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" \n Lauren Conrad is sitting in the bedroom of her new high-rise apartment, dishing about drama. It&amp;#039;s a familiar scene to the millions of people who watch MTV&amp;#039;s The Hills...but tonight, there are no cameras in sight. That&amp;#039;s because she just finished her last day of shooting for the reality-ish show. If you&amp;#039;re a die-hard fan of The Hills, it&amp;#039;ll come as no surprise that Lauren cried as she said her good-byes. But the tears have dried, and she&amp;#039;s ready for a fresh start. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;ve always had another season to look forward to, but now life is a little more unplanned,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s really exciting.&amp;quot; And, she admits, also a little scary. But the likable 23-year-old is determined to transform her show exposure into a long, lucrative career. She&amp;#039;s currently working on LC Lauren Conrad, an affordable line of dresses and knits that hits Kohl&amp;#039;s department stores this fall. (Her pricier Lauren Conrad Collection has been put on &amp;quot;hiatus.&amp;quot;) And she&amp;#039;s about to become a first-time author with her young-adult novel, L.A. Candy. As for TV, Lauren is planning to develop more projects, but don&amp;#039;t expect The Hills 2. &amp;quot;I have to be passionate about the next thing I do,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;I don&amp;#039;t think I could ever do a show like The Hills again. I would go crazy.&amp;quot; STANDING UP FOR HERSELF A few weeks before the convo about her leaving The Hills, we meet Lauren at the Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills. What&amp;#039;s supposed to be an interview over breakfast turns into a liquids-only chat in the nearly empty hotel bar. As Lauren orders a club soda, she explains the reason for the switch: She&amp;#039;s doing a cleanse. At that point, she had yet to announce her exit from The Hills. Still, we can tell as she talks that after five years in front of the cameras, she is ready to move on. &amp;quot;It definitely became more of a job,&amp;quot; she says, her voice husky thanks to a Hills shoot at a Hollywood club that ran until 1:30 a.m. &amp;quot;It used to be more fun.&amp;quot;  As the show grew in popularity, Lauren started to feel like she was living a dual existence. She evolved into a paparazzi-stalked star, a development The Hills producers chose not to include on the show. As a result, the parts of Lauren&amp;#039;s life that could be filmed shrunk until she realized she was living more of her life off-camera than on \u2014 an odd setup when the show is supposed to reflect reality. But there was also a specific incident that affected her decision to leave The Hills, and surprise, surprise, it had to do with her former best friend, Heidi Montag. The two girls appeared to make up in a teary reunion at the end of season four, but that&amp;#039;s where Lauren wanted their onscreen interaction to end. Lauren tells us that TheHills producers insisted on finding ways to bring the two together during season five. &amp;quot;What they didn&amp;#039;t get is that I didn&amp;#039;t want to fight with her anymore,&amp;quot; Lauren explains. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s hard to look at somebody who used to be your best friend and say, &amp;#039;We can&amp;#039;t be friends. Too much has happened.&amp;#039; I&amp;#039;m trying to move on, but they won&amp;#039;t let me. And when someone keeps pushing you into the same position, well...you get upset.&amp;quot; The final straw, according to Lauren, was the 23rd birthday party that costars Audrina Patridge and Lo Bosworth threw for her. In full view of the cameras, Heidi showed up by tagging along with a friend. What fans didn&amp;#039;t see was the aftermath. &amp;quot;After the producers did that, I disappeared. If they were disrespectful, I was going to be disrespectful back. I told them, &amp;#039;You can call me in a week. Think about what you did.&amp;#039;?&amp;quot; She laughs, but there&amp;#039;s an edge to her voice. Heidi may be out of her life \u2014 they exchange the occasional text \u2014 but it&amp;#039;ll take time for the bad feelings to fade. Love that kind of behind-the-scenes drama as much as we do? Well, get psyched, because Lauren promises a ton of it in her new book. &amp;quot;She has written something that conveys so much of what life was like for her,&amp;quot; explains Zareen Jaffery, Lauren&amp;#039;s editor at HarperCollins. &amp;quot;You can really hear her voice in the pages.&amp;quot; Unlike most celebs who pen books, Lauren didn&amp;#039;t use a ghostwriter. She spent seven months on it after outlining the story while traveling in Italy. In the book \u2014 the first in a series of three \u2014 a girl named Jane moves to L.A. with her best friend, Scarlett, gets recruited for her own reality show, and quickly finds herself in a steamy love triangle with two men. We got a sneak peek at a couple of chapters and can tell you it&amp;#039;s a sexy read that&amp;#039;s great for the beach. There are no sex scenes, but clothes do come off. &amp;quot;That stuff was difficult for me to write \u2014 I&amp;#039;d get embarrassed,&amp;quot; Lauren says, giggling as she buries her face in her hands. &amp;quot;Look, I&amp;#039;m blushing!&amp;quot;  PRIVATE LOVE Another subject that tends to make Lauren blush: her yearlong relationship with actor Kyle Howard from the TV show My Boys. &amp;quot;They are really good together,&amp;quot; her friend Lo tells us. &amp;quot;Sometimes, it takes somebody who treats you right to show you there&amp;#039;s something else out there.&amp;quot; After living out so many heartbreaks on camera, most memorably with troubled ex-boyfriend Jason Wahler, Lauren is careful to keep this relationship private. Kyle didn&amp;#039;t appear on this season of The Hills, nor did she mention him on camera. In fact, the couple often stay in, watching movies. &amp;quot;I feel sexiest with him when I&amp;#039;m in sweatpants and no makeup,&amp;quot; she says. Lauren didn&amp;#039;t jump into the relationship right away. With her success on The Hills, she&amp;#039;d become wary of guys&amp;#039; motives, wondering if they were interested just because of the press they could get by being with her. But Kyle had already achieved his own success, and he impressed Lauren with thoughtful gestures like taking her to swim with dolphins at Sea World after she mentioned her desire to do it. &amp;quot;I have to be with someone I really trust who doesn&amp;#039;t want to hurt my feelings and who really wants me to be happy,&amp;quot; she explains. Still, Lauren&amp;#039;s in no hurry to tie the knot. And whenever she does decide to walk down the aisle, she&amp;#039;s sure about one thing: &amp;quot;The only camera at my wedding will be my parents&amp;#039; camcorder,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;ll be a home video. Just for us.&amp;quot;  LAUREN&amp;#039;S MONEY-SAVING STYLE RULES 1. Can&amp;#039;t afford a ton of new clothes? Accessories are cheap and can make an outfit. 2. Mix high-end with low-end, like a designer skirt with a tank top or a designer top with affordable jeans. I live in Urban Outfitters jeans. 3. Invest in four black basics: slacks, heels, a blazer, and a high-waisted skirt. 4. Use a tailor. You can find designer pieces for a steal that are off in size and spend $20 to get them altered so they fit right. 5. Don&amp;#039;t follow trends blindly. If you like a certain trend, put your own twist on it. 6. Invest in a good pair of shoes and just get them resoled every once in a while. 7 Vintage is always in, especially if you&amp;#039;re on a budget. Bonus: No one else is gonna have it. VIDEO!: Check out our exclusive, behind-the-scenes video of Lauren&amp;#039;s Cosmo cover shoot! MORE LC! Star Style Evolution: LC&amp;#039;s Fashion Makeover  Despite a platoon of primpers, celebs take years to hone their paparazzi-worthy hair and makeup looks.  Hair Lookbook: Lauren&amp;#039;s Curls, Waves, Updo&amp;#039;s, and More LC knows how to make the most of blonde locks. The Real Lauren Conrad  From our cover interview archives, LC shares her most private thoughts on guys, frenemies, and living in a fishbowl. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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