The Complete Private Collection: Private; Invitation Only; Untouchable; Confessions; Inner Circle; Legacy; Ambition; Revelation; Last Christmas; Paradise ... The Book of Spells; Ominous; Vengeance (119 page)

“This is the one. I know it.”

I stepped into the dress, the silky fabric tickling my ankles as it swished around, and slipped my arms through the cap sleeves. I had to gather a lot more fabric behind me than Noelle did. We looked at our reflections in the mirror and I sighed. Next to Noelle, I looked like a ten-year-old playing dress-up.

“Gorgeous. Look what that does for your coloring!” Noelle gushed.

“I don’t know. I think I want something more sophisticated,” I said as I wrangled my way out of the dress.

“And I want something sexier,” Noelle agreed.

She let the gown drop to the ground and kicked it aside, where it joined two other discards. Classic Noelle. The frock was worth thousands and she was using it as a soccer ball. She took down a long, slinky red dress and pulled that on next. I went with a gray strapless with a tiered, feathered skirt. It looked like something Rinnan Hearst, Cheyenne’s famous, Oscar-nominated stepmother, might have worn on the red carpet.

“Now
this
is a look,” Noelle said, striking a sultry pose in the mirror.

It was all I could do not to gawk. It was a look all right. A breasty, curvy, sexpot look. She pulled all her hair over one shoulder and
pursed her lips. She made me think of those pictures of old-school movie vixens like Veronica Lake or Marilyn Monroe.

“You need that dress,” I said, zipping up my own.

“I know. Dash will die,” she replied.

I jerked and caught my skin in the zipper. Wincing, I yanked it down again and flung myself around to check my back. There was an angry red mark, but I hadn’t broken the skin.

“Dash is going to the Legacy?” I asked, keeping my voice even as I rubbed at the red mark, which only made it worse. Hadn’t he just told me he and Noelle were not together? Hadn’t she said the same that night in New York? What the hell had happened to that?

“Well, yeah,” Noelle said, twisting her hair up and holding it behind her head. She turned her face from side to side to inspect. “He’s always my plus one. But since it seems even I’m not on the list this year, I just ordered one extra money clip for him.”

Wow. She was just breaking rules all over the place, wasn’t she?

“Oh.”

I finished zipping up the dress and checked my reflection. The gown was gorgeous, with subtle little sparkles trailing across the strapless neckline and down only one side of the bodice, into the feathery skirt. It was sophisticated, definitely. A work of art. But I felt like a troll next to Noelle.

Dash
was
going to die when he saw her. Die and go to heaven. I glanced at her reflection as she looked over her shoulder to check the back of the gown. This was my opportunity. My chance to find out how she really felt about him. What she thought the future might bring.
Maybe if I knew for sure that they were getting back together, or at the very least that Noelle definitely still wanted him, I could get past this ridiculous crush already and focus on Josh. The guy I was supposed to be in love with.

I took a deep breath. Yes. This was a good plan. Find out. Move on. Trying to sound as casual as possible, I asked.

“So, do you think you two will get back together?” I adjusted my gown and checked it out disinterestedly, just for good measure.

“Of course,” Noelle said without hesitation.

Everything inside of me sank. Fast. “Really?” I blurted.

Her brown eyes flashed. “You sound surprised.”

“No. Not at all,” I fumbled, my heart pounding. “I’m just . . . I don’t know. I don’t even know why you broke up in the first place. I wasn’t sure if it was the kind of thing you could get past or . . .”

Shut up, Reed. You’re just digging a hole for yourself. Less is more.
I bit my tongue to keep from rambling further.

Finally, Noelle answered. “Well, you don’t know this, since you weren’t here, but until last year Dash and I had a very on-again, off-again relationship, but we always,
always
came back to each other. Right now we’re off again, but if I have my way . . .”

Here she paused to give me a look that reminded me that she always got her way.

“We’ll be on again before the Legacy,” she finished, smoothing her hair.

I stared at my reflection in the mirror. Would Dash
die
if he saw me in this? Not likely. But really, what did it matter? Josh would like it. It
was just his kind of thing—interesting lines, an original color. A work of art. Josh would definitely appreciate it.

“I’m taking this one,” I said, quickly unzipping the gown and stepping out of the skirt.

“Good choice,” Noelle said.

“Come on. We still have to pay for this and hit the MFA. We should get going,” I said as I impatiently yanked on my jeans.

“Okay. Want me to pay for yours?” Noelle asked as she returned the dress she was buying to its hanger. Unlike the rejects on the floor.

For some reason her offer made my blood boil. “No. Billings has an account here,” I said, holding out my hand for her gown. “I’ll just put them on that.”

Noelle stared at me for a long moment. A moment in which I had no idea, and in fact feared, what she might be thinking. But then, she slowly smiled.

“Now you’re getting the hang of it,” she said, handing the dress over. She turned back to the mirror as I turned to go. “Don’t forget to tell them we need a rush on the alterations.”

“Got it,” I grumbled as I shoved my way through the door.

You know everything. You have everything. I got it. Believe me. I do.

“I have the best news!” I cried as I barreled into my room that evening.

I had decided to focus on the positives. And one major positive was having some news that should actually break Sabine out of the weird funk she’d been in lately. Sure, she had seemed anti-Legacy before, but I knew she’d change her mind now that she’d get to go too. She was sitting on her bed with a needle and thread and some kind of fabric stuck into a ring, which she dropped the moment I entered.

“What? What is it?” she asked, sitting up straight.

“What’s that?” I asked, pointing. Momentary distraction. It’s not every day you see a sixteen-year-old girl doing needlepoint.

“Just something I’m making for my sister.” She tucked it away under her pillow as if embarrassed. But then she lifted her chin in a defiant way. “I do embroidery. It’s calming.”

“Oh. Okay,” I said. I placed my Chloé bag on my bed. Sabine really
was different from anyone else at Easton. I could only imagine what Portia and the Twin Cities and Noelle would say about such an old-fashioned and completely unglam hobby. But maybe there was something to this calming idea. Sabine always seemed pretty chill to me.

“So? What’s your news?” she asked.

Right. My news! I turned to her, practically bubbling over.

“We
all
are going to the Legacy!” I announced.

Sabine’s face fell. “Oh.”

Not exactly the enthusiastic response I had been looking for.

“You don’t understand! This is beyond incredible!” I cried. “Now we don’t have to sit here alone while everyone else traipses off to the biggest party of the year! Noelle got rings for all the Billings Girls, so we’re all going to crash. It’s going to be an insane night. Just wait.”

“Rings? What rings?” Sabine asked, sliding to the end of her bed.

“You need these rings to get in. There’s always some piece of jewelry you get that proves you were invited. Last year it was a necklace,” I told her. “Anyway, Noelle will be getting them any day, and then all we have to do is get the e-mail with the location and we’re in.”

“Noelle will be getting them,” Sabine said pointedly. She dropped her clasped hands between her knees as she looked up at me.

“Yeah. She ordered them,” I told her. “Why?”

“
There’s
a surprise,” she said.

She shoved herself up and went over to her desk, where she started shifting through her books, her back to me. Okay. Now I was getting seriously annoyed. Not only was she not excited about the Legacy—a
party everyone else at Easton would give their left ear to go to—but she was giving me crap about Noelle. Again.

“What is your problem with Noelle?” I asked.

“Nothing,” she said.

My fingers clenched. “No. I want to know.”

Sabine sighed and her shoulders slumped. “Well, first of all, she’s been mean to me since the day she got here.”

“You haven’t been all that nice to her, either,” I replied.

It was lame, I know. Like Noelle really cared how Sabine treated her. But it was true.

“And second of all, she clearly wants the presidency,” Sabine added, as if I hadn’t spoken.

“What? She does not!” I said with a scoff.

“Reed!” Sabine was wide-eyed, like she couldn’t believe I was so blind. “If she doesn’t want to be in charge, why has she let you do nothing on your own since she got here? I don’t think she ever liked the masquerade idea. She steered everyone toward the Legacy. Now she’s getting all of us into this party, making it impossible for us to hold a Halloween ball of our own, and she’s the one getting these rings. So all of Easton—and Billings—is going to give her credit for getting them in. She’s undermining you at every turn.”

I stared at Sabine, stung. It was amazing how she had just twisted everything to make it look how she wanted it to look. But she hadn’t been there. She hadn’t seen how I’d almost ruined everything at the jeweler and how Noelle had swooped in to save the day. It wasn’t premeditated. We’d done it all together, off the cuff. Sabine didn’t like
Noelle, so she was turning everything the girl did into some kind of plot.

And, okay, maybe Noelle had schemed in the past, but things were different now. “You’re wrong about her,” I said firmly. “By paying for all those tokens for us, she was doing something unselfish. She was looking out for the rest of us. She didn’t do it for herself.”

Sabine looked sad as she sighed again. “If you say so.”

Then she sat down at her desk and tucked in, turning her back on me for good this time. Frustrated, I crossed my arms over my chest and turned to stare out the window at the darkening blue sky as the lights flicked on all over the Easton grounds. Sabine was wrong. Noelle and I were friends. I felt like her equal more than ever before. Except in those moments when I was reminded of how new I was to all of this—but still. Noelle and I had done the day’s work together. I was sure we would take credit for it together.

“We’re going to the Legacy? All of us?” Constance cried. “Oh my God, Reed! You’re my hero!”

Now this was the kind of reaction I was looking for. Constance squealed and practically knocked over the café table between us as she attempted to hug me. Her thick hair got caught on my tongue and I pulled it away quickly, trying hard not to gag and offend her. The Drake House boys at the next table shielded their PSPs just in case any coffee went flying.

“Shh!” I admonished nonetheless, glancing around the packed solarium. At every table students whispered, studied, or sneaked kisses over coffee and scones. “We don’t want everyone to hear and start thinking they can get in.”

“Oh. Right!” Constance whispered.

“Here you go, Constance! They just came out with a fresh batch of chocolate croissants.”

A freshman girl whom I recognized as one of Amberly’s sidekicks deposited a plastic plate on our table. Constance looked up at her, nonplussed.

“Uh, thanks . . . Lara, right?” she said. “From the
Chronicle
?”

“Right!” The girl beamed over the fact that Constance knew her name. “It was no problem; I heard you on line before saying you wished they had them, so when I saw them bring out the tray, I figured I’d get you one,” she said, lifting her shoulders. “I’ll see you at the editorial meeting tomorrow!”

Lara scurried off and Constance laughed incredulously. “What was that?”

I smirked. “That was Billings clout at work.”

Her entire face lit up. “Really? How cool! My first random perk!” She took a big bite of the croissant and smiled. I grinned in response, happy that she was getting the full Billings experience. At the beginning of the year it had seemed as if that might never happen for her. “Anyway, Whit is going to die when he hears about the Legacy,” she whispered. “And Astrid and Lorna and Sabine! They’re gonna be so psyched!”

I leaned back and took a sip of my coffee. “Actually, Sabine . . . not so much,” I said bitterly.

“What? Why?” Constance asked, wide-eyed. Then her expression grew all-knowing. “Is it because she’s foreign?”

I laughed, almost forcing the coffee out through my nose. Once again the Drake boys looked alarmed. As soon as the coughing fit subsided I was able to ask, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Oh, just that she’s not from here so she doesn’t, like, know what the Legacy is all about,” Constance replied.

“Ah.” That actually made sense. But still, I was sure that wasn’t the case. At least, not the whole case. “No. I don’t know. She acted all annoyed that Noelle and I are working together on this.”

“Oh,” Constance said, nodding. “Yeah. That makes sense.”

“What makes sense?” I asked.

“Just . . . well . . . don’t take this the wrong way, but you have been spending kind of a lot of time with Noelle since she’s been back.”

“So?” I asked.

Constance lifted one shoulder and avoided eye contact as she shook another packet of sugar—her fifth—into her latte. “Just . . . maybe she’s a little jealous.” She glanced up at me as she stirred her coffee, then quickly looked away and took a sip.

“Oh.”

Right. How had that not occurred to me? Sabine and I had been growing really close before Noelle returned. Constance was right. Jealousy made sense. But was she speaking for herself as well? By the pinkness of her cheeks and the sudden darting of her eyes, I had a feeling she was.

And maybe Josh, too

God. Was there anyone I hadn’t been willing to ditch for Noelle lately? I thought of Josh, staring out at the cold Atlantic on a beach in Maine as his family reveled around a roaring bonfire in the background. Suddenly I wanted to be with him more than anything. When he got back, I had some kissing up to do. Big-time.