Heidi may have been entitled to sport the tasteful crown she wore on her birthday, but her subsequent snubbing of a genuinely sympathetic Audrina was certainly not warranted. If there really isn’t anything more to the whole Heidi-Audrina-Spencer pseudo-triangle, then Audrina really is in the right here. Constantly turning down his insistent (and sketchy) pleas for dinner and asserting her disinterest in him, Audrina never once appeared to have any type of feelings for Spencer. Though it is possible that the all-knowing editors are hiding some Audrina-incriminating unaired footage, Audrina appears to be the victim. Perhaps victim is not the correct word choice. Lauren, after all, was totally the victim in her relationship with Jason, but she also brought all of that on herself. Innocent bystander would be the more appropriate term.
In preparation for what Lauren claimed would be “the best night ever,” Heidi announced that Audrina was free to show up at the club, but not, under any circumstances, to attend her party and that she’d understand if Whitney was too busy to come. (Will we ever find out why Whitney is always too busy to show up to crucial ‘Hills’ events and why she never seems to have a romantic life of her own?) As Heidi prepped for the big celebration, Audrina confided in camera-happy Epic Intern Chiara, who, knowing she’d soon be on MTV, couldn’t wipe that blatant grin off her face, even when Audrina discussed some pretty weighty stuff. Audrina seemed to sincerely want to reconcile with Heidi. (The girl was so nice that she was even worried about getting the slacking intern in trouble. Apparently Epic Interns aren’t overworked and shipped off to Paris like the ones at Teen Vogue.)
It was no surprise when an apologetic Audrina showed up at Heidi’s party and wished her a wholehearted Happy Birthday, asking to have a serious talk with her. Heidi gave her a fake thank you for the birthday wishes and told her that she couldn’t talk with her at the time, adding in a farewell “Oh, snap!” Lauren was the one who ended up doing the talking over lunch and she couldn’t even do it alone (she brought along an out-of-place Whitney who didn’t seem to know what was going on). Pretending not to care about the whole thing, Lauren gave some rude eye-rolls and careless looks, but Audrina still maintained her polite front. The girls ended on an ambiguous note (Whitney’s “some people just grow apart” speech was the closest anyone got to closure), yet Audrina’s optimism was palpable in a civil albeit fake goodbye hug with Lauren. (The girl is in the theme song, she’s not going anywhere.)
The unbearable Brody undertones throughout what should have been solely Heidi-Audrina moments came to a head at an unofficial double date with Spencer and Heidi. (Of course Audrina was strategically placed, by the producers, at the same club the foursome went to.) Lauren’s attempts to stick to her no-boy post-Jason rule proved futile. Brody’s out-of-the-book complements finally got to her as he went in for the kiss. Frankly, I was much more concerned about Audrina’s well-being as she left the club alone than the burgeoning Lauren-Brody romance. She’s got to remember the rules of birthday crashing (ahem, some, like this one, overlap with the wedding crashing rules): Rule #76: Play like a champion.
