Tell (23 page)

“From what I heard, it was mutual.”

“Yeah.  It was.  I just thought things might be weird.”

“Why would it be weirder for me now than it was when you were constantly trying to nail my sister?”

“Okay, can you not say it like that?  You make me sound like a big creep.  I was not trying to nail your sister.  I was trying to have sex with my girlfriend.”

“I don’t get the difference.”

“I mean, excuse me for trying to have some sex.  Not all of us have girls climbing into bed with us in the middle of the night.”  Brian was referring to Desiree, who had once spent the night at the Stolarzes’ house under the guise of a sleepover with Felicia.  Shane had awoken at two o’clock in the morning to find her under the covers with him.

“Okay, I may have slept with a few more girls than you, but—”

“Five, Shane.  You’ve slept with five girls.  And you’re giving me grief for trying to sleep with
one
, just because she
happens
to be your sister.”

Shane started to respond, but froze when he heard a noise down the hall.  He cautiously crept to the doorway of his bedroom.  He thought the noise might have been Felicia moving around in her bedroom, but he could not tell for sure.  He quietly shut the door.  “Okay, let’s change the subject,” he said under his breath.  “I don’t want Felicia to hear me talking about her.  She’s pissed enough at me as it is.”

“Why?  What’d you do?” Brian asked cautiously.

Shane sighed.

“
Who
did you do?”

“No one,” Shane answered immediately.  “Yet,” he amended.

“Uh-oh.  What’s going on?”

Shane sighed again.  “Well, there’s kind of been this thing recently… with—Cadie.”

Brian groaned.  “Oh, no.  Not Cadie.”

“Why not Cadie?” Shane demanded.

“Why not Cadie?” Brian repeated incredulously.

“Okay, I know why not Cadie.  But… yeah, Cadie.”

“So, you slept with Cadie?”

“No.  Cadie and I like each other.  And we told Felicia that we like each other and we want to date.  And she freaked out.  And now she’s not speaking to either one of us.”

“Whoa,” Brian commented.  “I’m glad I’m not there for that.”

“Thanks.”

“So you really haven’t had sex with her?”

“Yes.”

“And you really told Felicia that you liked her before anything happened?”

“We kissed,” Shane admitted.  “That was it.  But—somebody—saw us and told Felicia before we got the chance to tell her ourselves.  So when we actually went to tell her, she already knew.  It was like walking into a trap.”

“Like
Return of the Jedi
,” Brian said knowingly.

Shane rolled his eyes, even though he knew Brian could not see him.  “If that helps you.”

“Well, this is an unusual situation for you.”

“Tell me about it.  I’ve never been a Jedi before.”

“I mean, where you actually wanted to tell Felicia before you tried to nail one of her friends.”

“I’m not trying to
nail
her; I want to
date
her.  And it’s not ‘
one of her friends
’; it’s
Cadie
.”

“I don’t get the difference,” Brian returned.

“So you two broke up, but you’re still going to be constantly defending her, is that right?”

“I’ll always care about Felicia.  And so will you.”

“It’s different, though.  She’s my sister.”

“You’re right.  She is your sister.  And she’ll always be your sister, no matter who you’re trying to nail—excuse me, ‘date.’
”  When Shane did not respond, he continued.  “And she doesn’t have a lot of friends—partially because of you.”

“All right, all right.  I get it.  You don’t think Cadie is worth it.”

“Do you?”

Shane’s immediate response was “yes”, but he could not tell which part of him was responding.  He did not say anything.

“All I’m saying is that I think you should think.”

“I am thinking,” Shane replied in exasperation, “but nobody agrees with what I’m thinking and it’s annoying.”

Eighteen

Neither Cadie nor Melody was entirely enthusiastic as they climbed into the car on Monday morning.  They had both pretty much spent the entire weekend moping around.  Melody had been dodging calls all weekend.  Cadie had been hoping for a call from either Felicia or Shane, but she had been disappointed.  Neither sister was looking forward to the day that stretched ahead of them.

“Are we picking up Princess Obnoxious this morning?” Cadie inquired as she buckled her seat belt.

“No,” Melody answered immediately.  “I mean—I didn’t tell her that we wouldn’t.”

“So?”

“So maybe we should.”

“Are you serious?  After the way that girl treated you, you’re still—”

“Cadie,” Melody interrupted forcefully, “I am really tired of hearing about what I should have done about Susan, or what I should do about Susan, or where I should tell Susan to go, or what I should do to Susan’s sunglasses when she’s not looking.  You kept telling me she was no good, and I kept defending her, and she screwed me over, and none of this is lost on me.  Just… I don’t want to hear it, okay?”

Cadie sighed.  “Okay.”

They drove over to Susan’s house in silence.  Cadie pulled up to a stop in front of the Marcuses’ ranch house and leaned on the horn for longer than necessary.

Susan jogged out of the house toward the car.  Cadie turned to look at Melody, and she felt her heart break at the expression on her sister’s face.  Melody had completely blanched, and she looked equally terrified and furious.

Cadie turned to look at Susan again; she was almost at the car.  Cadie made a determined face and a quick decision.  Right as Susan reached out to touch the door handle, Cadie shifted the car into drive and stomped on the accelerator.

“Hey!” they could hear Susan shout as the Ford peeled down the street.  “Where are you going?”  Her reflection in the rear and side view mirrors grew smaller until they rounded the corner and it disappeared entirely.

Neither of them said anything for a few moments as they made their way out of the neighborhood.  Finally, Cadie said, “Sorry you had to hear that.”

Melody’s cell phone rang.  She silenced it.

Andy had called Melody three times that weekend, twice on her cell phone and once on her family’s land line.  She had not answered either call to her cell, and Andy had neglected to leave her a voicemail.  Her dad had answered his other call on the ancient rotary phone in their kitchen.  When he had said Andy’s name, Melody had shaken her head and waved her arms frantically, indicating that she had no desire to speak to him.  Her dad seemed to derive great pleasure in telling Andy that Melody was out “getting jiggy” at a club with a group of guys.

“Why did you teach him how to use the phone?” Melody had asked her mother.

“Because I couldn’t afford a monkey,” her mother had responded.

Susan, however, had failed to call that weekend, which had only served to make Melody angrier.  At least Andy was attempting to own up to what had happened, or possibly attempting to apologize for his drunken rudeness.  Maybe that was why Cadie had had no qualms about driving away that morning and leaving Susan literally in the dust, and maybe that was why Melody had not stopped her.

Susan confronted Melody immediately at her locker before homeroom.  “Um, hello?  Way to leave me standing on the curb this morning.  I had to take the bus.  It was gross.  What got into your sister?”

“Yeah, that was weird,” Melody replied absently, her eyes never leaving the inside of her locker.

“And why is everybody staring at me?” Susan hissed.

Melody glanced around the hallway.  There were a fair amount of people casting looks Susan’s way, and a few trying to whisper surreptitiously behind their hands.  Melody felt a smug sense of satisfaction for a moment; she knew exactly what they were saying.  But anger settled in again as she turned to look at Susan.  “I don’t know,” she answered smoothly.  “Did something happen at the party on Friday?”

A cloud passed behind Susan’s eyes, but just for a second.  “What do you mean?”

“I mean, you disappeared for awhile.  Did something happen?”  She almost held her breath.

Susan shrugged.  “Nothing, really.”

Strike one.   “So nothing happened when you went to find Shane?”

Susan shook her head.  “No.  I couldn’t find him so I just kind of… hung out.”

Strike two.  Melody gave her one last shot.  “You can’t think of
anything
that happened on Friday that you might want to tell me about?”

“No.  I mean, I wish I could have found him, because we totally would have hooked up, but I had absolutely no idea where he was.”  She shrugged.  “Oh, well.  His loss.”

Strike three.  That was three lies that Susan had told in a matter of minutes.  Combining that with the fact that she had slept with Andy on Friday, Melody decided that Susan was out.

She elicited a disparaging sigh as she shut her locker door and turned to look upon Susan’s clueless face.  “The reason people are staring at you is because they think you have the clap,” she said.

Susan’s eyes widened and her jaw slackened.  She self-consciously glanced around the hallway.  “What?” she said in a hushed voice.

“Yeah.  There’s a rumor going around that you have the clap.”

“
What?
  Who would say something like that?”

“Your boyfriend.”  Melody turned and walked down the hallway, then started heading downstairs.  Her homeroom was on the second floor, but for some reason, she just did not feel like she could stomach class today.  As she rounded the bend on the first floor towards the band room, she almost collided with Andy.

“Oh,” she said.  “Hi.”

“Hey,” he said.  He looked uncomfortable.  “I tried calling you a couple times this weekend.  Your dad said you were—at a club.”

“Yes, that’s right,” she said coolly.

“Oh… okay,” he responded doubtfully.  “Well, I had to talk to you about something.  Do you have a second?”

“Sure.”  The word was out of her mouth before she was consciously aware of it, and she wished she could call it back.  She definitely did not have a second to hear about Andy and Susan’s disgusting little tryst in Amanda Teller’s guest bedroom.

“I wanted to ask you something.”  He shifted uncomfortably.

For a second Melody felt sorry for him; he actually looked guilty.  And she was interested to see what he was going to ask her.  “What’s that?”

“Do you know… does Susan have the clap?”

Melody then executed what could only be described as the world’s longest and most dramatic eye roll.  “Talk to you later, Andy.”  She walked off down the hallway.  Andy did not try to call her back.  A few moments later, she arrived at the band room, where Lucas was waiting for her, as she had known he would be.

Elliot was folding up her hideous yellow gym shirt when Cadie walked up behind her in the locker room.  She stood with her arms folded, waiting.  Elliot put the shirt in her locker and slammed the door shut before turning around.  She started and put a hand over her heart when she saw Cadie.

“Hello,” Cadie greeted her frostily.

“Hey,” Elliot answered cautiously.  She glanced around the locker room.  Other girls were still getting changed all around them, and Cadie was aware that absolutely all of them were listening to their conversation.

“I want to know why you told Felicia that Shane and I kissed,” Cadie said curtly.

Elliot raised her eyebrows.  “Wow, you cut right to the chase, don’t you?  I don’t even get a ‘how are you?’ ”

“I don’t care how you are,” Cadie shot back.  “I want to know why you told Felicia that Shane and I kissed.”

Gabrielle Cherry, whose locker was at the end of the row, hastily slammed her locker door shut and hurried off.  Some girls followed her lead, rushing along to avoid being caught in the line of fire.  However, a few lingered, deliberately eavesdropping now.  One of those few, Cadie noted sourly, was Leslie Allen, one of the members of the literary magazine staff who despised Cadie for overthrowing Theo’s rule.

“I just thought she should know,” Elliot responded.

“And you thought it should come from you.”

Elliot sighed in exasperation.  “Well, no.  I thought it should come from you and Shane, but you guys obviously weren’t going to tell her, so I did.”

“We ‘obviously weren’t going to tell her’,” Cadie repeated.  “What made that so obvious to you?”

“Um, how about the way you two were sneaking around like little kids?”

“Oh, okay.”  Cadie nodded slowly, as if this was a great revelation.  “And how long do you think we were sneaking around?  I’m asking you because you seem to have all the facts about the situation.  Since it’s clearly your business.”

“Felicia’s my friend, so that makes it my business,” Elliot answered.

“Right.  I get it.  Felicia’s your friend, so it’s your responsibility to tell her when the people in her life are sneaking around like little kids.  And the best way to do that is not to find out all the facts from the people involved, but to instantly run and tattle to Felicia.  Like a little kid.”

“Don’t talk to me like I’m stupid,” Elliot said fiercely.  “And
don’t
try to make this out like
I’m
the bad guy.  I’m not the one who kissed her brother.”

“Look, I’m not proud of what happened, but I have no reason to explain myself to you.  Shane and I would have loved the opportunity to talk to Felicia, but you beat us to the punch.  I was waiting for them when he brought her home from dance class.  We were going to tell her together.”

Elliot shifted her weight from one foot to the other.  “I didn’t know that,” she said defensively.

“No kidding,” Cadie replied spitefully.  “You didn’t know anything about the situation, you don’t know anything about Shane, and you certainly don’t know anything about me, so why don’t you just mind your own damned business.”

Elliot sighed.  “I was just trying to—”

“I know what you were trying to do,” Cadie interrupted.  “You were trying to play martyr.  You were trying to protect Felicia.  Well, she seems really happy right now, so I guess you did your job.”  She turned to walk away.

“I’m not the one who made out with her brother,” Elliot pointed out again.

Cadie turned back around and looked Elliot in the eye.  “No, you’re not,” she answered evenly.  “I guess that makes you in the right, then.”

When the ball rang signaling the end of fifth period, Cadie and Stacy gathered up their purses and books and left physics lab together.  “So are you still sitting with Felicia and Elliot at lunch today, then?” Stacy asked her as they were jostled back and forth in the crowded hallway.

“I don’t know,” Cadie answered.  “I don’t think either of them particularly wants to see me right now.”  She paused.  “I guess I don’t really want to see either of them, either.”

Stacy shook her head.  “I can’t believe you said what you said you said to Elliot.”

“I can’t believe you wake up in the morning and decide to wear stonewashed jeans, yet here we are.”

“No, I mean it.  That took a lot of guts to confront her like that.”  The two of them started down the stairs.

“You don’t think it was like… bitchy?”

“No.”  Stacy said this forcefully.  “I think you were entitled to say that to her.  Maybe you and Shane didn’t follow the best course of action, but it’s not her place to judge.  Or talk about you behind your back.”

“We talk about people behind their backs all the time.”

“That’s because we’re better than everyone else.”  Stacy awarded Cadie with a big grin.

Cadie felt a sense of trepidation as the two of them approached the double doors to the cafeteria.  Once they were inside, her eyes immediately scanned for the table she usually shared with Felicia and Elliot.  When she saw them, her stomach dropped.  The two of them were both sitting at the round table, but the other remaining chairs had been strategically removed.  She knew they had seen her enter the cafeteria, but they were both making a point of not looking in her direction.

“Real life
Mean Girls
, not so funny,” Cadie said in an undertone.

Stacy grabbed her arm and started leading her toward the other side of the cafeteria.  “Come on.  You’ll sit with us today.”

“Stacy, I don’t really know those people.”

“You got drunk with all of us on Friday night,” Stacy reminded her.  “Really, there’s no deeper form of kinship in existence.  Besides that, you’re Shane’s girl.”

“I’m not Shane’s girl,” Cadie protested.

“Listen, everybody at that table knows what they saw at the party.  And everybody knows that Felicia’s the reason you guys aren’t together now.  As far as they’re concerned, you’re Shane’s girl.”

As the two of them approached the table, Cadie considered what it might mean to be Shane’s girl.  “Okay,” she conceded.  “As long as I don’t have to wear that stupid shirt.”