I Swear (12 page)

I stretched out my legs and leaned back against my headboard, then I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and told her.

•  •  •

First day of freshman year, Macie stayed over the night before. We made a list of the It Crowd for that year based on the pool party. “Let’s review,” said Macie. “You, me, Jake, Bradley: freshman class royalty. New girls: Beth—gymnast, undecided cool factor. Leslie—slut who wants Jake.”

“Oh, c’mon, Macie. Leslie is not a slut. We had fun on vacation this summer.”

“Don’t know her. Don’t trust her. Did you see the way she hung all over Jake?” Macie scowled. “Just because your parents like her parents doesn’t mean she makes the cut.”

“I really think she and Jake are just friends,” I said.

“They won’t be for long,” said Macie. “I swear, by the time I’m through with her, he won’t know she exists.”

Brad walked Macie and me to lunch that first day. As we headed down the stairs, I saw Beth walking ahead of us and called her name. She stopped and turned around. A shy smile crossed her face—almost a look of relief.

“Hi, Jillian,” she said. “I was just getting worried about where I was going to sit.”

“Well, stay away from that Leslie girl,” said Macie. “That’s
my advice to you. Pretty much any other table will do.”

I shot Macie a look. “Come sit with us,” I said.

The cafeteria at Westport was gorgeous and new. The whole building had been remodeled and the back of the room was two stories of glass that looked out onto the football field. Trees and a green lawn swept up to the doors, and on nice days like today, the tables on the patio under the trees were filled, too. It looked like the football team was out there, and most of the swim and gymnastic teams as well. The cheerleaders were hovering in between tables on the patio, orbiting the football and basketball players, then touching base at the row of tables just inside the doors.

Jake and Leslie were hanging out by the front doors where we walked in with Beth.

“Hey, you guys!” He waved us over.

“Hi!” Leslie was all smiles. She hugged me and then Brad. Beth fidgeted and looked at the floor. It looked like she was blushing, but I couldn’t be sure.

“Where have you been all my life?” Macie asked Jake, ignoring Leslie completely.

“Hanging with the commoners.” Jake smiled.

“How about this weekend we get together and see what we have in common?” Macie raised an eyebrow as she threw down the gauntlet.

Jake’s sideways smile peaked the corner of his mouth as he shook his head.

“Have to take a rain check on that one, Macie. Chemistry is gonna kill me this semester and we’ve already got homework. Besides, Leslie and I have a guitar lesson on Sunday, and the rest of the time, I’ll be at practice. Brad and I are the new grunts on the team. Have to show ’em we’re in shape.”

“Speaking of,” said Brad, “Derek wants us out on the patio, pronto.”

“Duty calls.” Jake winked at Leslie. “Call me tonight and let me know what time works for guitar on Sunday.”

“See you, Jake’s sis . . . ,” said Brad with a smile. He knew it drove me crazy when people referred to me in terms of Jake. Like my brother owned me or something.

“Are you talking to me?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he said. “Pretty sure I am.”

“I’m Jillian,” I said, then pointed at Jake. “He would be Jillian’s brother.”

“Got it,” he said with a big grin.

Jake rolled his eyes. “Dude. Did you just use the Dazzler on my sister? Really?”

“Shh!” Brad stage-whispered. “Don’t give away the secrets of the big smile.” He winked at me as they walked away.

“Well,” said Macie, watching them go. “Somebody has an eye out for you, Miss Jillian Walker.”

“Oh, whatever.” I laughed. Beth smiled. “No, I think she’s right, Jillian.”

“You two wanna join us?” asked Leslie.

“Oh, we’d love to,” said Macie. “But Jillian and I have a ton of work to do in order to be ready for class elections in two weeks.”

“Wow!” said Leslie. “Ambitious. I thought about running, but I checked out the website a couple weeks ago and realized there’s not much time to build a platform—especially when you’re new.”

“Yeah,” said Macie with a weird smile. “It’s easier when you have a little brand recognition going for you already.”

“Well, good luck,” Leslie said. “If you need any help, I’ll be over at Jake and Jillian’s this weekend. I’d be happy to pitch in making posters or whatever you need.”

I opened my mouth to say thanks, but before I could, Macie jumped in. “Coming, Beth?” Her question was a command.

Beth sprang forward to follow us, and as she did, I saw Leslie’s face fall. I knew she was hurt. Macie had claimed me, and now she was taking Beth. As we left Leslie alone at the door, I managed a smile and a wave over my shoulder before tripping into the corner of a table as Macie dragged me away.

“Ow! Macie? What was that?” I asked.

“Sorry, ladies,” she said, addressing with a smile the girls at the table I’d smacked into.

“No worries,” said a girl with short bangs cut straight across her forehead. Her bloodred lips and nails matched her trendy, vintage cat’s-eye glasses. “Hey, you’re Macie Merrick, aren’t you?”

“Sure am,” Macie said. “I’m also
starving
, which is why I tried to drag Jillian here through your table instead of around it. Low blood sugar hampers my depth perception.”

“My parents voted for your dad for mayor. I’m Krista,” she said.

“Awesome,” said Macie. “Totally great. Are you freshmen?” she asked.

All four of the girls nodded.

“Even better,” said Macie. “I’m running for class president, and Jillian here is going to be my VP candidate.”

“That’s so cool,” said Krista. “Hey, do you know that girl that you were just talking to?”

“Not really,” said Macie.

The girl with the red hair sitting next to Krista piped up. “Oh, that’s too bad. I was hoping you could introduce us. That girl with the blond hair is so pretty.”

Macie cocked her chin and raised her eyebrows. “Well, isn’t that sweet. And your name is . . . ?”

“Kelly,” she said, extending her hand.

Macie shook it. “Well, ladies, anyone can be that pretty.”

“What do you mean?” Krista laughed. “I’ll never look like that. That doesn’t just happen overnight.”

“It most certainly does,” said Macie.

Blank stares—all around.

“Oh, puh-leease,” Macie scoffed. Then, in a conspiratorial whisper, she added, “Do you really think that puberty is that
gracious to anyone? Those tits are a hundred percent silicone.”

“Really?” Kelly’s eyes were wide like lightbulbs. “Whose mom would let them do that?”

“You’re kidding, right?” said Macie with a stifled laugh. “Have you seen her mom’s rack? Linda Gatlin, real estate agent. Google her on the way to fifth period. Same doctor did the surgery. And from what I hear, Leslie paid for those in person.”

“Wow. Impressive,” said Krista. “Where did she get the money?”

“Who said anything about money?” Macie asked, a gleam in her eyes. “Apparently, the doctor got a great deal on a house and had a special buy-one-get-one-free deal for a mother/daughter combo.”

“Oh my God,” said Kelly.

The girl across the table from her let out an “Ew!” while the other slowly slid her phone out of her purse and started sending a text.

“You’re joking,” said Krista flatly. “She paid for tits with ass?”

Macie doubled over laughing. “Oh my God. You’re hilarious,” she said to Krista. Then the smile left as quickly as it had come. “But you didn’t hear it from me, girls.”

“Do you want to eat with us?” Krista asked.

“Well, that depends . . . ,” said Macie.

“On what?” asked Kelly.

Macie reached into her bag and pulled out a Sharpie. “I
think we should let Leslie know what we think of sluts. Maybe on her locker, say, first thing in the morning?”

Krista looked at the Sharpie in Macie’s outstretched hand, then looked up over her glasses with a grin.

“Atta girl,” said Macie. “You’ve got potential, Kristen.”

“It’s Krista.”

“Whatever. We’ll see how you do tonight, and if it goes well, I’ll work on names tomorrow at lunch.”

“Macie! What are you doing?” I hissed as she pulled me away from the table.

On the other side of the vending machines, Macie stopped and burned holes through me with her eyes.

“I’m winning,” she said softly. “It’s what I do.”

“But . . . Leslie didn’t have a boob job—”

“How do you know?” said Beth. Macie and I both stopped and turned around. We’d forgotten she was following us.

I saw a slow smile spread across Macie’s face as she cocked her head and looked once more at the tiny gymnast.

“Beth’s exactly right, Jillian. Look around you. None of these students knows anything about us. Our whole class is a blank slate. The story gets written this week. The future of high school is set in the next four days. Get on board, or tell me now, and I’ll find a new class vice president. Krista seems pretty resourceful, and Beth here is beginning to impress me.”

The next morning, the word “WHORE” showed up in big, bold black letters scrawled across Leslie’s locker, and
Leslie didn’t show up for first period. When she walked into geometry second period, a general hush fell over the room. Then the talking started again, only this time in whispers. She saw me sitting in between Macie and Beth. She looked at me strangely, then settled into a desk across the room.

Krista walked up to our table at lunch and placed the Sharpie on Macie’s tray. Macie saw the crimson fingernail polish and grabbed her wrist, which made Krista jump. Macie raised her eyes and winked.

“Where are you going? Sit.”

Krista smirked and sat down with her lunch bag. “Thanks,” she said.

“Nice work,” said Macie. “Oh, and don’t look now, but here comes Thunder Boobs.”

“Didn’t have to look,” said Beth. “Felt the ground shaking.”

Macie laughed so hard she almost spit out a mouthful of water. She was choking and coughing and pounding her chest as Leslie walked by, and just as she passed, Macie coughed the words, “Kill yourself.”

Leslie wheeled on us. “What?” Her eyes were smoldering.

“Easy, Thunder Tits,” said Macie. “Don’t you need to go scrub your locker or something?”

Leslie smiled. “I’d love to chat, Macie, but Jake is waiting for me.”

Macie narrowed her eyes as she watched Leslie go. “Not for long he’s not.”

•  •  •

“So our little Beth is no dummy. She decided to hitch her ride to the Macie Merrick bandwagon,” Katherine said.

The phone was warm against my ear. I really wanted to hang up. Suddenly I was angry.

“Sort of the way you jumped on Macie’s bandwagon?” I said. I was tired of Katherine’s smugness, like she was somehow above all this.

“What are you talking about?”

“Oh, I don’t know, Katherine.” The sarcasm in my voice was thick, but I couldn’t stop myself. “When I got back from summer vacation before junior year, suddenly I’d been replaced on the student council. What did she promise you?”

“This isn’t about me and you anymore, Jillian. This is about all of us. I just think it’s weird. Everybody says that Leslie and Beth seemed really close before school started, then Beth just ditched her?”

“Maybe you should ask Beth,” I said.

Katherine sighed. “Okay. Look, Macie wants us to get together tomorrow night to discuss—just the girls. Is your place okay? After Beth gets done with practice around eight?”

Another call buzzed in, and I looked at the screen. It was Brad.

“Sure—that’s fine. Sorry, Katherine—that’s Brad. He’s hopeless with calculus.”

“Mm-hmm,” she said. “You should probably get that. See you tomorrow.”

I frowned as I clicked over.
What was that tone in her voice?

“Hey,” I said.

“I’m on my way over.”

“What? Why?” I dropped my voice to a whisper, but I couldn’t contain my grin. “Is Jake with you?” I asked.

“He will be,” Brad said. “He’s in the bathroom right now. We’ll leave in five minutes. When you hear him come in, meet me on your sidewalk a few houses down. We have to talk.”

“Brad? Is everything okay?”

“No,” he said. “It’s not.”

I heard a door open behind him, and he hung up.

•  •  •

I climbed into Brad’s truck four houses down from ours and he eased off the curb and turned around to head away from our windows.

“What is going on?” I asked.

Four blocks away from our street, he pulled to the end of a darkened cul-de-sac and switched off the lights.

“Who knows?” he asked quietly.

“About . . . what?”

“Us,” he said.

“What?”

“Jake?” he asked.

“What about us—that we’re . . . ?”

“Yes, Jillian!” he said, his voice raised. “Yes . . . that we’re . . . whatever we are.”

“No,” I said. “Jesus, Brad. Why are you yelling?”

He reached over and grabbed his iPad off the seat of the truck and handed it to me. I looked at him.

“What?” I asked.

“Open it,” he said.

I flipped open the magnetic cover and the screen blazed to life. I slid the lock off and entered his password—my birthday: 0723. The screen slid into place—an email shined into my eyes. There was no subject, and just a single line of text:

The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

I looked at Brad, confused. “What does this mean?”

“Scroll down.” Brad put his forehead in his hand and leaned against the driver’s-side window.

I flicked the email up with a swipe, and pictures flashed into view. A girl being kissed by a guy. In a car.

My car.

In the parking lot of a Starbucks.

It was us.

18. KATHERINE

On the way to Jillian’s the next day, all I could hear in my head was Aunt Liza telling me not to show my cards, but I could feel the unrest in my stomach and I knew that if I didn’t take deep breaths and stay calm, this whole thing could crack right down the middle like a cake on a cooling rack.

When I walked through the door, they were all looking at me. It was just the girls tonight.