Free Next Door to a Star by Krysten Lindsay Hager

terror then. I was starting to feel a little claustrophobic, but Charlotte was in awe and taking pictures of everything. The air felt hot and stale, and I needed to get out of there. Finally, I told her I’d wait outside for her until she was ready. We walked down the boardwalk and decided to go to this spot that overlooked downtown Grand Haven. Some of the cottages were built right into the hills and were so high up they had these little elevator thingies to help the people get up the hill.
    “I wish I lived in one of those,” I said.
    “Yeah, but most of the stores and restaurants close during the fall and winter because there aren’t a lot of tourists and then it’s not as much fun,” she said. “Oh, see the huge brown house with the two tier deck in the front? That’s Pilar’s house.”
    The house was across the street from the beach and overlooked the lake. We started to walk back down to the beach when we saw Morgan and Pilar coming up the path. Pilar was wearing one of those strapless bathing suit cover-ups, which showed off her impossibly dark tan. I had seen the exact same cover-up in Seventeen, and I knew it cost a ton. I wondered which house Morgan lived in and figured it was probably the big blue one I had been drooling over. I started to say something to the girls as they got closer, but they walked past me without even looking in my direction.
     
    ***
     
    I called Simone the next day, but she was going over to Morgan’s for lunch.
    “I so want to talk to you though,” she said, and my heart soared. “I’ll be back around three, so call me then and we’ll hang out.”
    After lunch, Charlotte called and invited me over to watch Charmed Lives . I wanted to tell her Nick had been asking about me again, but she had acted so weird the last time that I let it go.
    After the show, Charlotte asked if I wanted to get some ice cream. I wanted to, but it was after three o’clock.
    “Simone asked me to hang out later. You could come too,” I said.
    She wrinkled her nose. “Nah, I’m good. That’s not really my scene. But you guys have plans, so no worries. We’ll hang out another time.”
    I called Simone as I walked to the house.
    Her mom answered. “Oh hi, hon,” she said. “Simone’s still out with her crew. I’ll let her know you called. I think Nick’s mom is flying home tonight, so it probably won’t be too late.”
    Wait, she was with Nick too? The same Nick who supposedly wanted her to bring me along the next time they hung out? That sucked.
    I decided to walk back to Charlotte’s since I didn’t have plans anymore, but when I got there, her grandpa said she left. I figured she probably went to get ice cream by herself and I could meet up with her at the parlor, but Grandma wouldn’t let me go alone. Aunt Faith went with me, but Char wasn’t there. I wondered where she was and if she was hanging out with someone else.
     
    ***
     
    Charlotte didn’t call me the next day either. I stayed in my room reading until it got too hot up there and went outside to read in the hammock. Uncle Stu asked if I wanted to go with him and the boys to play miniature golf, but I decided to go over to Charlotte’s. Her grandpa let me in and I went into her room where there was another girl sitting on her bed looking through a scrapbook.
    “Oh, hi,” Charlotte said. “I didn’t know you were coming over. This is Deidre.”
    Deidre stared up at me through her straight black bangs and nodded. Then she went back to the scrapbook. “Remember when we went tubing last year?” she asked, leaning closer to Charlotte.
    They both cracked up and I tried to smile even though I had no clue what they were talking about. Charlotte explained Deidre’s mom had convinced her to try tubing last year.
    “I thought I was going to drown,” Char said. “I fell out of the tube, but I kept hanging onto the rope thing and everybody was yelling at me to let go—”
    “’Cause when you let go, you float up to the