Page 8 of The Girl Who Was Taken

“You guys don’t know him.”

“A Chapel Hill guy?”

“God no! He doesn’t go to school.”

“Doesn’t go to college? How old is he?”

“I don’t know. Like, twenty-five?”

Jessica stared at her. “What the hell, Nicole?”

“What? I’m seventeen. It’s not illegal. Gotta be fifteen or younger.”

“I don’t care if it’s legal. What’s a twenty-five-year-old doing with us?”

“He’s not doing anything withus. Just me.”

“Whatever,” Jessica said. “Does he have a job?”

Another shrug. “I don’t really know. Construction, or something.”

“So what, he holds the stop sign at construction sites?”

“I don’t know what he does.”

“Sounds serious,” Rachel said.

“Screw you guys. I’m so sick of Emerson Bay boys.And high school boys, in general. Totally predictable. Totally boring.”

“When do we get to meet him?”

Nicole made an ugly face. “Great idea. I’ll suffocate him with neediness.Please meet my friends so they can love, love, love you!”

“Tell him to come to Matt’s party next Saturday,” Jessica said, almost a challenge.

“Right. Like he wants to go to a high school party.”

“You’re still going, aren’t you?”

Nicole shrugged again. She could have yawned to get her point across. “Yeah, I guess. The bitches will be there, so I might not stay long.”

“Come on,” Jessica said. “They’re not bitches, they’re just . . .”

“Perfect. Little. Bitches,” Nicole said. “And so fake it makes me want to puke.”

“Megan McDonald? She is always super nice to you.”

“Yeah, in a super-fake way. Like:I’m so much smarter than you and prettier than you and more popular than you, I think I’ll act really nice to you so you don’t feel so sorry for yourself. And if I could find a way to document my charity to you on my résumé, I’d do it because it might get me into a better school.”

Jessica and Rachel laughed at the mimic.

“That’s not Megan at all,” Jessica said.

“If anything,” Rachel said, “she comes off as too nice. So I can see why you think she’s fake. But it’s real. It’s the way she is. And she created the summer retreat, so you can’t make the argument that she’s dumb. Girl’s smart-smart. Like thirty-six-on-her-ACT-smart.”

“Exactly. She created a retreat to help incoming freshman, yet during our freshman year she was the one who was bitchy and cliquey and made people feel like shit.” Nicole stood from the pool and moved to a lounge chair. “She bothers me.”

“She bothers youlatelybecause she’s hooking up with Matt. I thought you were‘so over’him,” Jessica said, making air quotes.

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