Charm and Consequence (Novella) - By Stephanie Wardrop Page 0,15

this to Tori so she could make sense out of it. How could I expect anyone else to do that when I can’t do it myself? Plus she spends all of her free time with Trey now, as they surf the glorious golden wave of love at first sight together. She’d probably think I'm crazy if I told her what I’m feeling. Or tell me I’m making everything too complicated. As usual.

***

Between the night of the dance and Christmas vacation, not much happens. We spend Thanksgiving at my grandparents’ house in Cheshire, Connecticut, where my mom grew up. Afterward, back in Longbourne, my mom is busy volunteering with some other Newcomers Club housewives at the children’s hospital in Netherfield and trying to learn to knit some things for them. Baby blankets, I think. I meet Shondra and some other kids once at a movie at a mall outside Netherfield, and I see Jeremy in the hall a couple of times. He always grins and calls out, “Hey, it’s the Duchess” or “What’s up, Dutch?” but he keeps walking with whatever posse is trailing him. And then it’s Christmas vacation and everyone explodes out of the school on the last day like it’s a prison break. And if there were anything crucial that Michael had wanted to impart to me on the night of the Harvest Ball, he seemed to forget all about it. A couple of times in class I almost asked him but I couldn’t come up with a natural, jokey way to say it so that he wouldn’t think I was obsessing about it. Especially since he seems as casually disinterested as ever, enough to make me wonder if I dreamed the whole conversation in the first place.

We spend Christmas at my dad’s parents in Scranton, where we listen to a lot of Dean Martin and Nat King Cole holiday CDs and eat a lot of cookies. My sisters and I even drag my dad’s old sled out of the garage and bomb down the hills like nutcases until we are too cold and wet to stand it any more. But we only stay two days because Dad has to fly to San Francisco for some conference.

It’s all really uneventful until, back in Longbourne on a lazy housebound day in a snowstorm, I come into our room to find Tori hunched over the computer. I can tell she’s been crying.

“Still no message from Trey? It’s only been two weeks,” I say.

“No. But I did get another message from Willow.” She sniffs back her tears and wipes her cheek with the back of her hand. The silver bracelet Trey gave her for Christmas catches the desk lamp light.

“Wait—another message from Willow? Email?”

“Facebook.”

I sit on the bed and absorb this.

“You friended Willow Harper? Why? The girl laughed when you broke your ankle.”

“Because she asked me to. And it wasn’t broken.”

Over her shoulder I read Willow’s message about what a great time she and Trey are having on the slopes and how they meet some evenings at superfabulous nightspots in town.

“She is obviously trying to torture you,” I conclude. I know that back in early September, Willow had had a big “welcome to town” party for Trey, hoping he would fall into her arms that night, but when Tori twisted her ankle on the Harpers’ terrace, Tori fell into Trey’s. That did not make Willow happy. And clearly Willow does not concede defeat so much as bide her time.

“Why doesn’t Trey message me, at least once?” Tori asks quietly.

“I’m sure it’s not because he’s forgotten you because he’s having such a glorious time in the mountains with Willow Harper. Though that is exactly what Willow wants you to think.”

Tori considers this for a moment and chews on her lip. I’ve never seen her like this. Tori is usually self-assured, like she has always known who she is and what is important to her.

“What if he is with her?” she asks quietly.

“Oh, please! That is impossible.”

“Is it? Maybe they belong together. Her family is so much more like his than ours is–”

“Tori, listen to me. Anyone can see how Trey feels about you, how he looks at you, talks to you, and talks about you. You two are a legendary couple in the halls of Longbourne High.”

“Well, he’s not in Longbourne now,” she grouses.

“So? So we don’t have a summer house and a ski chalet and a pond with big fat koi fish.” I sit on the floor beside her chair and