The Ivy
Page 25
The pair of underwear in question flung through the air and landed on her head.
“Uh, thanks,” she stammered, diving back under the covers.
“It is nothing, darling. Happens to me tout le temps,” Mimi chirped, happy that it was somebody else’s turn to feel embarrassed after last night’s adventures. “My favorite leopard-print thong and my hot pink spanky shorts are still MIA, even after I posted lost underwear flyers all across campus. . . .”
“What!” Callie cried as she wrapped herself in a sheet and ran across the room toward her bag. “Are you still drunk?”
“No, just bitingly witty and exceedingly hilarious as usual.”
There was a loud knock on the door and the muffled sound of OK’s voice.
“Shit!” Callie cried, dropping the sheet and yanking on her clothes.
“Coming, coming,” Mimi called. She opened the door to find OK waiting in the hall, his bag fully packed and ready to go.
“Where’s Gregory?” Callie asked, trying to keep her voice casual.
“Oh—didn’t you know?” asked OK, stretching out across the bed and watching Callie pack. “He had to get up early to drive back for squash practice. They have a big match coming up.” OK yawned.
“Anyway,” he continued, “I think he would’ve stayed behind to drive our lot home if he hadn’t already promised a bunch of guys on the squash team that he’d give them a ride back.”
Callie froze.
She had ruined everything. Clint . . . Vanessa . . . If they found out what had happened, she’d be lucky if either one of them ever spoke to her again.
Her mind was racing as they left the hotel and hailed a cab to take them to the New Haven train station. Mimi and OK slept the whole way home, but Callie stayed wide awake. . . .
The weirdest part was that the one person she wanted to talk to the most was Vanessa. Were they even now? Did flirting with the possibility of betrayal in the library equal much more than flirting with Vanessa’s crush?
Probably not, but as they stepped off the T at Harvard Square and trudged back in the direction of Wigglesworth, Callie decided that she would find Vanessa and make things right. How exactly and what exactly she was going to tell her, she wasn’t sure: she hadn’t figured out the details yet, but she knew that somehow things would work out in the end, with both Vanessa and Gregory—no, wait, Vanessa and Clint. Clint was perfect. But Gregory was . . .
She said good-bye to Mimi and OK, who had decided to play Grand Theft Auto IV, and, too scared to see if Gregory was home, Callie flung open the door to C 24.
“Vanessa!”
“Vanessa?” she called again, more tentatively as she pushed the door to Vanessa’s room open a crack.
No one was there.
Sighing, she walked into her own bedroom and plopped down on the chair in front of her desk. She stared out her window and watched the dusk begin to creep across Harvard Yard. Over the weekend the white blanket of fresh snow had turned to gray slush.
Her eyes fell upon a handwritten note resting to the left of her laptop. It was from Vanessa. She began to read:
Callie—
After I heard about what happened to Mimi, I stayed at the tailgate looking for you guys for hours. I thought maybe you weren’t answering my calls because you were upset we haven’t been speaking, but now I know it was only because you wanted to hook up with Gregory behind my back, you HEARTLESS, TRAITOROUS BITCH. How could you do this to me—and with the one guy you KNEW I actually cared about? I guess you really are a slut. I can’t believe that I ever defended you or called you my friend. You are the worst person I have ever known, and I am going to request a room transfer just as soon as we get back from Thanksgiving break.
—V
Callie’s hands were shaking and her eyes began to fill with tears as she reached for her phone to call Vanessa. It was still dead. She plugged it into her charger and opened her computer instead. Maybe e-mail would be better: maybe she’d have a shot at forgiveness if she could explain it all in writing first—how she had liked Gregory since the beginning of the year and how everything had happened so fast. . . .
She logged into her e-mail account and was about to click on Compose New Mail when a new message caught her eye.
* * *
From: Alexis Thorndike
To: Callie Andrews
Subject: Does the girl in this video look familiar!?
Attachments (1): C:UsersEvan DaviesDesktopPrivateCopy_Soccer_Initiation.avi
* * *
Just writing to wish you luck in the second round of COMP!
Have a lovely Thanksgiving Break, and I’ll see you afterward—
If you decide to come back, that is.
Cheers,
Alexis
About the Authors
LAUREN KUNZE grew up in Piedmont, California, and is the author of The Ivy. She enjoys reading, running, theater, writing bad poetry, and making Rina read her writing. At Harvard, Lauren studied English and neurobiology, and she has indefinitely deferred graduate school to focus on creative writing.
RINA ONUR grew up in Istanbul, Turkey, and collaborated on developing the story line for The Ivy. She enjoys traveling, new restaurants, the Mediterranean coast, and reading Lauren’s writing. After majoring in economics at Harvard, she worked for investment banks and now is in private equity management, where she comes up with story ideas when the boss isn’t looking.
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.
Copyright
We’d like to thank all of the people who helped make this book happen: each other; our agent, Rosemary; our editor, Virginia, and everyone else in the Greenwillow family; our parents, Susan, Fritz, Hermine, and Mihran; our brothers, Michael and Remi; and, last but not least, Blocking Group # 49 and all of the other campus characters who may or may not have had a hand in inspiring this story.
This book is a work of fiction. References to real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locales are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity, and are used to advance the fictional narrative. All other characters, and all incidents and dialogue, are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real.
The Ivy
Copyright © 2010 by Lauren Kunze
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kunze, Lauren.
The ivy / by Lauren Kunze with Rina Onur.
p. cm.
“Greenwillow Books.”
Summary: When Callie arrives for her freshman year at Harvard, she encounters her three vastly different roommates, new friendships, steamy romance, and scandalous secrets.
ISBN 978-0-06-196045-1 (trade bdg.)
[1. Universities and colleges—Fiction. 2. Roommates—Fiction. 3. Interpersonal
relations—Fiction. 4. Dating (Social customs)—Fiction.] I. Onur, Rina. II. Title.
PZ7.K94966Ro 2010
[Fic]—dc22
2009042525
EPub Edition © 2010 ISBN: 9780062009647
10 11 12 13 14 CG/RRDB 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
First Edition
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