I blinked. "What do you mean?" I asked, as Tiffany finished her phone call and rejoined us.
Noelle grabbed Gage as he skulked by. He glared down at her hand, but he paused.
"What? "He looked pale, and there was a crease across his left cheek from his pillowcase. Not the coiffed Gage I knew and didn't love.
"Everyone's still going to St. Barths, right?" Noelle asked.
"That's the plan," Amberly said.
"No doubt," Gage replied, looking off into the distance. "I plan on being hammered and stupid for at least two weeks."
"So the usual, then?" Noelle joked.
"You should have a stand-up routine, Lange," Gage snapped.
Noelle turned to Tiffany. "Tiff? You in?"
"Oh, I'm so there," Tiffany replied. "Dad has a Vogue shoot a couple days before Christmas. I'm going to assist." Her father, Tassos, was a world-renowned fashion and entertainment photographer. "Actually, Kiran is one of the models."
Gage visibly brightened at this news. "Oh, tell me it's a swimsuit thing," he begged.
"It's a swimsuit thing," Tiffany confirmed grudgingly.
"Yes!" Gage cheered. "Hammered, stupid, and laid."
I rolled my eyes. Boy bounced back quickly.
15
Noelle focused her brown eyes on me. "Reed, you're coming with." She lifted her iPhone and hit the screen. "I'm going to call Donnie right now and let him know we'll be one more."
"Who's Donnie?" I asked.
"Our pilot," Noelle replied.
I laughed and placed my hand over her hand on the phone. "Wait, wait. I can't go to St. Barths. My parents will want me home for Christmas. Especially after all this."
Noelle looked at me as if I were a puppy who'd just peed on the floor. "Reed. Think about it. Thomas was your boyfriend. Ariana tried to kill you. Now Ariana's sister has tried to kill you. You go home, and the entire news media is going to take over West Wackadoodle, PA, and, while it might be fabu business for the local IHOP, they will camp out on your front lawn and spend the entire break tearing into your every secret. Do you really want to put your family and friends through that?"
My heart pretty much stood still. I could just see the headline now:
STALKED SCHOLARSHIP STUDENT CONFESSES: MY MOM'S A FORMER JUNKIE.
"It's settled, then. You're coming with us," Noelle said, accurately reading my silence. " For the next two weeks it's nothing but sun, sand, and mojitos for us." There were more shouts from the distance. The zoom of a rushing engine. I wondered if one of the news vans was getting ready to ram through the front gate. "We can deal with whether or not we'll have a school to come back to later," she added under her breath.
16
So she wasn't that confident in Easton's staying power after all. I swallowed hard and looked around the quad at the familiar buildings and faces as Noelle made her phone call. A world without Easton? After everything I had been through, that was one blow I wasn't sure I could survive.
17
CHAPTER 3 THE UPTON GAME
"So, Noelle, are you going to play the Upton Game this year?" Tiffany asked as we kicked back in our cushy leather seats on the Lange family's private plane the next morning. Our chairs were arranged in a sort of conversation pit, so that we could all see one another. Toward the back were four more seats, lined up against the walls like in a regular plane, except they each were singles with tables at either arm. Only one was occupied. Noelle's father, whom I hadn't met yet, had been talking intensely into his cell phone ever since we arrived at the airport and hadn't even glanced our way. Noelle's mother was already in St. Barths and would be meeting our plane when we landed.
"I'm not sure you guys could handle the competition," Noelle said, arranging the skirt of her black linen dress around her legs. She and Tiff both were already outfitted for the islands--Tiff in tan shorts, a white short-sleeve shirt, and stacked espadrilles--while I was bundled up in a wool sweater and jeans, my thick coat shoved
18