Paparazzi Page 13

  I shrugged.

  Victoria sighed again. “Zakynthos, Cassidy. Homer wrote that the history of the people of Zakynthos began with the arrival of Prince Zakynthos. What’s going on with you today?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “I can’t think.”

  “It’s contagious.” She massaged her temples. “Go on. Get out of here. We’ll continue the lesson later.”

  I rushed from the room before she could change her mind. Maybe Zoe’s mom told her what was going on. I wanted to talk to her to find out.

  Zoe wasn’t in the galley. She wasn’t in her room or hanging out on her favorite deck, either. I was going to check in the game room when I saw Nikos and his dad in the sitting area.

  “Great,” I muttered. I didn’t know any way to get to the game room other than to pass through the sitting area.

  Mr. Kouropoulos glanced up the moment I walked into the room. “Good afternoon, Miss Barnett.”

  “Good afternoon,” I replied as pleasantly as I could.

  “Why don’t you join us?” he asked.

  I eyed the door to the hallway that led to the game room and considered for half a second walking on by Nikos and his dad without stopping. But then my conscience or shoulder angel or whatever you want to call it whispered in my head (using Victoria’s voice—go figure). Mr. Kouropoulos was our host on this trip. The least I could do was be polite to him. I sat on the stiff couch next to Nikos and tried not to scowl.

  “Such a beautiful day,” Mr. Kouropoulos said. “We couldn’t have ordered better weather for our picnic on the beach.”

  Our picnic, he had said. I wondered if that meant he was going to join us. And if that meant there would be more paparazzi tagging along.

  “It’s perfect,” I agreed.

  “When we have free time,” Nikos told me, “there are plenty of caves around the cove we can explore.” He did one of those fakey suave grins that I hadn’t seen since the first couple of days on the Pandora, and stretched his arm across the back of my seat—the way he had that day on the boat, coming back from Delos.

  I moved away from him. “Yeah, that would be fun,” I said. “I’ll bet Zoe would love it.”

  Nikos didn’t even flinch, the dog.

  But Mr. Kouropoulos did. “Zoe?” he asked—and I could tell he was directing his question to Nikos, not me.

  Nikos shrugged. “She tags along sometimes.”

  My hands curled into fists, and it took all the self-control I had not to punch him.

  That’s when I heard the unmistakable sound of Zoe’s little gasp behind me. I turned to see her in the doorway to the corridor. She must have just come from the game room. I was right that I would find her there. And I could guess from the way her eyes were watering that she heard the way Nikos just blew her off. Again. She rushed past us out of the room.

  I waited for Nikos to go after her, but he didn’t.

  “If you’ll excuse me,” I said. “I have to go.”

  Prosperity is no just scale; adversity is the

  only balance to weigh friends.

  —Plutarch

  I looked for Zoe everywhere. She wasn’t in the galley or on any of the decks. I knew she wasn’t in the game room. If she was in her own room, she wasn’t answering the door. I don’t know what I would have said to her if I had found her. I just didn’t want her to be alone … although maybe that’s what she wanted.

  On the way to my own room, I saw Nikos on the promenade deck, staring out at the water. I stalked over to him and demanded, “What was that?”

  I must have startled him because he jumped. “I didn’t see you,” he said.

  Well, duh. I narrowed my eyes at him. “Zoe tags along with us?”

  He hung his head. “She heard that, didn’t she?”

  “Probably. Yes. What were you thinking?”

  “I had to say something. My dad …”

  “Don’t blame it on your dad,” I snapped. “I don’t know what’s up with you when he’s around, but you’re like a different person. You, not him.”

  He mumbled something I couldn’t quite understand, but the whining tone made it sound like another excuse to me.

  “You know what?” I said. “Maybe it was a good thing Zoe heard what you said. Maybe it’s best that she sees what you’re really like. If this is the way you want to act, you don’t deserve for her to like you.”

  “You’re right,” he said.

  “What?”

  He looked up at me and I could see the sweet, honest Nikos who had first stared at Zoe when we took pictures that day on the deck. He was the boy from the boat who was genuinely happy to see Zoe out-wakeboard him. Where was that boy just a few minutes ago when Zoe had been there to see?

  “I’m not good enough for someone like her.”

  “But—”

  “I’ll see you on the beach,” he said, and walked away.

  I watched him go, a sinking feeling deep in my stomach. Had I just made things worse? “Aaaaagh!” I shouted out to the water. I didn’t understand boys at all.

  Victoria rushed around the corner, followed closely by Magus. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

  “Everything,” I said.

  She stopped and looked around the deck. Seeing nothing, she turned back to me. “We heard you yell. Is everything all right?”

  “No!”

  She gave Magus an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry. Could you excuse us for a moment?”

  “Of course.” He looked for a moment like he was going to add something else, but then he stepped back, and turned away.

  Victoria wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “Do you want to tell me about it?”

  I nodded.

  We walked around the deck and I told her about what had happened in the sitting room.

  “I see,” she said. That’s all. Just “I see.”

  “So what do I do?”

  “This is a complicated issue, Cassidy. Sometimes the best thing you can do is to keep out of it.”

  “What?” I took a step back. “No. Zoe is my friend. I can’t just—”

  “Let it be,” Victoria said. “They’ll work things out.”

  I turned away, deflated. She didn’t understand. I had started this mess by pushing Nikos and Zoe together. If Zoe got hurt because of it, it was my fault. I wasn’t going to just “let it be.” I wasn’t sure how, but I was going to figure out a way to fix the mess I’d helped to make.

  Later that afternoon, Magus ferried everyone to Shipwreck Beach from the yacht. The crew had to go first to set up, and Theia Alexa had prepared a picnic lunch, so Nikos, Mr. Kouropoulos, Victoria, and I were left for the last trip.

  Although Nikos and I didn’t have any lines we had to remember for this shoot, we were supposed to be filmed eating, playing on the beach, and exploring the old ship that had been stranded there (which is how the beach got its name).

  I knew all this, and I had seen pictures of the beach when I looked it up online, but nothing could have prepared me for actually going there. The beach was set back in a cove that looked like it could have been made by someone scooping out the limestone cliffs with a giant shovel. On three sides, white cliffs shot straight up from the white sand beach. In front of that, the water was an incredible color of blue—turquoise along the shore, quickly deepening to cobalt.

  Along the walls of the cove, water had carved several caves into the limestone. They were known as the blue caves, Victoria told me, because of the color of the water reflecting on the stone.

  And there, in the center of all this natural beauty, sat the rusting hulk of the shipwreck, smack in the middle of the beach.

  “They say that it was a smuggler’s ship,” Victoria said to me. “Imagine them being washed up here, with those cliffs all around, and no way to transport the smuggled goods out of the cove. I’m sure it’s not what they expected, setting out.”

  I looked at Nikos and wondered if anything was ever what you expected from the beginning.

  Mag
us managed to steer the boat straight up to the beach, as far as he dared to go without getting stuck on a sandbar. I was surprised to realize we were going to have to wade in from there. Fortunately, we were wearing our swimsuits, so it wouldn’t matter if we got wet. I just didn’t want Jacqueline to fuss over my hair and makeup again.

  Nikos climbed down the ladder into the water and then reached up to help me down. I pulled back.

  “I can do it,” I said.

  “I know you can,” he said, and reached out again.

  He looked so sad and earnest standing there, trying to keep his balance as the water sloshed around his waist, I actually felt bad for refusing. I climbed down a few steps and then allowed him to grab me around the waist and lift me down into the cool water. It was all very chivalrous and graceful. Or at least it would have been if a wave hadn’t rolled in at that very moment and lifted the boat, pushing it toward us.

  Nikos’s mouth fell open, but he couldn’t manage to make any words come out. Instead, he just grabbed me and pulled me out of the way—at the same moment that the rolling wave threw him off balance.

  He lost his footing and pulled me down with him. I didn’t even have time to take a breath before we both tumbled—very ungracefully—into the water.

  When we popped up, coughing and sputtering, I could hear Jacqueline, somewhere on the sand behind us, exclaim, “Perfect. Just perfect. Now what am I supposed to do with her hair?”

  I couldn’t help it. I started laughing. And then so did Nikos. I don’t know if he heard Jacqueline, or if he was just laughing because I was, but it didn’t much matter to me. Since I snapped at him on the Pandora, Nikos hardly even looked at me, let alone smiled. His laughter felt like a new start. I still thought he was an idiot for what he said about Zoe, but I could tell he felt terrible about it. Maybe I should give him a chance to explain. Then I might have a better idea what we were going to do to fix it.

  CJ decided that since Nikos and I were already in the water, they may as well get the shots of us playing on the beach before the lunch instead of after, as she had planned. “Let’s see some enthusiasm!” she shouted. “Smiles. Big smiles.”

  As much fun as it was to play on the beach, it didn’t take long for it to feel really awkward. I mean, everyone else was standing around watching, waiting for us to have enough good shots so they could eat. It’s kind of hard to be spontaneous and have fun with that kind of pressure. I was relieved when CJ declared we were done.

  After a quick touch-up by Jacqueline, who grumbled about it the entire time, I was able to sit down on the blanket where everyone was eating. For the first time, the whole crew was together, talking, laughing. Everyone except one of the camera guys, who was busy capturing it all on film. I guess this shoot was supposed to show how friendly and fun everyone was, and what a great time we all had working together. It would have been nice if we could have done it every day … like we did with the When in Rome crew.

  I shook away that thought as quickly as it came. Thinking about When in Rome would only make me homesick again … and miss Logan even more.

  After lunch was over and everything cleared away, some of the crew broke out a couple volleyball nets and set them up in the sand. I would have liked to play, but Jacqueline had just touched up my hair and makeup again and caught me eyeing the game. “Don’t you dare,” she said.

  I sighed and folded my arms, watching from a distance.

  Nikos dropped out and came over to stand by me.

  “I heard you got in trouble because of the Facebook pictures,” he said. “I’m sorry about that.”

  “Yeah. Well, it was my fault. I forgot rule number three thousand and eleven—the network has to approve all social media.”

  “Did you tell them it wasn’t even your account?”

  “I told them.”

  “And they didn’t care?”

  “They thought I was blowing off the rules. I swear, sometimes I think they’re just waiting for a reason to be disappointed in me.”

  “Why don’t you just tell them how that feels?”

  “That’s great advice,” I said, “coming from the king of communication.”

  His face got tight, and he turned away from me.

  “I’m sorry,” I said, and reached for his arm. He shook me off. “Nikos …”

  Just then, CJ announced we were done eating and that it was time to get some shots by the shipwreck. Nikos got up and walked over to the ruined boat without a word. I trudged after him.

  CJ positioned us where she wanted us to stand to begin, and then worked with the camera guy to find just the right angle that would capture us, the frame of the boat, the white cliffs, and as much blue water as possible.

  “I’m sorry,” I told Nikos again. “I shouldn’t have said that.”

  “It’s okay,” he said, even though I knew it really was not. “You were right.”

  “I was just being mean,” I said, “because of Zoe. She’s my friend. I don’t want to see her get hurt.”

  “I know.”

  We watched CJ and the cameraman for a moment, and then he said, “My dad doesn’t want me seeing Zoe.”

  “What?”

  “He saw the two of us together last night, and he said I couldn’t go out with her because of the arrange … well, just because.”

  “What do you want?”

  He looked at me with sad eyes. “That doesn’t always matter.”

  I could only nod in sympathy. I knew how true that could be.

  I saw Zoe watching from the sky

  deck as Magus shuttled us back to the yacht. We were too far away for me to see her face, but she looked lonely, up there by herself. The minute we docked with the yacht, I ran to find her. I know Victoria had told me to stay out of it, but I wanted Zoe to know how bad Nikos felt about what had happened that morning. No sense in both of them being miserable over it.

  She was gone by the time I got to the sky deck, so I started looking in all the usual places. That’s when I heard Theia Alexa’s angry voice coming from the small office on the other side of the galley. She was yelling mostly in Greek with a little English thrown in, so I didn’t understand a lot of what was being said, but there was no mistaking the fact that she was mad. I hoped Zoe wasn’t the one in the office being yelled at, but I didn’t want to knock on the door to find out.

  I was debating what I should do when I recognized a couple of words in Theia Alexa’s tirade—“that boy.” Of course my ears perked up. The only person on the yacht I could think of who could be accurately described as that boy was Nikos.

  My heart did a cliff dive. That did not sound good. I rushed to the door, all ready to knock, but stopped, fist midair. She sounded really angry. It might be cowardly, but I was afraid to face her when she was like that.

  But what about Zoe? I still didn’t even know if she was in there. The only way to find out was through that door. Unless … Up high along the wall was a row of long, narrow windows. If I could somehow climb up high enough, I might be able to peek inside the room.

  The problem was, there was nothing to climb on. The only thing that came close was a brass railing about halfway up the wall, but no way of getting onto the railing and no hand grips I could use to climb up.

  Unless … A little farther down the deck sat two deck chairs and a small cocktail table. I ran and grabbed one of the chairs and carried it back to set beneath the windows. And no, that wasn’t as easy as it sounds. The chair was heavy, but I didn’t want to make any noise by dragging it.

  I climbed onto the chair and then stepped up from the chair to the railing, using the edge of the windowsill to pull myself up. Still, I couldn’t see anything. The shutters on the other side of the glass were angled in such a way that I had to try to get up on my tiptoes to look down into the room.

  Every muscle in my body strained with the effort of trying to stay balanced on that rail while holding myself close enough to the wall to peek in through the blinds. I had just about managed it
when—

  “What are you doing?”

  I startled and lost both my grip on the window ledge and my balance on the railing. I panicked and grasped at one of the light fixtures. Which came off in my hand as I fell back. On top of Nikos.

  I’ve tried to replay the choreography of the fall several times in my head, but it all happened so fast, I really don’t know what happened. I must have let go of the fixture because I apparently grabbed Nikos’s arm and I tumbled over him, pulling him right down with me onto the hard wooden deck.

  We both tried to scramble to our feet, but since our arms and legs were all tangled up, we just succeeded in tumbling over each other again. Nikos’s full weight ended up on top of me.

  “Can’t. Breathe.”

  “Sorry.” He braced his hands on either side of my head to push himself up, pulling my hair in the process.

  “Ouch!”

  But he didn’t apologize the second time. He was already on his feet and picking up the broken fixture. “Oh, no, no, no.” And then he said some words in Greek I’m pretty sure were cuss words, the way he spit them out of his mouth.

  I scrambled to my feet and grabbed his arm. “Come on!” We’d made enough noise, I was sure Theia Alexa was going to show up on the deck at any moment.

  He ran with me up the deck and down a flight of stairs and into a small alcove that held a pile of round life preservers. And he was still cradling the light fixture.

  “What were you doing?” he demanded.

  “I was … looking for Zoe.” It was the truth.

  “My dad’s going to kill me.”

  “For what?”

  He held up the fixture. “We can’t go around breaking stuff! This isn’t our … It’s not good.”

  “I’m sorry. I’ll tell him it was my fault.”

  “It was your fault.”

  I couldn’t believe he was getting so worked up about it. “I know. I’ll pay for it. Don’t worry.”

  That didn’t seem to make him feel any better. “What were you doing up there?”

  “I told you. I was looking for Zoe.”

  “It looked more like you were spying on Zoe.”

  “No, I wasn’t. I don’t even know if she was in that room.”

  Nikos shook his head. “Leave it alone, Cassidy.”