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Bailey wrote his name in block letters—TANNER—and circled them. Fresh tears filled her eyes.
“What did Tanner do?” Bailey asked aloud.
Chapter 6
Last day of school.
Ellie looked at herself in the gilded princess mirror above her dresser, part of the furniture her parents had bought for her when she was six years old, the whole set of which she now fervently hated.
But that was of little consequence now.
She unzipped the makeup container with shaking fingers. It was empty save for the toilet-paper-wrapped pregnancy wand she’d peed on. She hadn’t had the courage to look at it and had nearly jumped out of her skin when the twins had rattled the bathroom door, yelling that they needed to go right now!
She’d yelled right back, telling them to use the bathroom upstairs, and had quickly wrapped the wand in yards of toilet paper and shoved it in the makeup container she’d brought from her bedroom just for this purpose.
Her bedroom door didn’t have a lock, so she’d shoved the extra dining room chair that had migrated to her room underneath the doorknob. Hopefully it would slow down the twins, or anyone else, long enough for her to have this one, single moment of privacy.
Her hands trembled. Her period was late, and she was never late. Never.
She’d gotten her wish. Not Tanner, but McCrae. She’d followed him and some of the other guys into the woods and chugged some vodka. She’d been offered a joint, but smoking anything sent her into coughing jags that doubled her over. McCrae was feeling no pain when she took his hand and led him a ways away, deeper into the woods. She kissed him, and he said something like, “I don’t think this is a good idea,” though he hadn’t resisted. He had, in fact, leaned into the kiss and parted her lips with his tongue. Ellie had French-kissed before, but this time it felt like a jolt to her senses. She’d made a vow to have sex with either Tanner or McCrae, but had only half-meant it. Still, she’d watched both of them with an eagle eye throughout that terrible day, kind of dreaming about having Tanner mostly. But Tanner got really wasted, and there were so many of the girls, especially the Five Firsts—God, how she hated that label!—watching him, trying to be close to him, just flat-out, fucking adoring him. She couldn’t be one of those girls.
And then she’d seen McCrae’s washboard stomach, and something felt like it sprang loose inside her. Like she was melting. Okay. He wasn’t Tanner Stahd, but he was damn good-looking and was going places. Tanner was, too, obviously. He was going to be a doctor, maybe a surgeon, like his father. McCrae’s dad was a businessman and involved in real estate deals, and McCrae . . . Chris, she reminded herself. She couldn’t call him McCrae if they were, like, a couple. Anyway, she thought Chris was likely to follow his father into the business.
McCrae had sobered up really fast, and by the time he’d come back from Grimm’s Pond, he’d been calm and in control. What they’d shared wasn’t even in the glint of a sideways look to her after the shock of Carmen’s death. He’d just made sure she and Delta and Zora had someone picking them up, or that they were emotionally stable enough to drive.
She shivered and carefully unwrapped the wand.
Mrs. Christopher McCrae. Oh, God, she wanted it.
Please ...
Only one pink line. She blinked. Looked again . . .
Negative.
Ellie plopped down on her bed, staring at the single pink line in consternation. Not pregnant.
Well . . . shit.
She should be jumping for joy. Delirious with relief. Instead, she was kind of crushed.
“Ellie?”
Quickly, she shoved the wand back into the makeup case and zipped it up. “What?” she demanded angrily. “Can’t I have any privacy?”
“Well, hurry up. We want to take pictures.”
Her mother sounded joyous. It was a big day. Graduation was tomorrow. And then it would all be over.
Ellie shoved the makeup kit into the middle-sized suitcase of her set and locked it with its three-digit code, three zeros. She should have changed it when she got the set but never had. Now she didn’t have time, but she knew no one else would dig into her closet, and it didn’t matter anyway. She wasn’t pregnant. It had all been for nothing. Later, after graduation, she would get rid of the evidence.
The picture taking took about fifteen minutes, and then Ellie was being driven to school by
Oliver. She hated being with him, so she huddled in the passenger seat and stared out the window like she did on any morning he drove her in.
“Last day, huh?” he said.
She didn’t respond.
