“Ellie, hey!”
She looked up to see Taryn surrounded by a big group of students, including a large number of senior guys. It hadn’t taken long for the boys of G.A. to notice Taryn, and Ellie couldn’t blame them. Taryn looked gorgeous tonight, her voluminous hair all loose and wavy, exuding bohemian funkiness in her turquoise dress, which she had layered over pants with huge bell-bottoms. A look Ellie would never be able to pull off herself.
“Hi,” Ellie responded tentatively. She wouldn’t blame Taryn for thinking she was crazy after what happened outside the dining hall that day.
“You want to join us?” she asked warmly. “I’m in the middle of teaching all you East Coasters how real drinking games are played.” She flashed a teasing look back to Thatcher Wellington.
“Maybe later,” Ellie said, aware of the fact that she should probably try to find Hunter. A look of disappointment crossed Taryn’s face and Ellie immediately felt bad. She had been annoyed with Brinley for not apologizing and now she was doing the same thing.
“Actually, can I talk to you for a quick sec?” she asked. “Privately?”
“But we’re in the middle of a game!” Thatcher exclaimed, putting a possessive hand on Taryn.
“Oh, for god’s sake, she’ll be back in a minute.”
Once sequestered in a corner, Ellie looked at Taryn seriously.
“Look, I just wanted to say sorry about earlier. Outside the dining hall. With Gabe.”’
“Um, okay. No worries,” Taryn replied, taking a sip out of her blue cup. Ellie caught a whiff of coconut.
“I shouldn’t have brought you into the middle of all that. It was my own private business with Gabe.”
“I’m so happy to hear you say that,” Taryn gushed. “Because I really would like you and I to be friends.”
“Definitely.” She had truly enjoyed talking to Taryn earlier. She was different from the usual G.A. conservative, repressed clones, and Ellie appreciated that.
“But, um, as your friend,” Ellie said, “I do feel I should warn you about Gabe. He’s not a good guy.” Ellie tried to convince herself she was being nice by warning Taryn off Gabe, but she couldn’t deny there were selfish motivations at play, too. Something about Gabe dating gorgeous, confident Taryn Reyes made Ellie want to die a little inside.
“Thanks but I’m going to try to keep an open mind about it,” Taryn replied, almost as if she hadn’t understood what Ellie just said.
Keep an open mind about it? What did that mean?
“Taryn! Come on!” Harrison Blatt, another senior baseball player, called out, impatiently.
“Go ahead,” Ellie told her, already torturing herself with scenarios involving Taryn and Gabe making out all over campus. She had a feeling Taryn didn’t have the same aversion to PDA she did.
“Great talking to you, Ellie,” Taryn said as she squeezed Ellie into a hug before walking back to the group. They cheered at her return.
Ellie tried to be optimistic. Maybe Taryn would hook up with Thatcher Wellington tonight and forget all about Gabe.
“Elle, where have you been?” She turned when she heard Hunter’s voice. He walked across the room and handed her a blue plastic cup with her usual vodka soda.
“I’ve been looking for you forever.”
She felt a pang of guilt and gave Hunter a sweet smile.
“Sorry, babe. I’ve been looking for you, too. I think this house is just way too big.” Hunter nodded, not giving it a second thought, which only made her feel worse. There was something uniquely horrible about lying to a trusting person.
Hand-in-hand, they left the chaos of the game room and entered the wood-paneled octagonal library, the keg sitting in one of the room’s eight corners, a line forming behind it. The walls were covered with twenty-foot high bookcases and attached ladders to get to the top shelves, and little reading nooks with chaises and blankets were scattered throughout. It was the type of room Evan would love. She stopped—surprised at the thought. Two years after their falling out, Evan rarely crossed her mind except occasionally in moments like this, when she came across something she knew her former best friend would either love or hate or think was funny.
“Evan!” a voice called out.
Ellie frowned. She had been thinking about Evan for the first time in months and now someone was calling her name? Ellie couldn’t help but wonder if it was just in her head. Especially because she knew Evan never came to these parties.
But then Ellie turned toward the voice and gasped. Because not only was Evan Harnett at the party, she was in the center of the room, kissing Luke Jensen, for everyone to see.
Hunter followed her gaze.
“Evan and Luke? Huh,” he commented, an odd look on his face.
“What?” Ellie asked. Hunter never usually commented on other students’ hook-ups. He tried to stay above the fray of sordid gossip. Though it was admirable, it also kind of bugged Ellie, who found it harder to restrain herself at times. It was another thing that made it hard to live up to being with Hunter. Though now not only was Hunter indulging in discussing Luke and Evan…it almost seemed like he was slightly annoyed.
“It’s nothing,” he said, shaking his head. “I just could’ve sworn Luke said he was dating some girl who goes to NCS.” She was surprised to hear that. She’d always gotten a gay vibe from Luke herself, though she couldn’t quite place her finger on why.
“I just hope Evan doesn’t get hurt,” Hunter continued, still watching. Ellie didn’t even realize Hunter knew Evan, though now that she thought about it, she vaguely remembered him mentioning she was involved with student government somehow. Hunter was aware she and Evan were friends back in the day, but he had no idea how deep their friendship had been.
“I don’t think you need to worry,” Ellie said, watching as Evan smiled sweetly at Luke. “She looks like she’s enjoying herself. Good for her.” And she meant it. She was still hurt by what had happened between them, but she didn’t begrudge Evan any happiness.
“Yeah, I guess.”
Just then, Brooks approached. “Ellie, have you seen Brinley?”
Ellie shook her head. “Not for a while now.”
Brooks lowered his voice. “There’s a rumor going around that she and Graham broke up.”
She looked at him in surprise. “Seriously?”
Brooks nodded. “Come with me. We need to find her and make sure she’s okay.”
Ellie wordlessly began following him. She was half-way across the room when she looked back to Hunter, realizing in the haste of the moment she hadn’t so much as said “wait for me,” but he was walking toward Evan now. Ellie frowned for a second before Brooks tugged at her arm.
“Come on. Light on your feet. Let’s go!”
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CHAPTER SIX
Tuesday, 9:02pm.
Taryn walked up the path toward the front door of Anton Saratov’s massive estate, full of trepidation, an enormous mason jar of coconut water under her arm. Her first day at Georgetown Academy had not exactly gone according to plan and she wasn’t sure what to expect at her first party. She tugged nervously at her outfit, an Elizabeth and James tent dress she had layered over her favorite black J Brand bell-bottoms.
A few girls Taryn recognized as seniors, all dressed in skinny black pants and camisoles, smoked cigarettes on the front porch and watched Taryn as she passed, tracing their eyes down Taryn’s outfit with horrified smirks. Taryn could see, just like with the Joie dress from this morning, she wasn’t fitting into the school�
��s narrow fashion mold.
Oh, well, she thought as she surged forward, giving the snarky girls a pointed friendly smile. Nowhere to go but up.
She entered the crowded foyer, the grandiose crystal chandeliers twinkling overhead. Whoa. Taryn had been to some pretty amazing houses back in L.A.—hell, Taryn’s family had a pretty amazing house themselves back in L.A.—but this was on another level. Anton’s dad was a Russian ambassador, and Liesel had explained that cops couldn’t step foot on his property due to diplomatic immunity. Taryn was pretty sure that when the foreign heads of state had devised that system hundreds of years ago, they weren’t imagining it would one day be used as a loophole for teenage partying.
Taryn wandered past the crazy-long dining room that looked exactly like the one in Batman, until she saw a large group of students crowded around the wall of televisions (yes, multiple) in what looked to be a ballroom that had been converted into an enormous game room. It contained two pool tables, an air hockey table, Pop-a-shot, a dozen old-school arcade games like Pac-man and an enormous saloon-style bar, fully stocked, with swivel bar stools. Anton Saratov’s parents had definitely gotten it right in here. Why have a ballroom, which no one would ever use in this day and age, when you could have a cool room like this?
Suddenly, she zeroed in on a group of students playing some sort of drinking game. One of the guys, a freckly redhead, threw a pair of dice crazily, sending them spinning across the room.
“Sorry, guys,” he said, standing to go get them and finding himself face to face with Taryn. “Hey, there I’ve never seen you before. You a rookie?”
Taryn nodded, though she hated the term.
“I’m Harrison, by the way,” he said, before going in search of the dice.
“What’s that?” one of the girls in the group asked Taryn suspiciously, eying the mason jar of clear liquid still in her arms.
“Coconut water,” Taryn replied, “I always bring it to parties.”
Taryn held up the jar for the group to see. “Baby coconut water has tons of natural electrolytes. It’s super hydrating. So if you use it as a mixer, you never get a hangover. We drink it all the time back in L.A.”
Smiles spread across a few of their faces.
“That’s kind of cool,” a cute guy with shaggy hair said.
“Go ahead, there’s plenty,” Taryn said expansively. “I personally like it with rum.” She reached onto the table where dozens of assorted liquor bottles stood and began mixing him one. “Here, take a taste…um…” She realized she didn’t know his name.
“Thatcher,” he told her, taking the cup. He took a sip. “Mmm. It’s actually pretty good,” he pronounced.
“I want one!” three different people in the circle said at the same time.
Taryn smiled and got to work. Maybe tonight was going to be better than she thought.
“What were you guys just playing?” she asked as she poured coconut water into several glasses.
“A game called Three Man. Until someone lost the dice,” one of the girls said, pointing to Harrison, who was still searching behind the couch for them. She was a honey-blonde with mascaraed blue, wide-set eyes and a nose that Taryn knew from her L.A. experience had been slightly modified.
“I give up,” Harrison said, sauntering back over and sitting near Taryn.
“I know a really fun one if you guys are interested,” Taryn said. “Do you have any cards?”
Thatcher and Harrison both jumped up to grab a deck from the nearby casino-style poker table, each trying to get it to her first. Taryn wasn’t sure either of them were really her type, but hey, a little attention from some cool, older guys was never really a bad thing.
“Okay,” Taryn said, beginning to shuffle, “The name of the game is California Kings.”
Taryn reached for the top card on the pile and pulled an eight, which meant Thumbs. She quickly put her thumb on the table, as did Thatcher, Harrison and everyone else until Jenny Lim, a dark-haired Korean girl Taryn had English Lit class with, realized a second too late that she was the last one left.
“Oh shoot!” Jenny said, before bursting into laughter.
“Close call, Jenny,” Harrison said.
“You Lims are all about close calls, right, Jenny?” the honey-blonde said with a tart smile.
Taryn suddenly made the connection. Jenny’s father must be Mike Lim, the Oregon senator who had won the state’s election so narrowly it had to be decided by a recount.
“That’s right,” Jenny said, laughing and appearing to take it in stride, though there was a tightness to her smile.
“Come on, Jenny. Chug it!” Harrison said. As the group cheered Jenny on, Taryn spotted Ellie enter the room, a slightly distressed look on her face. Taryn didn’t know if she and Ellie were still cool after what had happened outside the dining hall after lunch, but she figured she might as well try.
“Ellie, hey!” Taryn called out, flashing her a smile.
“Hi,” she responded a little coolly. But Taryn wasn’t deterred.
“You want to join us?” she asked. “I’m in the middle of teaching all you East Coasters how real drinking games are played.” She gave a teasing look to Thatcher. She wasn’t sure if it was the coconut water rums or the fact that he played a mean game of California Kings, but Taryn was starting to find him kind of cute. Not as cute as Gabe, but definitely on the chart.
“Maybe later,” Ellie said, her eyes already darting around the room.
Taryn felt a flash of disappointment. The success she had had tonight winning over some of the other G.A. students—simply by being herself—had given her hope that maybe there was a way to blaze her own unique path through Georgetown Academy. She had even begun wondering if there was a way she could maneuver herself into a friendship with Ellie and something more than friendship with Gabe without making both of them hate her. But it was seeming like that might not be an option after all.
“Actually, can I talk to you for a quick sec?” Ellie now said. “Privately?”
“But we’re in the middle of a game!” Thatcher exclaimed, putting a possessive hand on Taryn.
“Oh, for god’s sake,” Ellie sighed. “She’ll be back in a minute.”
Taryn flashed an apologetic look to the group and followed her to the corner of the room just out of earshot from some junior guys playing a heated game of Pop-a-Shot.
Once there, Taryn found she had a nervous pit in her stomach. She had a feeling she wasn’t going to like whatever Ellie was about to say to her.
“Look, I just wanted to say sorry about earlier. Outside the dining hall. With Gabe.”
Taryn tried to hide her surprise. “Um, okay. No worries,” she told her, the tension in her stomach dissipating.
“I shouldn’t have brought you into the middle of all that. It was my own private business with Gabe.”
Now Taryn allowed herself to smile. Ellie was as cool of a chick as she thought. Thank god she felt the “who are you going to pick” drama was as ridiculous as Taryn did.
“I’m so happy to hear you say that,” Taryn exclaimed, “because I really would like you and I to be friends.” She hoped she didn’t sound too desperate, but hey, she was the new girl. Ellie had to know she was on the lookout for pals.
“Definitely.” But then she paused and a weird look crossed her face. “But, um, as your friend,” she continued, “I do feel I should warn you about Gabe. He’s not a good guy.”
Taryn couldn’t help but wonder what exactly it was Gabe had done to Ellie that made her hate him so fervently.
“Thanks, but I’m going to try to keep an open mind about it,” Taryn told her, truthfully. Though it was sweet for Ellie to give her a warning, Taryn hated turning other people’s issues into her own. Every story had two sides and she wasn’t willing to write off Gabe unless he did something to upset her personally.
“Taryn! Come on!” Harrison called out, impatiently.
“Go ahead,” Ellie said softly. She had a pensive look on
her face that made Taryn pull her into a hug.
“Great talking to you, Ellie,” Taryn said, before finally walking back to the group.
As they cheered at her return, Taryn couldn’t get the look on Ellie’s face out of her mind.
After three rounds of California Kings, Taryn and the others had moved on to a new game, one Taryn could say she had definitely never played in L.A. The president’s inauguration speech was playing on the television screens, all of them watching intensely. Until the President said “jobs..”
“Drink!” a bunch of them yelled out and Taryn obliged, a laugh escaping. She wasn’t sure how much more of this she could handle. She hoped the president moved away from the economy and onto a safer topic like public parks or something. Maybe it was better just to take herself out of the game for a while.
Taryn got up and Thatcher gave her a questioning look. Now that he was red-faced and sweaty from all the drinking, he was firmly back in the not-cute category.
“Be right back,” she told him.
She was moseying over toward the expansive bar across the room when a dark-haired guy shoved past her, ramming her into the pool table.
“Watch where you’re going,” he said condescendingly, before striding away, not bothering to see if she was okay.
“Are you surprised to hear that charming guy is Brinley Madison’s older brother?”
Taryn turned to find Gabe looking super hot in a plain black tee with an army-green jacket slung over his shoulder. He raised an eyebrow at her and Taryn giggled.
“Of course he is.”
Gabe hesitated for a second. “Um, about earlier today—”
Taryn cut him off. “Don’t worry about it. Ellie already apologized.”
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