Frost

I could have lied. I could have told her they were out, or whatever. But I didn’t. At the moment, it didn’t strike me as that big a deal. Dean Shepherd loved me. She trusted me. And Celeste was the issue at hand.

“They’re actually not around,” I said. “They got this last-minute trip deal to Paris so they went. But Viv’s housekeeper is here, or was here, I mean, yesterday, and took great care of us.”

“They aren’t there?” she said.

“No.”

I could hear a sigh of annoyance. “I’ll call you back after I’ve been to Frost House. In the meantime, you and whoever is with you—Vivian and Abigail and whoever else—are going to pack up and drive right back here.”

Drive back to Barcroft? Today? That’s when I realized the mistake I’d made. My stomach turned inside out.

I slumped against the back of my chair. “Abby is going to kill me. K-I-L-L, kill me. Now that Dean Shepherd knows that our chaperones aren’t here, she’s making us come back to school. She sounded really pissed. We’re seniors. I didn’t think she’d care. And everyone knows chaperone letters are bullshit.”

“What’s going on with Celeste?” David asked.

I explained about the maintenance worker being called to the dorm. “I shouldn’t have told her,” I said, then rested my cheek on the cool table. “I am so dead.”

I was in my room folding clothes into my duffel when my phone rang again.

“I found Celeste,” Dean Shepherd said. “She was the one who called maintenance. I can’t discuss anything now, Leena, but please come find me at home the minute you arrive back on campus. I need to talk to you.”

“I know,” I said. “I’m sorry about the thing with Viv’s par—”

“It’s not about that,” she said.

“It’s not?” I rested my full bag on the floor.

“No,” she said. “I want you to tell me what has been going on in this house.”

Chapter 25

DAVID AND I HIT A TRAFFIC JAM on I-91. The kind of jam that even in the best of circumstances would make me want to get out of the car, slam the door, and walk.

With the mood I was in, I thought I might literally explode. Having to spend one more minute than necessary trapped in the car, helpless. No chance to make anything better. Just a relentless cycling in my head of all the ways this was beyond bad. And I kept picturing Viv and Abby and Cameron stuck in the traffic, too. I couldn’t stand it. I wished I hadn’t left Cubby—with all of my pills—at Frost House.

“What?” Viv had said in a whisper when I called to tell her what had happened with Dean Shepherd. “You’re saying we have to leave? Today?”

“I know it sucks,” I said. “Why are you whispering?”

“We’re at that museum—the Museum of Sex,” Viv said. “Can you believe there’s a Museum of Sex? Anyway, I don’t want Abby to hear. She’s going to have a fit.”

“Tell her and Cameron how sorry I am. At least we got a couple days in the city.”

“I guess,” Viv said, not sounding convinced. “I was keeping it a secret, but I got us tickets to Letterman tomorrow.”

“Really? God, I’m so sorry.”

“Yeah, well, I am, too.”

Sitting in the car, I couldn’t get Viv’s voice out of my mind. And we’d only moved about five feet in the last ten minutes.

“What is wrong?” I yelled, hitting the steering wheel. “It’s a Sunday. Who are all these stupid people?”

“Hey.” David laid a hand on my knee. “We’ll get there.”

He had been much calmer than me after we’d found out Celeste was definitely back in the dorm. Even though we were still confused about why she’d left, and why she wasn’t answering our calls, he kept saying, “I know it’s a pain in the ass, but at least she’s safe.”

I refrained from telling him that with everyone so mad at me, I didn’t care if she was safe at school or the victim of an alien abduction. Actually, I did care. I’d have preferred the alien option.

I fiddled with the radio, trying to find a traffic report. “By the time we get there, I’ll have to interrupt Dean Shepherd during her party.”

“She’s the one who told you to come talk to her. She can’t be pissed if you do.”

Bad song, worse song, commercial . . . “Do you think I should call Viv again?”

“I think you should try to relax.”

“You keep saying that!” I snapped off the radio and glared at him. “Do you have any idea how much this sucks?”

“I know it sucks,” he said. “I just don’t think getting upset does any good.”

“How can I not be upset?” I said. “This is a really, really shitty situation your sister’s put me in. Put us in. I mean, I know it was stupid of me to tel Dean Shepherd about Viv’s parents, but I shouldn’t have even been talking to her. If Celeste hadn’t run away—”

“Leena—”

“And I don’t even know why the dean wants to see me tonight! Maybe Celeste made it sound like we did those things to her. Like we broke her vase and ruined her art project.” I couldn’t say it to David, but maybe she’d even told the dean about the nests spelling out GO, about how someone wanted her to leave. Maybe she’d blamed everything on Abby.

“Why would she do that?” David said.