I can help it.”
“Suzy. What are you on? One minute you’re prepared to do anything, killing aside. And now you don’t want to hurt him.”
“I know. I know. It’s hard. I just don’t want everyone to hate him. Though they don’t even know him apart from Starbucks. I wonder what school he goes to?”
“Why? Are you planning to go see him? To beg him not to—” Her voice slows right down and I know we’ve got it.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” I ask, dropping my legs to the floor and sitting upright.
“It depends on what you’re thinking.” Maddie replies.
“That I should speak to him and find out what it will take for him to remain silent.” Why are all the best ideas the most simple?
“Yeah. I don’t know why we didn’t think of it before. It certainly beats killing him. And a lot less messy.” She can say that again.
***
“Suzy. Suzy. Come and sit here.” I glance up without thinking at the sound of Lori’s voice which effectively ruins my plan to sit as far away from her this morning as I can. Not for any reason other than she’s going to want the low down on last night. And I feel as much like discussing it as I do flying to the moon. I was even thinking about sitting next to Janey, though that probably isn’t a good idea. I can’t hack dealing with anything else at the moment.
Quite understandably I got virtually no sleep last night, spending most of the time working out how to approach Ryan and what to say. In fact I didn’t drop off until about half an hour before my alarm sprang into action—not that it will do that again. In my temper I threw it across the room. Not a good move, I’ll probably be late for school every day from now on.
“Hi,” I say dropping down on the chair and resting my bag on my lap while I start to take out my books and pens.
“Well?” She says, her eyes all wide and expectant, excitement clearly getting the better of her. “How did it go?”
“Good.” Well, I’m hardly going to say otherwise. “Went to see the latest Stephen King movie, which was awesome.”
“I bet. What did you see that for? You should’ve made him see what you wanted.”
“It was my choice.”
Lori rolls her eyes to the ceiling. “Are you sure? I hate movies like that. And how was tea? Did Guy behave himself?”
“He was perfect. I’m sure Mom and Dad liked him.”
“What do you mean? Didn’t they say? My mom always makes her feelings known about my boyfriends.”
Now she mentions it, it’s strange that Mom hardly said anything about Guy. When I think back to Rosie’s boyfriend Steve, who she was seeing before the accident, Mom always said how much she liked him. He was nice. Probably still is. Similar to Guy in many ways, as in he’s rich and popular.
“Hey Suzy,” calls Aaron when he walks past my desk, forcing my mind back to the present. “Good job.”
“Thanks.” I turn to Lori, after he’s gone. “What’s he talking about?”
“No idea.”
“Yay, Suzy.” Mark comes over and pats me on the back.
“Thanks, Mark. But I haven’t a clue what you mean.” He drops his bag on my desk and leans on it.
“You haven’t seen the notice board then?”
“No. I—” My jaw drops to the floor. Shit. He can’t be talking about— “Do you mean I’m—”
“Yeah. You won the vote. You’re on the Committee.”
A broad smile crosses my face and sticks like glue. And all I can do is flash it at everyone. This is so amazing. I wish Rosie was here to see it. She’d never believe I could do such a thing. Well let’s be honest, I never believed I could do such a thing. And Maddie will just die—with shame or pride, I’m not sure which.
“Awesome.” I finally manage to reply. My jaw aches from smiling, but I can’t seem to relax it. I’m going to look stupid if I grin through the entire lesson.
“You rock, Suzy,” Lori says giving me a hug. “So the best girl really did win.”
Yeah, the best, lying, two-faced, manipulative girl won. Oh crap. That soon wiped the smile off my face.
“Thanks.” I pull away from her and pretend to rummage through my bag for more books and stuff.
Suddenly my euphoria has turned to major-angst. What is the point in reveling in all this popularity when all too soon it will turn to shit? Unless