“Good. Now let’s get back over there before they start thinking we’re lesbian lovers having a spat,” Noelle said.
I laughed out loud. Noelle was right. I was here to have fun. And I could avoid Amberly for the next few weeks. When I returned to the circle, I stood between Kiran and Taylor and averted my gaze from the little china doll. See? No problem.
“Everything okay?” Tiffany asked, joining us.
“Fine. We’re all good,” Noelle assured everyone.
“Good. Then shall we officially kick off the Upton Game?” Paige suggested.
“Wait. Poppy’s not here yet,” Kiran protested.
“She’s not flying in until tomorrow,” Taylor added.
“Her loss,” Noelle said with a smirk. “By then the game could already be won.”
The girls all laughed devilishly, and I rolled my eyes. This whole thing was just so silly. But they seemed to be enjoying it, so who was I to judge?
“May the best girl win,” Paige said, lifting her glass.
They all reached up and clinked their glasses together. Everyone but me. Because A, I didn’t have a glass, and B, I was not going to be participating.
“I’m rooting for you, Taylor,” I said, as our klatch broke up.
“Thanks!” Taylor cooed, hand to her chest.
“Everyone likes an underdog,” Paige snickered.
Taylor’s face dropped as the girl sauntered off in Upton’s direction. First impression of Paige Ryan? Ice-cold bitch. I wanted to trip her, but I didn’t have the guts just then. Maybe later.
“I don’t like that girl,” I said under my breath.
Taylor swigged the rest of her drink. “Join the club.”
“Wow. A mean word from Taylor Bell? Times have changed,” I joked. A comment like that was very un-Taylor. She had always been the most doormatty of the Billings Girls.
Taylor smiled in an almost apologetic way. The wind tossed her curls in front of her face, and she casually swept them back.
“It comes from no longer having to answer to the Billings hierarchy,” she said, taking a deep, cleansing breath. “You’d be surprised how freeing it is.”
An hour later I was kicked back with Noelle, Kiran, and Taylor in a set of chaise longues near the pool, my face tipped toward the sun. We were full of Caribbean barbecue and each had a piña colada (mine virgin) to sip. Noelle had insisted I change, so now I was wearing a white polo-shirt dress and a ton of SPF. My Pennsylvania skin was
so
not ready for the Caribbean sun.
“So by the fall, you’ll be seeing my face everywhere,” Kiran said, adjusting the brim of her wide sunhat so that her entire face was shaded. “In magazines, on billboards—”
“On the sides of buses,” Noelle put in as she worked her long hair into a braid down her back.
“Hey, all exposure is good exposure,” Kiran told her, raising one red fingernail.
“Tell that to Reed,” Noelle said slyly.
My blood stopped cold. W
as that a jab about the Dash video?
“The face of a whole cosmetics line,” I said, ignoring Noelle’s comment. “That is so incredible.”
“I know. My agent said the company hasn’t had a non-actress do it since, like, the nineties,” Kiran replied. “I guess they just thought I was that hot.”
“But not at all modest,” Noelle added, flicking an unseen speck off the skirt of her dress.
A waiter in white shorts and a colorful Hawaiian-style shirt paused in front of us, smiling as he lowered a silver tray full of tarts, cookies, and slices of frosting-laden cake.
“Your dessert, ladies,” he said, moving to place the tray on the table between Taylor and me.
“You’re leaving that here? No. Please. Put it over there,” Taylor said, flicking her hand in Noelle’s direction.
“Still working on that willpower, Bell?” Noelle asked as the waiter did as was requested and moved to the next group of chairs.
“Just playing it safe,” Taylor replied, glancing at the sweets as if they might jump up; hurtle over Noelle, Kiran, and me; and cram themselves down her throat.
“Understood.” Noelle picked up a chunk of white cake and took a bite, then slowly, decadently, sucked the coconut icing from her fingers. I couldn’t tell if she was taunting Taylor or just enjoying herself. Probably a little bit of both. “So what about you, Taylor? How’s Chi-town?”
“Cold,” Taylor replied. She faced forward again and looked up at the perfectly clear blue sky. “But my father bought me an entire new fall
and winter wardrobe
and
a Land Rover when I told him I’d decided to stay in Chicago. Plus, I love my high school. I’m president of the senior class and should be graduating number one. Hopefully there will be an early acceptance letter from Stanford when I get home.”
“Wow, Taylor. Sounds like you’ve got everything you wanted,” I said.
When I got home, I was really going to have to deal with narrowing down which colleges I wanted to visit and apply to, something that should have been on my mind all semester and would have been if I hadn’t been so distracted by Cheyenne’s suicide and my stalker and my breakup and everything else. Maybe I could get a good essay out of the whole experience.
TOPIC: WHAT PERSON OR PERSONS HAS HAD THE MOST INFLUENCE ON YOUR LIFE?
ANSWER: CRAZY ARIANA OSGOOD AND HER PSYCHO SISTER SABINE.
Noelle tipped back her head and sighed. “So I guess Ariana intimidating you into leaving Easton actually was a good thing.”
Taylor and Kiran exchanged a glance, and Taylor looked down at her lap.
“Is that what happened?” I asked. How long had I been dying to have this conversation?
“Basically,” Taylor said, forcing a smile. “She was worried that if I stuck around, I would crack and tell the police what we did that night. Which, let’s face it, I probably would have. But I never knew she went back there that night, Reed, I swear.”
“I know,” I replied, trying to ignore the black, festering scab inside my chest. The scab left behind by Thomas’s murder, which I was now starting to realize would never fully heal. Okay, maybe I
didn’t
want to have this conversation. “Let’s talk about something else.”
Kiran finished off her latest drink and placed the glass on the ground next to her chair. “I vote we talk about how Upton Giles somehow got even hotter this year.”
She turned her gaze toward a large wood dining table shaded by a red awning, where Upton was being aggressively courted by Paige, Tiffany, and Amberly. Daniel, Gage, Weston Bright, and Sawyer and Graham Hathaway were hanging with them as well, drinking beer from little brown bottles and starting to get loud. I had to admit, Upton was fun to look at. He laughed at something Amberly said, and the laugh carried throughout the party. It was a throaty, uninhibited laugh. The kind you live to bring forth in any way you can.
He was still laughing when he turned his head and happened to look at me. My body temperature instantly skyrocketed. He narrowed his eyes inquisitively, clearly curious about the interloper in his midst, and leaned over to Gage to whisper in his ear. Gage glanced at me, smirked, and whispered back. I could only imagine what he was saying. No doubt that I was some prudish, penniless farm girl from Podunk, Pennsylvania.
Paige got up from the table and tugged Tiffany away with her, excusing herself to the bathroom. They roped Amberly into joining them as well, probably trying to prevent her from getting any alone
time with Upton. It seemed there was actual strategy involved in the Upton Game.
“That’s it. I’m going in,” Taylor said as soon as she saw that Upton was female free. She stood up, straightened her dress, and tossed back her hair. “How do I look?”
“Very Upton worthy,” Noelle said with a nod.
“You think?” Taylor was giddy. “Wish me luck.”
“Luck!” we all shouted after her, earning an irritated glance, since half the party heard us. Kiran, Noelle, and I all laughed as we sat back in our seats. I hadn’t felt so relaxed . . . ever. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath of the tangy Caribbean air. A girl could get used to this.
“Okay, I’m getting bored,” Kiran said with a yawn. “What do you guys want to do next?”
“We need to shop,” Noelle said, crossing her legs at the ankle. “Reed needs some vacationwear.”
“
Bien sûr!
I am so in,” Kiran said, clapping her hands.
“Ah, but you’re forgetting one little problem. Reed has no money,” I said.
Noelle flicked a hand. “A minor obstacle.”
Yeah. For you, maybe.
“You cannot spend the entire week in jeans and a T-shirt,” Kiran said. “Not with the events we have planned.”
“We’ll figure it out. We always do,” Noelle said. She lifted her head and looked across the patio. “Uh-oh. Crash and burn.”
“What?” I asked, opening my eyes.
I heard chairs scraping against the ground and looked over to
see Upton, Graham, and Sawyer all getting up from the table to follow a sullen-looking Taylor around the pool. They were headed in our direction, and I suddenly found myself tugging down on the hem of my dress and sitting up a bit straighter. Noelle saw my preparations and smirked.
Great
. Now I felt like a total hypocrite. But just because I didn’t want Upton and the Hathaways to think I was a slob didn’t mean I wanted to win the Upton Game.
Not at all.
“Reed, this is Upton Giles and Sawyer and Graham Hathaway,” Taylor said upon arrival, and not at all enthusiastically. “Guys, this is Reed.”
“Hi,” they all said in unison. Upton and Graham put on bigger smiles than Sawyer.
“May we join you?” Upton asked in a startlingly sexy British accent. My toes actually curled at the sound of his voice.
“Sure,” I said.
As the guys pulled over more lounge chairs, I widened my eyes at Noelle. “You never said he was British!” I whispered.
“Oops.” She snorted a laugh at my expense.
When I turned around again, Upton was settling into Taylor’s vacated chair, right next to mine. My cheeks turned sunburned red. Had he overheard that?
“Graham! Come sit by me,” Noelle ordered. “Let’s chat.”
I glanced at Kiran, who shrugged. Clearly she didn’t know what that was about either. Since Upton had appropriated her chair, Taylor was forced to sit with Sawyer off to Upton’s left. My heart was bouncing
around like a ping-pong ball. Of all these girls, he wanted to sit next to me, a milky white troll.
“So, Reed, I hear you’re quite the intriguing individual,” he said, sitting sideways on his lounge and leaning his thick forearms on his knees. There was a thin, white scar across his left shin. So not entirely perfect.
“Really? How so?” I asked, hoping he wasn’t about to bring up the fact that I had almost been murdered . . . twice.
“Well, rumor has it you come from somewhere outside the big five, so that in and of itself is intriguing,” he said with a smile. His eyes were even bluer than the ocean crashing behind us.
“The big five?”
“New York, L.A., London, Paris, Sydney,” Kiran clarified. “The big five.”
“Ah. Too bad for the rest of the world,” I replied. “Has Rome been informed?”
Everyone chuckled at my joke, including Upton. In spite of myself, I beamed. He placed one hand on his knee, and I found myself staring at his fingers. No guy I knew had hands that large. They were not teenager hands. They were man hands. The kind of hands you couldn’t help imagining running through your hair and down your back and over your skin. . . .
I was definitely starting to understand the appeal of the Upton Game.
“So, Graham, how’s your dad doing?” Noelle asked.
“He’s fine,” Graham replied, kicking back with his legs hanging down on either side of his chair. “Busy.”
“Talking to my dad, from what I overhear,” Noelle said.
“What does your dad do, Graham?” I asked, mostly because it forced me to stop staring at Upton, which was starting to get embarrassing.
“He’s the dean of students at Drew University,” Graham replied.
“So . . . why’s he talking to your dad?” Kiran asked Noelle.
“Let’s just say Daddy’s trying to save the Hathaway family from Jersey,” Noelle replied cryptically.
“I happen to like Jersey,” Sawyer said, slipping on a pair of black sunglasses.
“You would,” Graham joked.
Sawyer ignored him. He pulled a tattered copy of
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
from his back pocket and started to read, curling the front cover around the back of the book.
“Well, while I’d love to hear the rest of your opinions on Jersey, I need a drink,” Upton said, rising. “Reed, would you like anything?”
Everyone basically froze. The fact that he had singled me out wasn’t lost on any of us, least of all Taylor, who sunk down low in her seat.
“Noelle, pass the cake, please,” Taylor said, reaching a hand out over Upton’s now vacated chair. I swallowed hard as the tray was passed to Kiran, then to me. Before I could even get it to Taylor, she grabbed a nice big chocolate tart and shoved half of it into her mouth. This was not good. I was here to have fun, which meant spending time with my friends, and I couldn’t exactly do that if Taylor was jealous and hating me. It was obvious that I was going to have to send Upton a clear signal.
“Actually, we were just leaving,” I said, getting up and dragging Kiran with me.
“We were?”
“Yes. Noelle?” I said pointedly.
“Right.” She got up and grabbed her clutch. “We
need
to go shopping. Reed was not prepared for the tropics.”
“So not prepared,” I agreed, rolling my eyes. “Taylor? You’re coming, right?”
“Sure. Why not?” Taylor said through a mouthful of tart. “There’s nothing to do around here anymore.”
Noelle linked arms with Taylor and me as Kiran finished off her drink. “Boys, we’ll be seeing you,” she said.
“I hope so,” Upton said, looking right at me.
And even though I was
so
not playing the Upton Game, I liked to think that he was watching me appreciatively from behind as we strode away.
That night, when I came down off the high of the day’s excitement—the private jet, the natural beauty of the island, meeting Upton, shopping with the girls—I came down hard. I felt as if someone had emptied a vat of concrete over my head and let it harden. Exhaustion set in around nine p.m. and the negative thoughts returned with it. Why hadn’t Josh called me? Was my relationship with Noelle ever going to be the same? What about the rest of the Billings Girls—the ones who had voted me out of the house? And would it even matter if Easton closed forever? As these questions crowded my mind, all I could think about was crawling into the cushy bed in the Lange family’s guest room and passing out until morning.