The Clique

by Valerie Thomas

  “Doesn’t matter. Drinking to the point where you can’t remember what happened—where you end up dancing on some guy and barely remember doing it—is just as bad, in my book.”

  The coach whistles and gestures for Gabe to join the rest of the team. Aude sighs. “I’m sorry, baby. I won’t drink like that again.”

  “Never? You promise?”

  Aude holds up her pinky. “Never ever.”

  Chapter Twenty-one

  “I thought you said you couldn’t pick me up,” Kate scowls at Aude. “’Cause your parents were so mad at you, remember?”

  Aude smiles. “But they aren’t anymore! At least, not as much… Here, look.” She thrusts a white letter in front of Kate.

  Kate unfolds the paper. To whom it may concern, I have inspected Audrey Hughes and found irrefutable proof that she remains a virgin. Signed, Doctor Cornelius Godard. She looks up. “Wait, so—“

  “So I couldn’t have slept with Sean. See? I wasn’t lying, Kate.”

  “Oh.” Kate stands in the doorway for several moments, processing. “Oh,” she repeats.

  Aude giggles. “Can we be friends again?”

  “I, uh, I guess I need to think about this.” She shuts the door gently and sits on a stair. Five, ten, fifteen minutes later, she still can’t reconcile the different thoughts running through her mind. The only thing clear to Kate is that she owes Aude an apology. Sure, Aude kissed Sean, but Kate can’t deny that the revenge she took more than evens that score. She stands up, walks to the door, and reopens it. “Aude, I’m so sorry.”

  “Don’t be. I’m just glad we can be friends again.” Aude pulls Kate into a hug.

  “Yeah.” Kate can’t manage a smile, but she wraps her arms around Aude. “You wanna come inside?” she asks, after they break.

  “Of course!” Aude grins. She sprints up to Kate’s room.

  Kate watches her go, wondering when she’ll ask about the video. At some point, it has to come up and, as justified as Kate felt when she thought Aude slept with Sean, knowing that she didn’t takes all of that away. Instead of feeling relief that her best friend didn’t betray her, all Kate feels is a sickening guilt. She heads upstairs and watches as Aude acts like nothing ever happened.

  Once they’re ready and in Aude’s car, she turns to Kate. “I think we need to talk. Would you mind ditching first with me?”

  “Uh, okay.”

  Aude drives to the nearest Starbucks, blasting Katy Perry and singing along merrily. She pulls into a parking space and flicks the radio off. “Okay, so now you know that I didn’t sleep with Sean. I did kiss him, though, and you need to know why.”

  Kate raises her eyebrows. “Why?”

  “Well, he wanted me to dump Gabe.” Aude frowns, her eyes wandering away from Kate. “And he was gonna dump you for me. But if I kissed him, then he said he wouldn’t… I’m sorry. Really, really sorry. I told him you were better than me, and that he should just be faithful to you, but…”

  “Uh huh.” Kate draws the two syllables out. “Aude, why don’t you just tell me the real reason?”

  “That is the real reason!” Aude insists. “He was just being weird, but I did it cause I knew how much it would hurt you if he—“

  “Cheated on me with my best friend?” Kate looks out the side window. “I mean, I’m glad you didn’t have sex with him, but it still kinda hurts. You know?”

  “I know.” Aude puts a hand on Kate’s shoulder. “And I’m sorry, truly. But please believe me when I tell you that the only reason I did it was for you.”

  “That isn’t even what hurts—well, yeah, it’s partly that.” Kate sighs, remembering Sean’s confession in the park. “But it’s also the fact that, after all this time, he was in love with you. I was with him for two years, but he had a crush on you.”

  “Oh. I’m sorry, Kate. He didn’t deserve you. Any boy worth dating ought to see that you’re way better than I am.”

  “Thanks.” The hollow words do nothing to brighten Kate’s mood.

  “Any time. Kate, I wish I could help you see what I see. You’re smart and beautiful, and you’re gonna find a guy who recognizes that. I promise.”

  “Yeah, well, your promises haven’t been working out too well lately.”

  Aude frowns at her hands. “I also wanted you to know what it was like, getting that stupid virginity test.” She grimaces. “I kept telling myself it was the only way to convince you, and I guess it was… But Kate, it was like getting violated in the worst way possible. If you hadn’t been my best friend—I dunno, I probably would have done literally anything else.” She leans back into her seat.

  “Was it bad?” Kate asks.

  “Yeah, horrible. I don’t wanna describe the details, but like I said, I just wanted you to know that it wasn’t like a walk in the park or something. It was embarrassing, and awful.”

  “I’m sorry,” Kate says. “I should’ve just believed you.”

  “It’s okay.” Aude smiles and claps her hands. “Now let’s get some coffee!”

  Normally, the Starbucks is filled with George Washington students and businesspeople stopping off for a morning fix, but today there’s only one other customer inside: a worn-out looking man at one of the corner tables.

  Aude steps up to the counter. “Two venti caramel frappucinos, please. With extra caramel.”

  The cashier, a cute blonde boy about their age, nods. “Your total comes out to nine fifty-seven.” He looks up to take Aude’s card. “Wait, I know you… Do you go to Fairview?”

  “Uh, no.” Aude gestures to Kate. “George Washington.”

  “Oh, right, of course.” The boy runs the credit card through and hands it back to Aude; behind him, a coworker starts on the order. “Your face looks familiar, though,” the boy says. “I just can’t remember where I saw it.” He frowns.

  Aude’s fingers tighten around Kate’s arm. “Um, it’s okay. Don’t worry about it.”

  Comprehension dawns on the boy’s face, and he flushes. “I’ll just—help make your coffee.” He spins around, although his coworker’s already finished both drinks.

  “Well, it was, uh, nice meeting you,” Aude says. She grabs the frappucinos from a green quartz counter, and hands one to Kate. “You wanna go outside?”

  “Sure.” The day hasn’t decided whether to be great or horrible yet: the sun’s peeking out behind some menacing storm clouds, lending the whole day a grey tint. Aude hangs back to say a quick goodbye to the boy, as well as something Kate can’t hear. She takes a chair facing away from the Starbucks—not that there’s anything to see, except concrete.

  “I really wish they hadn’t put that movie theater in.” Aude gestures to the huge red barn in front of them as she sits down next to Kate. “You used to be able to see the mountains from here.”

  “Yeah,” Kate agrees. “Remember when they first started building this place?”

  Aude nods. “Yeah, that was before we even met each other.” She giggles. “I was like six. Jenna and I would come here to play in the dirt, right where that Panera Bread is.”

  Kate sighs. Growing up with an older sister would have been so nice. “I never went here before they built the mall. We drove by it a few times, but that’s it.”

  The blonde boy pushes the door open. “Hey, do you girls want a pastry or something? We have some old ones, if you’re interested.”

  Aude turns around. “Yeah, I guess.”

  He closes the door, and returns a few moments later with three warm bear claws.

  “Thank you,” Aude and Kate say in unison.

  “You’re welcome. Mind if I eat with you?”

  “Uh, yeah, okay.” Aude gestures to an empty chair to Kate’s right.

  The boy sits down. “God, it’s so slow today.”

  “Mhm.” Kate takes a bite of her pastry, enjoying the squishy raspberry filling.

  “So you’re, um…“ the boy looks at Aude.

  “Audrey,” Aude finishes for him. “But everyone just calls
me Aude. And this is Kate.”

  He nods. “Nice to meet you, Kate. And Aude. I’m Connor. Nice to meet you both.” He smiles. “So, shouldn’t you two be in school?”

  “Shouldn’t you?”

  Connor laughs. “Touché. I’m here ‘cause I have my first two periods off, but I’ve never seen you come in before.”

  “Yeah. We don’t usually have first hour off.” Kate takes another bite of her bear claw. “We skipped out to talk about some stuff.”

  Connor fake-gasps. “Ditching! Oh my lord, what will your parents think?”

  Aude giggles. “My parents are already mad at me, and Kate’s won’t even know. Don’t worry, we can take one day off.” She checks her phone. “Oh, we should be going, though. If we leave now, we can make it to the last few minutes of first.”

  “Why do we want to do that?” Kate asks.

  “’Cause, that way we can explain why we were gone, and Mr. Silveris won’t mark us absent. Hopefully.”

  Kate gives a small smile. “Carpe diem?”

  “Exactly.” Aude stands up. “Well, Connor, it was nice seeing you.”

  “Hold up,” Connor scribbles something on his pastry wrapper and hands it to Kate. “Text me, ‘k?”

  “Uh, yeah, sure.” Kate accepts the number. She hops into Aude’s car, and they make it to school just before the end of first period. Kate puts on a bashful face before creaking the door to their English class open. Everyone inside is busily scrawling, except for Mr. Silveris.

  Mr. Silveris frowns and waves the girls over. “You know the period’s almost over, right?”

  “Yeah,” Aude says. “But we had a lot of important stuff to talk about.”

  We still have a lot of important stuff to talk about, Kate mentally corrects. Although the conversation with Connor was nice, Kate would have preferred to discuss everything with Aude and be done with it.

  “Hmmm.” Mr. Silveris taps his desk with a pencil. The bell rings. “Okay class! You’re dismissed! Take your essays with you, and finish them over the weekend. I’ll collect them on Friday.” The students, except for Aude and Kate, begin to file out. Mr. Silveris looks at them, the frown leaving his face. “Alright, I’ll mark you as here for the day, as long as you both turn in your essays on Friday. Which reminds me—“ he looks through a mess of papers, retrieves two, and hands them to the girls “—here are your prompts. I know you kiddos will do well.”

  “Thanks!” Kate turns to leave, and so does Aude.

  “Oh, and girls—“ Mr. Silveris flashes a smile “—it’s good to see you back together. I’m glad you patched things up.”

  When it becomes clear that Aude and Kate have made up, Maddie and Hannah immediately switch back to best friend mode. They go out to lunch as one happy group, chat about the Patriots, and seem to forget that there was ever a fight at all. But Kate can’t.

  The passing period bell rings. “Hey Kate. Wanna go to my house again?” Devon smiles; it looks less and less like smirk every day.

  “I dunno.” Kate frowns at the boy. “You told me you saw Aude and Sean together.”

  “Yup. Why?”

  “Well, they weren’t having sex… Aude actually got a doctor to prove that she was still a virgin.”

  “Oh.” Devon doesn’t look surprised by the news. “I’m sorry, Kate. I thought that was what I saw. Well, I guess I understand if you don’t wanna hang out with me, then.”

  “No, it’s okay.” Kate sighs. “You were just trying to help. I know.” She follows Devon down the sidewalk towards his house. “What am I gonna tell her, though?”

  “About what?”

  “About that video. Who did you send it to?”

  Devon shrugs. “Her parents and Gabe. And…” He shakes his head, as if deciding he doesn’t want to tell Kate. “Just them. I swear.”

  Aude’s parents were the ones who demanded that virginity test. Kate’s almost sure of it; Aude’s father would be crazy enough to suggest something so medieval. Maybe because of the video. But no, that wouldn’t be enough. Would it?

  Devon touches Kate’s hand. “Hey, you okay?”

  “Yeah. No. I guess.” Kate frowns. “I dunno, how am I gonna tell her? She told me how horrible that test was, and it was all my fault that she had to take it.”

  “I don’t think so.” Devon unlocks his front door and pushes it open. “Look, all we did was show Aude’s parents how she really is. You can’t take the blame for their reaction.” He pauses in the foyer. “I don’t think you should tell her about the video, actually.”

  “Why not?”

  Devon starts walking again, headed for the kitchen. “’Cause it’s in the past, Kate. She did what she did, you had your revenge, and now you two are friends again.”

  “But she didn’t do what I thought,” Kate argues.

  “Well, she still kissed your boyfriend. I don’t think taking one stupid video is any worse than that.” He pops open a soda. “Look, it’s simple. If she asks, say it wasn’t you. And if she doesn’t, don’t mention it. If you do, it’ll only cause another rift between you two.”

  “So you’re saying I should lie to her?”

  Devon smirks. “Deny till you die, Kate. You didn’t have a problem lying before.”

  Kate takes a seat at the breakfast bar. “I know, but that was when I thought she—I dunno, kissing my boyfriend doesn’t seem as bad. Especially if I believe her explanation.”

  “What explanation?”

  “She said Sean wanted to break up with me for her, but he promised not to if she kissed him.”

  Devon laughs. “What? That’s ridiculous. You actually believe that?”

  “Yeah. I guess I do. I thought she was lying before, and I was wrong. And there isn’t really any reason for her to lie to me. Right?”

  “Except that she wants to be let off the hook entirely.” Devon shakes his head. “I know Sean. We have the same gym class. That just doesn’t sound like something he’d do. And besides—“ he lifts Kate’s chin with a clammy hand “—who would ever break up with you?”

  Something about the look on his face makes Kate shiver. He’s a creep, she remembers. He puts pictures of me on his wall. “Uh, thanks,” she mumbles. “I just remembered, group project for Lit. I’ve gotta go.” Kate scrambles out of the house, pausing only long enough to retrieve her bag.

  Chapter Twenty-one

  “Hey Kate, you wanna come with me? I want to talk to you about something.” Aude gestures to her car as the girls head out for lunch.

  “Uh, yeah, okay.”

  Aude troops up the parking lot, unlocks her doors, and climbs into the driver’s seat. She waits for Kate to close her door before speaking. “So, Gabe and I had dinner at my parents’ house.”

  “Oh, cool.”

  “Yeah. And I just wanted to kind of get your opinion on something he said.” Aude turns the engine over and shifts into reverse, nearly hitting a red car before flipping to drive and turning onto Larkspur. “His sister’s boyfriend broke up with her, and I guess he said a lot of really mean things. So Gabe, uh, hit him.”

  Kate raises her eyebrows. “Why are you telling me?”

  “Well, it was just weird, ‘cause he kept apologizing to me.” Aude glances at her friend. “Why would he apologize?”

  “Maybe he wanted to apologize to the boy, but he knew he shouldn’t.”

  “Hmmm... I dunno, that doesn’t seem right.” Aude takes a sharp right, her car tires sliding a little on wet asphalt. “I just feel like it was something else.”

  “Like what?”

  “I don’t know. But it wasn’t like a generic apology. He was definitely apologizing to me.”

  “Could be he knows you don’t like violence,” Kate suggests.

  “Yeah, I guess that could be it.” Aude frowns as she considers the possibility. She stops at a stoplight. “He was really apologizing… I guess I have a hard time seeing him being that sorry for telling me he hit someone.”

  “Yeah, I guess it’s a bit
of a stretch. Maybe you should ask him?”

  “Maybe.” Aude agrees. She turns into the Wendy’s parking lot. “Well, here we are.” Aude finds a spot next to Maddie’s car and pulls in. The two girls head inside, order, and sit with their friends while they wait for their food.

  “Dom’s here.” Maddie grimaces and points to a large group of boys. “I really hope he doesn’t come over.” She steals a fry from Hannah’s tray.

  “Me too,” Aude agrees. “Don’t worry, I’ll kick him in the shins if he tries to come over.”

  Maddie giggles. “Good idea.”

  “Ninety-seven, ninety-eight!” the cashier calls out. Aude and Kate check their receipts, and pick up the food. “Oh crap, he’s coming over,” Aude whispers to Kate. “Look.”

  Dom takes the seat Aude just vacated and starts to talk to Maddie. Her expression changes from disinterested to angry. Aude and Kate take an extra-long time to fill their drinks, but still return in time to catch the last snippets of conversation.

  “I’m not interested! I’ve never been interested, and I never will be! So can you please just leave us alone?” She sounds pissed.

  Aude tries to glare at Dom as well, but he leaves without looking at her. Aude sits down; she can already hear Dom’s friends making fun of him. “That wasn’t very nice.”

  “Yeah, well—“ Maddie scowls “—I tried to be polite, and he just wouldn’t go away. And I’m under a lot of stress.”

  Stress? What stress? Aude has trouble making sense of the comment. “I get it, I don’t really like Dom either… But still, you could’ve been nicer.”

  “Uh huh.” Maddie’s scowl deepens; she tears the end off of a fry.

  Mercifully, Hannah changes the subject. “One more week till your birthday, Aude. Any plans?”

  Aude shrugs. “Not really. I’m not even sure my parents will let me do anything. I mean, I’m not grounded anymore, but they wouldn’t let me go out with Gabe last night. I had to invite him over.”

  “Oh. I kinda thought, after the test—“ Hannah frowns “—whatever. If they don’t let you go out, we’ll just party at your place.”