Project Dance

Chapter 3

"He just... left you there? On his doorstep?" Pamela asks, toying with her straw.

The bubbles swirl lazily in the winter melon tea as she swishes the straw.

She's dressed in her running outfit: dark green Nike shorts, a white halter, and flashy pink-high tops that she somehow managed to coax her notoriously strict mother into buying for her (seriously, Mrs. Valazzo puts Lane Kim's mom to shame).

Her strawberry blonde hair is plaited and her white halter sets off the tan she got canoodling in the Maldives over the summer. 

Pamela's been my ride or die for years. I befriended her on the first day of school, freshman year. She had been the new girl, freshly arrived from Ontario and a first-timer at American school.

"Yeah," I say, snapping out of my reverie. My anger renews, and I take a sip of my own Thai milk tea. "Like, he could've at least invited me in to talk."

"Liam Bernstein, eh?" she says. "Always knew that kid had issues."

"He was so... so smug," I say, exasperated.

"Yeah, well, he's the son of the richest man in Santa Fe. Of course he has a superiority complex. What's up with his brother? Why did Jason break up with Helene? They were like the it-couple to end all it-couples."

Of course, I haven't told Helene just yet about my disastrous encounter with her ex's brother. However, she has spent the last few days holed up in her room, refusing to talk to anyone. 

I'm still baffled as to the reasons why Jason would break up with my sister, and why on earth his brother of all people would break them up. What kind of asshole does that?

"Helene just told me that Jason said he didn't have time for a relationship,'" I tell my friend. "He's apparently going to study abroad in Cambridge."

Pamela shakes her head, clucking her tongue. "I'm going to look up Jason and his brother on Instagram. Just so I know who the hell we're dealing with here."

I watch as she types their names into the search bar, scoffing when they both pop up immediately.

She clicks on Jason's account first, scrolling through his dull photos at various tennis clubs, college events, and other rich people things. He has deleted all photos of him and Helene together from his feed.

Next, we cyber-stalk Liam. I look over his page with more scorn than his brother's as Pamela scrolls. He doesn't have much posted, only a few sparse photos of him on vacation in the Mediterranean. They're all so innocuous, so innocent, that I want to throw up in my mouth. If only his two thousand followers knew how brazenly rude he is in real life.

"That's enough," I say, louder than necessary.

Pamela tucks away her phone. "Cel... I understand that you're angry at them right now. But you can't hold this grudge forever. You'll get tired of it eventually."

I shake my head. "You're so annoyingly... reasonable, all the time. Until I at least know why, I don't think I'll ever drop the grudge."

"You've always been stubborn," my friend says fondly, her light blue eyes twinkling. "Just make sure you know what you're getting yourself into. That family is scary. I mean like, really scary. They've gotten teachers fired at our school for speaking out of turn. It's like the freaking mafia."

I nod. "I know. My sister has been dating a member of that family for years. Which is why I'm sort of relieved that they aren't together anymore. But I will find a way to speak to Jason and Liam. And when I do, they will both regret the day they decided to mess with my sister."