Spoiled (27 page)

“She didn’t even fight back,” Molly said. “She could’ve said it was a lie. She could’ve said
anything
, but she just ran. She must be really, really hurt.”

“Who knew her mother was her kryptonite?” Teddy mused.

“And the worst part is that last night, we kind of bonded,” Molly fretted. “I was going to tell Shelby that we couldn’t hang
out as much anymore. And I actually felt
bad
about that. Can you believe that? You were totally right about her. I wish I’d listened to you.”

Teddy shook his head, blushing a little. “It was none of my business. Afterward, I actually felt really guilty for sticking
my nose in it like that.”

“You were just trying to be a good friend,” Molly said.

Teddy looked at his feet. “Yeah. A good friend.”

The air between them became electric. Molly remembered the other day at her locker and felt a sudden urge to explain herself.

“So, about Danny—” she began.

“So, um, tell me about your boyfriend,” Teddy said, at the same time.

They both looked startled and then laughed—to Molly’s ears, a tad awkwardly. Molly noticed Teddy’s hands twitch a little on
his jeans. He must have also, because he grabbed his right hand and cracked a knuckle.

“It was kind of weird that he’d never come up before Ari mentioned him,” Teddy said, trying to sound light but not entirely
succeeding. “You know, since we’ve been hanging out a lot. You and me and Max, I mean.”

Molly sighed. “I know I just brought it up, but the truth of the matter is, I’ve kind of been avoiding the topic, even with
myself.”

“Denial?” Teddy asked over his juice.

“I am a very experienced practitioner,” Molly affirmed. “But when you’ve dated the same guy basically your whole life, and
he held your hand at your mother’s funeral, and now you’re three thousand miles away…”

She shrugged and shot Teddy a rueful smile.

“So you’re, like, childhood sweethearts,” Teddy said, flicking at his straw with his forefinger. “That’s tough to compete
with.” His ears reddened. “For L.A. to compete
with, I mean. Like, it must be hard to focus on being here. Or something.”

His stammering made Molly feel oddly warm. She wasn’t quite sure what to do with that feeling, so she pressed on: “The problem
is, when I left, he didn’t want to have the Talk, and neither did I. So we ignored the issue, and now we can’t even seem to
talk on the phone.”

“That sucks,” Teddy said. “Especially because it seems, like, in a long-distance relationship, talking is kind of… it.”

“I know. But honestly, back home, we didn’t always talk, either. Not
real
talks,” she confessed. “We were just Molly and Danny. It didn’t always work, but it was so comfortable, and after a while
that’s all I wanted. It was kind of all I could handle. But now that I’m in L.A…. I don’t know. I see us from a distance and
we look so different.”

“But you
are
different,” Teddy said. “Aren’t you?”

“I don’t know,” Molly said. “Maybe. I guess even if
I’m
not all that different, the situation is. But… Danny saw me through the worst time of my life, you know? I feel like I owe
him something.” She sighed, and looked out at the garden in front of them, a riotous spiral of multicolored blossoms and spiky
leaves. “Does that even make any sense?”

Teddy was silent for a long beat as he poked down all the bubbles on the plastic lid to his Jamba Juice. Finally, he looked
up at her, his eyes unreadable, the amber flecks dim.

“Well, obviously, I’ve never been in this situation,” he
began. “But it sounds like he’s important enough to you that you should really
try
to say all this to him.” His voice dipped a notch. “Like, before you rush into anything.”

“God, you’re so reasonable,” Molly teased, something in her wanting to break the strange tension between them. “I wanted you
to tell me that the solution would be, like, running away to a deserted island and pretending none of this is happening.”

“Well, now, I can’t sign off on that. I saw every episode of
Lost
. Islands are not to be trusted.”

“I’ll protect you,” Molly said.

Teddy suddenly took such a generous slurp of his smoothie that he began to choke. Molly whacked him on the back. “Are you
okay?” she asked.

Teddy closed his eyes for a very brief moment. “Yeah,” he said. “I’m super smooth.”

They lapsed into silence, gazing out at the city. Molly was again amazed at the sheer number of cars creeping along the road,
and bodies ambling through the museum’s walkways. Apparently, she wasn’t the only one playing hooky. Though she
was
probably the only one with a half sister at home who was possibly, at that very moment, pouring peroxide into her shampoo
bottle.

“What am I going to do about Brooke?” she asked.

“Tell the truth?” Teddy suggested. “It’s a radical concept, but I learned from
Sesame Street
that it tends to be the best.”

“Truth is relative to Brooke Berlin,” Molly said. “She’s probably rescripted this whole day in her head to the point
where it was me on the TV screen, reading the e-mail and holding up her photo.”

Teddy looked thoughtful. “I know Brooke has her moments. But I think this whole Mean Girl thing is a front,” he said. “Like
a defense mechanism. I don’t know. I’m just saying, I think she’s a human being underneath all that bullshit. So talk to her
like one.”

“You are all about me talking to people.” She grinned. “I should’ve come here with Max. She’d be telling me to put sugar in
Brooke’s gas tank.”

“Which would actually be
your
gas tank, which is why you should always pick me over Max in a crisis,” Teddy said, returning her smile. “Look, if Brooke
doesn’t believe you, yeah, it’s really going to suck. But at least you’ll have done all you can.”

“Short of killing Shelby.”

“Short of killing Shelby,” Teddy agreed.

Molly laughed grimly and shook her head. “Thank you for getting me out of school today,” she said. “And for listening to me
yammer. It felt good to get that all out—about Danny, I mean. I wanted to talk to you about it, you know, before, when… that
day at my locker.”

Teddy looked down at his Converse. Molly noticed for the first time that they were wearing exactly the same shoes.

“You don’t owe me any explanation,” he said. “I’m your friend, remember?”

“Yup. My friend,” she said, feeling a vague pang.

He cleared his throat. “And as your friend, I advocate eating In-N-Out for dinner. Meat makes everything better.”

“Not if you’re vegetarian.”

“Oh, no, I don’t believe they exist,” Teddy said seriously. “Vegetarians are just carnivores on vacation. Be sure and tell
Max I said that.”

“Well, I might have to take a rain check on the meat binge,” she said. “I think Brick said he’s getting lobsters flown in
from Maine.”

“They scream in the hot water, you know.”

“Yes, indeed,” Molly said. “That’s why I’m going to name mine Shelby before the chef drops it in.”

Teddy laughed and reached out as if to squeeze her hand, then appeared to catch himself and ruffled her hair instead. He blushed
a bit.

“Why are guys so into the hair ruffle?” Molly asked to diffuse things a bit. “Brick did that to me on the day we met.”

Teddy pondered this. “Maybe it’s because he wanted to do something else but he didn’t know how.”

He turned and looked at her. Molly could swear she saw a flicker of something in his eyes. Regret? Sadness?

“I should get you back to your car,” he said.

“So I can go face the firing squad.”

“Chin up, Indiana. You can figure it out.
All
of it.”

“Yeah. All of it,” Molly repeated, knowing exactly what he meant.

“
TERRIBLE.
I look like a tornado. Get it out of here.”

Brooke flung a swirling gray Calvin Klein gown in Brie’s direction. Her assistant caught it with a nimble swipe of her arm.

“Are you keeping the red-and-black one?”

“And look like a dying zebra? I don’t think so.”

“How about the floral maxi dress?”

“Ew. It makes me look like a Wordsmith poem.”

“Wordsworth,” Brie corrected.

“Words
worthless
,” Brooke snapped. “I would stomp all over his stupid dancing daffodils if it would make one decent outfit appear in this
mess.”

Brooke surveyed the Alps-size heaps of clothes on the floor of her closet and swallowed her fury. Jeans from two
months ago? What
was
she, a hobo? How had she allowed her wardrobe to get in such a passé state of disrepair? Not once had Brooke gone in there
and emerged anything but clearheaded and balanced. Yet today, her sanctuary had betrayed her. Just like everybody else.

“It’s getting late, Brooke,” Brie said. “We’ve been at this for eight hours. I skipped a Latin quiz.”

“So? I blew off rehearsal. Are you saying that is not as important as some dumb dead language?”

“No, well, I mean—”

“Don’t worry, it’s fine,” Brooke said, her voice rising an octave. “I just got humiliated in front of the whole school and
am in tremendous psychic pain, so my play will probably fail, and instead of becoming a famous actress I’ll have to move to
Montana and take up ranching and smell like hay and rabbits. But don’t you worry about
me
.”

Brie blinked and said nothing. Brooke smacked the wall with her palm. She knew she shouldn’t take out her frustration on Brie.
She just couldn’t believe she’d run away instead of standing her ground. This upset her almost more than having her privacy
invaded (and having to spend thirty minutes hiding out at Café Munch waiting for a cab). But she’d lost all control over anything
but the flight impulse.

Brooke forced herself to do some yoga breathing.

“You may go when I say it’s time,” she said.

After a beat, she checked her watch.

“Okay, Brie, we’re done here. I have several hours of
Lust for Life
to watch. Francesca is getting her dead grandfa
ther’s hand sewn on today so that she can still play the accordion.”

The bedroom door opened and Molly sidled in, her face even paler than usual. A lump rose in Brooke’s throat and she quickly
turned her back and started rummaging through the piles again.

“Are you sure you don’t need me to stay?” Brie asked. “Keep an eye on your stuff, maybe booby-trap your laptop so that nobody
can use it
for evil
?”

Sneaking a peek over her shoulder, Brooke saw Brie level a ferocious glare at Molly, who gritted her teeth and sat down on
the bed. Brooke felt a surge of pride in Brie.

“No, you’d better have Stan take you home to your parents,” she said.

Brie scooped up all the offending garments Brooke had rejected and scurried out of the room.

Alone now with Molly, Brooke didn’t know what to do, mostly because she didn’t know at whom she was madder: herself, for letting
down her guard the night before, or Molly for beating her at her own game. Summoning all her acting skills, she pasted an
expression of confidence onto her face and turned around to deal with… well, with whatever it would be.

“Brooke,” Molly began, sounding a bit wobbly.

“Gosh, what’s wrong?” Brooke mocked her. “Did you dent your halo?”

“Brooke, it wasn’t me,” Molly said. “I swear.”

“Why are you even here? Aren’t you meeting Shelby
for a celebratory cocktail?” Brooke continued. “Be sure to put it on Brick’s card.”

“Would you please just
listen—”

“Why? You win. You ruined my life. Gold star.”

“Wait, I’ve ruined
your
life? Are you that delusional?” Molly’s mouth hung open slightly. Like the mouth-breather she was.

“Nobody else knew about those e-mails. Nobody in the
world
,” Brooke said, her volume rising. “And then after one night where you tricked me into opening up to you, suddenly the entire
school knows? And you expect me to believe you didn’t do it?
Now
who’s delusional?”

“For the last time—”

“You think you’re so untouchable because your mother is dead,” Brooke said. “But you’ve been out to get me since you clomped
off that airplane.”

Molly threw up her hands. “Right! Because this whole situation is only about
you
.”

“Name one thing in my life that hasn’t been shot to hell since you got here,” Brooke countered.

“I’d never have talked to Shelby if you hadn’t tried to turn me into an outcast. And I wouldn’t be living in your room or
working on your play if you hadn’t pissed off Brick by ditching me at the party,” Molly listed, violently ticking off a finger
with each item. “Yeah, you know what? It is all about you. Because
you
are the messed-up one here.”

Brooke’s heart started beating so fast against the back of her ribs that she thought it might actually burst through
her chest wall. She imagined this was how girls who got hooked on diet pills must feel.

“Why can’t you just go away?” she choked. “We never wanted you here.”

“You think I wanted this so bad myself? I’m only here because my mother
died
.”

“Yeah, well—”

“No,” Molly said, her voice low but strong. “You are not talking right now. You need to listen to me.”

Brooke stepped backward a bit in surprise. Molly
never
spoke this forcefully.

“Do you think this has been fun for me?” Molly asked, visibly fighting tears. “I watched my mother waste away, and then I
rearranged my entire life so I could get to know my father. So I could even
have
a father. Someone I didn’t even know existed, for practically my entire life! Did you ever stop for one second to think about
how that
felt
?”

Brooke said nothing. Of
course
she had. She was human.

“Of
course
you didn’t,” Molly said. “Because I don’t think you’re human. The only real emotion you ever feel is self-pity.”

“Because you know so much about me!” Brooke shouted. “Don’t get all worked up about me not feeling your pain. You didn’t exactly
come here and try to feel mine!”