Chapter Three
I got back in bed just in time to find my phone vibrating on it. Tessa was calling.
"Girl," I sighed into the phone. "I miss you."
"Aw, I miss you, too, sweetie. Did you just get back?"
"Pretty much. I was just getting into bed to take a nap."
"Good, you’ll need it. I’m still at work but I wanted to check in.” I could practically hear her smile through the phone. “Aww, it feels different talking to you when I know you’re home!"
"I feel so weird being here," I confessed.
"Well, Bloomfield isn’t New York," she said, putting on a thick and funny accent when she said it. "You’ll have to forgive us common folk for being so drab, darling."
I laughed.
"Okay, business. I only have a few minutes," Tessa said. "Statesmen. Tonight. Alumni thing. Everybody will be there, et cetera et cetera."
I saw myself stepping up the stained carpeted stairs of the dingy Statesmen Bar and Lanes in my new heels and my black dress and having everyone's jaw drop. I imagined Audrey Lipman and her bitchy accolades there. I hoped they had gained their freshman ten—or thirty!
But there was a problem. "We’re not twenty-one."
"They don’t really care. Anyway, I’ve been hanging out with one of the bouncers."
"Which one of the bouncers?"
She was silent. I could practically hear her chewing her lip. "Bill Houston."
"Shut up!"
"Leave me alone. What about you? Is Mr. Billionaire Wonderful in town?"
I groaned. "Just got here."
"Oh. Yeah. That’s so depressing.” I knew she was rolling her eyes at me. “Come off it, would you? I know your twisted little secrets."
"You mean your crazy little fantasies?" I laughed.
"Handsome. Fit. Charming. Who cares if he sleeps next door and calls you sister?"
"Only you wouldn’t care, you sicko."
"If he was my stepbrother, I would be all over it. Especially if he was worth a billion dollars."
"I don’t doubt it, but he isn’t as wonderful up close," I said.
"Here we go.” She sighed. “I really didn’t miss hearing you complain about him, so don’t feel obligated to do it now,"
"Yeah well, he didn’t throw you to the wolves you first day of high school and ruin four years of your life," I said, sounding a little exasperated.
"This story is never interesting. I’m hanging up now. I get off at ten so I’ll pick you up around eleven, okay?"
I sighed, then said goodbye and snuggled into my bed sheets again.
Tessa liked to make fun of me, but it was true. James really had destroyed my high school life in one day. Not that he noticed or cared.
***