Chapter 19 #2
Instead of spending the last two hours doing math, I was now sitting in Poppy’s living room. We were watching clips of The Office, and the fact that Poppy knew all of Kelly Kapoor’s lines by heart made me smile.
I had so many questions in my head between one laugh and the next. I wanted to ask Amelia where she’d gone during the party, but I didn’t have the guts to ask her. She seemed pretty reserved about her love life. She unexpectedly started talking to me when Poppy was serving the tea.
“We need you, June.”
“For what?” I asked, wary.
I desperately wanted to trust them and vice versa, but I didn’t know what price I had to pay for that.
Amelia adjusted her uniform skirt on her knees, crossed her legs, and stared at me attentively.
“It’s easy. We need to ask James for something.” I would’ve been fine if they got trashed at parties and cut class every once in a while, but I had my limits.
“What do I do?” I tensed.
“You’re the only one whose number he doesn’t have. We have to text him to ask him for something.”
Ari immediately noticed my expression, so she came closer and laid it on thick, batting her long eyelashes.
“June, we’re just asking you for a favor. And it’s the first time we’re doing it. You can’t say no.” Her voice was so angelic that it seemed fake.
“Don’t even think about it. I can’t. You know I can’t stand him, and he can’t stand me.”
“Come on, that’s not true.” Ari downplayed the situation, seductively playing around with her ponytail.
“Of course it is, he bolted offstage as soon as he saw her! Not even Taylor could make him run off like that.” Unlike the others, Poppy was maybe a bit too direct.
“Thanks, Poppy,” I grumbled.
“Sure. Want an Oreo?”
Amelia intercepted it to get my attention. “Listen, June, he won’t know it’s you. You just have to text him.”
All of them looked at me with puppy eyes. I took a deep breath.
“What should I say?”
“This.”
Amelia handed me her iPhone with a message written on it: Meet me at the park in front of school in ten minutes.
“What? Why would I ask him to meet there?”
“Because it’s the closest isolated place to my house, and you can walk there,” replied Poppy.
“I’m not going anywhere, especially not if he’s there. Why can’t you guys go?”
“Because if Brian finds out, he’ll kill us. James doesn’t sell anything anymore because of my brother.” Amelia and Ari exchanged a knowing look.
“Sorry, what would he be selling?” I frowned before continuing. “Are we . . . are we talking about illegal stuff?”
I was scandalized. Ari tried to placate me. “It’s nothing illegal. Just pills.”
“Oh my god! Why would he sell you that crap?”
“We have history homework due tomorrow, and we need help. It’s not illegal, they’re prescription drugs. But we don’t have a prescription. James does.”
“Studying isn’t enough?”
Amelia shot me a look that made me embarrassed for asking that question.
“I’m having a party at my house tonight,” explained Poppy.
My jaw dropped. Another party? I nearly turned into my mom.
“Since we wanna do both, we need a little help,” whispered Ari persuasively.
“That’s how you get good grades?”
The girls exchanged a conspiratorial look.
“June, there’s nothing wrong with doing it once in a while. Between practice and extracurriculars, we get home late, and the last thing we want to do is spend the whole night studying.”
Welcome to the real world, I wanted to yell at her.
“We use a few pills when we can’t focus. We only use them once in a while. They’re prescription drugs, nothing dangerous.”
Ari was using every persuasive bone in her body, but Poppy started laughing in my face. Obviously she was lying. Everyone was.
“Okay, it’s not illegal, but is it dangerous? Isn’t it prescribed by a doctor?” I demanded.
Amelia took a stand. “June, it’s decided.
” I gritted my teeth, but she ignored me.
“And nobody, I mean nobody, tell Brian. You have to promise me.” I was waiting for Ari to resist, because Brian was still her boyfriend.
Could she lie to him that easily? To my surprise, she was the first one to say, “I promise.”
Then it was Poppy’s turn.
They all looked at me.
“What?” I asked, taking an Oreo out of Poppy’s package.
“You have to promise, June.”
“Okay, okay. Look, I’ll send the text, but I’m not going there.”
“Did something happen with James at the party?” asked Amelia abruptly. Her posing that question right then startled me.
“You’re asking me if something happened? That asshole locked me in the basement! And if that wasn’t enough, William threw me out of his house in front of everyone!”
“Eh, Will’s like that.” Ari shrugged. I tried making eye contact with Poppy, who lowered her gaze.
“Is James blackmailing William in some way?” I tried to prod in the direction that I thought was most plausible.
I liked William a lot, but he was hiding something, and I was dying to find out what it was.
“No, not that I know of,” muttered Amelia. “Why would you think something like that?”
“Because William does everything James asks. But even then, I sometimes . . . I get the vibe that James is scared of him.”
Amelia sighed and pursed her lips. “Look, June, you should know something. William will always put James first. Always.” Her words were so gloomy that I shivered.
Why? Why’d she just tell me something like that?
The girls didn’t seem to have any intention of making me privy to their secrets. There was only one way to gain their trust.
“I’ll do it,” I declared abruptly.
It was a little effort that might help me find out the truth.
“Really?” Poppy looked surprised.
“Yeah.”
>> > <<
Unlike the girls, I spent the entire afternoon studying without any medical intervention.
“Honey, wanna order pizza tonight?”
I raised an eyebrow. “Honey?” Something was off. She always needed something when she acted that sickeningly sweet.
“Out with it, Mom.”
“Um, remember that dinner with my client?”
I watched her wrap a lock of hair around her index finger as she circled around my desk.
“The guy you wanna get in bed with?”
“June!”
“Oh, sorry, I meant the art aficionado you wanted to show your collection of paintings to.”
She stared at me, annoyed, but then went back to being easygoing. “Are you coming too?”
“What’s your problem? Are you afraid of eating dinner with a guy alone?”
Her eyes went wide, shocked at my back talk.
“Sorry, Mom, I’m anxious about studying.”
I saw her sigh and face-palm.
“Are you coming, June?”
“Okay.”
Pleased with my answer, she kissed me on the cheek, which convinced me to try my luck.
“Look, tonight—”
“Don’t tell me you wanna go out again.” She cut me off tersely.
“I’ll be busy working on an important assignment for class on the night of your famous dinner.”
She rolled her eyes then turned around to my bedroom door.
“Okay, but be back at eleven.”
“Midnight?”
“Eleven thirty.”