4. Liz #3
Jayne has every reason in the world to be just as popular as Sadie. The same looks, quite literally, and the same money. She’s even smarter than Sadie, a fact that they both seem to have quietly acknowledged a while ago and the only angle Sadie doesn’t try to play when she’s competing with Jayne.
And, damn, does Sadie compete with Jayne.
It took me a couple years of friendship with her to really notice it, because it’s subtle.
They aren’t out there betting with each other on who can run faster (which would be Sadie, anyway, considering she’s up for every track-and-field scholarship imaginable) or who can get a guy to pay for their coffee first. It’s the little things, like being in competition has been such a normal part of their lives for so long that it’s just as natural as breathing.
If you asked Sadie about it, she’d make a joke and then tell you that even if it is a competition, she’s winning.
If you asked Jayne, which I sure as hell never would, she’d look you dead in the eye and say she has no idea what you’re talking about.
Of the two of them, she’s the one I’d believe. And honestly, she’s the one winning.
Because although Jayne is far from my favorite person in the world, and she’s backed me into some pretty shitty corners, and there’s not much I like about her, the one thing I’ve always admired about her is that she just does not give a damn what anyone thinks about her.
Especially the kids we go to school with.
And it’s not even a performative thing. She just really, truly does not care.
And that’s why Jayne is winning, if she’s even aware the competition is happening.
Because even if Sadie is dating Ben, and she’s homecoming queen, and she’s probably heading to Loyola on a full scholarship next year, she does all that stuff because she wants other people to think good things about her. Jayne wins by not giving a shit.
God, sometimes I envy her. Sometimes I wonder how my life would’ve been different if it were Jayne I’d ended up being best friends with instead of Sadie.
On the one hand, maybe it would’ve all been exactly the same.
On the other hand, maybe I wouldn’t even recognize myself. Now, that’s an idea I could get behind.
Jayne strolls across the hardwood foyer and into the perfect, coastal-chic-even-though-we’re-in-Ohio kitchen. She’s freshly showered after her horseback riding lesson, and she makes a show of dusting off the tall black boots she left by the back door and giving them a little shine.
“Good lesson?” Sadie asks.
“The best.” Jayne turns and smiles, her face a mirror of her sister’s, right down to the sprinkle of freckles across both their noses that would make me look like Pippi Longstocking but makes both of them look like waifish Irish supermodels.
“Sundance started out a little stiff on the right side, but we worked it out. He took the course like a champion.”
“Great.”
“What’re you up to?”
Jayne doesn’t look at me when she asks. She has not acknowledged my existence since she came into the room. It used to bother me that she’s so bitchy to me, but now I don’t really care.
“Oh, Liz was just showing me the cute top she got from Urban. Wanna see?”
Jayne doesn’t even bother trying to hide her disinterest. “No. Is Dad home yet?”
“He texted. He’s running late on a meeting with Ben’s dad.”
“Mom is going to kill him if he’s not home on time for them to leave.”
It’s the second weekend in October, which means Steven and Carly Cooper are heading to Chautauqua to winterize their lake house and the boat for the season.
I never thought I’d know the kind of people who “winterize” their second home, but then again, I never thought I’d meet a family like the Coopers, much less become the honorary third daughter.
It’s pure, convenient coincidence that their trip happens to line up with Trevor’s party for the second year in a row.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Sadie had a private chat with Trevor to let him know which weekends were most convenient for her schedule.
It seems crazy that he’d plan an entire event around whether or not Sadie Cooper could make it, but if she would be there, so would Ben, and so would all the kids who run with them—me included.
And not to pat myself on the back too much, but I’ve heard more than once that people are more likely to show up to a party once they know I’m going to be there.
It might only be the liquor that comes with me, but, hey, I’m not above buying myself some love.
I’d try it with Levi if I thought he had enough of a heart to feel anything at all.
But I’m getting tragic. Sadie is always reminding me not to do that.
“Your shit is kind of an after-school special in the making,” she’s always saying.
“Maybe don’t lay it all at once on anybody, yeah?
Just kind of a slow drip of trauma. That’s how you’ve got to roll.
I’ve known you long enough that nothing surprises me anymore, and you know I love you no matter what, but it’s just… it’s a lot. No offense.”
“None taken,” I always reply. And 99 percent of the time, I mean it.
But about 1 percent of the time, her holier-than-thou, Leave It to Beaver family-style view of things really pisses me the hell off.
Before she judges my past, she really should have a goddamn conversation with her family about her own.
“Okay, that right there.”
“What?”
“Sadie’s family past? What the hell are you talking about?”
I give Detective Norris what I hope is a true eat-shit smile.
“I don’t know, Detective. You came in here pretty damn sure that you had all the facts of this case.
Which, I assume, also means you know everything there is to know about Sadie and her entire family.
I can’t imagine what I have to tell you that could possibly be new information. ”
“Cut it out, kid. Lose the attitude. This is a real investigation, and no matter how it ends, no matter if we find anything else about Sadie or Mason that would help explain what happened last night… it doesn’t change the ending.
So if you have something to say, spit it out.
Otherwise, you can sit in here all on your own for who knows how long, while my colleagues and I continue the conversation with Miss Cooper and Mr. Carrera. ”
For a moment, my stomach drops to the floor. Then I realize that when he says “Miss Cooper,” he means Jayne. Obviously.
The only Miss Cooper left.
The tears start again.
I weigh the pros and cons of telling him about Sadie’s family.
It matters, obviously—although, at the same time, nothing really seems to matter after what happened to Sadie.
If something isn’t going to bring her back, is there really any point?
And what could her family drama possibly have to do with Mason Vreeland losing it and killing her?
“Miss Stratton.” Detective Norris takes on a paternal tone at the sight of my tears. Great, my choices are to be treated like crap or treated like a small child. “Look, just tell me everything you know, okay? Leave it to us to decide what’s important and what’s not. Can you please do that?”
I can do that. But I’m not telling him everything. Just the parts I think he needs to know.
“It has to do with junior year spring break…”