A Friend in Need is a Friend Indeed
It was Wednesday evening, and Constance was in my room, doing homework with me. I couldn't believe how fast this week went by. Upton had gone and left, Ivy and I had some issues and worked it out, while Josh and I were a little messed up. As for Sawyer, a lot of things had gotten harder to distinguish: like what we were and what actual friends were. We had obviously bonded, and I wasn't sure if I wanted that. I wasn't even sure if Sawyer wanted that- us.
"Reed, I lost my theorem sheet; do you know the uh," she looked out the window as if she was trying to recall something and said, "T-the theorem we were learning today! What is it?" she asked desperately. I chuckled, seeing how distressed she was.
"Calm down, Constance; it's the binomial theorem." I supplied.
Her eyes opened wider. "Oh yeah! That's what it is! Wait, how does it go?"
I sighed since I didn't even know what it was, and it was rather long. Besides, it was in the book. "Constance, look in your book," I replied calmly. "I don't even know how it goes." Stupid smart people just had to come up with math and torture us, didn't they?
"I don't even know what chapter we're in! Oh God, I'm so going to fail . . ." Constance started. I just shook my head, waiting for her to rant for a few minutes.
Noelle had told all the Billings girls that there was another meeting. I had totally forgotten about the fundraiser, only worried about all the drama I was sucked in. The sleeping pills Noelle gave me yesterday ensured that I was going to have the best sleep ever, which I did. All I remembered was that I popped the white little pill in my mouth at eleven, and I woke up 6:45 in the morning, not being able to recall anything. It was the best experience ever.
After a couple of minutes, I looked at the time and saw that we had to leave. Noelle was meeting us at Coffee Carma. Coffee Carma was our meeting place, since we could dine there and have nobody in Pemberly listen in into our secret talks.
"Constance, we got to go. I guess we can come back after the meeting and finish up," I said, knocking Constance out of her math daze. She nodded back at me dumbly as she went to get her purse.
Constance and I began to walk to Coffee Carma as we chatted. Nobody was really out, probably doing their homework. As we walked, my eyes wandered over to Ketlar. I heard various shouting, but I had a hunch it was over Halo or Guitar Hero. Boys.
By the time we got there, everyone was scattered about. The tiny round tables were bunched up together as everyone huddled around each other. I found an empty seat next to Rose and Tiffany, saying a quick hello. To be honest, I was dreadfully tired despite my solution to my nightmares. I guess it was another side-effect to sleeping pills.
Seeing that we were all together, Noelle got up. She smoothed her favorite Michael Kors jeans, complete with a J. Mendel mustard blouse. All eyes fell on her as we eagerly waited for the verdict. "Alright, I can't say that I'm not pleased you here; after all, you do the dirty work for me," Noelle added. It was meant as a joke, but I could've sworn I saw everyone give each other looks, saying 'Yeah, she's dead on about that.'
Noelle cleared her throat. "We already have two more sub-parties planned, but I think we need a couple more, or three to say the least. Also, there's only going to be one fundraiser for the politicians; it was too much work and they're all busy. And don't forget, some of the proceeds are going to cancer research," said Noelle.
"Wait, why is it going to cancer research? I thought the money was only for us," Amberly whined.
Noelle grimaced. "Too bad Amberly, we're giving that money. Look, politicians don't just come to a party as big as ours. They want their name in the papers for a good cause. The more they give, the more we get. Minus the twenty-percent we're giving away," Noelle explained.
"When is this?" Lorna asked. She, of course, was sitting next to Missy. I noticed that her hair was straightened, and it took every ounce of me not to drop my mouth in astonishment.
"Tiff?"
Tiffany, who was sitting next to Rose, took out a piece of paper. "February 20th, at the Ritz. It's from 2 to 7, on a Saturday." We all nodded in response.
Noelle flipped a few more pages in the vanilla folder she had out. "Now, we need to decide what we're going to do for the actual fundraiser. I think a couple of you mentioned a gambling night," she muttered.
"It was Reed," Constance piped up, beaming at me. I gave a shy smile back and looked at Noelle. She straightened her neck, as if she was trying to control some . . . anger. I saw her jaw tense, and I felt kind of scared of her.
"Yeah, OK, not that it matters," she said rudely. My eyes popped out, and all the girls looked at me. I glanced at Noelle and she seemed oblivious to the fact she threw my idea out the window. I wondered if she was having an extremely bad day or she was feeling some resentment towards me.
I couldn't think of a reason why.
"Alright," London cut through, breaking the silence. "Uh, I need to share some info, actually. There are at least 200 to 300 extra people on the list. I know some of them go to the other boarding schools around here, and it seems like word spread around that there are some kick-ass parties coming from Easton," she revealed. "I also got a text from a friend, and he said that he wanted to come too. He goes to the school up in Maine, you know- I forgot what it's called," said London. Huh; maybe he wasn't a friend, just a simple acquaintance. Or perhaps he came over to spend the night with her one time.
"That's great!" Rose exclaimed. "Think about the money we can get-"
"Raise the price. 80- No, 90 for the smaller parties, and 110 for the actual weekend fundraiser. That should give us a few more dollars," Noelle ordered. Astrid began to type on the computer she had out.
"Wait- one more thing. We sold the 80,000 thousand from the Billings website. We need more stuff," Astrid added as she was furiously typing on the computer. My eyes went a little wide, wondering how much money we had gotten do far. By the sound of it, a lot.
"Damn," Portia muttered under her breath.
"OK, we need ideas for the weekend party. We need to get everything all together so there won't be any problems later on," Noelle said. I had noticed that the whole time, Noelle barely looked at me. What was wrong?
We all paused and thought about ideas, but my mind was reeling over Noelle's strange behavior. Was she mad at me? What did I honestly do? My mind began to think of different scenarios, such as she found out what happened between Josh and I, and . . . And what else? What did she have on me?
"I think we should have a gambling night on Friday, likeReedsaid," Astrid said. She hurried the last bit of her sentence as if she was trying not to displease Noelle. Astrid was looking back at Noelle nervously.
OK, now I was pissed. What the hell was going on? First, I knew Noelle was intimidating, but I didn't think Astrid would feel shy and nervous about saying an idea was mine, which it was. Second, why was Noelle acting so strange? True, they were small, slight occurrences but they were important ones. I thought back to the day when Noelle brought the Alumni to Easton. I was the one who suggested the fundraiser, and I vaguely remembered that I thought Noelle was slightly . . . jealous.
Ohmigod, Noelle Lange was actually jealous of me.
Of what, though?
"Yeah, I kinda like the gambling night," Missy grumbled out. I raised an eyebrow at her, and she just rolled her eyes.
"I'll have to agree," said Vienna. She was texting on her phone, occasionally giggling and not even paying attention.
Noelle sighed and sat back down. She rubbed her temple, and took a long drink of water. I idly noticed that it was a bottle of Voss, and that she at least spent five dollars on a bottle. All of my earlier, somewhat thoughts dissipated, seeing how distressed she looked.
"Sure, we can do that. Uh, Tiffany, Missy, and Amberly: you guys are going to find decorations. I mean, gambling tables, the poker chips," said Noelle. She rubbed her forehead. "And don't forget about actually decorating the hall," she added.
"What about the second day?" Amberly asked.
"Maybe we should do a strip tease show! I don't mean it in that way, but there's a starting price on each of us, and- OK, it's pretty much an auction; a girl auction. The starting price is, I don't know, a thousand, and the more the guys demand and the less the clothes we're wearing, the more the guys auction." London took a sip from her bottle. "And, of course, you get to spend the night with that guy," she said while winking at everyone.
We all erupted into a murmur, liking the idea. I, however, was apprehensive, but it did seem kind of fun. Perhaps I didn't need to do the actual thing.
"Hold on- we just can't have the little burlesque show and that's it. We need more," said Rose.
"How about we get Kiran to get a designer, or a couple of designers to show their work, have a runway show, and people can buy it there," suggested Tiffany. "And we definitely need couture."
"Nice, Tiff," I complimented while I gave her a high-five. She grinned back at me.
"Sounds . . . good. Reed, you're writing this down, right?" Noelle peeked at me up from her mountain of papers. I was shocked for a second that she was finally acknowledging me. I, of course, was already writing the ideas down, and I nodded back at her. She seemed slightly relieved.
"Anything else?" I looked around the table, only earning a few shrugs.
"We can think about it later. As for Sunday, we should do a normal fundraiser, like the brunch we had, and the other fundraiser," Noelle quietly added. A flush crept up my cheeks, recalling the moment I was completely humiliated in front of everyone.
"Are we done?" I asked Noelle. She nodded, and everyone got up to leave. I took my time, wanting to talk to Noelle. She lagged behind also, her movements slow and tiring.
As she got up to leave, I went up to her and asked, "Noelle, is everything alright? I mean, you seem a little anxious and-"
"I'm fine," she cut. I was stung by her reaction. She sighed and said, "Sorry. I just have a few things going on, and I'm not feeling the best. Dash and I-" she abruptly stopped before she moved on. I tried to get something out, wanting to ask what was going on between her and Dash and wanting to comfort her.
"Noelle-"
"I'll see you later, Reed," she called out while she walked away. I threw my hands up in the air, seriously debating if losing my sanity in Easton was worth it. Regardless, I gathered my things and headed out, welcoming the cold air. I was walking slowly, yawning as I did so, when I heard a:
"Psst!"
I stopped in my tracks and looked around. My heart began to beat faster. What the hell was up with people jumping out of nowhere?
"Reed, over here!" I swiveled my head to the side and saw Josh standing in the middle of the alley by Mitchell hall. I felt some of my bile coming up. I. Did. Not. Want. To. Go. There. No way in hell was I going to talk to Josh in that place after what happened. My feet stood still while my brain was screaming for me to run.
"W-what do you want now?" I managed to say. I swallowed several times, clutching my papers. Josh came forward, his perfect curls bouncing. As he approached, I saw a very prominent blue mark on his jaw. Ouch.
Josh kept the distance between us far, which I was eternally grateful for. He sighed and said, "Look, I just want to talk. Just this once; you can't keep on thinking that everything will just go back the way it was without doing something about it." He sighed again and raked his hand through his hair. "You didn't come when I asked you to."
I looked down at my feet. "It sounds better- not wanting to talk," I mumbled.
"The hell it doesn't. Come on, Reed. Please," Josh begged. I peered into his eyes, seeing true sincerity. I gave a terse nod back, and he swiftly turned and began to walk towards the Art Cemetery.
No! I couldn't go there! "Josh!" I yelled out. If he heard me, than he ignored me. In fact, he started walking faster. I began to jog, trying to get to talk to him. "I'm not going there," I pouted. I realized that Josh was leading me to a back door as opposed to the front door. I hadn't noticed a back door before.
"It's the only way to get you to talk," Josh called back. He was right, of course. I found myself complying anyway. When I came around the corner, I saw that the door was already open. Gingerly, I stepped inside, finally seeing the Cemetery once again.
Josh was seated in the couch, but he got up and started pacing. I swallowed and quietly shut the door behind me. In all the times I was here, I hadn't realized there was a secret door. This would've pleased me before, but not so much anymore.
I made my way over to the couch, perching my butt on the edge of the seat. I set my papers aside and started toying with my jacket. Several minutes passed.
"How come you didn't come?" he asked, referring to the text. I looked up at him. His hands were in his pocket and he was staring at me intently.
I sighed. "I didn't want to. And I didn't want Ivy to get hurt," I said calmly. At the mention of Ivy, Josh tensed.
"Oh, Reed. Ivy and I- crap, I don't know . . ." Josh began.
"It's OK. I heard you guys at the brunch. It's all my fault, isn't it?" I asked, knowing all too well the answer.
Josh stopped his pacing and looked at me. "God Reed, no. It's not your fault. It really is mine; I'm a coward," said Josh. He came over and sat next to me, again keeping the distance between us wide. Good.
He continued. "Look, I'm . . . so confused, you know? I-I . . ." My heart pace quickened a tenfold. Was he going to say that he loved me? And why was I feeling so pleased about that?
"Josh, we can't just go back," I blurted out. I hadn't realized the truth of those words, so I continued. "We both need to clean up our messes." We had already had this type of conversation before, and I didn't know why we were saying the same thing again. He was wasting my time.
"Damn it! Have you no sense?" Josh got up, and resumed pacing. His hostility scared me. But then again, I wasn't even sure he was taking his mood pills. "I still freaking care about you so fucking much! And I care about Ivy too! And now she's gone for a while, and I really, really, want you Reed. I can't just watch you go about without me, as selfish as that sounds. God, I'm not over you, Reed. I never was and I never will be," he explained.
Oh shit.
Goodness, what was I supposed to do? Should I drop all the seeds that I planted for my future- my future without Josh- and stop watering them? Should I try to cultivate my ruined roots and nurse them back to health? Was it even worth it? Was losing my friendships and my dignity worth it?
"Please, Reed. I'm begging you."
thanks for reviewing guys!
there's something wrong with the upload thing on here, and you won't believe how many f-bombs i dropped. anyway, cliffy, cliffy, cliffy!!!! (not really). is reed going to accept? is she going to get back with josh? i can't say anything... so tell me what you think! and tell me what you think about the fundraiser ideas.
i know i could've done better, but i'd rather get my chapters done on saturday and leave sunday to do all the homework i have to do (which is why i get yelled at a lot. and which is why i do all my homework in my classes and get it taken away).
review, review, review :)
