Chlo,
NO WAY.
Ugh, I just threw up a little in my mouth. Lola and Will? Gross. To think he was the better one out of all of them. I knew he had his drawbacks, I thought it was just picking up a lot of girls. But maybe there was more to it.
Wait - so let me get this straight - Will told you? So you're speaking? This is new! Tell me more. I hope he's ditched level one, please tell me he isn't hanging around them anymore. Please.
Love, Mon
The mall was a fifteen-minute drive from school, twenty minutes in the heavy traffic. I arrived early after figuring it wasn't worth heading back in the opposite direction to go home and change. Instead, I roamed past the shops, pausing at a cafe to pick up an afternoon coffee. While I was waiting for my order, my eyes skimmed over the magazine rack and found today's paper.
Curiously, I strolled over and picked it up, flicking through the thin pages to find the financial section. As I'd expected, half of a page was taken up by an all too familiar article, my eyes drawn to the picture of two smiling businessmen.
Davenport Senior had his hand gripped onto Greene Senior's shoulder. Lola and Francis's fathers, happily presenting their latest figures. It had been two years since their businesses merged and created one of the most influential financial insurance companies of this period. It was no surprise their children were locked together. After all, they couldn't have a break up taint their alliance.
Coffee in hand, I met Maddy outside of a Victoria's Secret store. She was waiting, leaning against the wall in thigh-high boots and her plaid school skirt, her black hair raised in a high ponytail and her face dimpling as she smiled in greeting.
"Hey, Chloe. Thanks so much for meeting me!" she said. Unexpectedly, she wrapped her arms around me in an extravagant hug, barely managing to not spill my coffee.
"Thanks for asking me to come along," I said, even though I knew I was a last resort.
"So do you have something to wear?" she asked, not hesitating to start strutting down the mall with me in tow, her attention turned towards the windows of the extravagant designer branches.
"No, nothing in particular," I said honestly. "Not yet at least."
"Well that's perfect," she said, flashing me her teeth in a glamorous grin. "We can both find something."
We ducked into a small boutique, one hidden away in a corner. Despite its small entrance, its interior was large and inviting, spaciously decorated with different items of expensive looking clothing. Upon recognizing Maddy, the clerk stood from where she'd been knelt by a shoe rack and embraced her in a hug.
"Mads! How can I help you?"
Maddy grinned at her. "I have a party tomorrow." Then she gestured to me. "We have a party tomorrow."
"Ah." The clerk gave a knowing glance before pointing at a collection of dresses in the corner. "Louise has a new range in over there, if you want to wear one of her designs we'll put in the complimentary material half price."
"Deal," Maddy said, my presence ignored as she waltzed over to the mannequins.
The clerk disappeared into a back room and I awkwardly followed Maddy's trajectory around the designs.
"Complimentary material?" I asked, unable to hold back my question with the curiosity pulling at my mind.
Maddy's eyes flicked devilishly around us before meeting mine again. "They supply really good coke here. Lola wanted me to pick up enough for us girls before Saturday. And Louise loves it when we wear her stuff, she puts in extra."
Luckily my coffee cup was now empty, because it escaped the grasp of my fingers and fell to the floor with a hollow thud. Coke? This shop, here in the middle of the mall, sold cocaine?
"Oh, okay," I said, as if drugs weren't completely out of my comfort zone. Of course, I was aware that level one did drugs at parties. They talked about it using secret names all the time. But so, I never realized what they did was so heavy or so dangerous. I'd just thought it was weed or something.
"Try some tomorrow, it's great," she said casually, oblivious to my internal battle. "So what do you think, strapless or halter? I don't want my boobs to look saggy."
I gulped. There was no way I was going to do drugs with them. "Um, halter?"
"Good thinking," she said, unknowing of how misplaced I felt. "You know, I'm thinking lace for you. You seem like a lacy person. Maybe a Sabrina neckline?"
"Sure," I said quickly, with only a vague idea of what she meant. I was starting to feel stupid for acting so bewildered. She'd notice if I didn't pull it together soon.
Although the drugs had really thrown me off, I was here for a reason. Information. "So, have you got your eyes set on anyone at the moment?"
Maddy's smile grew a little. "Oh darling, I'm too young to set my eyes on someone. I'm a free spirit."
Well, she must be pretty damn free if that extended to sleeping with Francis Greene.
"But don't let that put you off of boys," she continued. "Will's a really good guy, you're lucky to have him."
"Lucky?" I pushed, letting my hands roam over the tulle dress in front of me, the fabric rough between my fingers.
"Yeah, I mean, he's a little less crude and gross than the other guys. Oh, Chloe, not that one, it would make you look... you could look much better. You need something much more figure hugging."
My hand fell from the dress I'd been observing and I paced over to another one instead. My mind was still focused on the conversation. "He is really great. Only..."
I let my sentence trail off, building up the suspense I needed for the delicate topic I was about to broach.
"Only?" she asked after a few small seconds. I could practically sense her gossip radar pulsing.
"You can't tell anyone," I said, my words accompanying a reluctant sigh. "It's just, Lola said something..."
"Lola?" Maddy asked, frowning in confusion. But even her nonchalant facade wasn't good enough to hide the spark of interest capturing her eyes. "What did she say?"
I hesitated. "She, um, just mentioned that she may have slept with Will. I don't know, I don't want drama, and I don't want to cause any bad blood. It just had me-"
Maddy's laugh drowned out the rest of my words, her body language full of reassurance as her arms fell around my shoulders. "Oh, sweetie, Lola and William? Nuh-uh. She's probably just saying that to mess with you."
My cheeks flushed, my embarrassment playing the part. "I knew it was just silly."
I'd gotten a snippet of what I wanted to know. She didn't know about them.
"Lola can just mess with you sometimes," Maddy continued, picking out a black piece hidden deep in the rack she was scanning. "Oh my god, try this on."
I let the dress fall into my arms as she continued to wander. Maddy was tall, her legs long, and I found myself scurrying to keep within hearing range.
"Really, she's just trying to be funny. To test you, you know? I mean, we don't know anything about you. You've just kind of appeared on us all of a sudden." She let out a frustrated sigh, reaching the end of the rack and letting her hands fall to her sides. "Can you help me find something, please?"
Clothes didn't exactly come easily to me. I usually just stuck to the brands with the highest price tags in order to blend in with Arlington's high fashion. I used that as my guide as I glanced over the dresses in a nearby display. The higher the price, the more likely she'd like it.
"How about this?" I suggested, pulling out a deep red dress with more than triple figures.
Her eyes roamed over it in one sweep. "I'll try it on."
She picked up a few more pieces that she'd looked at before, and we went into the large fitting room that was decked out with plush couches and bouquets of white roses. As soon as I was safely in the confines of a cubicle I let go of the tension I had been building in my shoulders. I missed the security of having William by my side. I didn't realize how much easier it was to have him to fall back on if I said the wrong thing.
I fumbled with the zipper of the dress, terrified to damage it. My credit card would easily cover it, but I was more worried about offending the shop-assistant-come-drug-dealer than the monetary cost.
The dress Maddy had picked was beautiful, the delicate black lace creating contours in my rectangular body shape. The length would probably induce some questions from my mother, but the lace traveled to my collarbones, hiding my cleavage. The long sleeves helped cover extra skin too, which helped me feel a little less vulnerable.
I heard the door beside me open and so I ventured out too, slightly in awe of what I was wearing. I felt silly, like I was in costume, pretending to me someone much more extravagant than I was on the inside. But that's what I'd been so used to doing lately; disguising myself as someone else. Chloe 2.0.
"You're so buying that," Maddy said, her eyes wide as they searched my body. But then she regained composure and quickly brought the attention to herself. "Can you help me with the strap? Ugh, this dress is so tight."
She was wearing the maroon dress I'd chosen, and I felt a little nervous at the probability of her not liking it. I mean, it represented my taste. And if I had terrible fashion sense then it could hinder my chances at breaking into the girl's group.
I helped her loop the strap at the back, and then she stepped in front of the huge mirror. I mean, I thought it looked good, its texture complementing her dark skin and its cut making her body look fit and toned. I held my breath as she twirled. "Okay, I look hot."
I smiled in relief as she gave an excited sound of glee and pulled my waist towards her so we could both pose in the mirror. My reflection looked bombarded, but my smile was wide and my cheeks were rosy with adrenaline.
We paid for our items and I noticed Maddy received a special package wrapped in pink crepe paper and tied with a silky white bow. It unnerved me, and I cringed when the shopping bag holding it, held tightly in Maddy's manicured fingers, bumped across my hand as we walked out of the store.
"I'll see you tomorrow night then, yeah?" she asked, pulling her keys from her purse.
"Of course," I said, pumping my tone up with energy.
"I can't wait! Thanks for shopping with me, babe." She leant in and air kissed my cheek before giving an enthusiastic wave as we headed in opposite directions. I couldn't help the paranoid thought that she was making fun of me from lingering in the back of my mind.
Later that night I was in my room, going through my wardrobe for some shoes to match the dress, when a vibrating noise stemmed from my sheets. It was odd for me to receive calls, especially so late in the evening. Frowning, I fished through the covers of my bed for my phone.
It was William. "Hello?"
His breath was raspy, as if he was calling in the middle of something. "Hey, so some bad news-"
"What?" Dread filled my chest and I slumped on the bed.
"Dela came over to my house, she was asking about you."
"Dela?"
"Lola," he corrected. Right, Dela for Delores. He even had a nickname for her. "She's digging."
"That's not good," I said through gritted teeth. Maybe if I'd known she'd have personal reasons to find information on me, I would have been more prepared for this.
"I think I put her off, but..." he trailed off, letting out a sigh, "She's not going to make this easy over the next few days."
"What makes you think that?" I asked.
"We haven't spoken in months – not one-on-one, anyway – and then she just came over and she was nuts. She just—" he cut short, his tone an octave off what it usually was.
I could sense he was worked up, it was obvious. "Where are you?"
He let out a breathy laugh. "Don't think this is weird but I'm actually out the front of your house. She just left and I was going for a drive and then I thought of you, to warn you. But then I didn't want to come in if you were busy, it was more an in-the-moment thing."
"Oh," I said. "Where were you going?"
"Nowhere in particular," he said. "I was just going to clear my head. She's... complicated."
The line was silent for a moment as I nibbled my lip, trying to decide whether my instinctive reaction was reasonable. In the end, it won out. "Well... if you want some company, I could join you."
There was more silence, and I was sure I'd pushed our alliance over the fragile border that was keeping it together. Then, there was a long exhale through the speaker.
"That'd be really good actually."