The Ivy: Scandal (24 page)

“Yeah, well.” Clint broke into his signature grin, the corners around his green eyes crinkling. “That was always one of the things that I liked best about you.”

Before Callie could even begin to fathom how to respond, Clint’s phone beeped loudly.

“Uh-oh,” he said, reading the text. “The old ball and chain’s come a-calling.”

“Is that any way to refer to your girlfriend?” Grace demanded.

“Who said it was my girlfriend?” Clint replied, winking rakishly at Callie. “Bye, now.”

Stunned into silence, the two girls watched him walk away, headed for the
Crimson
.

“Straight people have never made any sense to me,” Grace finally said.

“That’s right,” Callie agreed. “Men. Do not. Make. Sense! Especially on this campus. I’m starting to think they’re all a bunch of douche bags, each and every o—”

“What?” asked Grace, staring at Callie, whose lips had frozen midway through forming the word
one
.

“I just remembered something,” Callie whispered.

“What?” Grace repeated.

“It’s—nothing….” Callie stated, still looking stricken. “I was just—confused.”

“If you say so,” said Grace.

Callie nodded slowly. “Really, it was nothing.”

But it wasn’t nothing. Because, as Callie had just remembered, there was somebody else who’d left Gatsby early that evening on Saturday, the fifth of March. And that somebody’s name was Gregory.

TEN

The Wigglesworth Walruses

www.facebook.com/profile/gregory.b.bolton

Welcome Back!
We’re glad you’ve decided to reactivate your profile. Please fill out this brief survey or, to see what your friends have been up to,
skip straight to your Newsfeed
.

OK Zeyna
is listening to
Secret Lovers
by
Atlantic Starr
on
Spotify
.

Adam Nichols
added a photo: “Don’t Wake the Sleeping Dragon”—with
Dana Gray
at
Lamont Library
.

Mimi Clement:
Enfin
, somebody else sleeping
en public
for once…Just do not let her drool on that book or
la bibliotheque
WILL charge a fine.

Bryan Jacobs
:

Mmm, pizza!—with
Callie Andrews at Cambridge, 1 Restaurant.

Bryan Jacobs
was with
Callie Andrews
at
Brattle Street Theatre
.

Tyler Green
,
Marcus Taylor
and
2 others
like this.

Vanessa Von Vorhees:
Fiiiinallly…Took you long enough.

Tyler Green
liked this.

Jessica Marie Stanley
: WHAT?!?!? My bestie and my ex??? J/K, love that you guys have been hangin out. Catch up sesh soon, BJakes?

Bryan Jacobs
liked this.

Vanessa Von Vorhees
: Tyler Green I thought I told you to STOP LIKING MY POSTS!!!

Tyler Green
liked this.

Clint Weber
and 6 others were tagged in
The Harvard Squash Team
’s album—End of Season Dinner + Award Ceremony at
The Murr Center.

Alexis Thorndike
was with
Alessandra Constantine
at
Starbucks, Harvard Square
.

Jessica Marie Stanley
>
Matt Robinson
: The
link
for that internship I was telling you about…Don’t be a stranger!

Vanessa Von Vorhees
,
Mimi Clement
,
Dana Gray
and
3 others
became friends with
Jessica Marie Stanley
.

Mimi Clement via Twitter

Splish splash I’s taking a bath! #Money$$$Tub #LaVieEnRose #OhHiVanessa

Callie Andrews
is
In a Relationship
.

Vanessa Von Vorhees
,
Mimi Clement
,
OK Zeyna
, and
3 others
like this.

Vanessa Von Vorhees
: Ahahahaha. Ha ha. HA!

OK Zeyna
: Jenga>Grand Theft Auto???

Mimi Clement
: Jenga! P.S. Personally it is my belief that you will be very happy together. Does this mean we all receive the As?

Jessica Marie Stanley
: When’s the wedding? Cambridge or California? I’ll mark my calendar. Or should we wait for *him* to confirm the status with a hyperlink first ;)

Are you SURE you want to DEACTIVATE your profile?

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, take me back to my newsfeed

Yes
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“W
hatchya doin’, roomie?”

“Hi, Vanessa,” said Callie, her hands hovering over her laptop’s keyboard. “Please—do come in,” she added, suffusing her voice with irony since Vanessa had already sprawled across Callie’s bed, propping herself up on some pillows.

“You working?” asked Vanessa.

“Not really,” said Callie, swiveling in her chair.

“What are you writing, then?” asked Vanessa, peering at Callie’s computer screen. “Is that—”

“It’s nothing!” Callie insisted, minimizing the Microsoft Word document.

“It is!” Vanessa declared, clapping her hands. “You’re finally writing that short story!”

“Trying to write,” Callie corrected her. “So far I haven’t gotten past the first sentence.”

“Well, certainly not for lack of material,” said Vanessa, spreading her arms out as if she was utterly exhausted. “I hereby officially authorize you to use my crazy life for inspiration.”

“Oh?” said Callie, trying not to smile. “Shall I ghostwrite your memoir, then? And should we call it
Eat, Party, Love
? Or how about
Vanessa’s Strangelove: How I Learned to Stop Worrying
and
Ask the Hipster
—”

“
Agh!
” Vanessa silenced her with a scream. “I thought. We agreed. To never. Speak of that. Again!”

Callie laughed. “But it would make such a great short story:
The Mystery of the Missing Suspenders
.”

Vanessa sighed dramatically. “All right,” she said. “As long as you finish it and turn it in—which you have to do, as promised, because technically I did—sort of—ask him out.”

“Yes,” said Callie. “If only you’d listened to me and written him a poem like I’d suggested, we could be playing with your ‘miniature Hipster babies’ right now.”

“Somebody needs to take sex ed again.” Vanessa laughed. “Well,” she went on, eyeing Callie’s computer, “I don’t want to interrupt you….”

“Yes you do,” said Callie. “So what is it?”

“Well,” said Vanessa. “I guess I was sort of wondering…When dealing with the Big D, did you ever have to decide which parent you wanted to live with?”

“The Big D?” Callie echoed. “Is that what we’re calling…divorce these days?”

Vanessa nodded. “I’m trying to put a human face on it.”

“More like another anatomy part,” Callie said. She would have laughed if Vanessa hadn’t suddenly looked so glum. “Um…no, I never had to choose. I was young enough when it happened that I didn’t get a say in the matter, and my parents were still on good terms—relatively speaking—so there weren’t any custody battles or anything. Everyone just agreed on a fifty-fifty split, and that was that.”

“Hmm.” Vanessa chewed her lip, seeming to think things over. “I mean, it’s not like I have to choose who to
live
with—thank god,” she said finally. “My home is technically here now, at Harvard, and I’m sure I’ll get my own apartment and everything after we graduate. But summer vacation is coming soon, and my dad is supposedly setting up a bedroom for me in the new place that he’s getting with…
ugh
…The Secretary.”

Callie grimaced sympathetically. “That’s still a thing, huh?”

“Yes,” said Vanessa, “they are still in lust. I had been hoping that her attraction to him might have faded what with the recent downward trends of the markets—especially with the whole—oops.”

“That’s okay,” said Callie. “You can say it. Hedge fund scandal. See? It’s not so bad. Or how about, ‘that boy who used to occasionally say hi to me in the halls might be a white-collar criminal’?”

“I’m sure that Gregory had no idea even if his dad did use his trust fund to pay off bad investments,” said Vanessa.

“I’m not,” said Callie, remembering all the mysterious, angry phone calls that Gregory had made that semester, presumably to his father. “But I’m not sure whether I would think it was wrong to have helped his dad in that scenario either. I mean, obviously it would be wrong if he knew the money was being used to defraud investors, but if he just thought he was doing his father a favor…” Callie shrugged. “Then again, who knows
what
he’s capable of?” she muttered, swiveling back to her computer and absentmindedly opening a browser. There was no way that, on top of everything
else, he could be the Ivy Insider—right?

“I thought you swore off Facebook this week!” said Vanessa, watching Callie log in to her account.

“Yes, but—like all serious drug addictions—it’s not. So easy. To quit!”

“You do realize,” Vanessa said, starting to giggle, “that you’re still listed as ‘in a relationship,’ right?”

“What?” shrieked Callie, navigating to her profile page. “Goddammit,” she said, clicking the button to change her status.

“Yeah, whoops.” Vanessa laughed. “Did he—what’s it you call your heavily accented econ TF? Oh yeah—the Rouski actually flat out deny your request?”

“Luckily,” said Callie, investigating his profile, “he does not appear particularly Facebook literate. And based on the lack of weirdness in class this week, I’d say he didn’t even notice my invite to romantically hyperlink—thank god! Otherwise I could never show my face in econ section again.” Callie shuddered, closing her browser. “Enough Facebook. Let’s change the subject, please.”

“Okay,” said Vanessa. “What are
you
going to do over the summer?”

Callie sighed. “At this point,” she said, “it doesn’t make much sense to plan past May. I mean, if I get kicked out or asked to take a year off, I imagine I might need to…figure out…a new life…strategy or something.”

Vanessa made a face. “You’re going to catch whoever did it,” she promised. “Just look at how much new stuff you’ve added to the board!” she exclaimed, jumping up to examine it. Her eyes
roved over all the notes and index cards and recently tacked-on day planner pages. “Hey,” she said suddenly, pointing at a picture on the right. “Who’s this?”

“Beats me,” said Callie. “I found it in Lexi’s desk when I…um—”

“You don’t think—I mean, it couldn’t be—is it
Lexi
?” Vanessa cut her off, staring at the photo.

“The thought occurred to me,” said Callie. “But I don’t think vampires can get that tan.”