Untouchable (Private 3)

"I'm just telling you what I heard," Taylor replied with a shrug.

"Call me crazy, but I don't believe half the stuff I hear at Easton," Natasha said wryly. A direct commentary on the other girls in the room, I knew.

"I thought you were supposed to be resting quietly," Noelle commented.

Natasha smiled beatifically. She was still lying back in her own chair with a cold blue pillow over her eyes, breathing in and out as instructed. Up until a few minutes ago, Kiran, Natasha, and I had been alone in the small, orange-blossom-scented room with our spa worker bees, but Noelle, Ariana, and Taylor had just rejoined us, having finished their treatments.

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"Anyway, Taylor, you're missing an important detail of the story," Noelle said, laying her IF magazine aside.

Her facial having been finished just a few minutes before, she now sat on the leather couch in the corner with her face covered in purple shellac. Her hair was back in a white towel and her diamond earrings sparkled in her ears. She crossed her legs and her white, waffle-weave robe--standard issue from the spa and exactly like the ones we all wore--fell open to expose her entire thigh.

" London floated the rumor that she was getting a reduction so that Vienna would book one over Christmas break," Noelle told us.

"You know how the Twin Cities always need to one-up each other," Ariana put in. She stood against the wall, her arms crossed over her stomach and her legs crossed at the ankle. Her blond hair practically glowed in the soft pink light.

"The idea is that Vienna will come back from break all deflated," Noelle continued. "And London--"

"Will be the only Pam Anderson on campus," Kiran said slowly, narrowing her eyes. "Now that's ingenious."

"Which is exactly why I don't buy it," Natasha said, still blinded. "This is London we're talking about. You know, the girl who asked me if strawberry milk would turn her bones pink?"

"She did not," Ariana said, her jaw dropping.

"Hand to God," Natasha replied, lifting a hand. "The best part being, of course, that I think she wanted them to be pink."

Everyone laughed, including me and the girl working on my

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face, whose name was Teresa. She shook her head as she finished touching up the area near my temples.

"Your friends are a rare breed," she said with a slight Italian accent.

"Tell me about it," I replied with a smile.

"Okay, you're all done," she told me. "Just relax for twenty minutes and then we'll come give you the final scrub and toner."

"Thank you," I told her, sitting up.

She handed me a glass of cucumber water and slipped from the room. A smile had attached itself to my face without my even thinking about it. My whole body felt so relaxed, it was as if nothing else in the world mattered. Every person on the planet should get a massage and facial every month. It should be an accepted part of normal life, like checkups or haircuts. I could only imagine how much more chill my mother would be if she was able to get pampered every once in a while. Maybe my childhood wouldn't have been all psychodrama all the time. Maybe she wouldn't feel the need to pop all those pills and take out any residual anger on me.

"You look happy," Ariana said, sipping her mimosa.

"I think I am happy," I said.

Noelle and Ariana exchanged an approving, triumphant look. At that moment, one of the cell phones lined up on the bench near the wall trilled. I recognized my ring and jumped down to get it. My heart gave a flutter when I saw Josh's name on the caller ID.

"Who is it?" Ariana asked.

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"It's Josh."

I was about to flip the phone open when Noelle grabbed it out of my hand. "No men." She turned the phone off and placed it in the pocket of her robe.

"But I-"