Luminosity (Gravity Series #3) (The Gravity Series) (7 page)

“It’s deeper than that. I mean, what if I get into school, and I can’t even draw a straight line?” she asked.

“That’s not going to happen,” I said firmly. “Once you’re living back in Illinois, away from all this, things will be better.” I switched the subject, not wanting to make her too uncomfortable. “At least you have Alex there for you.”

“Yeah, but he thinks the whole world is too critical and I’m just queen of the special snowflake girls.”

“That’s sort of sweet. I wouldn’t mind that.” I neglected to say that sometimes Henry made me feel that way, which made a little pain stab my heart from missing him. It also made me feel like a big sap. What was I turning into?

“It is sweet, but it’s the kind that’s
too
sweet, like eating a whole bag of Halloween candy,” Theo said.

“You’ve done that before.” I pointed at my chest. “I was a witness.”

Theo laughed a little. “Yeah, and then later I got really sick and yakked all over. He’s just too overprotective when it comes to me…I feel like he’s smothering me. And there’s a lot of tension when it comes to school, I mean‪—”

Without warning, a distraught Lainey Ford rushed out of the nearby bathroom and slammed into Theo. I caught my friend before she could fall completely, and Lainey stumbled away as though drunk. The lack of apology was no shock.

Madison Taylor, never far behind, almost took me down but Theo and I dodged out of the way.

“We were walking here,” Theo grumbled, rubbing the impact spot on her arm. She pushed the empty space on the bridge of her nose again.

I expected Lainey to whip around and eject one of her trademark snotty comebacks, but she was too engrossed in her current predicament. She looked like she’d only flattened one side of her pale blonde hair, the other a frizzy, unruly puff. Her cocoa eyes were dazed and full of stars. She’d obviously been caught off guard and hadn’t known how to react to it.

“Why can’t you leave it alone?” she accused Madison. “I don’t know why you’re suddenly so worried.”

“I don’t know why you suddenly quit caring,” Madison fired back.

I’d never seen her stand up to Lainey in our entire school career, since Lainey was normally the boss. I’d also never seen the usually ditzy, dripping-in-hot-pink Madison look so serious.

“Just let the past die already, instead of reliving it over and over,” Lainey said.

A crowd of girls began to gather around us to watch the drama unfold. Chatter started up as the girls held their hands over their mouths like children. Theo and I exchanged a curious glance, not making a move.

“You’ve changed so much,” Madison said. “You’re like a different person. Even on the outside, you’re colder.”

“I haven’t changed at all,” Lainey said, but her body language betrayed her. She crossed her arms over her chest tightly and dodged Madison’s eyes. “You’re just jealous that I’m having so much success with Thornhill. I knew this day would come.”

“I’m not jealous, at all. I have a right to ask questions,” Madison said, protuberant eyes searching her friend’s face. “If it’s not a big deal than why are you making it one?”

Lainey didn’t respond. She had finally noticed the eager onlookers. Horrified, her head swept in a full arc, eyes widening more with each inch. A severe blush stained her cheeks all the way to her dainty ears.

“Stop, Maddie,” she said under her breath, but Madison wouldn’t be deterred.

“Ever since your family hooked up with Thornhill, we’ve been pulled apart. I get that Ambrose’s death was hard on you….”

“You have no idea,” Lainey snapped, whipping back around.

“But I
do
,” Madison pleaded. “I’m your best friend, remember? I kept you in tissues for two weeks. But it doesn’t all add up. Until you can tell me why Jenna Reed’s necklace was found by your parents’ dock…..”

“Enough!”

“I’ve been keeping this inside for months, Lain. There’s—”

“I said enough!” Lainey screamed like a banshee, rushing forward and clapping her hand over Madison’s shocked mouth.

She accentuated the next syllables with little shakes to Madison’s head. “I don’t want you to speak to me again. I should have listened to my parents. They told me you’d never be loyal. Born from rats, stay a rat.”

She released Madison and the girl staggered back, tripping and crashing onto her backside with her platform shoes in the air. She stared up at Lainey in astonishment as she towered above her.

I’d been so caught up in watching Lainey and Madison that I hadn’t noticed Harlow Briggs up against the wall, observing the fight unfold. In a tailored, blue suit jacket and skinny jeans, she reminded me of a precipitous icicle, ready to drop. She grinned, ducking her head like she’d heard a dirty joke.

Lainey glowered down at Madison, fists in hard knots, delivering the final verbal blow. “We’re not friends anymore. We never should have been.”

Lainey left Madison on the floor with tears silently spilling onto her cheeks. She and Harlow strutted off. The mass of onlookers, seeming satisfied with their fill, broke into groups and wandered away to salvage lunch.

In ten minutes, the whole school would know different versions of what happened.

The broken girl scooped herself up, sobbed hard into the back of her hand and fled back into the ladies’ room.

“That was ugly,” Theo declared. “Guess true love really doesn’t last forever.”

“Guess not.” I agreed, staring at the door Madison had gone through. I didn’t know what we had just witnessed, but I was determined to find out.

CHAPTER 6

THEO SLUNG HER
bag over her shoulder and checked her My Little Pony watch. “Let’s go, lunch is almost over and there are breadsticks calling me.”

She attempted to shamble off, arms outstretched Frankenstein-style, but I grabbed the back of her patchwork sweater.

“Hold on. Let’s do some detective work,” I suggested.

“How so?” she asked, quirking one eyebrow.

“Let’s grill Madison about what caused that fight. Something serious must have set it off. Didn’t you hear them talking about Thornhill and Jenna?”

“If you want to fraternize with the enemy, that’s up to you,” Theo said, pointing in the vague direction of the commons. “I’m going to get some grub.”

“Suit yourself. I can’t believe you’re not more interested.”

“Oh, I’m interested; I just hate that girl,” Theo clarified, her expression going hard. “When Lainey sprained my ankle, Madison thought it was the funniest thing she’d ever seen. I wouldn’t trust a word she said. That doesn’t mean you can’t tell me everything she says after school, though.” She grinned at me.

As she disappeared towards lunch, I took a deep breath, wondering if I had the courage to talk to Madison alone. I told myself she was the least intimidating of the popular clique.

After Ambrose’s body had been found during the school dance, Madison had come to my house. I didn’t really understand why at the time and still hadn’t grasped it completely. We’d had a brittle truce since then, staying out of each others’ way.

In the bathroom, Madison was clawing through her huge pink purse that she’d set on top of the row of sinks. She glanced up and grimaced at her own reflection. Black rivers of mascara ran down her red cheeks. The barrette in the back of her golden hair was askew.

She heard the door shut as I entered and turned around. When she saw me, she rolled her eyes and sniffled. “What do you want? I’m kind of really busy.”

Tipping her purse upside down, she dumped the contents into one of the sinks. More than a few items clattered to the floor. She swore, but made no move to pick anything up. Instead, she leaned on the sink and rubbed her temples, resting her head against the smudged mirror glass.

“I couldn’t help but see you and Lainey arguing. Are you okay?” I asked.

She assessed me quickly with suspicious eyes. I stayed by the door, ready to dodge oncoming projectiles.

“You saw what happened. What do you think?”

“Not okay.”

“She’s been getting so wrapped up in the Society.” She started scrubbing the mascara veins off of her cheeks with wet paper towels. “Now that Harlow is here, she spends every day with her and the Thornhill mommies, going to exclusive parties and meetings. She told me today that we should only hang out when we’re at school, to preserve her image. And I’m supposed to accept that? After everything I’ve done for her, how can she say I’m not loyal? I was the one who lied for her when her parents went ballistic about her sneaking around.”

“Sneaking around?” My interest was piqued.

“Yeah, just being stupid. Parties and getting wasted, whatever. It’s not like they don’t do the same thing, the hypocrites. Her dad is gone every night, doing who knows what.”

Barbie Girl
erupted unexpectedly from the floor. Madison scrambled through her scattered field of junk and plucked her phone from a Kleenex box.

She slammed it against her ear and instantly forgot I existed. Gathering most of her stuff back into her purse, she swept out past me.

“Can you believe it?” she asked the caller. “Who did you hear about it from?”

Great. Just as we were scratching the surface. The door banged shut behind her.

I looked down at the floor, shaking my head. I swallowed a shocked scream. Blood was smeared on the blue and white tiles. I blinked. The floor was clean again…as clean as a high school bathroom could be, at least. I leaned down and looked closer, but there was nothing there, not even a speck.

I almost never went into this bathroom. A silent prayer always left my lips when I passed by. A little girl named Susan—one of the bodies found with Warwick at his arrest—was kidnapped at the Halloween dance before last. Her blood was found on this floor, the only sign she’d been there.

I didn’t want to linger in the creepy bathroom, but an instinct warned me not to hurry out. In her rush, Madison had left a lot for the janitor, including broken makeup containers and used index cards. Feeling like a dumpster diver merrily sifting through a trash heap, I searched around.

Madison’s school planner had fallen behind the trash can. I slid it out. It looked like it had never been used. The school issued them to everyone yearly. I flipped through it, not expecting much.

Madison had scrawled her phone number in the
In Case of Emergency
section. I quickly programmed the number into my phone for later use. The rest of the pages were empty until I reached the very back portion. Madison had scrawled some notes in her loopy, too-big letters, the I’s dotted with hearts.

Won’t answer my questions. Was Ambrose involved? Obsessed w/Jenna. Lainey gone that weekend. Did Bruce Slaughter’s money pay off police? Jenna’s necklace must have dropped there when putting her in the water. No one answers questions. Warwick just ‘a fluke.’

I was a little taken aback. She really did suspect them, and more deeply than I’d assumed. But why weren’t the police following up on Ambrose? I’d told them what I knew, leaving out the parts about ghosts and visions, of course.

Ambrose and Jenna had the beginnings of a romantic relationship; although she wouldn’t tell me much, knowing I wouldn’t approve. Lainey had loved Ambrose for years before Henry moved to Hell. I found Jenna’s necklace by the Ford family’s dock. I thought maybe Lainey had helped Ambrose and Warwick cover up the dumping of Jenna’s body.

But if she had been gone that weekend…

I dropped the whole planner into my purse and stood to leave. A girl was standing silently behind me in the mirror reflection. I whipped around. There was a shadow in the stall where the girl had been. As I moved closer, the unnaturally thick shadow swayed and twitched.

I took a few more steps towards the stall. The temperature dipped much lower, going arctic. White vapor formed from my rapid breath, and my teeth began to chatter. My heart beat frantically, warning me of danger. The shadow continued to twitch, just inside the door.

“Hello?” I called, but I was only a few steps away. There was nothing casting the shadow. Suddenly, a black bird flew out towards my face, red eyes blazing. I screamed, covering my head with my hands and cowering. The bird cawed angrily, and I heard its wings flap past me.

Then there was only silence. I didn’t dare look for a few seconds. The bell for class jangled above me, and I finally peeked. I was alone again in the bathroom—no shadow, no bird, no blood on the floor. I ran out and didn’t look back.

###

I couldn’t let the detail of the police ignoring Ambrose’s involvement go unchecked. It nagged at me until I was able to leave school. I bypassed home in favor of the police station, rushing right up to Detective Stauner. He had his back to me and was speaking casually with some of the officers.

“Why aren’t you using the information I gave you?” I burst, not waiting for pleasantries. The officers occupying their desks rotated towards me, wearing annoyed expressions.

Stauner turned, a perplexed look on his face. “Hello, Ariel. Haven’t seen you in a while. What is it that’s troubling you?”