HDU by India Lee Page A

forced to start preparing some sort of backup ensemble.  
    Wearing all
black tricks people into thinking you’re chic, right? Amanda stood up
straight before her reflection in the mirror but groaned.   Not so much.   Her black sweater dress was ratty and pilled, her matching tights
already loose at the knees.   She
couldn’t help but wonder if Liam was punishing her for requesting Lilac by
forcing her to go looking like a hobo.   It was a worrying thought.   Amanda had intended to look sufficiently plain for the tabloids, but
never grotesque, which she imagined would be the case among the Lilac crowd
full of models and actors.  
    If Liam would simply pick up his phone, she would
know whether she had time to go pick up something from a boutique.   But alas, he was unreachable and her existing
wardrobe was beyond saving.   She
had already excluded most of it while packing, but even the pieces that had
made it to New York were hopeless.   Some of them had been in her closet since early high school.  
    “They’re good for nostalgia, but not actual wearing,”
Ian had laughed that afternoon, taking pictures of the messy garments strewn
all over the room.   Amanda had emptied
them from her suitcase in frustration, chucking every last sock and ugly
sweater over her shoulder with vexation.   But there was some good to be made of her tantrum.   Ian decided that a few of the photos –
one of an old shearling coat, another of a Merit High School sweatshirt –
were worthy of Instagram and blog posts for her new website.
    Their afternoon and early evening following lunch had
been spent back at the hotel, buying a domain and constructing a website from
Ian’s faint knowledge of computers.   He managed to produce a simple but rather appealing homepage featuring
Amanda’s full name before the image of a henbit field.   The photo of the purple henbits was one
that Amanda had snapped herself last spring.   The plants were common weeds back at home, but she found
them beautiful anyway and an easy decision for the backdrop of her site.   The final additions to the page were some
photographs that Ian had snapped of Merit from his iPhone.   Altogether, the elements gave off a
dreamy and sweet but somewhat mysterious feeling.
    Amanda gazed at it on her computer screen, letting it
distract her from her date night frustrations.   However the page quickly reminded her of a façade, a hollow
shell trying to pass itself off as something important.   Amanda shut her laptop, forcing herself
not to reopen it like a Pandora’s box of insecurities.   Don’t
tempt yourself , she thought.   After all, she still hadn’t read the comments on the HDU post about Liam
and herself, still fearful of what the users might be saying.   All she had allowed was for Ian to give
her a summary, which he had phrased in a text as “nothing crazy – everyone
thinks you’re the housekeeper.”   It
actually made Amanda laugh.   They’ll be in for a surprise after tonight ,
she grinned.
    Though with that thought, she was reminded to look once
again at her clock.   Just as she
realized that it was eight on the dot, Amanda heard the front door of the hotel
room swing open.  
    “ Who’s there ?”
she immediately asked, grabbing something, anything to use as a weapon before
freezing in fear.   Her body
practically crumpled in relief when she saw Liam enter her bedroom.
    “Jesus Christ, what’s wrong with you?” he laughed,
taking the beaded necklace out of her hands.   “What, you were going to strangle me with this?”
    Amanda stared, not even realizing what an ineffective
weapon she’d chosen.   She then
turned her eyes on him and his infuriating amusement.   “God!” she suddenly huffed, surprising
herself by smacking him on the chest.
    “What – ? Stop it, you freak,” Liam laughed,
controlling both her hands with just one of his.   She tried to wriggle free from his grip but it tightened
effortlessly around her.