Sugar and Spice_ An L.A. Candy Novel - Lauren Conrad [33]
Jesse beamed. “Yes! That’s awesome! You just made my day.”
Jane smiled back, but it was an effort. She had just done something really nice for someone she used to care about.
So why did she feel like crying?
Chapter 12
Sophisticated to Super-Slutty
Madison drove down “The Strip” trying not to get distracted by the passing scenery. She had been in Las Vegas many times before, with various boyfriends, but the main drag never ceased to amaze her: the (fake) Sphinx and pyramid at the Luxor Hotel, the (fake) Eiffel Tower at the Paris, the (fake) Coney Island–style roller coaster at New York-New York, the (fake) everything. It was the most artificially glamorous place in the world, and Madison absolutely loved it. On the street, dazed-looking tourists wandered alongside high rollers in designer clothes, and stretch limos glided alongside trucks with “mobile billboards” advertising strip clubs.
Madison spotted Jane’s Jetta a few cars ahead. Jane was driving, with Hannah in the passenger seat and Intern Boy in the back. The four of them were on their way to the Venetian to meet with the hotel staff and Aja’s reps to organize the pop singer’s engagement party. Much to Madison’s annoyance—as if having the party at the Venetian versus the Palms wasn’t annoying enough—Jane had announced at the last minute that there was no room in her car for Madison and her “huge amount of luggage.” WTF? All Madison brought were her three Louis Vuitton rolling bags, which wasn’t much for an overnight business trip, considering. A girl never knew which outfits (and shoes and purses and lingerie and other accessories) she might need in Vegas, and so Madison had brought a wide assortment, everything from sophisticated to super-slutty.
Still, being alone in the car for the five-hour drive from L.A. to Las Vegas had given Madison some time to think about Project: Sophie. Sophie had been living with her for the last ten days, drinking all of Derek’s liquor and trying to sneak out in the middle of the night to meet up with God knows who. Madison kept telling her that she had to stay out of sight until her transformation from Scary Goth Girl to one of L.A.’s pretty people was complete. Unfortunately, Sophie had never been the obedient type.
Sophie had never been the communicative type, either—although Madison had managed to get her to admit that she’d been using their grandmother’s identity and credit card (Grandma Mains had Alzheimer’s and was in a nursing home) and that Sophie had known what Madison was wearing at the L.A. Candy premiere before the preshow went live because of a cell phone picture that had been Twittered.
In the meantime, Derek was not happy about the whole situation—Madison had fed him a story about how the PopTV cameras were at the apartment practically 24/7 for a special story line, so he couldn’t risk visiting her there—and was making noises about cooling off their relationship. Which wasn’t good, since the apartment was his, and if they broke up—well, where would she live? There was no way she was going back to some two-room dive downtown. Between her “job” at Fiona Chen Events . . . filming . . . Sophie . . . press interviews . . . photo shoots . . . and trying to keep her married boyfriend happy, Madison was stretched to the max.
At least Sophie’s makeover was going well. A talented, discreet stylist Madison knew had gotten rid of the hideous black dye job and replaced it with a sleek platinum pageboy with bangs. Another discreet contact had performed a series of lip injections—not that Sophie’s lips needed plumping, but they needed to alter her appearance. Next would come waxing (the girl obviously didn’t believe in basic grooming), a full set of acrylics (she had always been a nail biter), spa appointments (had she never considered a regular skin care regimen?), contact lenses (green? brown?)—and last but not least, new clothes and new makeup. A nose job would have been the perfect way to further mask Sophie’s identity from the people back home, but there wasn’t time; recovery could