Golden Girl (18 page)

I looked up. I'd forgotten he didn't know. But of course he didn't. No one did.

Suddenly I had the overwhelming urge to tell him everything. Since I'd gotten back to Mountain Academy, the secret had been weighing heavier and heavier on my heart each day. I desperately wanted to tell someone. So why not Logan? He wasn't involved. He had nothing to lose or gain and no one to tell. Besides, I was pretty sure he was the type of guy who would keep a girl's secret—even under torture.

I thought back to Olivia's smug smile outside the school the night before. Becca's fearful eyes. I had once believed that by keeping the truth about my “accident” a secret it would save my best friend's career. Had I somehow made things worse for her instead?

“You have to promise not to say anything,” I blurted out. “To anyone.”

He nodded, his expression grave. I could tell he was taking me seriously, and I appreciated that.

So I told him everything. The words coming hesitantly at first, then spilling over my lips like water from a burst dam. Logan listened, attentively, silently, with no readable expression on his face. Only the knuckles whitening in his clenched fists gave anything away.

“Geez, Lexi,” he murmured when I had finished. “I knew Mountain Academy was competitive. But that . . .” He shook his head. “She should be banned from the sport forever . . . or at least kicked out of school.”

“I'm sure she didn't mean to hurt me that badly,” I protested. “She was just trying to slow me down so she could get ahead.”

“Oh. Well that makes it all better then.”

I grimaced. “I know, I know. I'm not trying to defend her. She's an abominable snow brat; believe me, I get it. But what can I do?”

“You could go to the school. Or the cops. Or . . . something.”

“I can't,” I said. “Even if I wanted to, I don't have any proof. And they'd want to know why I didn't say something back when it happened. It'd be her word against mine, and her dad owns the stupid mountain.” I paused, then added, “Besides, I couldn't do that to Becca.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Olivia's minion, Becca?”

I groaned. “You don't understand. Becca isn't like that. She's a good person. She works really hard, and she doesn't buy into all that popularity stuff. There's something else going on with her, I know it. Like Olivia's holding something over her head. But I can't for the life of me figure out what it could be. I wish I could—I'm sure if I just knew what it was I could make her see it was no big deal.”

Logan thought about this for a moment. “We could see if Todd knows,” he suggested.

“Todd?” I frowned. “As in Olivia's boyfriend, Todd?”

“Ex-boyfriend,” Logan corrected. “He broke up with her last Saturday. Pretty much right after we ran into them.”

“What?” I exclaimed, surprised. “Why?”

Logan shrugged. “Evidently she started saying a bunch of stuff about me being a staff rat and he got mad. Todd's not rich, you know. He's a scholarship kid from the Bronx.”

Golden Boy was on scholarship? I had no idea. And I was pretty sure none of the other kids did either. Obviously Olivia didn't or she'd never deem him worthy enough for her princessdom.

“Anyway, they got into a fight and he cut her loose. Told me it was for the best. Said she was kind of a psycho.” He blew out a long breath. “Until now I had no idea just how psycho he meant.”

“Wow,” I said, remembering the dinner at Jacques's. I had thought Olivia was acting a little crazy, even for her. “And now she probably blames me for getting dumped, on top of everything else. Awesome.”

“In any case, we should go and ask him about the whole Becca thing,” Logan suggested. “He might know something.”

“It's worth a try.”

•  •  •

Logan insisted on coming along with me to talk to Todd, even though he was technically still banned from the mountain, and an hour later we were knocking on the snowboarder's dorm room door. Todd answered dressed in jeans and a ratty Minecraft T-shirt. He grinned when he saw Logan.

“Hey, man.” He greeted Logan, slapping him on the arm. “Come on in.”

We entered the dorm room and sat down on Todd's roommate's unoccupied bed. I looked around: On the walls hung posters of all the snowboarding greats and one of skateboarder Tony Hawk. Todd's trophies and medals covered the top of his dresser in a sea of gold, and a trash bin overflowed with empty cans of Red Bull.

Todd plopped down on his desk chair, leaning forward, elbows on his knees. “So, Miss Miller, to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?”

I drew in a breath. “Do you know Becca Montgomery?”

“Sure. Olivia's latest lamebrain. What about her?”

I frowned, not appreciating his description of my poor friend. “She's not—”

“We think Olivia might be blackmailing her,” Logan cut in quickly. “Like she has something on her that Becca doesn't want people to know.”

Todd laughed. “Of course she does. Olivia has stuff on everyone in school. It's like her hobby. Some people collect baseball cards. She collects secrets.”

“Do you know what she might have on Becca?” I asked, leaning forward anxiously.

But Todd just shook his head. “Sorry,” he said. “She didn't mention anything that I can think of. Or that I remember, anyway. No offense, but that girl never shuts up. Half of what she said went in one ear and out the other.”

“Okay,” I said, disappointed. “Well, thanks anyway.” I rose to leave.

“Wait,” Todd commanded. I stopped in my tracks, turning to him.

“Yeah?”

“I said she didn't
tell
me anything,” he said. “Not that we couldn't find out.”

I cocked my head in question. “What do you mean?”

“She keeps files on people,” he explained. “On her computer. Pretty much everyone she knows has a file.” He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, she's really that much of a creeper—I know.”

My heart picked up its pace. “And you think she might have a file on Becca?”

“Only one way to find out.” Todd swung around in his chair, pulled up to his computer desk, and began typing away furiously.

“Are you going to hack her account?” Everyone at Mountain Academy was given a log-in that could be accessed from any computer on campus. This way you could always pull up your homework or whatever you needed, wherever you were.

“Don't need to. I have her password,” he informed us. “Twelve twelve. The date of her mother's death.” He turned to look at us. “Morbid, right?”

I thought back to Olivia on the floor outside of Jacques's, crying her eyes out, saying she wished her mother was still alive. It didn't excuse what she'd done, I told myself. But it did make me feel the tiniest bit bad for her. After all, I couldn't imagine something like that happening to my mother. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't even be able to function as a human being for the next ten years, never mind win any races.

A moment later Todd leaned back in his chair, looking pleased with himself. “Okay, here we are.”

I peered at the screen. Sure enough, we were on Olivia's desktop. A selfie of her and her mom smiling into the camera wallpapered across the screen. Along with a set of file folders, carefully arranged and labeled with the full names of Mountain Academy students. Wow.

“I don't even want to know what she has on me at this point,” Todd laughed as he moused over his own name. He right-clicked and gleefully hit delete. I gave Logan an alarmed look. We were going down a slippery slope, and I knew it.

It's for Becca,
I tried to remind myself.
You're doing it for Becca.

“Here we go,” Todd announced a moment later, dragging a folder with Becca's name across the desktop. “Now let's see what she has on your friend.”

As he clicked on the folder, my breath caught in my throat. I peered down, not sure I really wanted to see. It had to be something really bad if Becca was willing to give up our entire friendship over it. But what could it possibly be?

I scanned the Word document. A few nasty comments about Becca's wardrobe. A few notes about her recent times on various snowboarding events. A few suggestions to “let her borrow some clothes so she doesn't embarrass us at the next mixer.”

“Hmm, nothing incriminating,” I remarked, a sinking feeling settling in my stomach. Had I been wrong about Olivia holding something over my friend's head?

“Wait. There's a video,” Todd pointed out, clicking on one of the .mov files. A moment later a QuickTime video popped up on the screen and began to play. It appeared to have been taken at some kind of school dance. The camera panned the rec center, focusing on a few Boarder Barbies hanging out on the sidelines, looking bored.

“What does this have to do with Becca?” I wondered aloud. Maybe it had accidentally been placed in the wrong folder?

As if in answer, the camera swung around, exchanging the view of the dance floor for that of a window. Then it zoomed in, focusing on two people outside the rec center.

Two people kissing. One: my should-have-been boyfriend, Cam.

The other: my best friend.

Todd turned to me, raising a questioning eyebrow. “Does this mean anything to you?” he asked.

I couldn't answer. Just stared at the computer screen, rendered speechless.

When had this happened? I reached over Todd to grab the mouse, right-clicking the video file to discover the date. I drew in a horrified breath. It was last year. The very same day of the fateful race that had sent me to the hospital.
The very same dance,
I suddenly realized, that I was supposed to go to with Cam in the first place.

I felt as if I'd been punched in the gut.

“And . . . that's all she wrote,” Todd said, turning back to me. “Did you want to look up anyone else while you're here? She has this classic video of Ava slipping on ice and falling flat on her face.” He smirked impishly.

“We're good,” Logan replied, cuffing him on the shoulder. “I'll catch you later, okay?”

Todd gave him a salute. “Hurry up and get yourself unbanned, dude. I'm bored to tears without someone worthy to race.”

Logan gave him a mock salute, then led me out of the room, closing the door behind us. Once we were safely in the hallway, I drew in a huge, shaky breath.

“Are you okay?” Logan asked.

“Yeah,” I said, still feeling a little dazed. I quickly explained the backstory so he'd understand what Becca had done.

“Ugh,” he said when I'd finished. “That's pretty tacky.”

“I know, right?” I exclaimed. “Like here I am, in the hospital, literally fighting for my life, and she's all kissing the guy who was supposed to be my boyfriend. Who does that?” I scowled, squeezing my hands into fists. “I mean, not that I care anymore,” I added quickly, not wanting him to think I still had feelings for that slimeball Cam. “Just on principle.”

“No, I get it,” Logan assured me as we stepped outside into the crisp November evening.

The sun was just starting to set, casting deep shadows across the trails. Logan led me over to a nearby bench, and we both sat down. “She went behind your back. And she lied to you. That's not cool.”

“I guess Olivia must have caught them,” I added. “She probably threatened to text me the video if Becca didn't do what she said.” Suddenly my best friend's behavior was making a lot more sense.

“What are you going to do?” Logan asked.

Before I could answer, I caught movement across the way. Looking up, I accidentally made perfect eye contact with none other than Olivia herself. Her eyes narrowed as they caught mine, then she smirked and turned away. As if she had already won. I watched her go, my hands closing into fists again.

“Ugh. Seriously, I just want to smack her upside the head.”

“Or . . . you could go make up with Becca,” Logan suggested. “Perhaps that would be an even sweeter revenge.”

I considered this for a moment, then nodded. “You're right,” I agreed. “I'll let her know I saw the video and that it doesn't matter to me. That I forgive her. And that she doesn't have to do Olivia's bidding anymore.”

I didn't know if it would work. But to get my best friend back, it was worth a try.

H
ey, Lex, over here!”

It was Monday morning, and I'd just entered the cafeteria for breakfast. I looked up to see Brooklyn waving me over to our regular table. I forced yet another one of the fake smiles I'd been constantly wearing for the past week and headed over to talk to her.

“How's it going?” she asked. “You going to be joining us again soon?”

“Looks like maybe next week,” I told her. “If my trainer gives me the go-ahead.”

“Sweet!” Brooklyn cried. She reached across the table to give me a fist bump. “I can't wait for you to start kicking Olivia's butt again. Girl has gotten completely unbearable without you putting her in her place.”

“Oh, don't worry,” I assured her. “That's definitely on the agenda.”

In fact, Operation Take Olivia Down was starting right now. As soon as I could locate Becca.

It didn't take me long to spot her, sitting over at her new usual table with the other Boarder Barbies. I watched, calmly eating my lunch, biding my time, until she rose from her seat and headed out of the cafeteria. I smiled. Middle-of-lunch bathroom break. My former bestie was nothing if not predictable.

“Be right back,” I told my crew as I slipped out from behind the bench and headed toward the exit. I kept my steps slow, allowing her enough distance that she wouldn't be able to tell she was being trailed. My heart thudded in my chest as I watched her enter the bathroom, the door swinging shut behind her. This was it. My chance to get her alone and confront her with what I'd learned.