Page 16 of Contempt

“Anae Richards is having a party this weekend. She wanted me to invite you.”

The girl behind her was just giving me a judgy, unimpressed look, but she snaps to attention at the sound of that name. “Really? When? Where? At her place?”

“Isn’t she like… unhinged? In a bad way?” the other girl whispers apologetically.

“She’s a goddamn icon,” the judgy one states, her gaze never leaving mine. “Is there an invitation?”

“Uh… no. It’s very exclusive, and I’m only allowed to invite Brittany. Sorry.”

I’m sure Anae would have appreciated having a fan around to stroke her ego, but I am not in the business of recruiting new minions for her, and this girl seems like she would be only too eager to sign up.

“Will Landon be there?” Brittany asks uncertainly.

My jaw tries to lock, but I force a nod and remind myself to be cool. “Yeah. Landon, Arden, Malek. Kind of a way for Anae to mingle with new people since it’s a new year. It’s a carefully curated crowd.”

“And I made the cut?” she asks brightly.

The one salty aboutnotgetting an invite asks sharply, “Is Sierra going to be there?”

She’s annoying me, so I glance from her to Brittany. “Everyone who made the list will get the details. She’ll be in touch.”

I don’t crave popularity at all and I certainly don’t like Anae Richards, but I can’t deny feeling a bit powerful as I dismiss them and walk away knowing they covet the invitations only I can offer.

Unfortunately, I am going to have to get with Anae to figure out the invitation situation, but I was planning to go to Hannah’s after school again, anyway. I hate how tired she has been lately, so I’m going to roll up my sleeves and help her get some housework out of the way so the poor girl can get more sleep.

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“I want it to have a very cool night club feel,” Anae says, her arms spread as she gestures to the open space in the room we just killed ourselves moving furniture out of.

“I want to never move another heavy thing as long as I live,” I state, wiping sweat from my forehead with the back of my hand.

Hannah puts her hands on her hips and stretches a bit. “Okay, you mean the lighting?”

“Of course the lighting, but we also need plenty of comfy places for people to sit or hook up or whatever.”

“Sure. Gotta have the hookup spots,” I say.

Anae nods. “For the menu, Hannah’s going to make a spread. Carne asada fries, tacos, and then for a vegan option, we’ll have jackfruit carnitas.”

“I’m also going to make cucumber roll ups for an appetizer,” Hannah says.

“She’ll circulate and pass out the appetizers. For the actual meal, we’ll set up a table over here and people can help themselves. It’s not a dinner party, so we’ll keep it informal.” She gestures elsewhere. “We’ll put a bar over here, and we need to set something up out by the pool, too. And let’s do a feature table when people first walk in, something sexy and cool to set the mood.” She clasps her hands together. “I’ve got it. You know those lipsticks that change colors when you kiss someone? We’ll get those, and everybody will take one when they enter.”

“We need to come up with something as far as invites, too,” I tell her.

She nods, contemplative for a split second, then she smiles. “I’ve got an idea for that. Hannah, how soon can you get me the lip balms?”

“Um…” Hannah pulls out her phone. “I don’t know, give me a sec.”

“Ugh.” Anae rolls her eyes as if utterly inconvenienced. Then, back to me, she says, “If Hannah ever gets her shit together and we can get the lipsticks fast enough, we’ll shoot a teaser video. Maybe a little girl-on-girl kiss so guests see how the lipstick works, then a shot of my lips changing colors with sexy, provocative language like ‘who will you kiss tonight?’ Not that, I’ll let you come up with the verbiage since you’re the brainy one.”

Hannah speaks up. “We may be able to get them tomorrow, depending on how many we order.”

Anae looks at me expectantly. “How many are on the guest list?”

“We still need to go over that.”

“A preliminary number,” she says impatiently.

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