Tell (22 page)

“Oh,” she said finally.  Then the weight of what he had said settled over her.  “OH.  Shit.”  She repeated herself to emphasize her point.  “
Shit
.”

“That was kind of my reaction.”

“Well, what did you do?”

Shane shrugged.  “I told Amanda that Susan had the clap.”

“
What
?”

“I was just trying to help!”

“How does that help?”

“It’s funny!”

Cadie sighed.  “It’s funny, but that doesn’t help.  I’m going to have to get Melody out of here before she finds out.”

“Okay.”

She stared at him.  He was looking at her so calmly that she began to get annoyed.  He had deliberately pulled her into this dark room, had gotten her completely riled up, then had dropped a bomb on her.  And now what was she supposed to do?  She could not stay here with him.  She had to go find Melody. 
Damn him,
she thought.

“Okay, I’m going,” she said, turning to leave.

“Hey, before you do—”

His lips were on hers before she had turned back around.  Fortunately, his arms went around her as her knees gave out from underneath her, and she fell against him in the embrace.  He lifted her—not onto her feet but off her feet, turning around and sitting her down on the bathroom counter, his lips never leaving hers.

His hand went to the back of her neck, holding her tightly and pressing her mouth more firmly against his.  Her hands wound their way into the thicket of his hair.  Her brain was screaming at her to stop, but she could barely hear her thoughts over the rushing sound that had filled her ears from the moment his lips met hers.  Her skin felt scalded everywhere his fingers touched, and she was almost certain her lips would be bruised from the intensity of his kisses.  She was breathless.  If he kept kissing her like this, she would surely faint.

The hem of her skirt had travelled up her leg several inches when he had lifted her onto the counter, and he rested his hand on her now bare thigh.  His touch caused her to shudder so violently that she broke their kiss.

They stared at each other in the darkness.  His skin was almost white by the light of the night light, and his green eyes seemed to be burning through hers.  She could see the pulse beating in his throat as his hand slid further up her thigh.  Her breath caught when his fingertips slid under the hem of her skirt, then stopped.

Cadie nervously moistened her lips.  She slid back on the counter, letting her knees fall apart slightly as she did so, and looked at him expectantly.

She knew by the look on his face that the invitation was not lost on him.  His left hand slipped to the small of her back while his right hand continued sliding up her thigh.  She shivered, causing goose bumps to break out all over her skin.

His fingertips had just brushed her cotton underwear when they heard pounding on the bathroom door.  “Hello?” a male voice shouted.  “What’s taking so long?”

The two of them froze in that compromising position.  Neither of them spoke for a long, painful moment.  Finally, Shane looked up at Cadie and said sedately, “Please tell me that was your talking underwear.”

She grabbed his hand and pushed it away, then hopped off the counter.

“Cadie,” he said quietly as she began adjusting her skirt.

“I have to go find my sister,” she answered stonily.

She chose to leave through the master bedroom, not wanting to be seen leaving the bathroom with Shane, particularly while she was so flustered.  She set off in search of Melody, feeling guilty, embarrassed, and terribly unsatisfied.

Melody had searched the basement, the backyard, and the entire first floor again.  Somehow at this party she had managed to lose Andy, Susan, and her sister.  Everyone around her was becoming increasingly inebriated, and it was starting to annoy her.  She wanted to go home.  She decided if she found Cadie before Andy, she would simply ask her sister if they could leave.  At this point, she was so over this party that she figured she could deal with whatever had happened with Andy another day.

She sighed as she began to climb the stairs to the second story.  Cadie had volunteered to search upstairs for Andy, so Melody figured this would be as good a place as any to go.  The first door on the left was closed.  She looked at it, reluctant to open it, but Melissa McClellan and Christina Cogan were involved in a heated argument at the other end of the hallway, and she figured the closed door might be a better option.

Melody opened the door cautiously.  The lights were off.  She started feeling around on the wall for the light switch as she pushed the door open the rest of the way.  Right as her fingers found the light switch, the overhead light from the hallway illuminated the room just enough so that the bed, and the people on it, were visible.  She dropped her hand from the light switch as a burning sensation spread throughout her stomach.

Andy and Susan were asleep, or perhaps passed out in an alcohol-induced stupor—she could not tell.  The sheets were tangled around them, their clothes strewn throughout the room.  Susan was lying
facedown, her left arm dangling over the side of the bed, bare back and legs exposed.  Andy was on his back, hands folded across his naked chest, head turned to the side, snoring lightly.

“Melody!”

She turned to look down the hallway.  Cadie pushed between Melissa and Christina, who barely even took a breath.  Melody saw a look of horror on her sister’s face that most likely mirrored her own.  Shane followed her, his expression grim.  In that second, Melody knew that they both knew what had gone on in that bedroom.

“I’m going to be sick,” she said to no one in particular.

“Melody!”

She turned and clamored clumsily down the stairs.  She had not had anything to drink, but anyone who would have seen her stumbling down the steps would have thought otherwise.  She could hear Cadie’s footsteps falling behind her as she took off towards the front door, bile rising in her throat.  She barely made it outside before she fell to her knees on the sidewalk and heaved.

Cadie was by her side, gathering Melody’s hair behind her head as she threw up in the grass.  “Can you get her some water?” Melody heard her ask of Shane, who jogged back into the house.

Melody’s vision blurred, and she put a hand over her face as she cried desperately.  She sat back on the sidewalk as Cadie stroked her hair.

“I’m sorry,” Cadie whispered.  “We were looking for you to get you out of here.”

“I’m so stupid,” Melody sobbed.  “You were right about her.”

“Look, I knew she was a douche bag, but even I didn’t expect her to be this much of a skank.”

“But it was him, too,” Melody continued, wiping her face with her hands.  “I can’t believe I ever thought…  He never even cared.  He wanted Amanda the whole time.”

Shane returned, holding a red Solo cup filled with water.  Melody turned her face away, unwilling to let him see her like this.  He handed her the cup and she took it wordlessly.

“It was my fault,” he said.  “She was hitting on me.  She was stupid drunk.  I put her in that room and told her to wait for me.  I didn’t know Amanda had put Andy in there earlier for the same reason.”

“It’s not your fault,” Melody responded.  “You didn’t make them… do whatever the hell it is that they did.”

“He told Amanda that Susan had the clap,” Cadie offered hopefully.

“Really?”

Shane nodded.

Melody sniffled.  “Well, that’s kind of sweet, I guess.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes as Melody drank her water.  Finally Cadie tapped her on the shoulder.  “Come on.  Let’s go home.”

Once they had gotten close to the car, Melody let go of Cadie’s hand and walked off towards the Ford alone, leaving Cadie with Shane on the front lawn.  The noises from the house were muffled, but they were hardly alone outside.  Deirdre Baxter and Stephanie Damon scampered by, holding hands and stumbling in their heels on the grass.  They could hear people shouting from the backyard.

Cadie turned to Shane, as if searching for an explanation for everything that had happened that night.  He looked back at her, his eyes shining in the dim light.  He reached out to touch her chin with his fingertips and bent forward.  As heated and as passionate as their first kiss had been, this one was purely soft and tender, though left Cadie equally as breathless when he pulled away.

“We have to tell her,” he said with quiet urgency.

“I know,” she answered softly.  “Tomorrow.”

“Really?”

“Yes.  I’ll come over in the afternoon and we’ll tell her together.”

He drew her to his chest and kissed her forehead before turning her away.  Cadie walked to her car and climbed inside.  The engine started and the worn blue Ford pulled out and disappeared down the street.  Shane turned and walked back toward the house, his hands in his pockets.

Seventeen

Shane had dropped Felicia off at dance class early, at her request.  She wanted to have a few minutes to talk to Elliot about her experience at the ridiculous party she had decided to attend.  She climbed the stairs of the dance studio and opened the front door.  Elliot was stretching in the far corner, where the two of them usually warmed up together.  Felicia could not be sure, but she felt like the room went quieter when she walked in, as if everyone had been talking about her but stopped once she arrived.  And she was positive that Lauren was staring at her as she walked across the room.  All this almost distracted her enough to not notice the worried look on Elliot’s face.  Almost.

“What’s going on this morning?” Felicia wanted to know.  She thought she heard her name whispered behind her and turned to look over her shoulder.  The other girls were deliberately not looking in their direction.  They seemed far too innocent to be innocent.

Elliot was not looking directly at her, either.  She was staring into her bag as she rifled through it absently, though Felicia was relatively certain that she was not searching for anything in particular.  “I have to tell you something,” she said abruptly.

Felicia felt the blood drain from her face.  She had been thinking about Elliot now for a long time.  She had been trying to avoid it, but scenarios kept materializing in her brain when she was least expecting it.  None of the scenarios, however, had to do with Elliot talking to her about it right before dance class when there were half a dozen other girls in the room.  Oh, God.  What was Elliot going to tell her?

Elliot took a deep breath and finally looked Felicia in the eye.  “It’s about Cadie and Shane,” she continued.  “I think… I think there might be something going on there.”

Felicia was completely thrown.  “What?” she asked.  She shook her head rapidly, as if trying to shake a bug off her nose.  “No.  Cadie wouldn’t do that. 
Shane
might do that, but Cadie wouldn’t do that.”

“Felicia, I seriously think that the two of them are… like, hooking up.”

“They’re just friends.  You’re jumping to conclusions.”

“I’m not jumping to conclusions.  There was no need to jump.  I was in the hallway waiting to use the bathroom and there conclusions were.  I practically tripped over them.”

“What are you talking about?” Felicia demanded.

“Felicia—I saw them go into a bathroom together last night at the party.  They came out separately, but they definitely went in together.  So I kind of followed them downstairs.  And right before
she got in her car to leave…”  Elliot took another deep breath.  “He definitely kissed her.”

Felicia felt like her arms were filled with lead.  “You—you saw him kiss her?” she repeated woodenly.

Elliot nodded.

Felicia swallowed dryly.  She dropped her bag on the floor next to Elliot’s and stood still for a few moments, trying to gather her bearings.  This was not what she had been expecting to discuss with Elliot that morning.  She did not know what she had been expecting, but it had not been this.

Cadie and Shane.  How could she not have seen it before?  Why would Cadie do this to her?  Was she upset that Felicia was no longer spending as much time with her?  Was this some desperate plea for attention?  And what about Shane?  She had thought he had grown out of his childish game of trying to nail all of her friends, but obviously he had not.  Was this some delayed consequence of Felicia dating Brian?  Was he still angry about that, and that was why he had gone after Cadie?

And why had she bothered to trust either of them?

“I have to go to the bathroom,” Felicia said out loud.

Elliot stood.  “Do you want me to come with you?”

“No,” she said flatly.  “I’ll be right back.”  She turned and walked stiffly from the room.

Elliot watched Felicia go.  Then, from across the room, she caught sight of Amanda glaring darkly at her.  Elliot narrowed her eyes in response.  “Can I help you?” she said loudly, causing a few of the other girls to turn and stare.

“You shouldn’t have told her,” Amanda shot back.

Elliot was caught off guard; she was unaware that anyone else had overheard their conversation.  Then she realized that it was likely that, since the party had been at Amanda’s house last night, she was completely aware of the Shane/Cadie situation and had gathered that that was what Elliot had told Felicia.  She was annoyed that these girls knew about her and Felicia’s private conversation.  “Excuse me, who do you think you are?  Why do you think this is any of your business?”

Elliot expected Amanda to shy away meekly, but she did not.  She stood up straighter and folded her arms, then retorted, “Excuse
me,
but why do you think that it’s any of
your
business?”

Cadie was sitting on the Stolarzes’ family room couch when Shane and Felicia returned.  She stood when they walked through the front door.  Her eyes immediately went to Shane’s face when they came in; his expression was cautious, guarded.  She felt a little chill go through her when she saw Felicia’s face.  Normally Felicia walked through life with an expression of detachment and disinterest, but today, she seemed cool and calculating.  Cadie swallowed nervously when Felicia’s eyes met hers.

“Hi,” Cadie greeted them.

“Hi,” Felicia answered.

“I wanted to talk to you,” Cadie said.

“You wanted to talk to who?” Felicia responded.  “Me or Shane?”

“You,” Cadie responded, taken aback by the question.

“Oh,” Felicia said.  She turned to look at Shane, who was standing behind her in the doorway.  “Are you staying for this?”

“Yeah,” he answered.  “Yeah, I’m staying.”  He crossed his arms over his chest.

“Okay.”  She turned back around to face Cadie.  “Then, shoot.”

Cadie swallowed again and looked at Shane over Felicia’s shoulder.  She could tell that he thought something was up, but he just shrugged at her.  She took a deep breath, but was unable to remember how she had decided she was going to start this speech.  Something about how she and Shane had been spending a lot of time together—something about how they never intended to put Felicia in this situation—something about—

“Is this about how you guys have been fooling around behind my back?” Felicia asked flatly.

Cadie felt the blood drain from her face.  She looked at Shane again.  He just raised an eyebrow at her.  She looked back at Felicia.  “Well,” she began slowly, “it’s more like, we wanted to talk to you about the possibility of us—dating.”

“So… you’re asking for permission to date my brother?”

“Um—”

“What is this, nineteenth century England?”

“What?”

“Or, you know, some other time where they needed to ask permission to date people.”

Cadie stared at her.  “What?”

Felicia turned around to address Shane.  “Why is she asking and not you?  Isn’t it the guy’s responsibility to ask for permission to date the girl?”

“Well, I never asked for permission before, and I didn’t want to set a precedent,” Shane responded without missing a beat.

Cadie glared at him.  He was not helping.

“When were you going to tell me this, anyway?” Felicia demanded.  Her voice was no longer flat; in fact it had risen perilously as the conversation continued.

“Um, now?”  The entire situation felt surreal to Cadie, as if she were dreaming it.

“Why now?  It’s been going on for awhile, hasn’t it?”

This time even Shane looked confused.  “No, it hasn’t,” he spoke up.  “We wanted to talk to you about it first.”

“Oh, really?  So you guys weren’t making out last night at Amanda’s party?”

Shane and Cadie glanced at each other.

Felicia shook her head.  “I knew it.”

“You didn’t
know
it,” Shane said condescendingly.  “Last night was the first time anything happened. 
We
didn’t even know it.”

“Oh, and obviously I believe that,” Felicia said sarcastically, “since you guys have been so honest with me.”

“We’re
being
honest,” Cadie shot back.  She tried desperately to remember her original speech.  “Look—we never meant to put you in this situation—”

“You never meant to put me in this situation?” Felicia repeated incredulously.  That was clearly the wrong thing for Cadie to have said.  “What situation did you intend to put me in?”

“Believe it or not, it wasn’t about you,” Shane answered.

“How could it not be about me?” Felicia shouted, standing and turning to face Shane.  “My brother and my best friend hook up and you’re telling me that it’s not about me?”

“Everything isn’t always about you, Felicia,” he retorted.

“Well, don’t stand there and pretend like it’s about her,” Felicia replied.

“Hey,” Cadie interjected, finally feeling like she should say something.

“Well, come on!” Felicia exclaimed, whirling to face Cadie.  “You can’t possibly think this is based on anything real.  He’s playing you, Cadie!”

“Hey!” Cadie repeated loudly, standing.

“Lay off, Felicia,” Shane said darkly.

“I will
not
lay off!  Cadie, you know he’s just doing this to screw things up between you and me!”

“Excuse me?”

“What?  Like that thought hasn’t crossed your mind?”

Cadie furrowed her brow.  The thought
had
, of course, crossed her mind, but the fact that the thought had immediately crossed Felicia’s mind infuriated her.  “You can’t talk to me that way,” she snapped.

Felicia narrowed her eyes.  “Are you seriously mad at me?”

Cadie thought for a second, then nodded.  “Yep.  I think I am.”

“Why?  What am I supposed to have done?”

“I don’t know—maybe I tried to come over here and be a good friend and be honest with you and try to have an actual conversation with you about something, and you blow up in my face and basically insinuate that the only reason the guy that I like is involved with me at all is because of
you
,” Cadie said in one long breath.

“I can’t believe
you’re
accusing
me
of being selfish, because I’m pretty sure that
you’re
the one who’s fooling around with
my
brother,” Felicia shot back.

“Okay, I’m gonna go,” Shane said.  “I think this is getting too heated, even for me.”

“No, don’t bother,” Felicia said.  “I’ll go and let you two lovebirds be alone.”

She stormed out of the room and upstairs.  The sound of her bedroom door slamming left a ringing silence in the family room.

Cadie and Shane stared at each other helplessly.  This morning, she had been nervous about talking to Felicia, but that feeling had been slightly quelled by the feeling that she might actually have found something real with Shane.  Now, as she looked at Shane, she only felt angry, guilty, and strangely hollow.

“I’m gonna go,” she said, retrieving her purse from the couch cushions.

“Yeah,” Shane responded in a strangled voice.  He was not looking at her.  But as she walked toward the front door, he stopped her.  “Hey.”

She turned to look at him.

He extended his phone toward her, and she read the text message on the screen.

FYI, Elliot told Felicia about you and Cadie.  Amanda.

“Oh good,” Cadie said brightly.  “My life was too uncomplicated before.” 

On Sunday afternoon, Shane was lying on his bed face-down when his cell phone rang.  He jumped for it, hoping that it might be Cadie.  He was surprised to see Brian’s name on the screen, but far from disappointed.  Quite frankly, when it came down to it, he missed his friend.

“Hey!”  He realized he sounded way too excited and toned it down a notch.  “How’s it going?  How’s college treating you?”

“It’s pretty great so far,” Brian responded.  “My roommate’s a little weird, though.”

“Oh, really?  Weird how?”

“He’s like completely socially challenged.  He doesn’t seem to understand that just because we’re roommates doesn’t mean we need to share everything.”

“Like saliva?”

Brian laughed.  “No, I mean like toothpaste.”

“He uses your toothpaste?”

“Yes.  And once I realized he was using it, I started hiding it in my dresser, right?  So then he was all, ‘Where did you put the toothpaste?’  How about it’s
my
toothpaste, jackass.  What does he think, that we’re married?”

“Even married people don’t use the same toothpaste,” Shane pointed out.  “Like that commercial where the guy wants germ protection and the girl wants whitening power, and then they advertise the toothpaste that has both, even though you think the commercial is going to be for a divorce lawyer.”

“I know, right?  What a lunatic.”  There was a brief pause.  “So you’re not pissed at me for breaking things off with Felicia?”