12. Claire
12
CLAIRE
T he subterfuge works until it doesn’t.
The house phone rings. When I pick it up, Bonnie is sobbing on the other end. I can barely make out enough words to convince her to meet up at the river.
Mary-Kate meets us there. The three of us sit side by side on our old, flat rock. The river trickles and the birds twitter while Bonnie blubbers and sniffles, her eyes swollen.
“They found out about Rafe,” she says. “My parents. They went out for a movie and I told him he could come over and I…we…lost track of time…”
Mary-Kate sighs. “ Amateur ,” she says, even though I know full well she’s never snuck a boy in or out of her house.
Bonnie dissolves into another pile of sobs. I rub small circles over her back as she shakes under my palm. “It’s going to be okay,” I tell her. “We’ll figure it out.”
But then I see it. A sight that cuts through me like ice.
Her ring finger is empty; nothing but a pale band of bare skin where her Promise Ring was.
“Bonnie,” I ask, trying to quell the alarm in my voice, “your Promise Ring…”
“They took it.” Bonnie sniffs. “S-said I wasn’t worthy of the ring…”
Mary-Kate grabs Bonnie’s hand. She stares at the offending finger and her mouth twists into a hard frown. “Bonnie,” she snaps. “Enough of this.”
Mary-Kate moves in front of Bonnie. She kneels down and takes the other girl’s face in her hands. “Look at me,” she says. “Stop crying.”
Bonnie chokes, swallowing back a sob.
“Good. This is stupid . You’re being stupid. What’s more important—a dumb, disgusting boy you’re going to forget in two years, or the Belleflower Crown , that you’ve only worked your entire life for?”
Bonnie whimpers. “I love?—”
“If you say I love him , I’m going to slap you.” Mary-Kate puts both her hands up, palms facing the sky. “You have two choices. Belleflower Queen. Rafe. You can’t have both. So. Which is it?”
Bonnie is quiet for too long. Mary-Kate lifts one hand. “ Belleflower Queen ,” she says, articulating the word slowly, “A parade for you . Your face all over town. The honor of being in league with the most powerful women in the world. Or .” She lifts her other hand. “A smelly Sooter boy with no future, no money, and no drive.”
My heart slaps around in my chest, like a fish squeezed between two strong hands, trying to get free.
Bonnie shouldn’t have to make this choice . I know that. In a perfect world, she shouldn’t have to make this choice.
But I also know we don’t live in a perfect world, we live in Belleflower, and in Belleflower, there are rules.
You follow the rules or you face the consequences.
“Belleflower Queen,” Bonnie says. “I want to be a Belleflower Queen.”
Mary-Kate takes Bonnie’s face in her hands. She presses a kiss to the other woman’s forehead. “Right answer,” she says. “Now, let’s talk about getting your ring back.”
They sit side-by-side and begin drafting Bonnie’s breakup with Rafe. I stare at the river, the way the sunlight catches on the stones. I feel my heart thrum in my chest and imagine the cool river water streaming through my veins, turning my blood to ice.