Page 32 of Swallow Your Sorries

I swallow and nod.

“I think if you can earn their friendship, they’ll be your best friends for life. But I’ll give you a bit of a warning. It’s pretty cutthroat around here. The competition’s always high with dance, theatre, art and sports. Add in the city’s wealthiest boys and it can be brutal.”

Brutal?This is an elite boarding school, not some war zone. Right?

I grimace my thanks and head up the three flights of stairs. As the shiny gold plaque of room three zero three comes into view, anticipation, dread and excitement mix in my stomach, before erupting into butterflies. What will my new roommates look like? Act like? I pause, listening as their voices drift through the ajar door.

“I spent the entire summer with my aunt. When she offered me a fashion internship at her company, how could I say no?” says a girl with long, dirty blonde waves. She’s curvy and has an air of confidence that just draws attention.

She’s talking to a girl on the bed who has her back to me, but when she turns, I recognize her as the blasian girl from the parking lot. She doesn’t acknowledge me, her grey eyes flicking back to the blonde girl.

“Is that where you’ve been? In Yves?” she asks, inclining her head as if a ninety-degree tilt will better help her see the truth. It’s clear she thinks the girl’s lying. “I thought you skipped summer in the Hamptons to reconnect with your extended family in Italy?”

Before the blonde girl can speak, a shadow darts past me, one with thick, wavy black hair that catches me just beneath my shoulder. Behind her, a tall man dressed in a uniform, a driver may be, rolls a large designer trunk in each hand whilst the straps of two large duffels crisscross over his broad chest. The girl’s only holding a dainty purse and hat box.

“Internship?I thought you were in St. Barts, Stassi,” she says, tossing the hat box onto a night table.

“Aria,” Stassi pales at the newcomer who’s having a standoff with her.

Aria’s piercing eyes, a familiar blue-green, contrast stunningly with her caramel-brown skin. They shoot fire at Stassi as she crosses her arms, completely ignoring the driver’s little wave goodbye as he rests her luggage down and leaves.

“Who told you that?” Stassi laughs and I hear a hint of nervousness as she bends down to air kiss Aria on each cheek.

Ari doesn’t return the greeting and there’s no missing the venom in her voice as she says, “Not you, of course.”

“Ooh,” the girl on the bed coos. “Trouble in bestie paradise?”

Aria swings to the darker girl, her eyes blazing. “Get off my bed, Rin.”

Rin stands to her full height and tosses her silky strands, which whip me in the face as I enter the room. “I was just leaving. I have a meeting with…well you see soon enough. The internship did you well, Stassi. You must have power walked all over the company for hours on end.”

Stassi pales as Rin flounces out of the room and past me without so much as a glance.

Am I really that invisible?

No. Unimportant.

“Fuck,” Stassi lets out a gasp. “What do you think she has up her sleeve now?”

“I don’t know, and I don’t care. Why the hell did you invite her into our room, anyway?”

“You know I didn’t. She just came in snooping. It’s what she does.”

“And you entertained her.”

“I’d rather give her an answer before she goes around spreading something stupid. I just know that bitch is behind Beaussip.”

Beaussip?My earlier butterflies return with a vengeance, passing my epicentre and drifting into my anus.Thee Beaussip? The Beaussip I sent Madame Pelletier and Jarett’s sex tape to?

No. That has to be a…

But I know it’s not a coincidence.

Aria cuts straight to it. “Where have you been, Stassi?”

Nervously, I ease over to the only empty bed under the large diamond pane window. There’s a small balcony on the other side, just large enough to hold one person. The room itself is pretty simple, with white walls, high ceilings and dark hardwood floors.

“Who are you?” Stassi asks, noticing me for the first time, though I think she’s looking for any sort of ‘out’.

---