11
turned. He walked me back to my friends near the fireplace, all of whom were already gathering their purses.
"You guys wanna bail?" he asked.
"My hero," Noelle said wryly.
"Inyour car?" Taylor asked, her eyes still wet.
"Yes, in his car. What do you think, he's gonna hijack a helicopter?" Noelle snapped.
Taylor looked at Kiran, who rolled her eyes and finished the wine she'd grabbed back from the mantel. "Just what I need," she muttered.
What the hell was wrong with these girls? Were they really that put out by the fact that they'd have to spend a couple of hours in a car that wasn't a limo? Five minutes living my life at home and they'd probably all break out in hives.
"Where are Dash and Gage?" Josh asked.
"Who cares?" Noelle said, abandoning Dash, who was her boyfriend, with two words. "They're big boys. They'll live without us. Let's just get the hell out of here."
"Constance?" I said, turning to her. "Wanna come?"
Constance looked warily at the four girls surrounding me--the four most powerful girls in all of Easton. Apparently the idea was too intimidating for her to handle.
"Actually, I'm supposed to have dinner with my parents and the Whittakers tonight," she said finally. "They're bringing me back."
"Really?"
12
Under any other circumstances, this news would have made me smile. Constance blushed. "It was our parents' idea."
Later, when I had the energy and the motivation, I would have to grill her about this. But for now, she was off the hook. The good news was that I could tel
l that all the Whittaker-related tension between us was gone for good.
"Okay. I'll see you back there," I told her.
Then I did something I had never done before. I voluntarily hugged a person.
Suddenly, I couldn't wait to get out of this place. I could practically taste freedom. On our way out, Ariana veered off course, away from the door.
"Where are we going?" I asked.
"Reed, we have to pay our respects," she said over her shoulder. "We're not heathens."
Great. Exactly what I wanted to do. As we approached the family, Mrs. Pearson chatted with a horse-faced woman with capped teeth and a widow's peak.
"Well, yes, of course. This is the only time of year to be in Paris. Any other season it's just overrun with tourists," Mrs. Pearson was saying.
"Trina hasn't considered herself a tourist in any part of Europe since the day she bought her first couture," Thomas's father added, sharing a chuckle with his friend.
"We'd be there now, if it wasn't for this," Thomas's mother said, gesturing blithely at the room.
13
My heart was in a vise. There was no way. There was no way these people were standing there joking about their travel habits and dismissing Thomas's wake as an inconvenience. Suddenly, I couldn't breathe.
"Screw them. Just get it over with," Noelle said in my ear as Ariana politely shook the Hands of Evil.