Clare turned up to her class after lunch with a look on her face that did not invite questions. Jared was happy to stay silent, sitting a few desks behind the enigma that was Clare Metago, looking at her hair and wondering if he was right in his assessment that it hadn’t been recently washed.
Instead of meeting Adam at his car like they’d planned, Jared sent a mass text to the others, who weren’t in the same chemistry class as he and Clare shared. They were going to stage an intervention.
He still had to get through the last class of the day, a frustrating hour of French, made more difficult by the fact that he was not paying attention. He couldn’t find his motivation for languages in the same way Adam could inspire him to.
By the time the final bell rang, Jared skipped going via his locker and headed straight for the main doors of the building and down to the parking lot. Clare’s sleek little Audi was in her normal space. Even when she was absent, no one else dared use it.
Clare startled when she walked out of the school building and saw the group of people gathered around her car. She’d been ambushed, and by the looks of things, she knew it.
“Where you been?” Chris demanded as soon as Clare got close enough.
From the front, she looked even worse. Her makeup wasn’t as pristine as Jared was used to seeing, and there were dark bags under her eyes. Tiny cracks fissured around her overdry lips.
“Flying high, Big Poppa,” Clare said, her voice raspy. She reached up and patted Chris’s cheek condescendingly.
Chris frowned at her for a moment. Then his eyes went wide.
“You took my shit,” he said and poked Clare in the shoulder. Mia gasped dramatically.
“I always take your shit,” she said, looking bored.
“You gave E to Ryder.”
“Yeah, all right.” It wasn’t a confession. She sounded far too disinterested for it to be that. Instead she sounded almost bored, but Adam recoiled as if slapped. Jared watched as recognition dawned over Adam’s face.
“You gave E to Ryder,” he repeated. “You evil fucking—”
“Bitch, please,” Clare sighed, interrupting before he could finish. She looked down at her nails—which were chipped—then back to her so-called friends. “How was I supposed to know she was going to take it herself? The stupid twat knows she has a heart problem. If she asks me for shit, I’ll get it for her. Same goes for any of the rest of you.”
“I can’t believe you,” Mia said. Her eyes were watery again, and Jared wrapped his arm around her shoulders without thinking about it. “She could have died.”
“Did she?” Clare demanded, clearly knowing the answer.
“That’s not the point,” Adam said. Mia sniffled into Jared’s shoulder, and he rubbed her back in what he hoped was a soothing manner. He wasn’t great with emotional females.
“Look,” Clare said. “I get why you’re upset. But Ryder is a big girl. If she wants a dramatic exit, who am I to stop her?”
“She wasn’t trying to kill herself, you asshole,” Mia said, her voice turning to ice.
“You sure? Who would blame her? Eternal youth and beauty. Isn’t that what we all want? If she wants to pull a Monroe/Cobain/Winehouse, then whatever.”
“No,” Chris said. “Not whatever. Not when it’s my shit.”
“It’s not like you put a serial number on the pills, Chris,” Clare hissed.
Other students had given them a wide berth when walking back to their own cars or to the bus, clearly not wanting to get caught up in what was turning into an intense conversation. Jared was still slightly concerned that someone was going to overhear them, not knowing if rumors would start swirling, whether Clare or Chris would get in trouble if word got out. Or both of them.
No matter how rich Clare’s daddy was, it was unlikely he could get her off a charge of supplying illegal drugs. Especially when someone had ended up in the hospital.
“Have you been to see her yet?” Mia said suddenly.
Clare whirled around. “Why the fuck would I have done that?” she drawled.
“Where have you been, then?” Jared asked.
“I told you,” she said, her grin turning predatory. “Flying high with people other than the diet cokeheads in this town. Unlike some people, I know my limits.”
“Is that why you didn’t show up this morning?” Adam said acidly.
“Please.” Clare tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear. “Like anyone cares.”
“Just because Jared can get away with not turning up to class, it doesn’t mean you can,” Adam said.
Clare glanced to Jared, then to Adam, then back to Jared again. Something flickered across her face, though Jared couldn’t quite catch it. She smirked, and Jared’s stomach clenched. He was suddenly sure she knew something, or at least thought she did. Jared dropped his arm back to his side and tried very hard not to think about what he and Adam were doing when Mia had called from the hospital. What they were on the verge of doing. What he was on the verge of losing.
“You should go and see Ryder,” Mia said gently. “She was asking where you were.”
Clare looked like she was battling something—probably her conscience, though Jared wasn’t convinced she actually had one. Eventually she sighed and nodded. “Fine.”
“She didn’t tell anyone where she got the shit from, Clare,” Mia continued. “She didn’t tell.”
There was a strange, almost childlike timbre to the confession. Once again, Jared was reminded that this eclectic group of people had been friends for a very long time. He looked around the almost empty parking lot and rolled his shoulders, feeling a tight strain across the back of his neck.
“I’m gonna go,” he said awkwardly.
Adam gave him a small smile. “I’ll see you later?”
Clare raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah,” Jared said, not scared of her anymore. This version of
