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“Who was that?” Braden asked her.

“What? Oh, um, that’s Caleb,” Jane replied.

“Caleb? Who’s Caleb?”

Awkward. “He’s . . . um . . . an old friend.”

“Hey! Who are you calling an old ‘friend’?” Caleb teased her. “That one of your new boyfriends, Janie?”

“No!”

“No, what?” Braden said, sounding puzzled.

“I was just telling Caleb that you’re not one of my—oh, never mind.” Jane shook her head, silently praying for someone to come rescue her. This was insane, having a three-way conversation (sort of) with her old boyfriend (whom she used to be madly in love with) and her good friend (slash guy she had intense, complicated feelings about).

At that very moment, Jane spotted Alli coming down the tiki-torch-lit path, speaking into a walkie-talkie. “Sorry, Braden, but I’ve gotta run. I’ll call you later, okay?” Jane told him. “Alli!” she cried out, rushing over to her and giving her a quick hug. “I’m soooo glad to see you!”

Alli looked totally confused. “You are?”

“I am! You need me for something now, right?”

“Uh, right. I’m supposed to take you and the other girls over to the terrace for the opening segment, and—”

“Great! I’m ready!”

“So who’s Braden?” Caleb said, once again standing right behind her. “Is that that guy I read about in the magazines? Didn’t you and he—”

“I’ve gotta run, Caleb. I’ll see you later, okay?” Jane said. Then, before he could say another word, she turned to make her escape, trying not to trip on her black stiletto heels as she followed Alli down the path.

But what was she escaping, exactly? Two guys whom she used to like? Who used to like her? Who maybe still liked her, by the way they were acting? Or did guys always act like this, all possessive and territorial and she’s-mine-I-saw-her-first?

It was a very good thing she was not dating these days.

Chapter 2

Best Friends

“Yeah, so Jane and I used to be best friends. It’s really sad,” Madison Parker explained to the umpteenth reporter.

Madison dabbed at her eyes for good effect, being careful not to mar her five-hundred-dollar makeup job. She’d tried out a new stylist for the season premiere party tonight—some of the biggest names in Hollywood used him—and he hadn’t disappointed. On the other side of the pool, which was filled with fragrant white gardenias and floating candles, a group of girls held up a sign that said, WE LOVE YOU MADYSON!!!!!!! in hot pink. Learn to spell, morons, she thought, annoyed.

The reporter from Gossip magazine—Tiffani?—nodded and scribbled in her tiny notebook. “So why do you think Jane moved out? And are we going to see that on tonight’s episode?”

“Shhh, that’s not till next week,” Madison stage-whispered, pretending to be letting Tiffani in on the biggest secret ever, even though she had told the same thing to five other reporters earlier. “I’ll tell you why Jane moved out. Everyone knows that she hooked up with her boyfriend Jesse’s best friend, Braden, back in December, and that Jesse found out, right? Well, Jane got this insane idea that I told Jesse about it.”

Tiffani looked puzzled. “But didn’t Jesse find out from our magazine when the pictures—”

“All I know is, Jane blames me,” Madison cut in. “It’s crazy. I would never do anything like that to her. I loved her like a sister. I still do.”

Tiffani nodded and scribbled some more.

This is soooo easy, Madison thought.

Things hadn’t looked very good for Madison last month, when Jane got hold of some emails proving that Madison had leaked those photos to Gossip. Any other girl might have given up, under the circumstances. But not Madison. She not only refused to confess or apologize to Jane . . . she decided to go on the offensive, talking to every reporter who would listen about her way-more-interesting version of events.

Madison studied her new set of dark purple acrylic nails. The nails on her right hand spelled LOVE! with tiny rhinestones; the nails on her left spelled FAME! “And that’s not all Jane did,” she said to Tiffani. “Jesse forgave her for hooking up with Braden,