Elite

by Carrie Aarons

  I loop it around a finger, bringing it up to the makeshift register in the tent. Eloise is too busy holding up earrings to her lobes to watch as I purchase it, until I’m done and the woman is putting it in a box for me.

  “What do you have there?” She finally wanders over to me.

  I offer her my hand and she takes it, lacing our fingers together. Leading her gently out of the tent and through the crowded street out, I don’t speak until we are tucked away on a bench under a big overgrown tree away from much of the bustle.

  “Did you know that no two snowflakes are made alike?” I pull the necklace from the box, holding it up so that the charm dangles for Eloise to see. “Every single one has a different pattern, a different makeup. I saw this in that little tent shop, and it made me think of you. Because before we met, I was going through life seeing every single person as the same snowflake, no one had the makeup to catch my eye, or to make me stare in wonder. Until you, that is. Your uniqueness, it draws me to you. We may not have remotely the same makeup, but there is no one I’d rather float through life with. That may be corny, but I hope when you wear this, you remember that. And you remember the little slice of Vermont that is always here waiting for you.”

  I watch her eyes as I speak, the incredible blue becoming more and more misty at my words.

  “Lord, Colton, that is just … beautiful. You’re making me cry. I’m British, we don’t do tears in public!” She jokingly hits me, softly enough that she keeps her hand on my arm where it lands.

  I hold out the necklace, motioning for her to turn so I can put it on. She smiles a wobbly grin at me and does, and I fix the clasp around the back of her beautiful column, planting an open-mouth kiss on her nape before moving away.

  She lays a hand on the necklace where it falls halfway down her shirt. We don’t need to talk about it, although part of me is holding my breath to see if she says that four letter word.

  But my hope with this gift is just that she remembers me, and our time here, no matter what happens.

  Thirty-Four

  Eloise

  The feeling of déjà vu is strong as I trek down to the boathouse. Granted, it’s a lot warmer than it was in January, with a mild May breeze floating through the layers of my tulle skirt. My heels clack on the pavement of campus, the dark illuminated by the old gas lamps that Jade Mountain insists on keeping. I have to say, they do have a nostalgic romance about them.

  However, that romance isn’t seeping into my veins. I don’t want to be walking down to the boathouse, I don’t want to hear what Gretchen and her cronies have to say. I don’t even want to be inducted, if that’s what this is, which I strongly suspect it is.

  But I care about some of these girls now, and I won’t let what happened to Julia Henley happen to anyone else. At least not under my watch.

  Following the winding walk down to the glittering boathouse, I take a minute to admire the lake as it gleams under the moonlight. Even if my veins are cold, I can’t deny the absolute beauty this place holds.

  I’ll miss Thistle when it’s time to go, and I realize that’s not something I was expecting. This town, this school, brought me much more than I ever bargained for. In all my years of growing up, in all the many exotic places I’d ever been or far reaches of the world I’d explored, I never anticipated that a small town in rural America would be the place to change me. To make me see a different side of myself, to expose that gooey, emotional center of myself … and show it to someone else.

  I still hadn’t told Colton I love him, and I thread my fingers through the snowflake necklace that hangs from my neck. Not that I didn’t feel it … bloody hell, I’d never felt this in my life for anyone else. But, I’d always thought of myself as an independent woman. I never thought I’d have that typical relationship you’d always read about, even though Colton and I had had our struggles. It felt like saying those words was the last line of defense falling, like when I said them, I’d be tied to him. It might be stupid, but I had been alone and loved it for a long time. I had to seriously consider and be okay with ending that streak.

  When I walk inside, I veer to the stairs, following the same path I’d taken months ago. The inner-sanctum of Charter House looks the same when my summer heels, probably too warm for the chilly May night but still very cute, clack on the concrete floor.

  I see three hooded figures standing in the middle of the room, Abby and Amelia in front of them. I join the pledges, unease filling my gut already.

  “Welcome to the induction ceremony, pledges. Over the last four and a half months, you have stayed the course, completed your tasks, and shown your ability to become true Charter sisters. We’re happy to accept you into the fold, and officially make you members of this elite society.”

  The rest of the sisters form a circle around us, the entire thing feeling cheesy and self-absorbed rather than the holy, exclusive vibe they’re going for. I don’t want to be here, don’t want to be included in this band of abusers and manipulators.

  “However, there is one matter left to hash out, because there is a pledge who has been keeping secrets of her own.” Gretchen’s eyes cut straight to me.

  Sweat slicks my hands, and sickening goose bumps light up my skin. They know what I’ve been up to, they have to. I thought I’d have more time, to maybe contact Julia Henley, see if she even wanted what happened to her brought to light. But now they know, and I have to use the ammo in my arsenal.

  Nina cuts her off, producing a cell phone from under her cloak. My cell phone. “Thanks to Abby, we now know what kind of person you are, Eloise. Helping to cover up stealing, bribery and betting for your boyfriend? A boyfriend who is in a social club himself, and cheating his friends out of both their merchandise and basketball victories? You should be ashamed.”

  My jaw almost hits the floor. Memories of the night that Colton chose not to throw the game, even after Mac’s demands, come flooding back. Me and Abby in the bar, her trying to force drinks on me, leaving my cell phone on the table when my boyfriend and I made a quick exit.

  “You stole my phone? How … why?” I look incredulously at the wolf in sheep’s clothing standing next to me.

  Abby shrugs, a smug smirk marking her lips. “It was eat or get eaten, Eloise. I want this more than you, I want all of the power and status that comes with being a Charter girl. Admit it, you never really cared about being in. I did what they asked me to do, and I’d do it again.”

  I’d come from a dog-eat-dog world in Europe, a place where politicians and princes cut each other off at the knees, where husbands cheated and wives plotted, where children disobeyed. But I guess I hadn’t seen it coming, even with my knowledge of the world. Thievery from someone I’d considered an ally, a friend as far as they went in Vermont … this was cold-blooded. Abby had completely duped me.

  “I see how it is.” I nod at her, seeing her for the first time as she really is. There is no more to say to her, I essentially cut her out of my life in that moment.

  Because I have a bigger problem. “You’re not going to show those texts to anyone.”

  Nina laughs, and Gretchen gives me a look as if to say, oh, you poor fool. “Of course we aren’t … if you break up with Colton, we won’t have to do anything. We won’t have to tell his coach, his teammates, or the damn college basketball association that their star player has been betting against himself and then throwing games.”

  Shock slams me. Have I gotten so soft since coming to the States that everyone has a leg up on me now? “How did you even … you broke into my phone?”

  “It’s not so hard, duh. Plus, offer for one of your pledges to blow a tech nerd, and we jailbroke it pretty easily.” Ciara giggles, like that isn’t another abusive situation she’s put one of her sisters in.

  I square my shoulders, ready to unleash my dirty little secret. “You won’t tell anyone about Colton, and I’m not going anywhere. Because you may have been digging dirt up on me, but I have some on you. Your little non-disclosure that
was hidden in the library … yeah, I have it now.”

  You could hear a pin drop in the room, Gretchen and her cronies are so surprised. I watch her dark eyes narrow, her mouth draw into an angry slit. She looks at Ciara, tilting an eyebrow, and I wonder if I just revealed that her second in command made a huge fuck up.

  “That’s right, I found out how you had one of your pledges raped and then covered it up.” Spreading my arms wide, I talk to the entire room. “Is this what you all want to be a part of? Last time I checked, family doesn’t let family get sexually abused and then shamed for it.”

  “I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about.” Gretchen’s voice is pure cover-up.

  I laugh, a sarcastic huff. “Oh, come off it, love. You know full well what you did, and I have it in writing. Julia Henley, remember her? Or do you just block what you did to her from your brain, going on with your pathetic little power trip? If you so much as whisper a word of what you saw on my phone, I’ll expose you. I’ll bring your entire house burning down.”

  Gretchen turns her nose up at me. “That NDA is legally binding, the girl in question will never come forward. Therefore, you have no case, this is a moot point. Plus, if you hadn’t realized, we’re pretty powerful, and so are our connections. What we bring to the school in terms of notoriety and funding … they’ll never turn their back on the social clubs, no matter what we do.”

  “The same can’t be said for your little boyfriend. If the NBA knew what kind of back alley deals he was dabbling in, I’m sure they would drop him from the draft altogether.” Ciara smiles like a lion about to chow down on my carcass. “So break it off, or we’ll ruin him.”

  Some of the other girls smile at each other, and I know now that this was all part of the process for me.

  “Oh, and by the way, you’re officially eliminated from pledging to be a Charter House member.” Nina gleefully informs me.

  Yeah, no shit. I almost roll my eyes, but I feel too foolish. These girls used me as their play toy for an entire semester, a stupid mouse chasing a wheel that they were lazily spinning themselves, waiting for me to fall.

  And now that I had, I was about to bring my whole life down with me.

  Everything in my body screamed not to stoop to their level, but hatred bubbled up in my throat. I turned around on a heeled foot right before I reached the exit of their inner sanctum.

  “Speaking of relationships and ending them … Gretchen, you should probably know that Ciara has been shagging Daniel for the entire semester. I caught them shagging in his room on Valentine’s Day. I’m not sure if that’s some initiation activity, but it doesn’t seem like you lot share well, so I don’t believe your boyfriend dipping his wick in your number two was something you knew about.”

  I toss my verbal grenade and slip quietly out, letting the door close behind me. I swear I hear it go off in the form of Gretchen’s screams as my foot hits the first step leading out of the boathouse.

  Thirty-Five

  Eloise

  How the hell am I going to do this?

  I think the thought as I walk up the steps of Keil, the death march music practically playing on a loop in my ears. My stomach is filled with lead, my eyes already prickling with tears. I never even got the chance to tell Colton that I was falling in love with him, and now …

  I’d have to break his heart. Their orders, their rules … finally catching up to me. I’d thought I was one step ahead of them, but they were quicker. More cunning. Gretchen and her minions knew I’d fall on my sword for Colton, and they were playing the brilliant hand they been dealt.

  The hand they’d been given by Abby, that bloody traitor. All of this time, I thought she was my friend. But when she was shown power and status, she didn’t even flinch at taking my cell phone and throwing me under the bus.

  The last few steps to Colton’s door on the second level of the house are painful. I feel like running in the opposite direction, perhaps boarding a plane now and just saying goodbye to this place forever. But then the Charter girls would expose him and the betting, and I couldn’t let that happen. So I had to do this.

  When he sees me, he gets up from where he’d been lounging on his bed, and plants a kiss on my cheek. A quick one, as if he’d be doing that for a long time to come.

  “How was your day, babe?”

  I should just cut to the chase, and I don’t even respond to his question. It’s hard to force the words out of my throat, but I know I have to. “Listen, I’m leaving soon, and I think it would be better if we ended this now.”

  He has his back to me, opening a bag of chips because the man is always hungry. He chuckles, thinking it’s a joke. “Yeah, okay, hilarious. You know an ocean was never going to stop me.”

  I don’t respond, feeling completely distraught in this moment.

  He turns around, his shirtless chest too distracting as those basketball shorts ride low on his hips. Even in this moment of crisis, I can’t help but gawk at how beautiful he truly is.

  “Oh, come on … you’re not serious.” His smile falters, though.

  I nod, unable to do anything else.

  “Stop it, I know we haven’t fully discussed how this will work, but we’re not just breaking up. I told you I love you, and I do. I don’t just say that for shits and giggles, Eloise.” I can tell in his tone that he’s getting annoyed.

  “It’s a long distance, golden boy. Two entirely different time zones, different lives. I’ll be working all night in restaurants, you’ll be out on the road for games. We’ll never see each other.”

  I’m saying these things because I need to get rid of him, for his own good … but the facts ring true. If I’m being honest with myself, I had run through these concerns in my head plenty of times. These fears came from a real place, if not a secondary one at the moment. How would we have made it work? If I didn’t have to do this to save him, would we have lasted? Or would we have become just another couple swallowed in the sea of failed long-distance relationships?

  “We’ll make it work, fuck this doubt. You’ve never been afraid of anything, of that I’m sure. So don’t be afraid to love me. Don’t be afraid to make this work … because I’m not. I don’t want to spook you, but you’re pretty much it for me, Eloise. I don’t ever plan on letting you go, so don’t do that to me. Be honest, what are you so afraid of?”

  Honesty, it’s something we had from the very start. And per usual, he sees right through me. Knows exactly what to say to push every button, to bring all of my walls crumbling down.

  “Because I love you, too, can’t you see that?! That’s why I have to leave you, because if I don’t … your life will go up in flames!” I throw my hands up, tears threatening to spill from my eyes.

  Now that the emotions are clogging my throat, and tear ducts, I can’t remember the last time I cried. Ever. Historically, I’m not an overly emotional person, at least not on a deep level. The fact that I’m in hysterics over this man, over how I may ruin his chances, proves to me that I really am in love with him.

  “What are you talking about, baby?” Colton rushes to me, trying to hold my hands but I pull them away. “Stop pushing me away! Talk to me.”

  I move to the farthest corner of his room, trying to distance myself. “My phone, remember I lost it? Well, I didn’t, not really. Abby took it, that bloody traitor, to use against me with the Charter girls. Some last rite of passage for her if she wanted to be in, apparently. They broke open my phone without needing my password and read our text messages. Colton … they know about Mac. About your betting and stealing. They know about all of it.”

  I watch as his face goes from confused over my initial attempted breakup, to ghastly pale when he realizes that someone else knows about what he did to make money for his mother. And then his neck flushes red with anger.

  “Those fucking bitches … I knew you should have gotten out of that a long time ago. They’re nothing but poison, and I help perpetuate that. These goddamn social clubs, the people i
n them acting like they have some big leg up over anyone else on this campus. I can’t believe … fuck!”

  He slams his fist against the wall, cracking some of the drywall. Resting his forehead against the wall and taking a breath, I know that he’s trying to reel it in.

  “Are they going to expose me?” He walks to me, rubbing my arms up and down as I melt into him.

  Even in this moment, as I’m trying to let him go, I cling to him like an anchor. “They claim that they won’t unless I break up with you. I threatened them with what I knew about the date rape rumors, and they kicked me out. Told me they’d take you down if I ever told anyone what I knew about the NDA. So as long as we aren’t together, you’re safe.”

  I choke out a sob, because this whole situation is just bloody heartbreaking.

  “No. No. You’re not doing this again, sacrificing yourself for me. You did it with Mac, I’m not letting you do it now. I’m going to make this right. And if you think you’re breaking up with me, then you’re out of your mind. I’m not letting you, so there.”

  He crosses his arms over his chest, and I have to giggle a watery laugh because he looks like a five-year-old demanding something. “But what are we going to do?”

  Colton frames my face with his hands. “We’re not going to do anything. I’m going to come clean.”

  Thirty-Six

  Colton

  I said someone was going to pay for all of this, and that person ended up being me.

  I should have known it from the start, should have guessed that I couldn’t get by unscathed after all of the terrible things I’d done to jeopardize our season, not to mention stealing from my other housemates.

  Now it was time to face the reckoning. With the position that Eloise had been put in, I wasn’t letting her solve my problems for me. Not again. I was a man, and it was time to start acting like one. This could end all of my dreams, but I’d done that the minute I allowed myself to be influenced for money. The moment I started breaking the rules.