Hi guys! A big thanks to Clovelyshannonigans, Clatoforeverinmyheart, OdairBear, ClovelyLittleReader, Guest (Yes, this is a Clato story. It's coming soon, I promise :P), Guest (Don't worry, it's coming soon), Guest (Thank you so much!), Caroline (Here's the update you requested :P), and Guest (Thank you!) for reviewing. It means so much to me!
One and a half months had passed since Clove had moved back to Beverly Hills, since she'd started dating golden boy Marvel Rutherford. Some days were spent tanning by the pool sipping fresh mint margaritas; others were spent shopping on Rodeo Drive with her closest friends. But when the sun went down, they went out. It was ninety days and nights of pure bliss, but everyone knows that all good things eventually come to an end.
For the first time in ages, Clove was stuck at home for the night while her friends went out partying without her. She'd come down with some kind of 24-hour bug, and despite her protests that she felt fine, her maid Eleanora refused to let her leave the house. But while she was curled up in bed having a Pretty Little Liars marathon with herself, two of her closest friends were doing something unspeakable together, something that would change their lives forever.
Cato awoke to a persistent knocking on his front door, and he stumbled out of bed and down the stairs to find a nervous-looking Marvel pacing back and forth on his front porch.
"Dude, you look like shit," he greeted, opening the door for his friend.
Marvel ignored him, instead saying, "I fucked up, man."
"What happened?" he asked, still half asleep.
"I…Umm, I…"
Cato, becoming more aware of his surroundings, asked again, "Man, what the hell happened?"
"I slept with Glimmer."
It took all of Cato's might to keep his jaw from dropping. There was obviously some kind of explanation; good, loyal Marvel would never do something like that to Clove. "What do you mean you slept with her?"
"We had sex, Cato, what the hell else? I lost my fucking virginity to my girlfriend's best friend. God, Clove's going to kill me when she finds out. How could I be so god damn stupid?"
Shaking his head, Cato struggled to process this new information. Marvel was right, of course; as soon as she found out, Clove was going to dump his ass. He glanced up at his best friend, who looked as if he hadn't slept all night. There were dark bags under his eyes, his hair was a tangled mess, and he was looking at Cato as if his life depended on whatever he said next. Cato sighed, "You can't tell her."
She deserved to know, even Cato knew that, but if the truth was going to do more harm than good, what was the point of telling it?
"But-"
"No buts, dude. What she doesn't know won't hurt her."
Marvel shook his head, burying his face in his hands. No way in hell was he going to be able to face her without spilling everything. The guilt was already eating him alive. "Cato, I have to tell her."
Cato shrugged, "You don't have to tell her anything. I'm just saying…your life is going to be a whole hell of a lot simpler if she doesn't know."
Marvel considered this. Maybe things could go back to normal. The past was the past. He hadn't meant to sleep with Glimmer; it was just their teenage hormones acting on impulse. Nothing had changed. He still loved Clove, even if he may have forgotten that last night.
"I need a drink," he mumbled, making a beeline for Cato's dad's liquor cabinet.
Glimmer paced back and forth in her room, biting her fingernails nervously. She was searching for some kind of logical explanation as to why she would sleep with her best friend's boyfriend, but that was the problem – there was no justification for what she did. They were drunk and lonely and it had seemed like a good idea at the time. God, she was screwed. Not only was she going to lose her best friend, but Clove was also going to ruin her in the process.
Her phone rang from its spot on her bed across the room, and she walked towards it warily. Picking it up, her heart sunk. It was Clove.
She sent her to voicemail, her heart pounding out of her chest when a notification for one new voice message popped up on her screen. Pressing it slowly, she let out a breath she didn't even realize she'd been holding when Clove's voice was its usual chirpy self.
"Hey Glim! Why aren't you answering your phone? I'm bored out of my effing mind, so I'm on the way to your house. Be there in like five minutes! Mwah!"
Glimmer was dialing her number before she could stop herself, and Clove answered on the second ring.
"Get my message?"
"Yeah," Glimmer fake coughed, "I'm super sick, and my mom isn't allowing visitors."
Holding her breath, she waited for Clove to answer. "Oh," she sounded disappointed. Glimmer briefly wondered how disappointed she would sound if she found out she'd been banging her boyfriend last night. Goodness, she disgusted herself. "Well I hope everything is okay."
"Yeah," Glimmer tried to sound as pitiful as she could, "I probably just caught what you had."
"Aw, I'm so sorry Glim! Well I gotta go, but I'll definitely call you later!"
Hanging up the phone, Glimmer slid down the wall pitifully, burying her face in her knees. She cried loud, hysterical sobs that made her entire body shake. She knew that sooner or later – preferably later – she would have to face Clove, but in that moment, all she wanted to do was curl up in a ball of guilt and despair and forget how much of a messed up life she was living.
"Johanna? Hey, what are you doing today?"
"I'm headed to the beach to play volleyball with Katniss. Wanna come with?"
"Ooh, yes! Should I meet you guys at the usual spot?"
"That's where we'll be. Actually, could you swing by Cato's and pick up Annie on your way there? We're going to need four players, and I don't think she has plans."
"Sure. See you in fifteen minutes, Jo."
"See you," she said before hanging up.
Clove drove down the perfectly paved, palm tree-lined streets of Beverly Hills with the top of her black Mercedes down, her flawlessly manicured fingers gripping the steering wheel tightly. The sun shone brightly directly overhead, not a cloud in sight. She pulled into Cato's circle drive effortlessly, just as she had countless times this summer. Climbing out of her car, she made her way around the fountain in front of his house up to his front door, her flip-flops slapping against the pavement as she walked. She only had to ring his doorbell once before she was greeted by an intoxicated looking Marvel, who stood there dumbly when he realized who she was.
"Baby? What are you doing here?" she asked, before kissing him firmly on the lips. Not waiting for a reply, she pushed him aside gently and walked through the two grand staircases to the living room, where a shirtless Cato sat on the couch playing video games.
"Is Annie home?"
He glanced up at her, pausing his game and setting down the controller. "She's in her room. Why?"
"We need her for volleyball," she answered before calling up to her friend.
"Oh," he nodded, grabbing his glass of scotch off the coffee table and taking a long sip before holding it out to Clove. Scrunching up her nose in disgust, she shook her head. Annie came running down the stairs, smiling when she saw Clove.
"What's up?" she asked, making her way into the living room.
"Jo, Kat, and I are going to play beach volleyball and we need you. Can you come?"
"Yeah, one second. Let me run up to my room and throw on a bathing suit."
Clove nodded in response, turning back to Cato. "By the way, why is my boyfriend drunk off his ass at noon on a Thursday afternoon?"
Cato grunted. "Long story."
Clove quirked an eyebrow. "Rough night?"
"You could say that," Cato chuckled, shaking his head a little.
Clove nodded slightly, busying herself by picking at her fingernails absent-mindedly. There were red flags going off in her head, and she was doing everything in her power to ignore them. She'd only been back for a month and a half, and everything was going perfect. The last thing she wanted to deal with was drama. Convincing herself that Marvel's supposed "rough night" only involved getting wasted and passing out at Cato's when they got back from whatever party they'd attended, she ran her fingers through her long, knotty hair carelessly.
"I'm ready!" Annie was standing at the bottom of the staircase, a small cover up over her pink string bikini. Cato eyed her protectively, and Clove laughed, shaking her head. He could be such a big brother sometimes.
"I promise I won't let her get into too much trouble," Clove smirked, enjoying the look of horror on Cato's face. "Let's go."
"So Annie," she started the engine of her car and sped out of the driveway, "how have you been? I feel like I haven't seen you in forever."
"Tired," she answered simply. "Swimming practice has been kicking my ass."
Clove glanced at her sympathetically. "I completely understand. I have like, two weeks of freedom left before volleyball starts up again."
Annie just nodded in understanding, her long, reddish-brown hair blowing in the wind. The air smelled salty and clean, and she could hear the incessant crashing of the waves upon the shore from miles away. Smiling absentmindedly, Annie gazed at all the mansions they drove past. She couldn't imagine a life outside Beverly Hills; the houses, the parties, the shopping, it was all she'd ever known. Sure, she had vacationed all over the world, but she couldn't understand how people actually lived in places like Paris and Rome. She wondered if people thought that about Beverly Hills, the only home she had ever known.
"We're here," Clove said as the car came to a stop outside Katniss' beach house. Sliding her sandals back onto her feet, Annie stepped out of the sports car, blushing when a couple of boys across the street wolf-whistled at her. Clove smirked at her. "Get used to it. You got pretty hot over the summer, if I do say so myself."
Annie rolled her bright blue eyes, letting out a giggle and slinging her beach bag over her shoulder. "Yeah, right."
"You don't think you're pretty," Clove said, more as a statement than a question.
"No, not really," she admitted, a sad smile forming on her lips. "I mean, I guess I think I'm more cute than pretty. I've always just been Cato's adorable little sister."
They started up the steps to the front door, Clove raising her eyebrows at her as they went. "Do you have any idea how much you have changed since I've been back?"
"No," Annie laughed. Clove just shook her head in disbelief.
Tucking a strand of loose hair behind her ear, Clove knocked on the glass double doors of the beach house. "So," Clove changed the subject, "I don't suppose you've heard anything from Glimmer lately?"
Annie paled; she had been hoping Clove wouldn't bring up Glimmer. She wanted nothing more than to forget what she'd overheard Marvel saying to her brother this morning.
Clove immediately narrowed her eyes. "What do you know?"
"Nothing," she lied.
"Annie, I know you well enough to know that you're lying to me right now."
"I, umm…I don't know what-"
"Hey!" Katniss opened the doors to the house, smiling wide at the two girls.
Annie tried not to look too relieved at the sudden interruption. Ignoring the skeptical look Clove was giving her, she desperately hoped that the topic would be left alone for the rest of the night, although she knew that the likelihood of that happening was slim to none.
Clove woke in a tangle of sheets and limbs, squinting at the sunlight that was peeking through a crack in the curtains. She sat upright on the couch, cracking her back in the process. After kicking Johanna's leg and Katniss' arm off her body, she nudged the three girls awake.
"What time is it?" Annie asked, rubbing her eyes. Clove shrugged, reaching for her phone on the coffee table.
"Noon," she answered finally, scrolling through multiple texts and missed calls from different people. There was still nothing from Glimmer.
Actually, she hadn't heard from Marvel since she'd seen him at Cato's yesterday, which was very unlike him. Standing up from her spot on the couch, she made her way onto the balcony before dialing Marvel's number.
"Hello?" he sounded tired.
"I'm sorry baby. Did I wake you up?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah. It's okay. I needed to wake up anyway."
Clove couldn't help but note how uninterested in the conversation he sounded. He was talking to her in the way he would talk to one of his acquaintances, not someone whom he supposedly loved. She heard him sigh on the other end of the phone, and her eyebrows furrowed.
"Everything alright?"
"What?" he asked abruptly, almost as if he'd forgotten she was still on the phone. "No, I'm fine."
Anyone with ears could tell that he was lying to her, and she couldn't help but wonder if she was losing him. They never lied to each other.
"Oh," she said before an idea struck her. "What are you doing tonight?"
"Umm, I'm not sure yet. Why?"
"So you're free," she said. "Good."
"Wha-"
"Meet me in the penthouse of The Plaza Hotel at 7," she said before hanging up with him. If he was forgetting how much he loved her, she had no choice but to make him remember.
AN:
Oooohhh so what do you think is going to happen? Will Marvel show up at the hotel? And if he does, what do you think might happen? I'll give you a hint…I got my inspiration for the next chapter from season 1 of Gossip Girl.
Also, I'm hoping to update this story around two or three times a month, but it may easily vary from month to month. Aside from the fact that school is especially hard this year, I get writer's block all the time. Most of the time it can be cured simply by listening to music or watching an episode or two of Gossip Girl or Revenge, but sometimes I have to erase what I've written for the entire chapter and restart simply because I'm unhappy with the direction the story is headed in. That being said, I apologize in advance if I ever take more than three or four weeks to update. Please bear with me :)
Anyway, reviews are another thing that help to cure my writer's block, so please, I am begging you, leave me a review and let me know what you think! Thanks again for reading!
~xoxo~