Kelly frowned when she saw the text.
"How rude…what a total loser…"
Donna felt more frightened. After all, she held the phone in her hand after Kelly had showed her and it'd promised death.
"Kelly how could you say that? Someone just threatened to kill us. Some faceless person with a grudge who knows at least one of our secrets."
Kelly just sighed.
"I'm more pissed that we were called skanks. That's so not true at least not with me…with some of us like Brenda and…"
Donna threw her a harsh look.
"Kelly how can you say that? You just wished Brenda dead."
"I did not…besides how would you feel if she stole your boyfriend?"
Donna put a hand on her hip.
"Wait a minute…didn't you steal him from her when she and I were in Paris?"
Kelly shrugged.
"She was cheating on him anyway with that whole deal about pretending to be French. God, I'd never stoop so low to get a guy."
Donna just looked at her and her revisionist attitude. After all, Kelly had done used some questionable tactics to get her talons into quite a few guys. Not David thankfully even though they shared the same household. No David had been screwing around on her with the cheerleading squad and all because she wouldn't put out. How could he do that to her she asked not for the first time.
"Kelly, you and Dylan still made out on the beach," Donna said, "You had your hooks on him even though she was your best friend."
Kelly wrinkled her nose.
"You can't be serious. We were never best friends."
Donna just rolled her eyes and went to go hit the liquor cabinet because she couldn't sleep and she needed a Shirley Temple. Kelly just took the phone back and stared out the window. She knew that this just had to be a prankster out to make the popular kids feel guilty for not accepting losers in their ranks. Yes, there were some exceptions like David…but he'd reinvented himself totally to win approval and Kelly still had her doubts about him.
Donna returned with her drink and Kelly thought she needed something harder like some whisky but she knew better to ask because Felice had been counting every drop since the last slumber party.
"Like some?"
Kelly just shook her head and stayed by the window.
"Anyone could be watching us right now," she said, "There are so many perverts out there."
Donna sipped her drink.
"I'm more worried about the one who wants to kill us if he's a pervert."
She knew that it had to be someone who really wanted to mess with them first before killing them. Donna couldn't figure out who'd want to ice her because she led a life so boring she'd had to apologize for it more than once. Yeah there had been her mom's sordid affair in the hotel but that had gotten her about 15 minutes of attention.
"Donna…it's got to be a joke. Who'd want to kill a bunch of high schoolers? Even if we are the coolest ones in Beverly Hills."
Her friend bit her lip.
"I just know it's for real," she said, "I just can't figure out what secret it is that they know about can you?"
Kelly shrugged.
"I've got so many being so cool and mature of course for my age," she said, "but no one knows about them…except about Jackie being a stoner."
Yeah that had been exposed in a very big way during the mother/daughter modeling show where she'd coked and liquored herself up before hitting the stage. It'd been in the Blaze the next week complete with photos of her mother passed out in the bathroom.
But she'd survived that one revealed secret and she'd survive a stupid prankster as well.
"Donna don't get so worked up about it," she said, "It'll prove to be nothing, you'll see."
But outside, something waited in the darkness.
Steve had hit up Camilla at the escort service because he'd been jilted by Celeste for the hundredth time. He had almost fallen in love with the beautiful girl he'd met on the game show but once he got her into bed, he realized what an insecure nag she'd turned out to be. No reason to be so worried about him. So he looked at other girls or anything that filled out a tank top, so his tongue hung out as a shapely woman with big curly hair walked by him.
He was a man after all.
But her latest rejection stung and he'd thought about yanking out his fake ID and heading to catch some pole dancers in action at that new club. Then he had another idea…he'd hit up the new dating service on Sunset and hit the nightclub. Camilla's girls were legitimate, just escorts involved in no hanky panky but he figured that was just a cover. He'd find out soon enough, he thought as he sat in the plushy sofa in the lounge awaiting the girl who'd be his (wink, wink) date for the evening.
Cindy had dressed up in her body hugging pants and shirt. She didn't have much up front but she made up for it with some padded lingerie. She knew how to move too and Camilla had told her she might just prove to be more popular with the men than previously thought.
Older women were so in these days because they carried sophistication and experience without the hang ups and that appealed to many of Camilla's clients both younger and older. Cindy had made so much in commissions she'd socked enough away to pay both the double mortgage and to plot her eventual escape.
She had no intention of remaining a bored Beverly Hills housewife and mother to two teenage brats. Double the kids, double the rewards, what a myth that turned out to be. If she hadn't had this job…her secret life she'd go crazy, smothered by the reality that her life sucked.
Camilla popped her head in her dressing room.
"You got a date waiting…a young buck too," she said, "He's got a thing for older women…maybe a mommy complex."
Cindy just smiled knowing it was expected and knowing that fell within her specialties along with playing school teacher and cheerleader.
She held that smile as she sashayed towards the lounge until she saw the man through the open door.
"Oh my god…."
Steve was sitting there waiting for a date…that happened to be her without knowing it. What would she do now? She'd turn around and head straight in the other direction…it's not like he knew how to keep a secret anyway.
But she liked the way his clothes sculpted to his body and thought well maybe…she'd flirt with danger and if she wore one of the masks…
She stood there indecisive.
Brandon worked until midnight at the Peach Pit and then walked out to see that his tires had been slashed on his bicycle.
Brenda had stolen his car again and he'd almost called the cops this time but decided to be nice just this once…once more. He'd surely earned enough karma to avoid the sight in front of him.
He reached for his phone to call for Steve to give him a ride but no one answered. Then he heard some footsteps and saw a shadowy form approach him.
