Free Girls on Film by Zoey Dean Page B

whispered Juliet’s lines into her Belgian-lace-edged linen pillowcase and dreamed that one day she would love a boy and he would love her back as passionately as Juliet loved her Romeo.
    Romeo and Juliet both ended up dead
, Anna reminded herself now.
That’s where fevered love gets you. Better to be with a guy like Adam, where there’s not so much fire—
    “Will you come down? Please?” he asked.
    “How did you get in without setting off the alarm?”
    “Right after dinner the gate was open. I’ve been waiting for the light to go on in your room. Come down. Please?”
    She hesitated. “What’s the point?”
    “Anna.” His voice cracked with stress. “I can’t eat, I can’t sleep. I can’t go back to school until I speak to you. Come on. We can’t just end it like this. Didn’t that night mean anything to you?”
    Pain and anger flared inside her. He sounded like he was reciting lines from a bad soap opera. And damn him, it brought tears to her eyes anyway. “That’s the whole point. It did.”
    “Then—”
    “Shut up. And don’t move.” Anna clicked off the phone and pulled on a pair of jeans. She grabbed a sweatshirt, pushed into sandals, and headed for the door. At the last moment she stopped, went to her dresser, and sprayed herself with Chanel No. 5. If she was going to kiss him off forever, then dammit, she was going to kiss him off smelling great.
    Anna went outside through the kitchen door. There was Ben, standing on the brick path that led to the gazebo, in jeans and a cable-knit sweater. The closer she got to him, the more her heart fluttered. She could actually hear the vibrations. “Anna.”
    Though she preferred to believe that it was the night chill in the air, the way he said her name made her shiver.
    Mind over body
, she told herself.
    She took a deep breath before she addressed him. “Ben, I’m only here so you can look into
my
eyes when I tell you this for the last time. It’s over.”
    “Why? I know you feel something for me—”
    “Only because hormones have no conscience.”
    Ben looked stung. “It’s more than that. You know it is.”
    “No, I don’t. We don’t really know each other. I had too much to drink on the plane. When we went out on New Year’s Eve, I fell for the boy I wanted you to be. But you’re not him.”
    “I
can
be that guy, Anna.”
    “Really?” She folded her arms. “Let’s start with some honesty, then. Who is this mystery celebrity whose life you had to save on New Year’s Eve?”
    Ben rubbed his bloodshot eyes. “I can’t say.”
    “Fine.”
    She turned to head back to the house, but Ben caught her wrist. “Come on, Anna. What kind of a schmuck would I be to tell you?”
    “The kind who claims I mean something to him,” Anna said, eyes flashing. “What do you think I’m going to do, post it on the Internet?”
    “You can’t be serious. You won’t reconsider unless I tell you her name?”
    “It’s more than that. You have an excuse for everything. Why you had a relationship last year with a bitch like Cammie, why you ended up in bed with Dee, why you stranded me on New Year’s Eve. And I’m sure there are a million more.”
    A muscle ticked in his jaw. “I’m sorry that I’m not perfect enough for you.”
    That statement hit Anna hard; it was so much like what Susan had said to her.
Was
she being unfair?
    No, she decided. Ben was bound to break her heart over and over and over. Why should she say yes to that? Wasn’t anyone in Los Angeles just … regular? Did
everyone
have some hidden agenda? Not everyone. Not Adam. He was so clearly the superior boy, the boy she
should
be with.
    “Ben, you don’t have to be anything, or do anything, for me,” she said quietly. But her heart was still pounding as powerfully as it had the moment she’d heard his voice on the phone. “Not balloons, not roses, not phone calls. Nothing.”
    His eyes looked tortured. “Anna—”
    “Stop. I can’t do this.”
It just hurts too