“We’re here for you, babe!” Kiran announced, giving Noelle a squeeze. Perfect answer.
“We have declared today All About Noelle Day!” Taylor added.
“Isn’t that every day?” Noelle joked.
All of us laughed and I found myself staring at Noelle’s smile. I hadn’t seen it in weeks. Possibly months. Not a real one, anyway. As we all sat down around the table and the maître d’ hurried over with two more menus, I couldn’t stop grinning. It felt just like old times.
But then I heard it again. That odd snicker I’d heard in the hall at school the other day. I quickly turned in my seat and, sure enough, two tables over, a girl with blond hair, wearing a light blue plaid dress, sat alone, whispering into her cell. My pulse thrummed in my veins as I stared at the back of her head, just willing her to turn, willing her to finally show herself. Then she put the phone down and lifted a finger, summoning her waiter. As she turned I felt as if I was going to black out from the tension, the strain, the anticipation. But then I saw her long nose and brown eyes and realized it wasn’t Ariana at all.
“Everything all right, Reed?” Taylor asked. “You look . . . sickly.”
“Everything’s fine,” I said, turning toward the table again and forcing a smile. I looked around at the three of them and tried to shake the last inklings of fear. “In fact, it couldn’t be better.”
BLESSING
“Now this is what I’m talking about,” Kiran said, leaning into the railing at the stern of Noelle’s father’s sailboat as it raced along the Connecticut coastline. I stood next to her and looked out at the view, which was rather spectacular. Huge mansions hovered over the water, interspersed with older, more modest Cape Cod houses. Seagulls cawed overhead, diving toward the water in pursuit of their prey. The only thing bluer than the sky was the water, and the sun glinted off its choppy surface, making everything glitter and gleam.
I tipped my face toward the sun and sighed, feeling completely relaxed. I had put Vienna and London in charge of dealing with any last-minute planning issues that might arise for this weekend’s events, so my phone had remained relatively silent for the last couple of hours. Not having to hear that incessant beeping and ringing was like a mini-vacation.
“You know, I’ve been all over the world, but this is still one of my favorite spots,” Kiran added, turning around and pushing her dark sunglasses up into her hair. “I don’t know why I ever left.”
I glanced over at Taylor, who sat on one of the cushioned benches at the rear of the boat, and Noelle, who was laid out on a blue-and-white striped Ralph Lauren towel in her shorts and sweater, her face tipped toward the sun. Each of us tensed just slightly, not so much that anyone outside our circle would have noticed, but we all sensed it and knew why. Kiran had a good reason for leaving. She, Noelle, and Taylor had all been expelled from Easton after Thomas Pearson was murdered. They, along with Ariana Osgood, had brought him out to the woods that night and left him there to fend for himself. Ariana had been the one to go back and kill him, so she had gone to some cushy millionaire’s prison called the Brenda T. Trumball Correctional Facility for Women, while Noelle, Kiran, and Taylor had received probation, community service, and the aforementioned expulsions.
Of course, there was now the possibility that Ariana had somehow busted out and was stalking me all over campus.
I looked out across the stern, my heart pounding suddenly from all these Ariana-related thoughts. Part of me wanted to tell my friends about the strange, elusive blond-girl sightings I’d had over the past few days, but I bit down on my tongue. They’d just tell me I was crazy.
“So you’ve just spaced on the multimillion-dollar modeling contract?” Taylor joked, reaching for a flute of champagne. There was quite a spread on the low table at the center of the stern—champagne, strawberries and cream, a huge variety of chocolates—all the Billings Girls’ favorite things.
“Oh yeah, that. For a second there I almost forgot what a huge, honking success story I am,” Kiran joked. She dropped onto a cushion on the floor next to the table, folding her long, perfect legs under her, and plucked a strawberry from the bowl.
“Actually, I think we’ve all done pretty well, considering,” Taylor said pragmatically. “I’m off to Oxford in the fall, Noelle will be ruling Yale, and Reed here has become a businesswoman and developer at the ridiculously advanced age of seventeen.”
Kiran and I each lifted a glass. “Go us!” I said.
Noelle pushed herself up on her elbows. “I’ll take one of those.”
I handed her a glass and she sucked down half its contents.
“So tell me all about last night, Noelle. Was our little Glass-Licker as amazing as everyone’s saying?” Kiran asked, leaning forward.
My stomach and heart switched places as I waited for Noelle’s reaction.
“Actually, I wouldn’t know,” Noelle said, looking out across the ocean. “I couldn’t make it.”
“Are you kidding?” Taylor asked. She slid off the bench and onto the floor, pulling her bag onto her lap. “Oh my God, then you have to see it.”
“What do you mean, see it?” I asked.
Taylor extricated her laptop, popped it open, and toggled to YouTube. “Someone posted it last night,” she said, her fingers flying over the keys. “Here. Check it out.”
She turned the screen around, adjusted the contrast to fight the sun glare, and there I was, standing alongside Carolina, making my case. Noelle sat up and Kiran scooted around the table to hover over our shoulders. When I saw how self-righteous I looked, giving my little speech, I hid my face behind my hands. My voice sounded nasal through the speakers and I just wanted to cringe.
“Honestly? I think we’d all be fools to let an opportunity like this one pass us by,” I heard myself say.
“Nice!” Kiran cheered, kneading my shoulders. “Damn, girl. Very diva.”
The video ended and I peeked through my fingers. Noelle smirked and took a swig of champagne. “Wow. And you say you’re not a Lange.” She looked me up and down quickly. “Daddy would have been very proud.”