Stuck Up & Stupid by Angourie Rice

Author:Angourie Rice [Rice, Angourie; Rice, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-76065-833-5
Publisher: Walker Books Australia
Published: 2023-11-14T23:00:00+00:00

21

‘Hi, Lily, this is Dorian. I hope you don’t mind, I asked Stacy for your number. I know Wilson has a busy week of work ahead and I wondered if you and Nicola would like to see Griffith Observatory?’

Lily finished reading the text aloud to Nicola, who immediately snatched the phone from her.

‘No. Way.’

‘I know – how does Stacy Black have my phone number? I don’t have hers.’

‘She would have got Wilson to give it to her, you jellyfish. The important thing here is that YOU have DORIAN KHAN’s number in YOUR PHONE! Do you know what that’s worth?’

‘Yes, it’s worth a trip to the Griffith Observatory, which I’m actually desperate to see, but you have refused because it’s up a hill. Now we can go in style!’

‘With him?’ Nicola pulled a face.

Lily shrugged. Sure, she and Dorian had clashed a little at Stacy’s party, but the experience was more amusing than actively annoying.

‘It could be fun.’

The two of them spent five minutes composing a text with no emojis and a restrained use of exclamation marks. (‘Just one smiley sunglasses face?’ pleaded Nicola. ‘No!’ insisted Lily.) Just as everything was settled, Lily all the while wondering why on earth an internationally famous person would voluntarily leave his luxury hotel to go to a tourist hotspot just to show two Aussies around, Nicola’s face fell.

‘Oh no!’

‘What?’

‘The launch!’

Wilson had got them tickets to the launch of Vegan Eggs’ new album at a cool record store in West Hollywood, back before what Nicola was calling the Great Rejection.

‘I know you love cultural landmarks and astronomy and whatever, but I love this band much, much more—’

‘It’s fine,’ said Lily.

‘I’m sorry.’

‘Why? Go to the album launch. Take Wilson. If I’m not going, I’m sure he’d be delighted.’

‘And you’ll go to the Observatory?’

‘Why not?’

‘Alone?’

‘I’ll be with Dorian.’

‘Exactly! Alone with Dorian! It’ll be like every single romantic Hollywood movie ever.’

Lily laughed. ‘Yes. A bit superficial and unconvincing, terrible dialogue, with very pretty scenery. I’m looking forward to it. And this time, no one is telling me what to wear.’

The next day, at one o’clock sharp, Lily opened the door to Dorian looking surprisingly ordinary in jeans. They exchanged casual greetings and Lily noticed how much more comfortable she felt without the pressure of a dress code. It was much easier to own being an outsider than to pretend not to be one.

Dorian led her to his top-of-the-range (compact size) electric vehicle and she climbed into the front seat, suddenly very aware of how close they were. They’d been this close before, even closer, but there was something about being confined to a car, where every outside sound was muffled and every internal sound amplified, that felt very intimate.

‘Thanks for taking me,’ Lily said.

‘No, of course,’ Dorian said. ‘I’m glad you could still make it.’

He didn’t smile. He was so awkwardly aloof, Lily wondered if Franklin had put him up to it. He seemed a little put-out.

‘Do you want music?’ Dorian asked.

‘Sure.’

He turned on the audio player in

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