At her silence, I almost flinched. The rumors had already circulated—someone must’ve seen Tray and I outside the diner, because I knew he wouldn’t say anything and I sure as hell didn’t. Then again, maybe he would tell; I didn’t really know him that well.
She didn’t push it. Instead she launched into a rant about how she thinks Devon might be cheating on her.
Frowning, I turned back to her. “Are you serious? Devon? We’re talking about Devon?”
“Yeah.” She swung her legs around and sat up, still on my bed. “He was…weird last night. I don’t know. Maybe he really did hook up with Stephanie.”
“I lied about that.”
“I know you did, but…maybe she’s going after you through me and she’s trying to do it through Devon because she knows that would hurt me.
“Nah,” I dismissed easily,” Stephanie’s pretty direct. She’ll come straight after me, not you.”
Laughing, she murmured, softly, “You know, after that phone call the other night, you’re different. It’s like you’re a whole different person.”
“No. I just wasn’t me before. Now the old me is starting to come back out.”
“Why’d you hide?”
I wasn’t ready to unburden my soul. I didn’t care if she was my new sister.
I shrugged. “Getting to know people. Nothing dramatic.”
“Oh.” She sounded disappointed.
“So are you going to talk to Devon tonight? About your hunch?”
“About Stephanie? No, but I am going to ask him if he’s cheating on me.”
“Come on, Mandy. The sooner you talk to him, the sooner you’ll know what’s really going on and be back to being lovebirds again,” I murmured, folding my last shirt. Leaning against the wall, I took in her frown and said, “Whoa. You’re actually serious.”
“Yeah,” she said sarcastically, standing up she started to pace. “He’s really off and it’s getting to me, you know? He’s been like this for a while, but last night…it creeped me out.”
“Well…” I murmured softly, feeling sad for her. I know what it felt like, Brian had cheated on me a few times too. “Do you stay like this, not knowing, or do you push him and find out?”
Sighing, she replied, “I can’t stay like this. No way. It’s been…God…like seven months of this already. I didn’t want to admit it, but this feeling has been there, you know?”
“Yeah…”
“Yeah…”
“So where are you guys going tonight? And who’s all going?”
“The gang and some others.” That meant the elite and the crowd that gathered around them, including Stephanie and her wannabes. “We’re going to a party at Rickets’ House.”
Great. I felt a knot in my stomach. Rickets’ House was a great big white mansion near Pedlam. It was where a lot of parties were thrown because it was situated deep in the woods. Kids could scatter easily if the cops showed up and it was notorious for being a mating ground for other schools. Brian wouldn’t be there, he hated that place, but there’d definitely be some others there from Pedlam.
On the other hand…
“I’m in.”
I didn’t care about Mandy’s abrupt startled gaze.
*
Devon and Jasmine were driving with us. They’d arrived a few minutes ago and it had been awkward…to say the least. Jasmine had obviously heard the rumors because she gave my outfit a second glance. But, I might run into other Pedlam students and they needed to see me. Not the new me—the quiet, boring, saintly me. They’d just laugh.
So I dressed how I used to. I wore a leather miniskirt and a lacey black tank top that hugged my curves with a diamond necklace that was looped twice around my neck, resting just above my belly-button. Even Mandy had been slightly taken aback and she’d seen the old me a few times.