“Yeah, right.” Aria ducked her head and stared at her pale limbs. Certainly not as hot as the blond goddesses just down the beach who’d spent the whole day rubbing tanning oil on their long arms and legs. Had she caught Noel checking them out, or was that just her jealous paranoia getting the best of her?
“I’m serious.” Noel pinched Aria’s butt. “I’m holding you to skinny-dipping on this trip. And when we go to Iceland, we’re getting naked in those geothermal pools.”
Aria blushed.
Noel elbowed her. “You are excited about Iceland, aren’t you?”
“Of course!” Noel had surprised Aria with tickets for her, himself, Hanna, and Mike to go to Iceland this summer—all expenses paid by the über-rich Kahn family. Aria certainly couldn’t say no—she’d spent an idyllic three years in Iceland after Ali, their Ali, vanished. But she felt a strange resistance about the trip, an eerie premonition that she shouldn’t go. Why, she wasn’t sure.
After the girls slipped on their sarongs, beach dresses, and, in Emily’s case, an oversized Urban Outfitters tee with the words MERCI BEAUCOUP printed across the front, Noel and Mike led them to a table at the tropical rooftop restaurant. Tons of other kids also on spring break stood at the bar, flirting and doing shots. A knot of girls in mini-dresses and high, strappy heels giggled in a corner. Tall, sunburned guys in board shorts, snug-fitting polos, and sockless Pumas clinked beer bottles and talked sports. The air had an electric pulse, sparkling with the promise of illicit hookups, drunken memories, and late-night swims in the resort’s saltwater pool.
The air throbbed with something else, too, something the four girls noticed instantly. Excitement, certainly . . . but also a hint of danger. It felt like one of those nights that could go either wonderfully right . . . or terribly wrong.
Noel stood. “Drinks? What do we want?”
“Red Stripe,” Hanna answered. Spencer and Aria nodded in agreement.
“Emily?” Noel turned to her.
“Just a ginger ale,” Emily said.
Spencer touched her arm. “Are you okay?” Emily wasn’t a big partier, but it was weird that she wasn’t splurging even a little on vacation.
Emily pressed her hand to her mouth. Then she rose clumsily from the table and wheeled toward the small bathroom in the corner. “I just have to . . .”
Everyone watched as she wove around the kids on the dance floor and shoved hurriedly through the pink bathroom door. Mike winced. “Is it Montezuma’s revenge?”
“I don’t know . . .” Aria said. They’d been careful not to drink tap water here. But Emily hadn’t been herself since the fire. She’d been in love with Ali. To have the girl she thought was her best friend and longtime crush return, break her heart, and try to kill her must have been doubly devastating.
Hanna’s cell phone buzzed, breaking the silence. She pulled it out of her straw beach bag and groaned. “Well, it’s official. My dad’s running for Senate. This dork on his campaign staff is already asking to meet with me when I get back.”
“Really?” Aria looped her arm around Hanna’s shoulders. “Hanna, that’s amazing!”
“If he wins, you’ll be a First Daughter!” Spencer said. “You’ll be in the society magazines!”
Mike skootched his chair closer to Hanna. “Can I be your personal Secret Service agent?”
Hanna reached for a handful of plantain chips from a bowl on the table and shoved them into her mouth. “I won’t be the First Daughter. Kate will.” Her dad’s stepdaughter and new wife were his true family now. Hanna and her mother were the rejects.
As Aria playfully slapped Hanna’s hand, the bracelets on her wrist rattled. “You’re better than she is, and you know it.”
Hanna rolled her eyes dismissively, though she was grateful to Aria for trying to cheer her up. That was the one good thing that had come out of the Ali disaster: The four of them were best friends again, their bond even stronger than it was in seventh grade. They’d vowed to remain friends forever. Nothing would ever come between them again.
Noel returned with the drinks, and everyone clinked glasses and said “Yeah, mon!” in faux-Jamaican accents. Emily staggered back from the bathroom, still looking seasick, but smiled cheerfully as she sipped her ginger ale.
After dinner, Noel and Mike wandered over to an air hockey table in the corner and began to play. The DJ cranked up the music, and Alicia Keys blasted over the stereo. Several people writhed on the dance floor. A boy with wavy brown hair and a buff physique caught Spencer’s eye and beckoned her to join him.
Aria nudged her. “Go for it, Spence!”
Spencer turned away, blushing. “Uch, skeevy!”
“He looks like the perfect Andrew cure,” Hanna urged. Andrew Campbell, Spencer’s boyfriend, had broken up with her a month ago—apparently, Spencer’s ordeal with Ali and A was “just too intense” for him to handle. Wuss.
Spencer gazed at the guy on the dance floor again. Admittedly, he was cute in his long khaki shorts and laceless boat shoes. Then she spied the insignia on his polo. PRINCETON CREW. Princeton was her top-choice school.
Hanna brightened, noticing the polo, too. “Spence! It’s a sign! You guys could end up being dorm mates!”
Spencer looked away. “It’s not like I’m going to get in.”
The girls exchanged a surprised glance. “Of course you will,” Emily said quietly.
Spencer reached for her beer and took a hearty swig, ignoring their inquisitive stares. The truth was, she’d let her schoolwork go in the past few months—wouldn’t anyone, after their supposed BFF tried to kill them? The last time she checked with her guidance counselor about her class rank, she’d slipped to twenty-seventh place. No one ranked that low ever got into an Ivy.