Wrath

drop the fake smile and stop trying to force perky conversation. She could let her mind wander and try to figure out exactly how she was going to make it through to graduation.

“Before we watch, I want to ask Beth something,” one of the girls said eagerly. It was Leslie, the one Beth had come to think of as her replacement. Though had she ever been that timid and sallow? Claire rolled her eyes, but plopped down on the couch, defeated. “So…,” the girl continued. “What was it like?”

“What was what like?”

“You know,” Abbie said. “It.”

“You and Kane,” Leslie pressed, “what was it like when you…”

“What was it like to have a boyfriend?” Beth asked incredulously. Yes, when she’d been part of this group, they’d all been single-but almost two years had passed. Since then, surely at least one of them had-

“Sex,” Claire said harshly. “They want to know what it was like to have sex.” She scowled at Beth, as if daring her to respond.

“But I-” Beth had been embarrassed by her virginal status for so long that she’d almost forgotten what it could be like, to be part of a group where there was no pressure to be someone you weren’t or go somewhere you weren’t ready to go. For the first time all night, she smiled a real smile. “I haven’t,” she explained, feeling a surge of relief that she could say the words without worrying that anyone would judge her. She’d forgotten what it was like to have girl friends-real friends. “I mean, Kane and I never-and neither did Adam and I, so I’m still a…”

“Virgin?” Claire snorted. “Yeah, right.”

“I am,” Beth insisted, trying to ignore her.

“But,Beth,” Abbie began hesitantly, “we’ve all heard… Kane said…”

“Kane’s lying,” Beth protested hotly. “Whatever he said, we never-”

“And I heard that you were the one who talked him into it,” Leslie said. “That he wanted to take it slow, but-not that there’s anything wrong with that,” she added hastily, catching sight of Beth’s expression.

“Leave her alone,” Claire decreed, and Beth felt a brief stab of gratitude. Very brief, as Claire continued, “Obviously, she doesn’t want to talk about it, not with us. No need to lie anymore, Beth. We’ll just stop asking.”

Beth kept the smile frozen on her face as Claire popped in the movie and the lights went out. It was only then, under the cover of laughter and music and inane dialogue, that Beth was able to move. She crept over their sprawled bodies, and up the stairs to the guest bathroom. Once inside, the door shut and locked behind her, she sat down on the toilet seat, put her head in her hands, and let the tears leak out.

She was losing control.

There were so many people she needed to be. With Adam, the bitter, unforgiving ex; with Harper, the tough rival; with her family, the reliable caretaker. She’d thought that with her old friends she could relax and just be herself, but they didn’t want that. They wanted yet another Beth, a world weary refuge from the popular crowd who could give them the inside scoop on a world they’d never inhabit.

So many masks to wear, and none of them fit, not really. She didn’t know who she was anymore-and she no longer had the energy to figure it out.

Harper was back. So much for skulking in the shadows and hiding under the covers. That wasn’t going to get her anything. It wasn’t going to get her Adam. And it wasn’t going to get her revenge.

So Friday night, she’d whipped out her cell phone and called Kaia and Kane. It was time for a council of war, and these two were battle-tested.

“Nice to see you out of bed, Grace,” Kane commented as they settled into a booth in the back of Bourquin’s Coffee Shop.

“It’s even nicer to see me in it,” Harper quipped, “not that you’ll ever know.”

Kane grinned, and Kaia set down a tray of frothy iced coffees.

“And the plan is…?” she began, arching an eyebrow.

“I thought that was your department,” Harper joked-and then the smile faded from her face. After all, the last plan Kaia’d come up with had led to disaster. It had, ultimately, led them here.

“We all agree it was Beth?” Kane asked, delicately holding the notorious flyer between two fingers as if afraid to get his hands dirty.

“I still say she couldn’t have done it alone,” Kaia pointed out.

“She’s very resourceful,” Harper put in quickly. She’d deal with Miranda-her own way, in her own time.

“You’re the one who always told me she was a waste of space,” Kane reminded her.

“And you’re the one who always told me I underestimated her,” Harper argued. “Obviously you were right.”

Kane closed his eyes and took a deep breath, as if inhaling her words. “Music to my ears. But you sound surprised-when are you going to learn that I’m always right?”

“So, Mr. Right,” Kaia said, leaning forward eagerly. “You know her best-how do we take her down?”

Silence fell over the table.

“If we had proof, we could just turn her in,” Harper mused. But there was no proof-and, besides, ratting her out to the authorities seemed such an inelegant solution. Why pass the buck to the administration when they could handle the problem themselves?

Kane put down his coffee and looked up at the girls, his lips pulling back into a cold smile. “I can tell you what her pretty little heart desires the most this week-”

“Not you,” Kaia and Harper quipped at the same time. Their eyes met, and they burst into laughter. Kane’s expression didn’t change.

“If you two are done…”

The girls nodded, adopting identical we’ll be good expressions.

“As I was saying, if I know Beth, there’s only one thing she wants this week: something flashy that would impress colleges and cement her goody-goody rep once and for all…”

“She could prove to the whole school that she’s the best,” Kaia said thoughtfully.

“All the teachers would love her,” Kane pointed out.

“And she’d get to feel like a VIP, superior to the rest of us,” Kaia added, with a knowing smile.

“Well?” Harper asked in confusion, growing tired of the game. The two of them were having way too much fun stringing this out. “What?”

“That speech for the governor,” Kane explained. “I hear she’s going for it, and she hasn’t got any real competition. Unless…”

“Wouldn’t it be a shame,” Kaia picked up, “if someone stole it out from under her? Someone prettier, more popular, someone she probably thinks can’t string two words together?”

“And maybe she finds out that she can’t just flutter those blue eyes and get everything she wants,” Kane concluded.

“Especially”-Kaia grabbed the flyer from him and tore it in two-“if she’s going to play with fire.”

“And exactly who do you-” Harper stopped as the obvious sunk in. “You want me to write the damn speech? Put on a show for the governor like the principal’s trained monkey?”

“Who better to beat her out than her sworn enemy?” Kaia pointed out. “The one who already stole everything worth having?”

It did have a certain beauty to it.

And Harper did so love to win.

“Are you guys sure about this?” Harper asked.

“Second thoughts, Grace?” Kane asked, arching an eyebrow. “This was your idea.”

“She tried to trash our lives,” Kaia pointed out. “Yours, most of all.”

Harper didn’t want to say what she was thinking-that maybe Beth had lost enough.

“You know Adam would go back to her in a second,” Kaia reminded her. “All she’d have to do is say the word. He thinks she’s so pure, so innocent…”

Beth had brought the fight to them, Harper reminded herself, and after all, what had she really lost? Kane was right: She could have Adam back whenever she wanted. Harper was the one left alone, groveling for forgiveness that might never come.