SVH05-All Night Long (2 page)

"Liz!" Jessica cried.

"Jess!" Liz replied, echoing her tone.

"Some friend you are," Jessica said, grabbing a couple more of Elizabeth's things from the closet without asking.

"I'm probably the best friend you've got," Elizabeth replied dryly. "You just don't know it."

"Okay," Jessica said. She tossed her hair over her shoulder. "Just don't come running to me when you need my help someday."

Then she turned and stormed out of Elizabeth's room, slamming the door behind her. In her hands were the shoes and the scarf and various other items, which Elizabeth had never said she could have.

***

"Don't let it bother you.
You're
not doing anything wrong," Enid Rollins advised Elizabeth as she took a bite of her taco salad.

It was Sunday afternoon and Liz and her best friend had stopped at Casa del Sol, a regular SVH hangout, for a snack on their way to the beach. Elizabeth had ordered one of her favorites--vegetarian tacos--but she could only pick at them. All she could think about was Jessica speeding toward Secca Lake in that awful black Viper.

"I haven't done anything wrong
yet,"
Elizabeth said, correcting herself. "I just hope my mom doesn't get suspicious and ask me what's really going on."

"So? If she does, tell her," Enid said, her green eyes wide. "Maybe for once you should let Jessica get in trouble."

Elizabeth sighed. There was no love lost between her best friend and her twin sister. Not after Jessica had sullied Enid's name by leaking some info about her past that Enid would rather have kept a secret. Even though it had all worked out in the end, Enid was never going to truly forgive Jessica.

"It's not that simple. She
is
still my sister,"

Elizabeth explained. "I don't know what it is, but it's like I have this need to protect her."

"It's because
you're
such a good person," Enid said, implying that Jessica was the total opposite.

"You know what, we're supposed to be having fun today, so let's just have fun." Enid tossed her hair back as she popped a nacho chip into her mouth.

"Let Jessica worry about Jessica."

"You're right," Elizabeth replied, mustering a smile. "Besides, who knows? Maybe everything is going to be just fine."

They finished up their lunches and headed for the beach, which was fairly crowded by the time they arrived. Elizabeth chose a spot near the lifeguard station, which would provide a few patches of shade from the scorching afternoon sun, and she and Enid laid out their towels. Liz was just about done spreading lotion up her arms when a shadow fell across her face. She squinted up into the gorgeous brown eyes of her boyfriend, Todd Wilkins.

"Why, hello, miss. Need some help with that?" he asked, snatching the tube of sunblock away from her.

"Well, if you insist, kind sir," she joked in response.

Todd laughed and applied a layer of sunblock to her back, taking his time as he kneaded her shoulders and covered every inch of her bare skin. Elizabeth's heart beat a bit faster at his touch, and suddenly it wasn't just the sun that was keeping her warm.

"Thanks," she said.

"Anytime," Todd replied with a mischievous grin. He dropped onto the towel between her and Enid and leaned back on his elbows, exposing his long, lean torso to the sun. "So, where's the evil twin?" he joked.

"Oh, uh..."

For a moment she was at a loss for words. Todd hated it when she covered up for Jessica. Should she tell him the truth and divulge her part in it or use Jessica's white lie?

"She's hanging out with Cara and her family today," Enid said quickly.

Elizabeth smiled her thanks. At least now
she
couldn't be blamed for lying to her own boyfriend. Jessica would have been proud of that logic.

"Hey, there's Will," Todd said, sitting up and shielding his eyes from the sun.

He got up to flag down his friend Will Chase, who was walking toward the water with a surfboard tucked under his arm. Will smiled and loped over, his long blond hair hanging loosely around his perfectly cut cheekbones. He shoved his board into the sand to stand it up and slapped hands with Todd.

"Whaddup, man?" Todd said.

"Todd," Will replied. "Ladies," he said with a nod.

Will had always been a guy of few words.

"Surf looks killer today, huh?" Todd said.

"Not bad," Will agreed, checking out the waves.

Elizabeth squinted at the ocean and the surfers bobbing just beyond the surf line. As a new wave swelled, one of them broke away from the others, catching it at the perfect moment. He swooped toward the shore, riding the huge wave with such ease and grace it could have been a ripple.

"Who's that?" Elizabeth asked. "He looks like a pro."

"Sonny Callahan," Will answered, never taking

his eyes off the surfer. A cloud seemed to cross over his handsome features.

"Who's Sonny Callahan?" Enid asked.

Todd glanced warily at Will, but Will seemed mesmerized by the waves. "He's one of the best wave-riders in the state," Todd explained. "Apparently he came down for the regional competition."

"Oh." Elizabeth suddenly understood Will's change of expression. The guy lived and breathed surfing. Ever since Liz could remember, Will had been telling everyone that when he turned sixteen, he would be entering at regionals. This was his year, and everyone at SVH was sure that he would win and move on to the state finals. But now Sonny Callahan had shown up to throw a wrench in all that.

"Whatever. He's not
that
good," Enid said, trying to lighten the mood.

Will sighed and yanked his board out of the sand. "I'd better get out there." He slapped hands with Todd again. "Call you later?"

"Right," Todd said, glancing at Elizabeth shiftily.

"Later."

As Will trudged off toward the waves, Elizabeth narrowed her eyes at Todd. "What was that all about?"

"What?" he asked, dropping down next to her again but avoiding eye contact.

"That. 'Call you later,'" she said, imitating Will's low, rumbling voice. "You got all nervous."

"Yeah, right," Todd said with a laugh. "I think the sun is frying your brain."

He glanced around the beach and something caught his eye. "Hey. Isn't that Cara over there?"

At first, Elizabeth was going to accuse him of changing the subject, but then what he'd said sunk in and she whipped around. Sure enough, Cara Walker was striding toward the lemonade stand in a pink bikini, without Jessica. "I thought you said she and Jessica were hanging out with her family," Todd said.

Elizabeth's heart sank. One little white lie and it got exposed in less than five minutes. What was Cara doing there? Had Jessica invented the entire story about the Walker family driving up the coast?

"Yeah. They're supposed to be," Elizabeth said,

shoving herself up and dusting the sand from her legs. "I'll be right back."

She jogged across the scorching sand and caught up with Cara just as Cara was placing her order for a large mango lemonade. It was the trendy beach drink of the moment and Cara was nothing if not a follower.

"Hey, Cara," Liz greeted her, out of breath.

"Hi, Liz," Cara said. She looked Liz up and down and scrunched her pretty little nose. "Why so sweaty?"

"What are you doing here? I thought you and your parents were driving up the coast today," Elizabeth said.

Cara shook her glossy black hair back as the guy behind the counter handed over her lemonade.

"We were supposed to, but Mom got this emergency call from the hospital at the last minute. Had to go deliver twins or something. So annoying. Don't people, like, schedule these things these days?" she asked before taking a sip from her straw.

"Yeah. How inconsiderate of the woman to go into labor when you had plans," Elizabeth said sarcastically.

"I know, right?" Cara replied, wide-eyed.

Elizabeth didn't even bother explaining how insane Cara sounded. "Jessica told my parents she was going with you," she said, stepping away from the window so that the next customer could order.

"What if someone spots you here?"

"Who? Like your parents?" Cara scoffed. "When was the last time Ned and Alice came to the beach?"

She had a point there.

"Besides, I wasn't going to waste a perfectly gorgeous Sunday sitting on my butt in front of a
Beauty and the Geek
marathon just so Jessica wouldn't get caught in a lie," Cara said. "She's a big girl. She can take care of herself."

Elizabeth had no response to that, mostly because she agreed with it. Why should Cara's Sunday be ruined because Jessica was off being her selfish self? Why should hers, for that matter?

"You're right. I'll see you later, Cara," Elizabeth said.

"Later!" Cara trilled.

Elizabeth walked back to her friends, determined to relax and have a good time. But before she even

reached her towel, that gnawing sensation had returned to her stomach. That inkling that Jessica had gotten herself in over her head. She checked her cell phone as she dropped to the sand, but there were no messages.

"Everything okay?" Enid asked.

Todd was in the water cooling off, so Elizabeth didn't have to explain the Cara situation yet. She hoped Todd would simply forget about it.

"Yeah, I guess," Elizabeth replied with a sigh. "For now."

***

CHAPTER
2

" You should have
seen
the look on Ms. Potter's face when she caught Bobby sneaking out of my room the other morning. She actually asked him what he was doing in our house. I mean, has the woman never had a one-night stand?"

"Oh, please. I wouldn't be surprised if that hag was a virgin."

"Come on. She's at least sixty. She can't be."

"Uh, have you seen those pictures of her in the old pledge books? Two words: Fug. Ly."

The three girls cracked up laughing and Jessica's

face grew warm. She was dying to ask a million questions. Like what was it really like living in a sorority house? Who the heck was Ms. Potter? And how fugly, exactly, was she? But she knew that if she so much as opened her mouth, she would come off as naive and babyish, like the high school junior she was. So she simply kept her eyes shut, pretending to be asleep, until one of them poked her in the ribs and asked to borrow her suntan lotion.

"Sure," Jessica said. She flipped over onto her stomach and dug through her quilted beach bag until she found the bottle.

"Thanks," the girl replied. "I've got nothing but SPF 45 and I am determined to be tan before the homecoming game."

She slathered Jessica's SPF 8 all over her long, slim arms. As far as Jessica was concerned, the girl already had a flawless tan, and her white two-piece showed it off perfectly. Her long, dark hair was slicked back and secured with a white headband, and she wore the exact celeb-worthy sunglasses Jessica had been coveting at the mall the past weekend. The girl was sophistication personified.

"Thanks," she said, handing the lotion over when she was done. "What's your name again? Jennifer?"

"Jessica," she responded, blushing. "What's yours?"

"I'm Aubrey and this is Greta and Beau," she said, pointing at the other two. Both of them smiled tightly, clearly disinterested.

"Nice to meet you," Jessica said, turning to look out across the lake, where Scott and the other guys were swimming. She could be disinterested too. She could be disinterested with the best of them. Especially considering that this day was already not turning out the way she had assumed it would. When Scott had said that some of his frat buddies were throwing a party, she had imagined that the whole fraternity would be there with their friends-hundreds of people milling around, talking and having fun. Instead, it was just eight of them-her and Scott and three other couples--and so far she was bored out of her mind. At least one of the guys, Lance, had a lake cabin nearby that they could use for the bathroom and to change clothes in. It was better than using the beach park's public rest-rooms.

"That Bobby thing is nothing," Beau said, digging her manicured toes into the sand. "Did I ever tell you about the time Robert and I went camping for the weekend? I told my parents I was staying with Sarah, because they
never
call to check on me, but then my grandmother ended up in the hospital, so they called, and Sarah caved in about five seconds. Told them exactly where we were. Next thing I know, my dad's opening the flap on our tent with his shotgun."

"Shut
up
!" Greta said.

"I'm totally not kidding," Beau replied seriously.

Aubrey and Greta laughed and even Jessica had to smile. Beau painted a funny picture.

"So, Jessica," Aubrey said, surprising her. "How long have you and Scott been together?"

Jessica's brain flipped right into storytelling mode. There was no way she was going to tell these girls that this was only her second date with Scott. She knew exactly what they would do: laugh her off as a fluke. And that was the last thing she wanted. Not only was Scott the hottest guy she had ever dated, but being with him was just thrilling. Something about the covetous way he looked at

her, the casual way he approached life, the way nothing seemed to affect him made him beyond appealing. He was so confident, so in control. It made her feel both safe and uncertain at the same time. And she liked that feeling.

"Long enough," she said blithely, shaking her hair over her shoulders.

There was a moment of silence as Aubrey and her friends exchanged knowing looks. Jessica's heart thumped with foreboding.

"Listen, Jessica, there's something you should know about Scott-girl to girl," Aubrey said, pulling her knees up and draping her arms casually over her calves. "He kind of has a reputation around campus. We're not sure exactly how much of it is true, but let's just say none of us have ever let him get us alone."

Jessica stared at Aubrey blankly. What did that mean? She was about to ask, naïveté be damned, when a shadow, followed by a sprinkle of cold water, fell across her body.