I arch an eyebrow. “We?”
“Well, sure. I don’t want to see Hart here”— he knocks her lightly on the shoulder—“take the fall for something she didn’t do. So let’s appease Felicity.”
Hartley musters up a smile. “Thanks.”
“Why are we appeasing her?” I ask.
“Because you can’t beat her up.”
“There are other things.”
“Like what?” Hartley says suspiciously.
I open my mouth, but nothing comes out because I don’t have a clue what to do. The last time a mean girl tried to take my family down, violence was the answer.
“Remember when Jordan Carrington taped that girl to the side of the school?” I finally say. “Ella beat her up.”
Pash and Hartley look at me like I’ve lost my mind.
“I think you’ve been hit in the head too many times,” Hartley says. She nudges Pash. “You don’t have to get involved. This is messy. I don’t even want to be involved.”
He shrugs. “It’s our senior year. I got nothing better to do. Besides, who’s to say I won’t be next? I’m Easton’s second favorite person at Astor.”
This draws a glimmer of a smile from Hartley. “Yeah? Who’s first?”
“You are, of course. Then there’s Ella. But me and her are tied. I’d appreciate it if you’d keep that between us, though, because she’s got a mean right.” He playfully rubs a hand down his arm.
“Having been punched by Ella more than once, I can say he’s not wrong,” I volunteer, appreciating the lightheartedness that Pash is trying to inject.
As some of the stress lines in Hartley’s face smooth away, I decide that Pash is going in the right direction. We need more jokes. More laughter. Life’s been a downer lately. What happened to having fun?
“Let’s throw a party,” I announce.
Hartley’s jaw drops. “A what?”
“A party. You know, an ‘I don’t have to go to school anymore’ party.”
“I’m in.” Pash holds up his hand, and we exchange a high-five.
Hartley, however, starts walking away.
“Wait up,” I call, abandoning Pash to run after her. He comes, too. “You don’t like the idea of a party?”
“I have to work.” Her voice is flat and her expression is shuttered.
“We can party after you’re done with work.”
She stops abruptly. “A party? Really, Easton? I just got suspended. That’s nothing to celebrate.”
Beside me, Pash sobers up. “Are your parents going to kill you? Because mine would kill me,” he admits.
Hartley turns ghost white.
Damn.
“I guess a party is a bad idea,” I mumble, feeling stupid as hell.
I didn’t consider the ramifications of her suspension, and I don’t think she fully did either until Pash brought up family. First thing the headmaster is going to do is call her parents. And since she’s currently not allowed to see anyone in her family for some mysterious reason, this isn’t going to go over well for her.
“Want me to talk to your folks?” I offer. “I can explain—”
“No.” If possible, she grows paler. “Don’t say a word to them. Not one word.” She grabs my blazer, digging her fingers into my arm. “Please.”
“Okay. I won’t,” I assure her.
She drops my arm. “I’ve got to go.”
Before I can blink, she’s hurrying away. When I start to follow, Pash holds me back.
“Give her some time alone with her family, man.”
“She doesn’t—” I stop myself before I spill shit I’m not supposed to talk about. But watching Hartley run away isn’t a good idea, either. “I can’t just stand around doing nothing, dude. I need to do something.”
“Fine. Then go home,” he advises. “Talk to Ella. Who knows, maybe she’s got an idea about how to solve this.”
* * *
As badly as I want to go after Hartley, I decide to take Pash’s advice. When I get home, I hunt my stepsister down and find her in her room, studying.
“Got a minute?” I ask, knocking on her open door.
Ella glances up from her book. “Yeah, come in. What’s up?”
I give it to her straight. “Felicity framed Hartley for cheating in Calc. Hartley got suspended.”
“Oh my God,” Ella gasps. “Why would Felicity do that to Hartley?”
“To get back at me. I’m the one she’s actually pissed at.”
“Of course she’s pissed. You were an ass to her at the party. But why go after Hartley and not one of your closer friends, like me or Val or Pash?”
“I guess you haven’t checked your Insta or Snap today.”
“No. I was with Callum and the lawyers all day.” Ella sets down her book and snatches her phone off the thick duvet.
I drop down on the bed and lean back against the padded headboard. I know the moment she finds the picture because she gasps again.
“Are you guys kissing in this pic?” she exclaims.
“Almost. We kissed on the Ferris wheel, though.”
Ella looks startled. “What happened to the rules? Hartley said you weren’t allowed to hit on her.”
“I didn’t,” I protest. “She kissed me, for your information.”
That shuts her up for almost thirty seconds. Her gaze bores a hole in my face. It’s like she’s trying to burrow her way into my mind and…and what? I’m not sure why she’s looking at me, but it’s starting to make me antsy.
“Anyway,” I start.
“Uh-uh, no. Don’t anyway me. We’re not done with this kiss thing.” Ella runs a hand through her golden hair. “So are you guys a thing now?”
“Maybe? I don’t know.”
Her jaw drops. “Do you want to be? You don’t do girlfriends, remember?”
“I do lots of girls,” I drawl, dragging my tongue over my lower lip. Maybe if I turn this into something sexual, Ella will be so disgusted, she’ll drop the subject.
Sure enough, it works. “Gross,” she says. “But, okay, it makes sense now. If Felicity thinks you and Hartley are together, then she’d definitely go after Hartley to get revenge on you.” Ella pauses. “You kinda deserve her vengeance, if I’m being honest.”
“Thanks a lot.” I frown. “Why’re you bringing me down?”
“Oh, are you annoyed by the truth? I’m sorry. Maybe you shouldn’t have gotten drunk, gone over to Felicity’s and humiliated her in front of all our friends and classmates. This is what happens when you don’t think about the consequences.”
“Christ. What crawled up your ass and died?” I regret the words even before the last one is out of my mouth.
Ella winds up and punches me in the arm.
“Dammit!” I rub my arm and give her a wounded look, but it doesn’t work.
She crosses her arms and glares at me.
“Sorry about the ass comment, but can we not rehash all my past fuckups? We’ll be here until next week.”
“Fine. But I’m not apologizing for the hit. You deserved it.”
“Fair enough.” Girl can throw a punch. No wonder Jordan backed down. “Can you go beat Felicity up so she stops this bullshit?”
Ella snorts. “No.”
“Why not? It worked with Jordan.”
“No, it didn’t. What worked last year is that we all stood together and said enough was enough with the bullying.”
“So let’s all stand together again and say enough is enough with Felicity.”
“Do you have proof that she’s the one who framed Hartley?”
“Yup. She admitted it in front of Claire and a couple other girls.”
Ella tips her head from side to side, considering this tidbit. “She must be pretty confident they aren’t going to say anything,” she finally concludes. “At this point, it’s your word against hers, and your word is crap. You’re constantly getting in trouble. Felicity is in Honor Society and is a perfect student from a great family.”