Robin Wasserman - Envy

But she wasn’t about to do it anywhere near the school, where someone could see them together. Kaia’s Eurotrash wardrobe, frozen beauty, and outlandish public liplock with Haven High’s most eligible bachelor had won her a fair amount of notoriety, but it wasn’t the kind that translated into social acceptance. She had a few followers, of course, but she was too high and mighty to inspire much loyalty, and most of the initial curiosity seekers had drifted away as Harper slowly but thoroughly put out word that the new girl was not to be touched. Someone like Kaia could have easily toppled Harper’s carefully constructed high school hierarchy-so Harper did what she had to do to neutralize the threat.

When Harper spoke, people listened. And if they knew what was good for them, they obeyed.

She wasn’t about to waste all that hard work by meeting with Kaia in a public place and letting the world think they were suddenly bosom buddies. Harper saw her friendship as a powerful gift, and Christmas for Kaia wasn’t coming anytime soon.

So she needed a place where no one- no one -would recognize her, where no one she knew would ever deign to set foot. Hence: the Cactus Cantina. A greasy Tex-Mex bar with Cheez Whiz nachos and double-shot margaritas, the Cactus was good for inducing a heart attack or drinking yourself into oblivion, but little else.

Harper was already seated (albeit gingerly-she had no interest in letting any part of her body touch the mysterious sticky patches that dotted the booth) when Kaia arrived. So she got a good look at the cover girl’s face when she walked in the door. It wasn’t pretty. Or, rather-this being Kaia-it was spectacularly pretty. But it was prettiness scrunched up into a grimace of horror and reticence, her whole body telegraphing a single message: Dear God, don’t make me go in there. Please.

She stood in the door for a moment, half in, half out, and a shaft of light sliced into the darkness, sending up a groan of discomfort from the bowels of the bar.

“Yer in or yer out, senorita,” the bartender with the fake Zapata mustache called to Kaia. She flinched at the scraping sound of his voice. “Make up your mind, por favor ”

Harper waited and watched. It was the first test of Kaia’s commitment to the cause-and, to her credit, she passed.

“Was this really necessary?” she asked Harper, sitting down across from her.

“What?” Harper tried her best to look comfortable, though not too comfortable, as if this world were foreign but unintimidating-and especially as if she weren’t planning to take a shower the moment she got out of there to wash the stench out of her hair. The goal had been to throw Kaia off balance, to make sure she was out of her element-a plan which, by all appearances, had worked like a charm. Harper would just have to deal, and keep her own squirming and scowling to a minimum.

“This place ” Kaia said, waving her arms in elaboration, as if to encompass the cardboard lizards and cacti papering the walls, the tinny salsa soundtrack, and the seedy denizens all in one sweep. “Or is this just your thing?”

Harper shrugged, affecting unconcern. “You’re the one who thinks Kane and I have this dirty little plan,” she pointed out. “I would think you’d understand the need to be a little discreet.”

“Whatever.” Kaia grabbed a napkin and gingerly flicked away the mysteriously colored crumbs littering her side of the table. “I take it we’re getting right down to business?”

“I’m done with small talk if you are.”

“Good.” She leaned forward, and Harper was once again taken by her perfect form and poise, even in a place like this. And that rust-colored asymmetrical shirt? It was unmistakably a Betsey Johnson original. Harper closed her eyes for a moment and, with a sharp pang of envy, briefly considered what it would be like to have Kaia’s life-but she couldn’t even begin to imagine.

“Here’s how I see it,” Kaia continued. “You want Adam. Kane-for whatever reason-wants Beth. You teamed up to split them up, and you’re ready and waiting for them to fall, heartbroken and sobbing, into your arms. How am I doing so far?”

Harper was disgusted with herself. Some secret plan. What a joke. And it sounded even more pathetic coming out of Kaia’s mouth. But she played it off. She had to.

“So far you haven’t told me anything I don’t know,” she complained.

“I’ll take that to mean, ‘Why, yes, Kaia, that’s the situation exactly. Please enlighten me as to how to make my dreams come true.’”

“I’m listening.”

“So you’ve got Beth tutoring Kane-a nice move, incidentally, but Adam’s too much of a wuss to break up with her just because he’s jealous. He’d never trust his own instincts on that one-and princess Beth isn’t going to fall on Kane unless you push her.”

“Again, waiting for the newsflash,” Harper drawled, inwardly bristling at the way Kaia casually spoke of Adam’s flaws and failings, as if she knew him so well.

“Well, for one thing, what you may not know is that Adam has some secrets of his own that Beth might not be too happy to hear.” A secretive smile crept across Kaia’s face. Harper knew exactly what she was referring to, but any pleasure she might have drawn from taking Kaia down a peg was hollow. She’d caught a glimpse of Kaia-and-Adam, act one, and had yet to wash the painful images out of her mind. She didn’t like to be reminded of act two, when they’d adjourned to a bedroom; Harper had, mercifully, missed the fireworks. But she could imagine. And did-often.

“Yeah, yeah, he slept with you,” Harper said, the words slicing into her. “Big deal. Anyway, I can’t use it.”

Kaia’s eyes widened, and Harper smiled, knowing that at least she’d taken the wind out of the other girl’s sails, as hoped. But Kaia wasn’t thrown off for long.

“So he told you? Interesting-and not too smart.”

“Well, that’s Adam, honest to a fault. Of course, he used to be loyal to a fault, too,” Harper said, glaring, “before you got through with him.”

“Do you want to fight about my popping your boy’s cherry, or do you want to get him for yourself?”

“What’s the difference?” Harper asked irritably. “I told you, I can’t use it. If Beth breaks up with him over this, he’ll spend the rest of the year feeling guilty and chasing after her. That does me no good at all. And, not that I really care, but I imagine that Beth wouldn’t be bouncing back too quickly either-I see her as the ‘I can never trust a man again’ type. After something like that, I don’t think Kane would exactly be her type.”

“Good thing I have a backup plan, then,” Kaia said triumphantly. “One that turns Beth into the villain. Adam will be looking for a ‘true’ friend to turn to, and you’ll be right there to pick up the pieces.”

“Sounds perfect. Only one problem-Beth would never cheat on Adam. She doesn’t have it in her.”

“Oh, really?” Kaia smiled, and it seemed she was about to say something, but she stopped herself, paused for a moment, and then continued. “Well, I suppose you’re right. And we know that, and Beth knows that, but there’s no reason Adam has to. And all that really matters is what he believes.”

“He accuses her-unjustly-she gets mad, we get mutual destruction.” Harper nodded eagerly. “I like it. But how-”

She cut herself off at the sight of two drunken hulks looming over their table, one uglier than the other. (Although it was admittedly difficult to judge: Were buck teeth uglier than gold teeth? Was the jagged scar above the eyebrow uglier than an irregularly shaped red blotch covering the chin? Was mountain man hair uglier than no hair?)