The Complete Private Collection: Private; Invitation Only; Untouchable; Confessions; Inner Circle; Legacy; Ambition; Revelation; Last Christmas; Paradise ... The Book of Spells; Ominous; Vengeance (39 page)

“Sure. Absolutely,” I said. “I’d love to.”

Whittaker beamed. For a moment we just sat there and smiled and I thought that maybe, just maybe, he was feeling the same way I was. That this was just happy camaraderie. We really were just friends.

And then he grabbed my face roughly between both hands and kissed me.

Right. Maybe not.

I tried to suck in breath through my nose as Whittaker’s mouth moved awkwardly over mine. Finally he pulled back, panting, and looked me in the eye. I took in as much oxygen as possible without making it obvious he had almost smothered me.

“I’ve wanted to do that all night,” he said. “I know I said we could just be friends, but Reed, there’s this attraction between us. We can’t ignore it any longer.”

Riiiiight.

Whittaker stared at me. He was waiting for me to say something. To agree with him. But I couldn’t. I just couldn’t lie to him about something like that. But I couldn’t tell him the truth either—that I liked him, but not in
that
way. It would break his heart and I couldn’t do that to him. Especially not on his birthday.

“I’m so glad you’re going with me,” he said finally.

All right. Enough was enough. I had to set this guy straight, even if it might mean losing out on this party, on seeing Thomas. I couldn’t do this to him.

“Whit, I—”

A sudden knock on the window caused us both to jump. Whittaker stared past me.

“It’s Mrs. Lattimer,” he said.

“Oh, God.” My heart slammed into my ribcage. How long had she been there? Had she watched us kiss?

“Here. Take this,” Whittaker said, pressing something small and cold into my hand.

It was a necklace, a slim gold chain with a small ovular pendent. In the center of the oval was a tiny crown made out of itsy-bitsy diamonds.

“What is it?” I asked.

“You’ll need it for tomorrow night,” he replied. “Just put it away. Quick,” he said, casting Mrs. Lattimer a furtive look.

Heart pounding, I tucked the necklace into my bag, then smoothed the loose hair behind my ears and straightened my skirt. I shot Mrs. Lattimer a quick, sheepish glance through the window and she responded with a tart, knowing look.

“Good evening, Miss Brennan,” she said, holding her collar up tightly with one fist. “It’s time to say good night.”

Whittaker looked at me apologetically and then got out of the car. I shoved the lottery tickets in my pocket and gathered up my roses as he came around and opened the door for me. My knees quaked as I placed one high heel on the sidewalk. Whittaker saw the hesitation and basically pulled me to my feet.

“Good night, Reed,” Whittaker said as Mrs. Lattimer backed up the slightest bit.

“Good night, Whit,” I replied. “Happy birthday.”

“Thank you,” he said.

And then, much to my shock and, I’m sure, the shock of Mrs. Lattimer, he leaned in and gave me one last kiss. Closed mouthed, lingering, gentle.

“Ahem,” Mrs. Lattimer said. She didn’t even clear her throat. Merely stated the word.

Whittaker pulled away, smiled all gooey, and got back in his car. I turned and smiled awkwardly at Mrs. Lattimer.

“A successful night, then?” she said.

“You could say that,” I told her, trying to quench the guilt. I hadn’t had the chance to tell Whit how I really felt. Now he was going back to his dorm thinking he’d scored a second date. And even worse? Part of me was relieved. I really wanted to go to that damn party. I
had
to.

And, I mean, was it really so bad? Whittaker really wanted to go with me. He hadn’t asked anyone else. What was wrong with accepting a good friend’s invitation?

Ugh. I loathed myself.

“Come along,” Mrs. Lattimer said. “It’s very late.”

I took a deep breath in an attempt to calm my nerves. Nerves from the kiss, from getting caught, from knowing that I was going to the Legacy and everything that meant to me, to Whit, to Thomas. I breathed in and looked up at the sky, but my gaze never got there. It stopped with a jolt at a window in the top floor of Bradwell. A window through which Missy, Lorna, and Constance were staring.

My already spastic heart now sank clear down through my abdomen and into my toes. Constance. She had seen it all. It was written all over her face. The car, the flowers, the kiss. Her heart was breaking as she sat there and stared. And I was the one who had broken it.

I made the beds quickly on Saturday morning and raced out of Billings, hoping to catch Constance the moment she emerged from Bradwell. Once out on the quad I realized I hadn’t been fast enough. Constance was already halfway to the cafeteria, flanked on one side by Kiki and Diana, on the other by Lorna and Missy. Like suddenly they were her best friends. Last week they couldn’t have cared less about Constance, so I knew they were just aligning themselves with her because it meant standing up to me.

But I wasn’t afraid of them. Compared to the people I had to deal with on a daily basis in my own home, these girls were teddy bears.

“Constance!” I shouted. There was a slight trip in her step. Lorna turned her head to look, then whispered something in Constance’s ear. They all upped their pace. “Constance! Come on! Wait up!”

They didn’t pause or even slow down. Luckily I could have caught them all even if I had a sprained ankle and a respirator. I jogged around and got in front of them. The look of pure hurt Constance cast my way was enough to take the breath out of me. They used that moment to move around me and keep walking.

“Constance!” I placed my hand on her shoulder. She whirled around, red hair flying.

“What?” she snapped. Her face was all blotchy and moist, her eyes psychotically bright green and rimmed with red.

“I . . . I’m sorry, all right?” I said.

Constance narrowed her eyes and shifted her weight from one foot to the other. “For what?” she asked, lifting her chin.

“For last night,” I said. “I know you saw us and I swear I didn’t want any of that to happen. You have to believe me.”

“Right. You didn’t want to go on an off-campus date with one of the hottest guys at Easton,” Constance said. “You didn’t want to get flowers. You didn’t want to get
kissed
.”

“Yeah. Sure looked that way to us,” Missy said sarcastically.

I ignored her. She didn’t matter.

“Constance, I’m telling you. I have no interest in Whittaker,” I said.

“Oh, why? Is he not good enough for you?” Constance said, clearly offended. “Now that you’re in Billings the guy that I’ve had a crush on my entire life is
beneath
you?”

“No! I didn’t say that,” I told her. But what could I say? There was no way to explain away what she had seen. And I had already resolved to keep seeing him, at least until tonight. Until the Legacy. What exactly was I trying to do here?

“Listen, I just . . . I wanted to say I was sorry,” I told her finally. “That’s all.”

“Well, I’m sorry too,” Constance said. She had tears in her voice but wouldn’t let them out. “Sorry I ever thought I could trust you. Sorry I ever thought we could be friends.”

Missy and Lorna both smirked and whispered to each other. Diana looked ill and Kiki just stared off toward the caf, listening to her iPod.

“You know, when I first met you I thought I had lucked out. I had this cool roommate, totally unaffected, totally nice,” Constance said. “But that was all just an act, wasn’t it? All you wanted from day one was to get into Billings and leave me behind. And now you’re just as shallow and backstabbing as the rest of them.”

Even Missy looked shocked at that. No one spoke badly of the Billings Girls. At least not anyone as low on the Easton food chain as Constance.

“Just goes to show you that first impressions mean nothing,” Constance finished. “Come on, you guys.”

She turned around and walked off, on some level enjoying the power she now wielded over the small group. Temporarily, of course. Until pitying her was no longer entertaining or fruitful. As I watched them go I realized the full implications of what I had done. Constance had been the only person who had liked me from day one, who had been there for me from day one, and who had expected nothing in return.

She’d had the potential, at least, to be a true friend. But I had killed that potential. Now, the Billings Girls were all I had left. If I was going to have any friends at Easton, any life at all, it was going to be them. They were it. They were all.

I walked into Billings House with a determination I hadn’t felt since that day in sixth grade when I had resolved to finally tell off my mother. Of course, that had all died away when I’d stormed into the house and found her passed out in a puddle of drool. This time, however, I wasn’t going to let anything stop me. Not Natasha, not the images from that night with Whit that were burned on my brain. Nothing. I had a job to do and I was going to do it, whatever the consequences.

I caught a few disturbed looks from random Billings residents as I took the front stairs two at a time, but no one stopped me or even said hello, and soon I was once again standing in front of Noelle’s door. I rapped loudly.

“Come in!”

“Hey. I have to talk to you about some—”

Okay.
That
might stop me. Noelle stood in the center of the room in a gorgeous black ball gown, helping Ariana step into an even more gorgeous aqua-colored frock. Ariana wore nothing but
a thong and a strapless bra and her stomach was flatter than a paper plate. Neither one of them flushed, flinched, or paused as I entered the room.

“Hi, Reed,” Ariana said with a small smile.

She let Noelle pull the dress up from the floor, and then slipped her arms through the skinny straps. Noelle zipped her up and there they stood, Noelle the vampy queen, Ariana the fairy princess. I had never seen dresses like these outside of the Oscars.

“Is . . . is that what you’re wearing tonight?” I asked. Strewn on Noelle’s bed were half a dozen masquerade masks in various colors, decorated with sequins, feathers, and beads.

“We’re still deciding,” Noelle said, turning to face her full-length mirror and swishing the full skirt back and forth. Meaning they had more such gowns stashed somewhere in this room? Why hadn’t I found those in all my searches? “You said you had something to tell us?” she asked, her eyes meeting mine in the reflection.

Right. Focus time. Bite-the-bullet time. Perhaps duck-and-cover time.

“There’s something I need to confess,” I said, my heart fluttering. “And you’re not going to like it.”

Noelle and Ariana exchanged a glance. Ariana sat gracefully on the edge of the bed, tucking her skirt beneath her and crossing her legs at the ankle.

“Go on,” she said.

“Where to start?” I said, looking at the ceiling and wiping my sweaty palms on my jeans.

“The beginning always seems a good place,” Ariana said.

I laughed nervously. “Right. Okay, well. Remember that night out in the woods? At the end of parents’ weekend? The night I met Whit?”

I swallowed hard.

“Yes,” Noelle said, holding a diamond chandelier earring up to her ear.

“Well, that night, Natasha apparently took some pictures of me. And Whit. Doing things,” I said.

That got their attention. Noelle finally turned away from the mirror and looked directly at me. I expected her to be shocked and appalled, but she simply smirked.

“What kind of things?” she said.

Oh, God. She was going to make me say it. Couldn’t she see my skin was burning off over here? “Kissing, drinking. You know.”

“Okay,” Ariana said blankly.

“Well, she showed me the pictures and threatened to send them to the dean and have me kicked out of school unless . . . unless . . .”

They were going to kill me. They were going to tear my hair out and gouge my eyes and, worse, have me thrown out of Easton faster than you could say “nice try.”

“Unless . . . ,” Ariana prompted, waving a hand blithely in front of her.

“Unless I spied on you guys,” I blurted finally, closing my eyes. “Well, not
spied
exactly, but snooped. Through your stuff. While I was supposed to be cleaning. She thinks that you guys
got Leanne Shore kicked out of school and she wanted me to find proof.”

I waited for the explosion, but none came. When I was finally able to focus again, Ariana was still staring at me. Noelle was still smirking. Where was the shock? The indignation? They should have been furious at me. Or at the very least surprised and angry at Natasha for trying to use me. But they just stood there. I had no idea what the hell was going on.

“And did you?” Noelle asked.

“Snoop or find proof?” I asked.

“Either. Both,” Ariana said.

My head automatically bowed. “Yes. I did. I found something, but I haven’t done anything with it. I swear.”

I wished they would say something. Anything. I
wished
they would yell and scream. They were silent as monks. And it was far more disturbing than any freak-out could ever be.

“Well, anyway, here’s what I found,” I said, whipping the disk out of my back pocket and holding it out. Neither one of them moved. Finally I had to step past Noelle and place the disk on her desk. Then I backed up to my spot and waited. And waited. This was torture of the most brutal kind. “So . . . what’re you going to do?”

Noelle sighed dramatically. She turned around and lifted another earring out of a box. “Nothing.”

“What do you mean, nothing?” I said. Although I knew I had no right to, I was starting to get a little angry. Couldn’t they see how difficult this was for me? Couldn’t they see the future-threatening
predicament I was in? They could at least react in some way. “Aren’t you mad?”

“Not especially,” Ariana replied, standing. She floated past me over to her side of the room and removed a pair of silver sandal-like shoes from the floor of her closet.

“But . . . what about Natasha?” I said, a swirling mire of desperation opening inside my chest. “If I tell her I gave that to you, she’s going to send those pictures. I’m going to get kicked out.”