Page 81 of The Debutantes
“Are you serious?” I glare.
“April obviously doesn’t want our help.”
I shake my head in disbelief, trying to think of some way to talk sense into her. “They only did this because we’re close to figuring this out. They want us to stop, but we can’t let them win just because they—”
“Because they ruined our lives? I don’t know. I’m starting to think maybe we can.” Piper’s eyes shine with tears. “They got my dad arrested. They just tookcollegeaway from me. I don’t know if you understand that, but they did.”
“And that’s important enough to give up on finding Lily?”
Piper stares at me, chin pushed forward stubbornly even as the tears start to fall. “They’re not going to quit,” she says. “You heard them in there. ‘Everything we desire is ours by birthright.’ They’re going to keep taking and taking whatever they want from us because they can. So maybe we should juststop.”
She’s right. I know she’s right, and still, I’m so angry it feels like something’s eating me up from the inside. I look at Wyatt. I don’t really want to turn to him for backup, but it’s not like I have another choice.
“Lily’s still out there,” I plead. “We can’t just—”
“Do you want a ride or not?” Piper snaps, swiping a tear away with her fist.
I glare at her, but apparently she’s suddenly allergic to meeting my eyes. Wyatt’s, too. And I get it. She’s weirded out. She probably thinks we’re both as awful as that email said, and maybe we are. Maybe I’ve ruined whatever sort-of friendship Piper and I were starting to have. But right now, there are more important things than feeling guilty.
“I’m going to find April,” I say.
Piper’s face softens. “You shouldn’t—”
“Are you coming with me?”
She clamps her mouth shut, glancing at Wyatt. It’s enough of an answer for me.
“Fine,” I snap. “Safe travels.”
I give Wyatt one more look before I go, waiting for him to say something, anything.
But he doesn’t.
I shouldn’t have expected anything else.
I’ve barely made it to Jackson Square when my feet start to hurt, the blisters and scrapes from running barefoot through the Quarter finally catching up with me. Still, there’s no way in hell I’m putting the heels back on. I tuck them under my arm and force myself to keep moving, scanning the dark street for April as I go.
The thing about being an athlete is you have to learn discipline. And maybe itisa cliché, like the email said, but I feel like that’s what I’ve been doing the past two weeks: flexing the same mental muscles I use on game days to push away everything I’ve been hiding. It’s why Wyatt was so good at it, too, I think. He learned it in football.
Or maybe it’s just what you do when you grow up in a place like this: forget the uncomfortable stuff, like the rising sea level or a Queen who died too soon.
But now I can’t ignore it anymore, and it’s right here, as real as the night it happened.
It was winter break, the week before Christmas. That Friday night, we were all at Wyatt’s: me, Lily, Sav, Jason, and a couple of Wyatt’s other goons. The past month had been brutal. Exams were bad enough, and then early-decision results came out just a few days before the break. I knew Lily was upset when she got rejected from Vanderbilt, but she wouldn’t talk about it. She barely responded to our group chat. That night was the first time I’d even seen her since school let out. I was worried, for sure, but I told myself everything was okay now. We were all together again.
Plus, it was warm. It’s one of the best things about December in New Orleans: sometimes, winter just isn’t a thing. Wewere out by the pool, and Sav was filling me, Lily, and Wyatt in on the latest theater-kid drama while Jason and two of the football guys, Taylor and Mateo, were dueling with pool noodles.
I barely even remember what we were saying, only that as I looked around, I felt drunk on my friends: Sav with her over-the-top hand gestures and contagious laugh, and Lily with that lit-up look in her eyes, like there’s always something going on behind them. Something you want to be in on.
And maybe I was a little drunk on Wyatt, too. The way he looked at Lily like no one else was there, drawing small circles on her wrist with his thumb. Like she was all his.
I knew everything could change when we all went to college. I’d spent all year trying not to think about how I might lose them, worrying that there would never be anything as good as this, my friends, all of us together.
When Lily and Wyatt went inside to get drinks, it was like the air got colder. They were gone for too long. Ten minutes passed, then fifteen, and Jason made some stupid joke about what they werereallydoing in there, but something felt wrong. I know Lily, and I knew she wouldn’t disappear like that to hook up with Wyatt in the middle of a party. She’d be too worried about people assuming things, about what they’d think.
I was on my way to check on her when Lily came out alone, walking quickly. She went straight to the lounge chair where she’d left her shoes, slipping them on without looking at us.
“Lil?” Sav asked. “You okay?”
