by S Doyle
“I’m not a nag!” I said, pretending to be insulted. Then I looked out into the audience. “I’m just a very good reminder.”
A few chuckles from the crowd. This had been our shtick all night. Fitz introducing the categories and me pretending to poke at him.
“What my co-host wants me to remind you is that all items modeled tonight can be found online at HaddonfieldMemorialFallFashionShow.com. Everything you’ve seen tonight has been donated, so all winning bids will go to this year’s school charity, Urban Promise. And now for the main event…”
A beat. He looked to me.
“Prom gowns!” I said with all the enthusiasm I could muster for prom gowns.
Evelyn, another cheerleader on the squad, started the parade, walking elegantly across the stage as Fitz and I exited it.
Each girl was to do a back-and-forth pass then head to the microphone at center stage to provide details about the dress. Then the interested students could go to the website on their phone and bid.
“Well, that was fun.”
Fitz and I looked over our shoulders to find Heath there. Our appointed technical resource for the night, Heath handled the lighting, sound and video recording.
“Uh, hello. Isn’t there something you should be doing?” I asked.
He shrugged. “It’s all but over. The recording is running on a timer. Nothing left for me to do. Except check out all the girls still wearing their bikinis.”
I shook my head. From what I knew about Heath, he liked to hook up with girls, but he didn’t particularly care about dating them. He had the whole handsome, brooding thing working in his favor.
Most girls thought they could save him. They all eventually learned they could not.
“Now, when do we drink?” he asked.
“I think I’m going to break football season rules,” Fitz said. “Tonight was brutal.”
“You just said earlier it was going well.”
“It is. It did. But it doesn’t mean I haven’t been stressed out all night. I’ll be glad when this is over.”
The girls were still queueing up backstage behind a heavy curtain. I took a quick peek around it to see if I could see Star. She’d already modeled athletic wear earlier. Now it was time for her to wear the pretty dress.
The pretty dress that she would not be able to afford for her own prom. I tried not to be depressed about that.
I caught her eye, and she gave me a wave. The gown was gorgeous. Strapless, heart-shaped neckline showing casing her amazing breasts to their best advantage. It was silver and with her blond hair pulled back in a sophisticated updo she looked like Elsa from Frozen.
As she came even with me to wait her turn, I squeezed her hand. “Break a leg,” I whispered. “Or not.”
She rolled her eyes at the me then stepped out on to the stage.
Anne was behind Star in line, also in a stunning dress whose designer I didn’t know. In an effort to extend an olive branch, suggesting there were no hard feelings on my part, at least, I spoke.
“Nice dress.”
“Fuck off,” she replied then stepped out behind the curtain prematurely before Star had even made her way across the stage.
“Bitch,” I muttered.
Then I heard it, an audible gasp coming from the stage. Followed by an uproar from the audience.
Pulling the curtain back, I looked out and squeaked with my own horror.
Anne was taking a few steps back, her hands covering her mouth, wearing a sheepish expression.
Meanwhile my sister. MY SISTER. Was on stage covering her naked breasts with her hands. The audience had leapt to their collective feet to do what teenage audiences did when confronted with naked breasts: started taking videos with their phone.
I immediately ran out to get her, standing as a shield between her and the audience, while she frantically tried to pull up the dress. When it didn’t cooperate, she just wrapped her arms around her chest.
Fitz, who followed immediately behind me, turned Star so that her back was to the audience then he removed his tuxedo jacket and pulled it around her. It was so large she was completely covered by the material.
He turned to the audience and with every ounce of arrogance and self-possession he had in his body, said, “You can stop filming now. The show is over.”
Not surprising, that had most of the audience re-taking their seats.
Together, we escorted Star off the stage; she immediately collapsed into my arms where she promptly began to sob.
“It’s okay. It’s okay,” I said, holding her tightly and patting her on the back.
“I just flashed the entire high school,” she wailed on a hiccup. “It’s not okay.”
“But your breasts are so pretty,” I said, lamely. “Think of how much more jealous everyone will be of you now.”
She glared at me and I winced.
“Star! Star, what happened?”
Chas, who had finished his modeling for the night, had been backstage shooting the shit with some of his friends. Someone must have told him the commotion on stage was about Star.
I let my sister go only long enough for her to fall into Chas’s arms so she could sob on his shoulder and he could do the back patting. Meanwhile Fitz, with this hand wrapped firmly around Anne’s upper arm, was escorting her off the stage forcibly.
“It was an accident,” she hissed at him. “Let me go.”
He let her go but looked down at her with disgust. “You accidentally walked out on stage prior to your turn.”
“I got nervous,” she said, lifting her chin up. “It happens.”
“What did you do?” Chas barked.
“She stepped on my dress and it pulled the whole thing down,” Star cried. “I literally just flashed everyone. And now there is video and it’s going to go viral. Shit!”
Sure enough, I could hear phone notifications going off all around us.
Heath, who was still hanging out backstage, pulled his phone out of his back pocket and smiled. “Yep.”
“This isn’t funny, Heath” I barked at him.
“Maybe if you’d listened to what everyone wanted, this wouldn’t have happened,” Anne replied sweetly.
I turned in her direction, snarling. “You bitch. You did do it on purpose.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Anne said with an innocent expression. “It was an accident. I’m just suggesting another host might have been able to run things a little smoother. So sorry about the dress, Star.”
With that, Anne left. The rest of the girls who were still lined up in their fancy prom dresses carried on with the show as if nothing had happened. Chas stated that he was taking Star back to his house and we were to meet him there.
I couldn’t bear the idea of going on stage again to wrap up the show.
“It’s just boobs, Beth. She’ll get over it,” Heath said. “I’ll make sure I edit out of the video. It will be like it never happened.”
“It’s not that. It’s that someone deliberately hurt her to get to me.” I whirled on Fitz, who was always an easy target for my rage. “You should have let me quit when I wanted to!”
His jaw tightened. “I’m sorry. I was prepared to protect you. I didn’t think about Star. Everyone loves her.”
“Yes, everyone loves her. So much that they all stood up to take a video while her dress was down around her waist!”
“We need to finish the show. Then we can talk.”
“We do not need to do anything. I’m going to go after my sister. And this whole fucking school can crumble to the ground as far as I care.”
I left without looking back. My fury so pure I thought maybe I had it in me to punch Anne in her round face. The very thing I’d stopped Fitz from doing with Wick.
Was this how he’d felt?
Rage, because someone dared to hurt someone he cared about.
Fitz
“I’m going to destroy her,” I said, getting into my car.
“Who? Ann
e?” Heath asked, getting in the passenger seat. “You can blame her, but you know she didn’t do that on her own. Someone put her up to it.”
“Why? Why fucking humiliate Star?” I raged.
“You know why. Because hurting Star is the easiest way to hurt Beth. In fact, targeting Star is the best way to hurt Beth. Her sister is way more vulnerable than she is, and everyone knows it.”
I hated that he made such sense. Why hadn’t I thought about that? Was Beth right? Should I have let her quit? But that would have meant admitting defeat.
Winning. Losing. Victory. Defeat.
It was high school, damn it. So why did it feel like war?
I leaned my head back against the seat rest.
“What is happening? Why is everything suddenly a battle? I feel like I have enemies everywhere. Actual enemies and now Beth might be one, too.”
“Does that upset you?” Heath asked.
I turned toward him. “What do you mean?”
“You told Beth to do the show, Beth’s sister got humiliated and now Beth is furious with you.”
“Thanks for the recap,” I muttered.
“I guess I’m asking why you care? It’s Beth Bennet. She’s not at all popular, a total academic nerd and she’s pretty on her best day, totally average on her worst. You’re not into her, are you?”
“No,” I lied. “Of course not.”
Why was I lying? Maybe because I heard the disdain in Heath’s voice, and I didn’t like it. Heath didn’t do girlfriends. I knew he’d had sex with girls. Multiple girls. Hell, he bragged about losing his virginity when he was still a freshman.
But there was never anyone he seemed to care about. Attempting to explain what I felt for Beth was pointless with him, so I didn’t bother.
There was nothing average about Beth. Least of all her looks, which she attempted to downplay, but it never worked. At least not with me. Long, soft brown hair, perfect fair skin, beautiful hazel eyes. With that pointy chin that instinctively made me always want to tap it.
No, maybe she didn’t look like Star.
She looked like Beth, which was all she needed to do, but I wasn’t going convince Heath of that.
“Let’s just go to Chas’s,” I said, starting the car. “I’m definitely breaking the rules tonight. In fact, I feel the need to break several rules tonight.”
Not that I would ever drink and drive. With my own Uber account, which my parents insisted on, I didn’t need to worry about how drunk I got. I could also just crash at Chas’s if need be.
Don’t be stupid.
It was my father’s advice every time I left the house and, for the most part, it served me well.
I could have a few beers, forget this night ever happened then figure out a way to get Beth to talk to me again.
Shit.
Was Beth ever going to talk to me again?
12
Beth
“I’m never going to speak to him again!” I railed.
“You don’t mean that,” Star said calmly.
“I do. I mean every word of it. If he hadn’t pressured me into doing the show, then none of this would have happened.”
We were both home. Star hadn’t been up for an after party for obvious reasons. She’d made Chas drop her off then she’d texted me to come home. I’d been on my way anyway and now, we were together sitting on Star’s bed with the door locked so our sisters couldn’t harass us about the fashion show.
Of course they’d seen the video. Everyone in school had seen it by now. So far Mom didn’t know about it, but it was only a matter of time. The parents in this town lived on high school gossip. Two seconds of Star’s naked breasts would be talked about for the next month. Until there was something else to talk about.
“You don’t know that,” Star insisted. “It could have been an accident.”
I looked at her with a dubious expression.
“Okay, maybe not,” she admitted. “But there is no changing it. It’s the past now. So nothing left to cry over. It happened, it was pretty embarrassing, but I’m over it. You should be, too. And if anyone is to blame, it’s Anne. She did it. Fitz had nothing to do with this.”
“You warned me,” I said, cringing as I remembered it. “You tried to tell me not to do it and I didn’t listen.”
“No,” Star said firmly. “I never told you not to do it. In fact, I’m so proud that you did. You can’t go through life letting other people bully you, Beth. You have to stand up for yourself. I have to stand up, too. People have to know you come at one Bennet sister, you come at us all and we’ll hit back. Hard. With things like grace and dignity.”
I laughed. “Grace and dignity? Those are our two weapons. Have you met Kitty and Lydia?”
Star laughed, and it pleased me that I could make her do that on tonight of all nights.
“Yes, I was embarrassed,” she said softly. “Horrified actually. Like my worst nightmare of being naked on stage in front of an audience. However, I survived and when I go to school tomorrow, I’m going to wear my best push up bra and let everyone stare at them at will. Chas has offered to punch anyone who says anything to me.”
I rocked into her so my shoulder bumped hers. “There’s so much ugliness out there. I don’t understand it.”
“Which is why all we can do is fight it with kindness.”
Kindness. That was Star’s answer for everything. I had other things in mind.
Like revenge.
The Next Day
I was headed to my locker when I was suddenly flanked on either side by Reen and Janie. Together, we were a unit that said, don’t mess with us.
Neither of my friends had been at the fashion show last night. Neither Reen nor Janie wanted watch a bunch of rich kids wear clothes they couldn’t afford, which I totally understood. But both had texted me to ask if Star and I were okay, so I assumed they’d seen the video.
“So what’s our plan?” Reen asked.
I might have mentioned in my reply text I wanted payback.
“I don’t have a plan. That’s what I need you two for.”
“I say let it go,” Janie offered. “If you hit back, then they hit back again, harder, and it only escalates.”
“You sound like Star,” I said. “That’s weak shit.”
“No, it’s rational shit. Do I need to remind you, your two younger sisters are still on the Freshman Bait List? That people are betting on when they’re going to lose their virginity. Your family is a target. You don’t need any more enemies, Beth.”
“Speaking of enemies, did you hear that Wick and Gigi are officially dating?” Reen asked both of us with a gleam of mischief in her eyes. As if she’d been waiting all morning to share that tidbit.
It stopped me in my tracks. “What? Are you serious?”
“They were at the show last night together. Holding hands the entire time…so I’m told.”
“Does Fitz know?”
“How could he not?” Janie asked. “If rumors got back to Reen, they definitely got back to Fitz. Gi might have even told him herself. They live together, after all.”
“I can’t imagine he would allow…God that sounds so nineteenth century… but really Wick and Gigi, when Fitz knows about the List? How could he not have warned his sister?”
Janie gave me the oh really look.
“That’s different. I haven’t told Kit or Lyd about it because they are both bubble heads who could easily think it’s funny and become willing participants. Gigi isn’t like that. She’s got way more sense than the two of them combined.”
“You need to talk to Fitz,” Reen suggested.
“That’s going to be hard to do considering I’ve vowed never to speak to him again.”
“Oh. A vow. Well, then that can’t be broken,” Reen said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. We’d reached my locker.
“You can’t blame Fitz for what happened, and you know it.”
“Janie,” I replied. “Has anyone ever told you rational people
are exceedingly irritating?”
She only smiled. “You know I’m right. You just want to be angry at someone and he’s an easy target. That or maybe you’re using this as an excuse.”
I frowned. “An excuse for what?”
“To stay away from him because you’re scared.”
“Scared?” I barked. “I’m not scared of Fitz.”
“No,” Janie said calmly. “That’s not what your scared of. See you later.”
She walked off and I scowled at her back.
“I hate Cryptic Janie,” I said.
“Cryptic Janie is the worst,” Reen agreed. “Think about what levels you’re willing to stoop to for revenge and I’ll come up with a plan. Do we want to incorporate spoiled food, feces and/or blood?”
With that, Reen left, and I opened my locker wondering what levels I was willing to stoop to.
I was sitting in the library during my free period wondering if I was someone who could actually uses feces to deal out revenge.
Because feces didn’t really cry out dignity and grace. And also…gross.
I felt someone take the seat next to me at my table.
I could smell Fitz before I could see him. I hated I could do that now. When had smelling him become a thing with me?
“So what’s it going to be?” he asked. “The evil eye or the silent treatment.”
I turned my head in his direction and glared.
“Ah. Both. Very effective. I’m sorry for what happened, Beth. I really am. You know how much I like Star. I would never want anything bad to happen to her.”
“But something bad did happen to her,” I hissed. “Because of me.”
“You can’t blame yourself any more than you can blame me. I know Star would have told you the same thing. She’s a good person like that.”
She had and he was right. The person I was most angry at was myself and even that wasn’t fair. I didn’t step on Star’s dress. I didn’t make the ridiculous rules in this school about who should do what.
More than that, the show had been a success. Fitz and I had been funny. People laughed, damn it! Couldn’t anybody just acknowledge that and get over themselves?
