I have news."

"Really? Good or bad?"

"Mmm…both, kinda. So, you know how by the end of this week we were supposed to be headed back to Hollywood?" I nod. "Well, apparently some of our footage was lost accidentally and now we need to reshoot it. Your principal agreed to let us stay one more week!"

I'm stunned, speechless, for a moment before I find my words. "Wow! That's great! I mean, not that the footage was lost—that must suck. But great that you get to hang around a little while longer." I guess Annabelle's wishful thinking wasn't so wishful after all.

What was it Leo once told me? There are no such things as coincidences.

"I'm happy about staying. Willow Falls is growing on me. I'm going to miss it when I go back home," Jake admits. All of a sudden, we hear aggressive footsteps on the stairs outside the door. His face falters. "Madison, on the other hand—"

But he doesn't get to finish, because she swings the door open without knocking and marches right in. "Hey, Jake, have you seen my—" Madison stops dead in her tracks when she catches sight of me cowering behind Jake. "Um, you can't be back here," she says snippily.

"It's all good. I got her a pass," Jake informs Madison. Grinning weakly, I hold up the badge hanging from my neck to show her. Madison just glares daggers at me. Then at Jake.

"You got her a pass?" She says this like it's the most ludicrous thing he could ever do. Jake shrugs.

"Yeah. So?"

"So, what made Dan agree to give her one?"

Jake shrugs again, turning away from Madison this time and walking over to the desk. "I don't know. Caught him on a good day, I guess. I promised him he'd never even notice Rory," Jake explains.

"That's kinda my specialty," I add timidly.

Madison just clicks her tongue at me, shaking her head in a tiny rotation from side to side, while staring me down like she's trying to figure me out. "You're a lucky girl, you know. If I were you I wouldn't waste this opportunity. I suggest you take my words to heart."

I might have, if I knew what they meant. As I'm trying to sort that out, Madison does the last thing I would've ever expected. She leans over, in towards Jake, and kisses him full on the mouth. Right in front of me. Never let them know your next move, huh?

I'm unsure what an appropriate reaction is, so I just tuck my hair behind my ear nervously and stare at a spot on the ground off to my left. The kiss lasts a lot longer than one would think, considering just days ago these two could barely stand each other. When Madison finally pulls away, she throws me a candy-sweet smile paired with a withering scowl in her icy eyes, and exits the trailer without another word.

Jake hasn't moved, but he looks angry. "I don't like saying this about anyone, but I hate her sometimes." He plunks down on the chair behind the desk, holding his head in his hands. "She knows me too well. She knew I wouldn't make a scene with you in here. She only kissed me to get in your head, you know," he says, peeking out at me over his arm.

Once I'm recovered from everything I just saw, I sit down in the smaller chair on the other side of the desk. "Why would she do that to get in my head?"

Jake opens his mouth to speak, but ends up closing it. After contemplating it a little more, he says, "I don't understand her all the way. I met her when we were ten, and in the beginning I think we each had a little crush on each other, which the media went nuts for. After a few months of knowing each other and working on set together, though, we didn't feel that way anymore. But whether we liked it or not, we had a conjoined reputation, and it always got us the good publicity we were looking for. So that's how we started using it. As a tool, to help mold our public image. And if I wasn't so fed up with Madison, I know she'd keep me under her thumb for as long she could. She's manipulative, and wherever there's control to be had, she wants it."

"But without you, she has to work harder for her publicity. She won't always have a fallback," I interject, slowly beginning to understand. "And neither will you."

"But I don't care at this point. I told you about wanting out of Hollywood already. I won't need any more clout if I actually manage to break loose. But she still needs me, and I'm just refusing to be her pawn. I want her to be happy, Rory, I really do. And if I'm being honest, just recently I thought that maybe she wanted that for me, too. But right now, when she kissed me, that was the same old Madison I finally cut ties with for good."

"You said she only did it to get in my head. How do I have anything to do with this?" I ask. Although, I'm not sure I want to know how I fit into this. I'm not sure I want to fit into this at all.

Jake sighs, clearly hesitant to answer my question also. "If I had to guess…Madison thinks we're something, um, more than we really are, and she sees you as a threat to her control. All that stuff I said earlier applies here. She's treating me like her property."

Since there's absolutely no way to hide the blush that's crawled up my neck and spread to my cheeks, I don't even try and push ahead instead. "But that's silly. We're friends, but that has nothing do you with you and Madison's relationship!"

"I know, I know, but if that's not it then she's just messing with you. When we were younger and a prop master would be injured on set, she used to laugh. It always unsettled me, but she's still that way now. It's not a quality of hers most people know about, since it's anything but flattering, but she takes pleasure in other people's pain. So by kissing me…maybe she thinks she was causing you pain."

"It's all a game to her," I finish, trying to ignore the uneasiness creeping into my stomach. "That's really awful. How were you her fake-boyfriend for so long?"

He doesn't miss a beat. "Pressure. That's all it ever was. We both had good smiles and looked nice together on the cover of a magazine, so it just had to be true love." He pauses, like he's choosing his next words carefully. "Rory, I've never been in love, but I sure hope it's nothing like that."

I lean forward a bit, my empathetic talents fully activated. "I've never been in love either, but I can promise you it isn't. When it happens for you, Jake…you'll know. Believe me." I take a deep breath. "I hope you do find real love one day. And I hope it's untouched by anyone except for you two, and when it happens…I want you to tell me. Write me a letter, send me an email, anything. But when we're all grown up and I'm wondering how you are, I want to know that you've found what you're looking for, what you deserve. Please."

When I finish, the silence in the trailer feels electrified. I meant every word, but now I realize it might have been way too much to say. I haven't known Jake for very long. Stupid empathetic talents.

Still, I know he deserves better than Madison. And as his friend, I want him to tell me later in life that I was right. Ever since Angelina, I have sort of a renewed confidence that I'm right about this kind of stuff.

Jake is still, a stunned expression plastered on his unmoving face that makes me want to crawl under a rock and never come back out. Just when I think the silence might kill me, a small smile breaks the tension on his face, and he shakes his head at me the way Madison did earlier, except this time it doesn't feel so condescending.

"Rory Swenson, I can safely say I've never had a friend like you." He doesn't sound mad, which is a relief, although it does little to calm my nerves. "Thanks."

I smile back. "You're welcome."

When the end-of-lunch bell goes off, I'm able to sneak out of the trailer lot and slip into the crowd of kids in the hallway without earning so much as a strange look from anyone. I've always thought of myself as an open book, but now I'm keeping so many secrets. That Jake is my friend, that he and Madison were doomed from the start, that he wants to stop acting in movies, and that in this town a little old woman with a duck-shaped birthmark on her cheek is making amazing things happen all the time, hidden in plain sight, but she'll never go unnoticed by me ever again.

There are no such things as coincidences.

In a way, I have Angelina to thank for my newfound friendship with Jake Harrison.

Jake Harrison, who ties all my secrets together.