'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.”
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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.
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CONFESSION
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
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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.