Page 66 of The Bridesmaid
‘You might as well know,’ she decides. ‘Silky is into drugs. She got into heroin a couple of years ago. Went to rehab, but … it didn’t stick. We’re kind of used to her skipping out.’
‘That would explain a lot.’ I turn this over, fitting it. ‘Could Silky have gone to the Bell Tower?’ I heard that part of your birthday celebrations were held there,’ I add, in response to her surprised expression. ‘Thought she might be reminiscing.’
‘Oh.’ Her face tightens, as if deciding what to say. ‘Well, I guess the older part of the island isn’t really a secret,’ she says finally. ‘Margaret Kensington started the school out here. Back in the 1950s or something. An education for proper young ladies.’ She nods her head as if remembering it word for word. ‘Elysium events often have … reminders … of that heritage.’
‘Simone mentioned a game of Truth or Dare,’ I try.
‘Simone?’ Now Adrianna looks genuinely shocked. ‘Oh.’ She looks thoughtful. ‘Well, I guess. Silky was trying to get Simone to look over her court case. She never gives up.’ She sighs. ‘Silky dared me to testify. Stand up against the school. I guess that’s how Simone knew about that game.’
‘You didn’t testify?’
‘Well, no. I mean I would have, but the court case was two days after my birthday party.’
She waits for the meaning to sink in.
Adrianna agreed to testify against Kensington Manor School at her birthday party. Then she was kidnapped.
‘Poor Silks,’ says Adrianna sadly. ‘We all let her down. It was awful. School was OK if you were strong, I guess. But Silkywasn’t. Little kids that age, they wet their pants, they get sick. They poop in places they shouldn’t. And they’reallsad and terrified. In my dorm there was a girl who …’ she hesitates. ‘Never mind,’ she mutters. ‘But Silky never could forget all that stuff. Some stupid therapist told her to draw it all out and she never stopped.’
Silky’s sketchbook pops back into my mind. I wonder if Fitzwilliam has managed to locate it while we’re all distracted with the barbecue.
I shake my head slowly, feeling suddenly grateful for my crazy mom, and the colorful neighbours in our Lower-East walk-up.
Adrianna shakes her head. ‘Then with what Petra did to her …’ Her usual perfect mask has dropped. Her eyes are red and her mouth misshapen. But as we reach the beach bar, Adrianna’s vulnerable softness drops away and the confident society queen takes her place.
‘I like to think of my life as a movie,’ she tells me, adjusting her hair as she takes in the stagey composition of her bridesmaids. ‘The rape threats, the stalkers, the fact I need security to wait outside the bathroom when I go out in public. That’s just the jeopardy the heroine needs for the audience to care, but we all know she’s going to marry her Prince Charming in the end.’
She produces her cell, and flicks to a picture of herself holding a champagne glass aloft, head thrown back, laughing. The bridesmaids smile in the background. I’m in the shot, I realize with shock. You’d honestly think I was enjoying myself.
‘This is therealme,’ continues Adrianna. ‘And no one can touch it.’
I suddenly feel so sorry for Adrianna, I want to wrap my arms around her. Beneath the glossy facade, she’s so childlike anduncertain. And as Petra’s vulpine expression comes into view, I can’t help but feel afraid for her.
‘Who wants to hit the club?’ says Adrianna in an upbeat tone. ‘Fortune House is open all night.’
‘Dri, are you sure?’ Ophelia looks concerned. ‘You must be exhausted. And we’ve only just got the beach photoshoot set up.’
For a moment Adrianna’s face flickers, and an expression of glassy-eyed fatigue registers and is gone.
‘Let’s just ditch it,’ she says. ‘We’ve got enough pictures to work. Maybe Silky is there. Besides, tonight is the only chance we have for club photography and the sponsors need their pictures. Best we look fresh-faced.’
They all stand to leave, and my anxiety rises with them. Fitzwilliam won’t be expecting anyone to arrive at Fortune House so soon. If he’s caught snooping …
‘I’ll catch up with you later,’ I announce. ‘Just remembered I need to retouch my make-up.’
‘She’s only just realized,’ I hear Ophelia mutter as I head back down the beach at speed. ‘You need to retouch make-up?’
Chapter Fifty-Two
HOLLY
I leave the other girls to their club night, marveling at their stamina. Though I suspect I have committed some terriblefaux pasby not going along too. I caught a flash of Adrianna’s exhausted face, before she quickly rearranged her features into ‘night club excitement’.
I head for the kitchen determined to find something to eat, but it’s locked and so I go to my cabana, hoping Fitzwilliam has gotten hold of Silky’s sketchbook. Maybe she’ll have drawn some answers to my questions about Trinity and boarding school.
There’s nothing comparable to the total pitch black of a tropical island. The hum of wildlife is deafening. Night birds, insects, and some kind of nocturnal toad determined to get in on the party. The sky above is inky, dotted with a thousand white stars. My feet feel out the comforting straight lines of the plank walkway leading to back to our off-shore huts.
As I break out of jungle, the sight of the ocean takes my breath away. It’s lit up from within, spotted all across the shore with bright blue lights. Like a starry sky from a distant beautiful planet. The warm sand is scattered with an unfamiliar species of small lizard, racing in and out of the darkening tides.
