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to invite everyone.’
    ‘She’s been on her phone for the last two days solid,’ Jack says.
    ‘But I thought you were in Washington?’
    ‘We were,’ Jack replies. ‘She’s been organising your social calendar from there.’
    They came back early for this? For
me
? Jack gives me a sexy, lazy smile and my heart skips a beat.
Must not kiss him
.
Must not kiss him
.
    ‘Meg’s taken Phoenix and Barney to stay at a friend’s tonight,’ Johnny tells me.
    ‘Speaking of which, introduce us to
your
friends!’ Agnes cries.
    I come down to earth with a bump. Anxiety racks my stomach as I turn to see that everyone is now off the bus. I point at each of them, saying their names. I feel Jack tense as I get to Tom, and
Tom has seen pictures of him, so he knows
exactly
who Jack is.
Gulp
. If looks could kill…
    I’d give anything for a bolt of lightning to strike a hole in the ground so I could jump into it. Damn LA for being so storm-free.
    ‘Right, ladies!’ Agnes barks. ‘Come with me!’
    ‘Where are we going?’ I hiss, as she drags me away, hoping that Jack will make himself scarce and won’t attempt to speak to Tom.
    ‘You’re not wearing
that
to your sixteenth birthday party,’ Agnes states, glancing at my jeans and T-shirt. ‘I’ve brought some stuff. For your friends,
too.’
    This should come as no great surprise. Agnes wants to be a fashion designer and styled me for my recent All Hype gig. She’s always telling me what to wear. Not that I mind. She’s
brilliant at what she does.
    Sam, my favourite security man, is waiting inside the house. I say hi to him as we head up the stairs to get ready. I assume he’s in charge of making sure the majority of guests stay
outside tonight.
    ‘I’ve set everything up in your room,’ Agnes tells me.
    I belatedly realise that my friends are not immediately behind us. Coming to a stop on the landing, I turn to see them walking in a daze up the wide staircase, looking around at the house that I
now call home. The architecture is modern and open-plan and the furniture is designer and minimal. Enormous floor-to-ceiling windows offer a view over our infinity pool to the City of Angels in the
valley below. I smile at the expressions on my friends’ faces.
    ‘My room is this way,’ I say, turning right at the top of the stairs.
    Agnes has set up two clothes rails in my bedroom and they’re bursting with colourful, shimmering party dresses. ‘Choose anything you like,’ she directs my friends.
‘You,’ she says to me, ‘are wearing this.’
    She passes me a long emerald-green dress. It has an asymmetrical strap going diagonally across one shoulder and it’s cut square under the opposing arm, with a thigh-length slit up the
side.
    ‘I love this colour on you,’ she says, and I’m reminded of the first time I wore a green dress belonging to her. She took me to Lottie Tremway’s house to hang out.
‘Try it on.’
    All around me, my friends eagerly strip off and do just that with the glittering array of dresses hanging on the rails. I don’t hesitate to join them. The green dress fits like a
dream.
    ‘Oh, wow!’ Lou says suddenly. She’s staring straight at me.
    ‘You look amazing!’ Libby exclaims.
    Agnes, appearing pretty pleased with herself, pushes me in front of the floor-length mirror.
    ‘Oh, Agnes!’ I squeak. ‘I love this dress!’
    My American friend is a couple of inches taller than me, at about five foot eight, and her very dark hair has been cut into a blunt bob. Her trademark eyeliner is perfectly applied in its usual
feline flick. Her reflection briefly smiles back at me, but a moment later she’s serious and businesslike again. ‘Strappy heels,’ she decides abruptly, going to my wardrobe and
hunting some out.
    Natalie flashes me a knowing smile. I’ve told her Agnes is a force to be reckoned with.
    ‘Did you know about tonight?’ I ask Natalie, remembering her earlier mischievous look and her comment about the night