(unedited)
In a city of fools,
I was careful and cool,
But they tore me apart like a hurricane...
A handful of moments,
I wished I could change
But I was carried away.
"Therapy"- All Time Low
"Are you here for the auditions?"
I turned to see a girl standing behind me with a clipboard. She didn't look much older than me -maybe a year or two- though her clothes and stern expression made her look more mature.
"Oh, uh, no, I'm not a dancer," I replied, glancing around at the long, lean bodies. "I'm just looking around."
Kallie and Brett were filming a vital scene for the latest movie they were working on, and I guess Freya had been too busy to meet up, so I had today free. I had decided to look around some universities in New York. It was my senior year, and I had to decide where I wanted to go after high school, even if it did seem a lot more trivial compared to the fact that there was a murderer in the Elite.
I had gone to Columbia first, where Devon had studied, and looked around. Julliard was my second stop. I didn't do any form of dance, drama, or music, at least not seriously, so I definitely wasn't going here, but it was where Raine had gone so I had decided to check it out anyway.
The girl gave me a short nod and a polite smile. "Just remember you have to submit an application to get an audition with any of our departments."
As she turned away, I caught a glimpse of the papers on her clipboard. It was the audition times, but that wasn't what caught my eye. It was one of the names.
Jenna Tunclet.
She and her mom had said she was going to auditions, and Julliard was one of the best dance schools in the country, so I guess it made sense, but it was hard to believe how lucky I had gotten with this coincidence. The only problem was, I hadn't been able to see what time she was, so I didn't know if there was any chance that I could somehow bump into her and ask her what she meant.... By everything.
"Excuse me?"
The girl turned around again, a slightly irritated expression on her face. "Yes?"
"I have a friend I haven't seen in a while," I said, quickly formulating a lie. "She told me she was auditioning today, and I want to surprise her. Do you think you could tell me when her audition is?"
"I'm not supposed to tell," the girl replied.
Damnit. "Please?"
I could tell I was starting to annoy her now. She would either give in to get rid of me, or call for security. Thankfully, she chose the former. "Name?"
"Jenna Tunclet."
She glanced at the sheet quickly. "You just missed her. Her audition was at two-fifteen."
Damnit. "Thanks anyway."
There goes the plan of asking Jenna to see if she could clarify. I checked my phone. I had only missed her by seven minutes, though. It was possible that she was still here. I glanced around, then chose to go down a hallway opposite of the one I had come in.
I kept a look out, but I didn't want to get my hopes up. Even if Jenna was still here, Julliard was huge, and it would be hard to find her, especially since it was bustling with people who were all tall and thin like her.
I was two seconds away from giving up when I got lucky. I had found the main room of the dance department, it was almost lobby-like, and Jenna was across the room, talking to a woman in a grey suit. She looked to be around her late thirties, with the same long, lean body most dancers had. A teacher, maybe?
I slowed so I wouldn't interrupt their conversation. I didn't want to awkwardly loiter around as I waited for them to finish. Luckily, they looked almost done. Sure enough, Jenna broke away from the woman a moment later. I changed my course so I would intercept her. "Jenna?"
She jumped. "What are you doing here?" she demanded.
"I was just looking at the university Raine had gone to," I replied. "Why'd you leave so suddenly?"
Jenna glanced around. "Let's not talk here," she told me, grabbing my arm and pulling me out of the building. "I'm done with my audition anyway."
"Where we going?" I asked, allowing myself to be dragged away.
She shrugged. "A coffee shop or something, I don't know."
Eventually, we found a quiet café called Kit's Corner. After ordering, we took a seat at a table in the corner of the room.
"So why are you in New York?" Jenna asked, really looking at me for the first time since I had crashed into her.
I hesitated, biting down on the inside if my cheek as I tried to decide what to say. "Family problems. You're here for auditions, right?"
She nodded.
"How'd they go?" I asked awkwardly.
"Pretty well," she replied, with a small, wry smile. "You don't have to make small talk, Elena. Thanks for asking, but I know it's not what you really want to know."
I shrugged and leaned forward. "Why'd you go now?"
She dumped a packet of sugar into her cup and stirred her coffee before for a bit before answering. "That's when they scheduled me."
"But what about...?" I trailed off, not sure if her sister was a delicate subject for her.
"Olivia?" she asked. "I know she's not coming back."
What? Did Jenna really believe her sister wasn't going to survive? I didn't know Olivia's medical conditions but she had looked like she was going to be alright. Okay, maybe not alright, since she had been in a coma, but there was hope, right?
"Not coming back?" I repeated.
She nodded. "I know she won't wake up."
I blinked and stared. "How?"
"They won't let her," Jenna said. She looked away and took a sip from her cup, as if this was a casual conversation for her. I knew it wasn't, though, her hands clenched around the cup, hard enough that she would have to let go or risk the entire drink spilling everywhere.
"Who's they?" I asked.
She let go. "I think you know exactly who I'm talking about, Elena."
"The Elite." Olivia had been involved with the Elite, I knew that for certain. The picture in Vanessa's bathroom, then Jacen's confirmation in the hospital. He had said she had been Ashton's old girl. Though, I wasn't sure what that meant. I had a couple ideas, none of which that really stood out.
She glanced around, then leaned forward, lowering her voice so much that I had to move closer to hear. "Elena, they did something to her. I know it. The Elite hurt her."
"How can you be so sure?" I asked. Not because I doubted the fact that the Elite might have done something- if one of them was capable of committing murder, there was probably no hesitation in hurting someone- but because I wanted to know how much Jenna knew.
"She didn't commit suicide. Or run away. She was happy." She sounded so certain, but at the same time not. Almost list she was trying to convince herself of what she had told me, not just me. She sounded almost desperate to believe it.
I raised an eyebrow. "You can't know that for sure." Who was crazier? Jenna or the Elite? I had gotten warnings about both, though I wasn't sure how reliable the people who had warned me about Jenna were.
"Olivia was my twin. My best friend. She told me everything." She turned away, choosing to look out the window as she continued. "Even things she wasn't supposed to."
"Like?" Does Jenna know about the game?
She sighed and glanced back at me. "She was ecstatic when they started paying attention to her, you know. We were both kind of in awe."
It was weird to think of Jenna admiring the Elite, like everyone else did, since she had been against them, when I had started talking to her. It made sense though. I guess at one point, everyone would've been awed by the Elite. Even I had been a bit curious and star struck when I had first started at Blaire Academy.
I had slapped myself and grown out of it, though, of course.
"They wanted Ashton to fall in love with her. She thought it was cute, that they were setting up their friend. It never struck her as weird. She was always really trusting," Jenna explained. I nodded, even though I hadn't known Olivia personally.
She seemed like that kind of person.
So when Jacen had said Olivia was Ashton's old girl, he had meant she had been part of the game, like me. I didn't know if she had succeeded, but she was strapped to a hospital bed now. And Olivia had also told Jenna about the game, despite the Elite telling her not to.
"I told her to be careful, but she just thought I was being paranoid." Jenna took a measure sip of her coffee, and I noticed a row of crescent indents in the Styrofoam as she lifted her cup.
"Why didn't she believe you?" If they had been so close, why hadn't Olivia taken Jenna's warning seriously?
She sighed, like she had been futilely hoping this wouldn't come up. "I get scared easily."
Like paranoia? I hadn't believed Jacen when he had said Jenna was crazy, but what if he had been telling the truth and everything she was telling me was all in her head?
"I'm not crazy, it's nowhere near severe," she said, as if she had read my mind. "But I do see Devon for a reason."
I decided to let it go for now, because Olivia's story was what I needed. "What happened to Olivia?"
"She stopped talking to me about them after that. Only occasionally gushing about Ashton and Skylar I guess she was closest to them. We didn't talk much after that. She was always with the Elite."
Something about the way she said it made me wonder if the reason she didn't like Elite was actually something they have done or if it was just because they had caused her and her sister to drift apart. Even with everything she had told me I wasn't sure if I could believe her. Or maybe I couldn't believe her because of everything she had told me.
"Olivia told me about the rules, you know. About how she had three months and couldn't sleep with him three times. Two months after everything started she told me she was sure Ashton loved her and that she was going to give it up to him. I told her not to. But she was so goddamn sure of it." Jenna's hands left her cup to clench the edge of the table.
"I wish I had forced her to stay. Because they did it that night. Fucked. Slept together. Screwed. Whatever you want to call it. And she didn't come home the next night. Or the night after that. Two days later, she was gone." She looked up at me eyes wide and glistening, almost desperate. "You can't tell me it was just a coincidence."
I didn't respond. I couldn't. I couldn't even form words. If Olivia had slept with him three times and he hasn't fallen for her, she had failed. And if she had disappeared, right after she had failed... Then that meant the consequence was a lot worse than I had imagined.
I couldn't jump to conclusions, though. Not yet.
"How do you know she didn't just run away because Ashton didn't really love her, and she was upset?" It seemed plausible, sort of.
"She would've told me," Jenna protested. "Besides, she was happy, the two days after, convinced she had made the right choice."
"So he loved her?"
Jenna snorted. "I doubt that. He didn't save her."
"She's still alive," I pointed out.
"Barely." The word blew out with a bitter laugh.
"If they had done something... She wouldn't survive eight months in a ditch." I wasn't sure who I was trying to reason with, Jenna, or myself. Part of me, a big part of me, was starting to believe her, forcing the puzzle together. It was still mismatched, though, and cutting pieces didn't make them right.
She scoffed. "They wouldn't throw her in a ditch. I think they're a lot more classier than that."
"Why aren't you coming back?" I demanded. "Don't you want to know what happened?"
"I lost her once," Jenna said, squeezing her eyes shut. "I'm not going through that again. I can't."
I opened my mouth to respond, then closed it. Nothing I could think of saying sounded worth it. "I'm sorry," I said finally. I had probably just reminded her of everything that she had gone through, and it probably hadn't been an enjoyable trip down memory lane.
Her eyes flew open. "I didn't just tell you as a story time, you know." She paused. "I know you're their new victim."
I smiled wryly. "There's not much I can do about it."
"You can't trust the Elite, Elena. At all," she told me, her tone quiet and harsh.
So I've been told. "I know."
She shook her head. "You don't get it."
"I know I can't trust them, Jenna," I told her.
She ignored me. "It's so easy, trusting someone if you truly want to." She stopped and closed her eyes. Her face scrunched up and she met out a shuddering breath. She looked close to tears. "Olivia trusted Ashton. And he turned around and killed her."
What? "How do you know it was Ashton?"
"I don't," she said. "But it was his fault."
"How?" For some reason, the word slipped out in a more defensive tone than I had intended.
"He didn't fall in love with her," she replied.
I was starting to consider the idea that Jenna was crazy again. "I don't think you can control who you fall in love with."
"There's a reason they wanted him to fall in love with her." The harsh tone was back. "He did something and in the end, it hurt her."
Jenna was fiercely protective of her sister, I could tell that much, but she did raise a good point. Why Ashton? Nathan was taken by Keira, obviously, but why not Jacen? Why had Olivia and I both been asked to make Ashton fall in love with us?
"So you think Ashton did it?" I asked.
"I don't know." The words fell from her lips in an almost helpless, broken tone. But it slipped away with her next words, as if she had never cracked. "They keep everything guarded so tight that Olivia couldn't find anything. Even being around them all the time."
I knew firsthand how closely the Elite guarded their secrets.
"It's better to get out when you can, Elena," she said.
I shook my head. "I don't think I could hide. And running would probably have the same consequence as failing." And I didn't want to die. Or disappear. Not yet, not with so many questions unanswered and so many things unknown.
"I know you might be better equipped than Olivia was, but..." she trailed off.
"The Elite is the Elite," I finished for her. "I know." I finished my drink and simply glanced at her for a moment.
I had a feeling Jenna did a bit of observing herself, especially after the disappearance of her sister. But I still wasn't sure if I could trust her. Right now, I couldn't really trust anyone I had met after the Elite. Everything I found out was a jumbled mess of potential truths and poisonous lies.
"Thanks for telling me," I said finally, gathering my stuff. "Good luck with everything." I moved to stand up, but her voice stopped me.
"I know you lied to my mom, Elena. About us being friends," she said.
Ouch. Not that it had been unexpected, of course. "I'm sorry." I owed her an apology for that much, at least.
She shook her head. "I know you were looking for information." She paused. "Just..."
I turned to look at her. "What?"
"Just be careful where you go digging, Elena," she said. "Or you might find yourself in a grave."
-- ♡ --
Teaser: "Some people will do anything to keep their secrets buried six feet under the ground."
QotC: Do you think Elena can trust Jenna?