40
"I will, but I don't know if she'll be up for it," Ariana said, keeping her tone casual. "I think she and Tahira have kind of bonded."
This was a total lie. As far as she knew Kaitlynn and Tahira had done nothing more than introduce themselves. But it couldn't hurt to plant the seed that Kaitlynn was aligning herself with Brigit's enemy. Even if Lexa did keep insisting that Tahira had her good qualities. Ariana had yet to see any, and the other girls seemed to be blind to them as well.
"Really? Why?" Soomie said, wrinkling her nose, as if the very idea of conversing with Tahira was noxious.
Ariana did her best not to smile. "I have no idea."
"Okay, well then, it's up to you, Ana," Brigit said.
"Well, we already know Tahira's bringing Robbie," Maria said, pulling some stray hair in front of her face to check for split ends. "You should definitely be able to snag someone better than him."
Brigit winced. "I hate the date part. Sometimes I wish we still lived in the days when it was unacceptable for girls to ask out boys. Let them be the ones who have to get all nervous and sweaty all the time."
"Why don't you ask Adam?" Ariana suggested.
Brigit blushed as Maria lifted her head for the first time. "You and Scholarship Boy? It's like a fairy tale."
"He's . . . nice," Brigit said, fiddling with the fringe on one of Ariana's pillows and avoiding eye contact. "I don't know . . . we'll see. All I know is I don't want to be dateless. Dateless is bad."
"I'm right there with you, Brigit," Lexa said, staring straight ahead at nothing. "I was supposed to bring Palmer, but. . ."
41
Ariana glanced at Maria and Soomie. Downward spiral time.
"Screw Palmer," Maria said, sitting up. "It'll be fun, just us girls."
"Yeah. Who needs him?" Soomie said.
"I think maybe I do," Lexa said, her bottom lip quivering.
"Oh, Lex! It's gonna be okay." Brigit walked over and wrapped her arms around Lexa's shoulders as a few tears leaked down the dark--haired girl's cheeks. Ariana and the others gathered around her as well, all encouraging words and sympathetic nothings. Lexa's tears were just starting to subside when a shriek sounded from across the hall.
"Peanut brittle!? What was that bitch thinking? She knows I'm allergic!" Tahira screamed. Her door opened and she flung a tin across the hallway so hard Ariana had just enough time to duck out of the way before it took her ear off. "Get rid of it," Tahira shouted at Allison. "Dump the whole box!"
Allison stood there for a moment--tall, pale, and blond-- hovering over Tahira's shorter, darker, curvier self. The girl was clearly dumbfounded by the fact that she was being screamed at and ordered around by her friend.
"Do it before I touch something that was contaminated by peanuts!" Tahira shrieked. "Unless you want me to die!"
Allison dutifully grabbed the box and scurried out, making for the stairwell like a panicked mouse.
"Ugh! What is wrong with people!?" Tahira shouted.
She slammed her door again, this time so hard the mirrors on Ariana's walls shook. For a long moment there was dead silence, then
42
Ariana and her friends cracked up laughing, relieving all the tension in the air.
"What was that?" Ariana asked, her hand to her chest.
Maria lazily pushed herself up on her elbows as if nothing unusual had happened. "That was Atherton--Pryce Hall's favorite drama queen being her dramatic self."
"She's deathly allergic to peanuts," Lexa said, smiling. Apparently the sideshow had distracted her from her pain for the moment. "She carries an EpiPen everywhere just in case."
"That's scary," Ariana said, wishing Kaitlynn had such a convenient Achilles' heel.