Notorious (26 page)

But Tinsley didn’t move. Instead, she unzipped her Prada nylon tote bag and dug through it until she pulled out a half-full bottle of water. “Here.” She handed it to Callie. “Drink.”

Callie’s eyes teared up. All right, so maybe Tinsley wasn’t a complete bitch.

Ten minutes later, when they tiptoed into Dumbarton, they thought they were home free. Until, that is, they passed the door to the common room and saw Dean Marymount, leaning against the fireplace, waiting.

“You’re late.” He sighed, clearly still pissed. He ran a hand over his graying comb-over.

“Like, five minutes!” Callie cried, then clamped her mouth shut for fear of projectile vomiting all over him.

Tinsley spoke up pleadingly. “Come on, do you
have
to punish us?”

“Unfortunately, I do.” Marymount straightened his maroon-and-navy tie—what was he doing wearing a tie on a Sunday morning, and how the hell had he gotten back to campus so quickly? “This institution has rules that must be upheld. However”—he looked at them pointedly—”because of extenuating circumstances, your punishment will be considerably lighter than it should be. Starting immediately, you two will no longer be allowed to live together. We’ve been able to do some rearranging, and a room on the first floor has opened up. Callie and Jenny Humphrey will remain in Dumbarton 303, while Tinsley and Brett Messerschmidt will move to Dumbarton 121.”

Tinsley’s mouth fell open. “You’ve
got
to be kidding me.” She and Brett, alone? Talk about awkward. Maybe they could discuss Eric’s kissing techniques while they lay in bed at night. She almost snickered, it was so absurd. And Callie and Jenny? They could compare notes on Easy while painting each other’s toe-nails. Not. The administration really couldn’t have planned a more perfect punishment for any of them.

Marymount gave her a sharp look. “The room is vacant now. It shouldn’t take you too long to get resettled.” He headed toward the door. “The sooner you get started, the better.”

“That fucker!” Callie muttered fiercely the second the door closed behind him. She bit at her fingernail in frustration. “How can I be expected to live with that little
slut
? She’ll probably sleep with Easy, like, every night.”

“Kind of like you never did?” Tinsley blew Callie a kiss. Callie glared back at her, but Tinsley didn’t care. She felt strangely excited about the whole situation. Life was too boring if things like this didn’t happen every once in a while to shake it all up. “Come on, let’s go break the news.”

Twenty minutes later, Jenny’s cell phone vibrated with an incoming call, jolting her awake. She had fallen asleep against Easy’s chest as the two of them cuddled on the bluffs, wrapped in several thick, scratchy horse blankets. They’d been too busy kissing to pay much attention to the sunrise and had dozed off in the dreamy yellow-and-purple dawn. Jenny didn’t care. She had a feeling there would be more sunrises with Easy in her future.

“Hello?” Jenny whispered, not wanting to awaken Easy, who was breathing softly.

“You are not going to believe this!” Brett was practically shrieking. Jenny sneaked out from under the blanket and took a few steps away from where Easy was still lying, her burgundy retro Campers sliding a little on the dewy grass. “Callie and Tinsley got caught in Boston. And guess what their punishment is?” Brett paused for half a second, not giving Jenny a chance to even guess. “They’re
splitting them up
.”

“What do you mean, splitting them up?” Jenny asked, not comprehending. “How can they do that when we all …”

“They’re making Tinsley move to a different room with
me!
” Brett was livid. “And you’re with
Callie
.”

Jenny was suddenly wide awake. “Can they
do
that? That’s so not fair!” Just when everything was starting to fall into place, Waverly was going to split up her and Brett because Tinsley and Callie had gotten caught? And leave her alone with Callie Vernon, who hated Jenny’s guts so much she could probably stab a nail file into her heart while she was sleeping and not think twice about it? “It’s not possible.”

“Well, it’s happening,” Brett announced bitterly. “Tinsley just filled one of her Louis Vuitton bags with shoes and dragged it down the stairs. I’m supposed to start moving my stuff too. Where the hell are you, by the way?”

Jenny smiled for the first time since Brett had called. She glanced over her shoulder and saw Easy sitting up and stretching his long arms over his head, his hair sticking up in a million different directions. One cheek was covered with indentation marks from where he’d fallen asleep on the wool blanket. Jenny could feel the dew seeping into her sneakers and the warmth of the morning sun on her face. “I am exactly where I want to be right now.”

“Good.” She could hear Brett grinning through the phone. “Just come save me soon.”

“Something wrong?” Easy’s warm, sleepy voice murmured as Jenny hung up the phone. She felt her heartbeat quicken and crawled back under the horse blankets for one last long kiss. So Dean Marymount was messing up their living arrangements. How bad could it be?

Instant Message Inbox

TinsleyCarmichael:
I still can’t believe it. Where r u?

CallieVernon:
Waiting 4 Jenny to come out of hiding.

TinsleyCarmichael:
God this is going to be fun!

CallieVernon:
Ur cracy.

TinsleyCarmichael:
Obviously.

CallieVernon:
It’s good to have you back T.

TinsleyCarmichael:
And I’m just getting started…