Pretty Little Devils Part 16

"I lost my virginity when I was fourteen. In France." She looked expectantly at Hazel. "What about you?"

"Oh. G.o.d, I..." She rubbed her forehead. "I, um..."

"Remember, it's about trust." She gave Hazel a slow grin, reached down, and opened the bottom drawer of the bedside table.

"This will help." She pulled out a bottle of Cointreau.

"Whoa!" Hazel exclaimed. "Do all the parents stash this much alcohol around?"

"More or less. Some message for the kiddies, huh?" Sylvia opened the bottle and took a hefty swig. Then she wiped off the lip and handed it to Hazel.

"Um, I..." She looked down at the bottle.

"Oh, go ahead. There aren't any gla.s.ses in here anyway.

Hazel hesitated. Sylvia took the bottle, put it to Hazel's lips, and gave it a little tip. The thick liquor splashed into Hazel's mouth. It was good-orange-flavored. She drank some more.

Sylvia smiled at her. Then she reached into the drawer again and brought out a joint.

"Shut up!" Hazel cried.

Sylvia winced. "Haze. No one says, 'Shut up', anymore."

"I know. It's just-we can't smoke that." She gestured to the joint. "She'll know."

"You're right." Sylvia dropped it back into the drawer and shut it. "And I know you have a secret, Hazel. Something you're not telling me. But if you want to be a PLD, you have to share."

Hazel met Sylvia's bright blue stare. She thought about Joy-how she didn't know anything about her, despite the fact that they were supposed to have been close. She didn't want that to happen again. She wanted real friends. Friends till the end.

She grabbed the bottle of Cointreau, took a swig, and made a decision. "All right. I worked at a stable over the summer. There was this guy."

Sylvia waited. "Like, a ranch hand?"

Hazel nodded. "He led trail rides. His name was Andy. He was maybe in his mid-twenties. He bought beer one night. We had a little too much to drink-well, I did, anyway...." She let her words trail off.

"That was the first time?" Sylvia asked.

Hazel nodded again.

"Did you regret it?" Sylvia gazed at her sympathetically.

"It all happened so fast." Hazel's voice cracked. "G.o.d, I sound like an after-school special."

"Oh, Haze." Sylvia sighed, pulling her into a hug. "You're so incredibly sweet."

Hazel melted against her shoulder. It was such a relief to finally tell someone the truth. She had held it in for so long.

"I can't believe I did it. I wish I could take it back," she muttered.

Sylvia pulled away and looked into Hazel's damp eyes. She pushed an errant piece of hair away from Hazel's forehead. "Yeah, I get that. But it could have been much worse. I know you're upset. But this isn't as bad as you think. If you didn't get pregnant and you don't have a disease, let it go. Move on."

She c.o.c.ked her head. "You've been pretty sheltered, haven't you? Your parents...I don't think I've ever seen them around Brookhaven."

"My parents?" Hazel guffawed. "My parents haven't been anywhere. The other night, my mom said something about how people in Scotland should learn to speak English."

Sylvia chortled. "Oh my G.o.d! How clueless is that?"

Then the mood s.h.i.+fted back. "Listen, I'm glad you told me," Sylvia said earnestly. "It's a sacred trust."

"Thank you. I'm glad I told you too," Hazel replied.

Sylvia returned to the computer and pulled up the screen with the student files again. She dropped down to WU, BREONA.

"Let's see here..." she murmured.

Intrigued, Hazel bent over Sylvia's shoulder. Sylvia pushed the bottle of Cointreau toward her, and Hazel had another drink.

"Hmm, this is interesting. Seems Breona is having some problems. She's on antidepressants."

"Whoa," Hazel breathed.

"That might explain why she's such a b.i.t.c.h." Sylvia paused for a moment, thinking. "Wait. No, it doesn't."

Chuckling softly, Hazel took another swig of Cointreau. If you opened your mouth when you drank it, the evaporation was like a little flame going off. It was an interesting feeling.

"Hmm, nothing about her drug bust. The paperwork must not be complete."

"Wait a minute," Hazel said, her thoughts slowing-growing fuzzy. "The drug bust. You guys called in antidepressants?"

"Well..." Sylvia shrugged.

Hazel frowned. "Come on. You said friends share."

"Maybe we put a few extra little things in her locker."

"What?" Hazel nearly choked.

"Oh, please, Breona's drug use is well known. We didn't put anything in there that hadn't been in there before."

Hazel stared at her. "So you planted the drugs, and then you called it in?"

"Yes. And with good reason." Sylvia pushed the chair away from the monitor and folded her hands across her lap. "Let me tell you why I hate Breona. Because everyone thinks it's just about Josh, and that's not true."

Hazel settled back onto the bed to listen.

"Breona and I started out as friends," Sylvia began. "In fifth grade. We were the smartest girls. And the prettiest. We were in all the same activities. We told everyone we were best friends forever." She smiled faintly. "But that wasn't enough for Breona. She was jealous. She didn't want anyone else hanging out with me. If they tried, she'd throw a tantrum or be mean. She started actually hitting the other girls. I didn't do any of it, but I got blamed right along with her. I spent more time sitting in the princ.i.p.al's office waiting for my mom to pick me up than I did in cla.s.s."

"Yow," Hazel said. "That sucks."

"Hugely. I told my mother what was going on. Thank G.o.d she believed me. She said I couldn't play with Breona anymore. That was more than fine with me. Then Breona went nuts. She wouldn't leave me alone. She kept calling my house and coming by, begging me to be her friend." Sylvia looked at Hazel. "Serious boundary issues."

"No doubt," Hazel said, taking another swig of Cointreau. She felt pleasantly dizzy.

"Things kept escalating. My parents talked to her parents. My mom suggested therapy, and Breona's mom went nuts."

"No way. Really?"

"Really. We just wanted them to stay away from us. Life went on. Fifth grade ended. We were zoned for different middle schools-proving there is a G.o.d." Sylvia ironically made the sign of the cross. "I thought I was free of Breona Wu."

Her voice dropped. She took a deep breath, a dainty sip of Cointreau....

"And then my dog," she said finally. "His name was Asterix."

"What happened to him?" Hazel asked.

"I don't know." Sylvia's eyes welled. "He disappeared. I couldn't prove that Breona had anything to do with it. Even though I knew. People said he must have gone out the side gate. But we always closed that gate."

A single tear slid down Sylvia's cheek. Hazel had never seen her look so vulnerable.

"Oh, Sylvia, I'm so sorry," she murmured. "That's...that's just awful."

"She kind of haunted me after that. I'd get calls, but there would be no one on the other end. She'd make up terrible stories about me and tell them behind my back. I lost a few friends from it. She could be so convincing."

Sylvia took a hefty swallow of the Cointreau. "And now we both go to Brookhaven. And nothing I have ever done to her can begin to compare to what she's done to me." She pushed a dark tendril of hair away from her forehead. "No one knows about this except the other PLDs-and now you. I hate her, Hazel. I really, really do."

"I don't blame you," Hazel replied, taking Sylvia's hand. Then she thought of something.

"Sylvia," she began. "I've been getting these weird phone calls...not the ones from you guys. They're different. Really scary. And when Breona saw my green carnation, she went totally insane. She called me a b.i.t.c.h and ran out of cla.s.s."

"Oh G.o.d." Sylvia pressed her fingertips against her forehead.

"There's more. Charlie's dad found Isotope. He might have been poisoned."

Sylvia gasped. "That poor little kid."

Hazel took a deep breath. "And now...with Jilly's horse. I wonder...."

"It has to be Breona." Sylvia exhaled slowly. "We have to be very careful. All of us. G.o.d knows what she's capable of."

"Sylvia?" a child's voice called impatiently. "We finished our dinner. We're supposed to take our baths tonight."

Sylvia sighed. "Duty calls." She hit the function keys to shut Cynthia's computer down. Hazel stretched and put the cap back on the Cointreau bottle, replacing it in the drawer. She straightened up the papers around the keyboard.

"I'll show you how to check the files yourself," Sylvia promised, standing up. "You need to arm yourself, Hazel. School is like war. You know that now, don't you?"

"Of course I do," Hazel replied.

"Of course you do," Sylvia agreed. She cupped Hazel's cheek. "It's okay. You're okay now. You're with us."

"Thanks," Hazel said. And suddenly, sharply, she did feel a little bit better.

"C'mon, I'll help you give these monsters their baths," Sylvia offered. "But if they pull that 'dead' c.r.a.p again..." She gestured as if she were pus.h.i.+ng someone's head underwater.

"What are we going to do about Breona?" Hazel asked. "She's an accident waiting to happen."

"Breona will keep at us until she gets a reaction," Sylvia continued. "That's her style. Don't worry. I'm thinking about payback. In a big, big way."

Hazel laughed, but a funny feeling burrowed under her scalp.

Must be all the liquor, she thought. She turned from the bedroom, closing the door behind her.

CHAPTER EIGHT.

The next morning Hazel was driving to school when a text message came in on her phone. At a stoplight she pulled the phone out of her purse to check it.

YRSECRETPAL2PURPLEHAZE: Wnt 2 plA, sxC?

She giggled. s.e.xy? Was it from Matty? Someone behind her beeped and Hazel glanced up. Whoops. The light had changed.

She replaced the phone and drove. When she got to the next light, she wanted to write something back, but there was already another message.

YRSECRETPAL2PURPLEHAZE: Wnt 2 di? Sum1 is going 2. mayB U!

Hazel caught her breath and gingerly set the phone on the seat.

Alicia Keys's "Karma" blared at her.

Hazel picked up the phone to check the ID and her finger jerked, depressing the connect b.u.t.ton before she realized that she had just put the call through. Grimacing, she held the phone to her ear.

"h.e.l.lo?" she said.

"The horse was cool," said a m.u.f.fled voice. "You'd be cooler."

"That's not funny," she said. "Who is this?"

"Someone you know. Someone you trust. And you shouldn't."

"Breona?" she said, trying to sound annoyed.

"Who do you think it is? Breona Wu? Or one of your so-called friends? You shouldn't trust them. You shouldn't trust me."