Page 4 of Stone Promises

“Maybe,” she says. “But I want to hear it again. Somehow, it’s different now.”

“Well, he moved in the day before school started. I was going into first grade and he was going into second.” I run my tongue over my teeth. “I hadn’t grown into my very large front teeth yet and some older boys at our bus stop were teasing me. Chad stood up to them even though he was younger than them. Even though he was the new kid.”

“He was a hero even then,” she says with an audible sigh.

I shoot her a scolding look.

“Sorry,” she says. She presses her lips together, forming a thin line before she twists her fingers over them and mimes throwing away a key.

“From that day on, we were practically joined at the hip. And when Julian moved into a house down the street a few months later and was bullied by the same fourth-grade jerks at the bus stop, we became the three musketeers. Julian was a year older than me as well. They both became my protectors; the older brothers I never had. Other kids were jealous of what we had. Of the indescribable bond we shared. We didn’t even have to talk to each other to communicate. It’s like we were connected in some other-worldly way. Of course, that’s why the teasing continued. When we reached adolescence, our classmates were downright mean. They accused us of being a threesome. They accused Julian and Chad of being gay and me of being a slut. It furthered our separation from other kids and solidified our bond with each other. It was us against the world.”

“Wow,” Melissa says. “So what happened? How could you be that close and then let geography destroy your friendship?”

“It wasn’t geography that destroyed it. It was Chad’s sudden rise to fame,” I tell her.

She gets a sour face. “He just dropped you like a hot potato when he became famous? That bastard.” She shakes her head in disgust. “He has definitely just lost his godlike status with me, the jerk. Who does that?”

“It wasn’t quite that sudden. We still talked a lot the first year he was onMalibu 310.He even came back here over the holidays to visit us and his older brother, Ethan. But after that, he changed.”

“Changed?” she asks.

“When we would talk on the phone, our conversations seemed forced. He wasn’t as much at ease with me, and for the first time in our friendship, I couldn’t tell what he was thinking.

“Julian would say similar things about his phone calls with Chad. He thought maybe he was on drugs or something. I didn’t believe it. Chad was the poster child for the ‘Just say no’ campaign at our high school. He would fight kids who offered us drugs.”

“But then Hollywood happened,” Melissa says, supportively touching my hand.

I nod. “Yeah. It became more evident each time we talked. Even his emails became disjointed. Sometimes I questioned whether he realized who he was writing to. Then one day, into the second season of his show, I got an email that was obviously not meant for me. It was meant for Julian. It was disgusting. It gave explicit details about his latest sexual conquest. And in that moment, I realized Chad was gone and all that was left was Thad. He even signed his name to the email that way. I was more than a little hurt. Not just because I secretly had a crush on him since I was six and was jealous of him being with other girls, but I truly grieved for the friendship that was dying. I replied back to ‘Thad’ telling him I never wanted to hear from him again. And I didn’t. I never wanted to hear from Thad. I wanted Chad back.”

“Oh, Mal, I’m so sorry,” Melissa says, tears of sympathy balancing on her lashes.

“He tried to call me once after that, but I let it roll to voicemail. It was a drug-induced attempt to smooth things over. He was incoherent. He was pathetic. It broke my heart. I deleted the voicemail. Then I deleted his contact. Then I blocked him on social media. I cut all ties, never seeing or hearing from him again until tonight.”

“And Julian?”

“Julian was a little more tolerant of him. Their friendship went on a while longer. That is until my mom died.”

“What happened when your mom died?” she asks.

“Julian never gave me the details about it, but I’m pretty sure he called Chad to let him know she had died. I think Chad blew him off or gave him excuses or something. Julian told me Chad couldn’t get away mid-season, making it impossible for him to attend the funeral. But I could sense he wasn’t telling me everything. And I never heard from Chad again. Never got a condolence card. Never got a call from the boy who once loved my mother almost as much as his own. I think it was the last straw for Julian. After that, he cut Chad out of his life like I had.”

Melissa downs the rest of her wine, all but smashing the glass back down on the table. “That little shit. If he weren’t protected by that Goliath without a neck, I’d kill the insensitive prick with my bare hands.” She shakes her head in confusion. “But it doesn’t make sense.”

“What doesn’t make sense?” I ask.

“The way he looked at you tonight.”

“What do you mean? I’m not even sure he recognized me.”

“Recognized you? Mallory, he looked like he wanted to eat you alive. He said your name for Christ’s sake. Of course, I was just reading his lips, for all we know he could have been saying ‘Mel’ and not ‘Mal’,” she jokes. “Do you think Steve would mind if I had a one-nighter with a mega-star?”

I stare her down, unamused.

“Right,” she says. “Too soon for sarcasm.” She gives me a sympathetic look. “Maybe you should get in touch with him. Clearly, he was affected by seeing you. The guy’s world seemed to stop as soon as he made eye contact with you.”

“Contact him? God, no.” I shift uncomfortably in my seat.

“Why not?” she asks. “People change. I read he went to rehab a while back. Maybe he’s better now.”

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