Page 57 of The Debutantes
A line deepens between Coach’s eyebrows. “It was black. A Mercedes, I think?”
The little nagging feeling grows into something much worse.
“Do you remember anything else about it?” I ask. “The car?”
“No, I don’t think so.” He looks even more concerned. “Why?”
“No reason.” It rushes out of me in a panic before I can think better of it. “I think… I think I might actually need to take the day off. I’m feeling kind of lightheaded.”
Before Coach can respond, I turn and speed for the athletic building doors, mind racing.
Lily didn’t leave the ball with Wyatt. She left with a stranger in a black Mercedes. Coach watched it happen.
And I wasn’t there at all.
20PIPER
JANUARY 2, 3:40P.M.
The Diet Coke thumps to the bottom of the vending machine, and I slide it out, waiting for the bubbles to settle so I can finally take a pull of aspartame to quell the headache that’s been pounding all day. Normally, I love the first day back at school—the routine, the regimented schedule, even the smell of Beaumont’s freshly cut grass in the morning. Today, though, I feel like I’ve just spent the past seven hours dodging land mines.
Probably because I have, in a manner of speaking. I haven’t talked to April or Vivian all day, and I intend for it to stay that way, maybe until graduation.
I twist the cap of my Diet Coke, letting a long sip burn down my throat, but the dull throbbing at the back of my skull doesn’t stop. Maybe I should consider that the headache isn’t caffeine-related at all.
As if on cue, my phone lights up with a new message, and a silly part of my brain hopes that maybe it’s the Maids.
Instead, the contact name is “Arch Nemesis.”
Meet at the library in 5?
Aiden. I sigh, starting to type out an “okay” before deciding to throw the message a Like instead. Vivian is still in my head somewhere, smirking about herPride and Prejudicecrap. Whatever. While, despite what Vivian thinks, I don’t relish alone time with Aiden Ortiz, this meeting will be a good distraction. We’re both in charge of the Senior Week committee, thanks to a unanimous nomination from the student council, which is not as much of an honor as it sounds. Everyone is always checked out by Senior Week—the famously fun-filled week before graduation—and they’d rather enjoy the festivities than actuallyplanthem. I’m pretty sure Aiden and I scored this job simply because no one else is high-strung enough to do it.
At the very least, this meeting means I won’t have to run into either of the Maids in the usual after-school exodus.
I hike up my backpack, fighting another stab of guilt as I think of how they both looked at me on the levee. But it’s not my fault they’re upset, I tell myself as I start toward the library. I made the hard decision, the logical decision. No matter how close we seemed to answers, we were searching for some sort of conspiracy that just doesn’t exist. It would only have done more harm than good, even if April and Vivian can’t see that. Even if they hate me.
And why do I care? They’re not my friends. We were colleagues. Coinvestigators, at best. And it’s like it’s always been: I don’t need friends, at least not more than the surface-level ones I already have. Friends aren’t the point of high school. High school is for getting into college, which I’ve already done.Check.I can worry about friends when I get there.
Aiden is already waiting in a study room, irritatingly on time.
“Hey,” he says.
“Hey,” I say flatly, sliding into the seat next to him at the table.
“No insults today?” He clutches his heart. “But I’ve grown so used to them.”
“Believe me, I’ve got plenty.” It comes out harsher than I mean it to.
I can feel him looking at me but pretend not to notice, focusing on opening my laptop.
“You okay?” he asks.
“Do I not look okay?”
“That’s a loaded question.”
“Ha-ha.”
