The Elite (24 page)

Madison looked down at her black satin Armani sheath dress, the rhinestone buckles on her new black Manolos glinting in T H E E L I T E

the light. She paused ever- so- slightly, her heart fluttering in anticipation of the sea of eyes that would be trained on her when she looked up. She walked out through the foyer—a slight catwalk swing in her hips—but was greeted by nothing more than a low hum of voices and clicking crystal.
Fuckers
, Mad thought to herself, walking normally now, her shoulders slightly slouched,
they better not have eaten all of the salmon pâté,
too, or I’m
really
going to be pissed
.

Every time Madison stepped into the Van Allens’ opulent prewar apartment, she felt almost dizzy. Huge, brightly colored paintings that resembled the drawings Bijoux made in art class shrieked at her from every available expanse of wall space
.

Maybe I really just don’t understand art
, Madison thought as she stepped into the spacious but crowded living room,
but these
painting are beyond atrocious
. And Madison was no stranger to atrocious lately, it seemed. Ever since Drew had left her standing there in front of The Bram like an idiot, she’d wondered what exactly she’d say when she saw him to night. She was furious, that went without saying, but more than anything, she was completely confused. How could he just walk away when she’d been so, umm . . .
welcoming
? Okay, so she really meant
easy
, but still. She’d been ready to give the whole physical side of their relationship a second chance, and he’d just shrugged and walked away! Not that she was totally surprised. Drew had been acting all kinds of weird since he got back from Eu rope (Okay, so he wasn’t exactly normal
before
he left either), and she couldn’t help wondering just how much of his strangeness was due to the presence of a certain curly- haired stranger . . .

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J E N N I F E R B A N A S H

But to night she intended to find out. As soon as she saw Drew, she would definitely corner him and get some kind of an explanation out of him—one way or another. And if Casey got in her way, she was going
down
. It was really that simple. She’d had just about enough of the wide- eyed innocent act everyone else at Meadowlark, including Drew, seemed to fall for.

Madison squared her shoulders like she was preparing for battle, and scoped out the terrain. The vast room was filled to the max—women in Prada dresses and men in suits or tuxedos pushed up against the brightly colored walls. Mad hated the feeling of squeezing into a room—and the huge bouquets of field flowers and lilies that dominated every surface didn’t help her feel any less claustrophobic either. A few pretentious art snobs with total assitude prowled the room in their all- black ensembles, complete with paint smears (at least she
hoped
it was paint) on their tight, black pants.
Eeew
. Madison shuddered delicately. It looked like the entire population of Williamsburg had thrown up most of its inhabitants directly onto the turquoise-and- white op art carpets of the Van Allens’ living room. Maybe they’d all have an unprovoked art- attack en masse, and scurry back to their dingy studios like cockroaches. And why did artists always have to be so gross and unwashed?

She sighed with annoyance as she scanned the room looking for Drew, Phoebe, or Sophie, who were, of course, nowhere to be found. For lack of anything better to do, Madison walked over to a long, white- draped table filled with delicious- smelling appetizers, and popped a piece of bacon- wrapped shrimp in her mouth as she looked out the sliding glass windows to the Van 2 2 4

T H E E L I T E

Allens’ terrace—which was, unfortunately, just as crowded as the apartment. As she chewed the delicious, salty, bacony goodness, Madison caught sight of a mop of yellow hair at the far corner of the terrace, and pushed slowly through the crowd to get a better look. And what she saw made her swallow hard—

then completely lose her appetite.

Drew and Casey stood close together on the terrace as the last streaks of light faded from the sky. She watched through the glass in horror as Drew reached up and tenderly pushed a stray curl from Casey’s face, stopping to caress her cheek with his index finger, smiling softly. Oh. No. She. Didn’t! Madison felt her blood begin to churn as the little green monster inside of her rapidly expanded to Incredible Hulklike proportions. In fact, her little green monster made the Jolly Green Giant look like a total pussy. And WTF? Why the hell was Casey wearing the dress she’d given Edie to donate to charity two months ago? She’d know that dress
anywhere
. It was a one- of- a-kind, for starters, and the hem in the back was coming down slightly from where she’d caught it on a chair at some stupid benefit Edie had dragged her to at the Met last spring. Not that anyone would ever notice the slight tear but her.
Well
, she thought smugly,
she certainly is a charity case all right. And if the dress
fits
. . .

Madison opened the terrace door and walked out into the humid eve ning air, just as Drew put both hands on Casey’s shoulders, leaning in to whisper into her ear.
That’s about
enough
of that, Madison thought, her sandals clicking confidently on the Italian marble tiles that Drew’s crazy mom had 2 2 5

J E N N I F E R B A N A S H

shipped over from Florence. She stopped right in front of their oblivious faces, staring at each other with lust- crazed eyes that made her want to hurl up her undigested shrimp at their feet in a fishy- smelling puddle.

“Well,” she said, her lips, painted with MAC Lacquer in Fanplastico, curling into a sneer. “Don’t you two look
cozy
.”

At the sound of her voice, Casey and Drew jumped apart like they’d been struck by lightning.
In a minute, they’re going to wish
they had been
, Madison thought with no small degree of satisfaction as she took in the panicked expression on Casey’s face.

Better to be feared than loved—that was for sure. It gave you so much more—what was the word? Ah, that’s right—leverage.

Madison crossed her arms over the sleek fabric of her dress. It was weird how close crying and complete and utter rage really were at the end of the day. If she wasn’t so angry right now she knew that she’d probably start blubbering away like an idiot. It wasn’t fair. People in her life just kept disappearing—first her father and now Drew.

“Madison,” Casey’s voice shook slightly as she spoke. “We weren’t sure you were coming.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Madison said airily, looking Casey over with a practiced eye. “But tell me,” she said, moving closer, reaching out to grasp the material of the dress in her fingertips. “Wher
ever
did you find my old dress?

Have you been playing in the
garbage
?” Madison turned to Drew, her green eyes cool and impassive.

“You see, I gave that dress to my mother to donate to
charity
two months ago,” Madison sneered, relishing Casey’s obvious 2 2 6

T H E E L I T E

embarrassment as she turned bright red, then looked at the floor, unable to meet Madison’s gaze. “Come to think of it,”

Madison went on, placing one perfectly manicured finger against her chin, “it seems like ever since you moved here you’ve been interested in
everything
that belongs to me, haven’t you?”

Madison watched with satisfaction as Casey looked up, opening her unglossed lips, and then rapidly closing them.
She
looks like a fucking guppy
, Madison thought triumphantly.
And
what would Drew want with a loser fish who can’t dress and has
incredibly unfortunate hair
—
when he could have
me
?
She smiled smugly, her eyes like frozen jade chips as she reached over and twined her arms around Drew’s neck, pulling him close.

Drew’s face was a mass of confusion as she wrapped her body around his, pulling his face down for a kiss as her tongue snaked into his mouth. At first his lips were tense and hard as they touched hers, but as she held on she felt his body give way and melt into hers. And before she knew it, he was opening his mouth and kissing her back. Madison opened her eyes and stared at Casey, who had gone suddenly white, as if a vampire had swooped down onto the terrace while their eyes were closed and drained her of all her blood.
Serves you right,
Madison gloated as she closed her eyes again.
You messed with the
wrong girl . . .

“I’m so sorry I’m late, baby,” she purred when they broke apart, reaching up and smoothing Drew’s hair back with her fingers. “But I’m here
now
.”

“I should . . .” Casey stammered, her eyes darting wildly from Drew to Madison, then back again. “I should . . .”

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J E N N I F E R B A N A S H

“Go?”
Madison deadpanned, one arched eyebrow raised, her lips curled into a smirk. “Good idea.”

“I’ll go,” Casey said, her voice shaking slightly, “but I want you to know something first. Ever since I moved here, I just wanted to be your friend—I didn’t
plan
. . . this.” She gestured at the space between herself and Drew with one hand. “It just
happened
.”

“Nothing
‘just happens,’ ”
Madison answered back, her green eyes like slits. “Everyone here has an agenda—even
you
.”

“If that’s true,” Casey said, a tear spilling from her right eye and sliding down her cheek, “then I guess you do, too.” Before Madison could respond, Casey turned and walked quickly back toward the Van Allens’ apartment, tripping on Sophie’s wedge heels and the slickly tiled patio, twisting her ankle and falling to the ground. Madison giggled, rolling her eyes as she watched Casey pick herself back up, blood running down her leg from a skinned knee before she ran inside, fumbling with the huge sliding doors. Madison turned back to Drew, smiling expectantly. Thank God she’d come along and saved Drew from the hell of trying to date some uncoordinated, totally spastic freak who

couldn’t even run
away
without falling.

What ever
, Madison thought as she reached over and took Drew’s hand,
I’m sure he’ll think of a way to thank me later . . .

“Now,” she purred, her green eyes flashing. “Where were we?”

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the

big

blowout

“What the hell are you doing, Mad?” Drew pushed Madison away, stepping back and crossing his arms over his chest. His face felt strange and tight with an uncomfortable mix of confusion and fury. The look on Casey’s open, freckled face as she ran away played itself out over and over in his brain until he thought he might lose it completely.

“What am
I
doing?” Madison snarled, tossing her silky platinum hair from her shoulders. “What are
you
doing, Drew?

You ask me out the other night, and then you freak out at my door and run
away
, and the next thing I know you’re here with that
girl
.”

“Her name is
Casey
.” Drew ran his hands through his hair J E N N I F E R B A N A S H

and began to pace the way he always did when he was mad or freaked-out—or both. He couldn’t remember the last time he was this angry, and if he’d ever been this completely furious at Madison specifically, he’d blocked it out. But deep inside he wondered if just maybe he was maddest at himself. There was no way he should’ve responded when Mad kissed him, but when it came to Madison, his body seemed to have a life—and mind—of its own.

“And you just treated her like crap, you know that, Mad?

She didn’t deserve that!”

“Oh, poor baby.” Madison pursed her lips out into the full-lipped pout that usually drove him half- crazed with lust, her voice dripping with fake sympathy. “My heart really bleeds for her.”

“We were just talking!” Drew shouted, throwing his arms in the air. All at once the crowded terrace fell silent, the party-goers staring at Drew and Madison surreptitiously over their half- full glasses. The Upper East Side was a very small world—

a microcosm really, and Drew knew that by Monday, the fight he was currently having in front of practically everyone he knew would be all over polite society. As it was, Dominique Delmonico, the biggest gossip on the Upper East Side—if not all of Manhattan—was standing less than ten feet away, peering at Drew over her red, rectangular Chanel eyeglasses, her blue eyes widening.

“It didn’t look like that from where
I
was standing,” Madison said quietly, dropping her eyes to the floor. In that one dip of her head, Drew saw just how badly she was hurting, and 2 3 0

T H E E L I T E

something inside him softened a little bit. Shit, it was probably his fault anyway. Technically, he’d been leading her on, acting like he wanted to get back together, asking her out when deep inside he knew it would probably never really work between them. Drew stared at the way the soft light from the Japa nese lanterns glinted off her shining hair, at her ridiculously lithe body underneath the tiny black dress she wore, at her perfect glowing skin and angular cheekbones—and he knew that he had to tell her that, if it had ever really started between them, it was now over. And he also knew that if he didn’t suck it up and spit it out, he’d only hurt her again, and, more than anything, Drew was tired of hurting her. He was so tired of being the bad guy that he could barely breathe.

“Mad,” he started, keeping his voice low so that the gawkers couldn’t hear, “I know you’re going to think I’m an asshole for doing this, and you’d be right—I probably am. But I’d be more of an asshole if I didn’t say what I’m about to say.”

Madison raised her head, and when Drew saw the tears swimming around in her green eyes, he almost stopped himself.

Drew took a deep breath and tried to find the right words, softening his voice to try to cushion the blow as best he could.

“I think it was a mistake for us to try again. Maybe we’re just not meant to be.”