Perfected (Entangled Teen) (15 page)

“Look, it’s Ruby,” one of the girls said, pulling over to the side of the road and straddling her bike. She had brown hair in a high ponytail that swung as she turned back to face her friend. She waited, as if she needed permission for what to do next. Finally she turned back to face us, raising her hand in a wave. “Hi, Ruby.”

Ruby waved back timidly. “Hi, Sarah. Hi, Jayne.”

“What are you doing?” the girl asked.

“Just feeding the horses,” Ruby said quietly, not bothering to move closer to them.

The other girl shielded her eyes and looked up the little hill toward where we stood. I guessed both of the girls were probably close to Ruby’s age, but this one seemed to carry herself differently, as if she was already trying to be grown-up. Her long blond hair was loose, and even though it was a little mussed from being blown in the wind, I could tell she’d spent a long time curling it earlier.

“Who’s that with you?” the girl asked, tossing her hair back over her shoulder and jutting her chin in my direction.

Ruby turned to me. Obviously this girl made her nervous.

“This is Ella,” Ruby finally said. And then drawing a deep breath, she added, “She’s my pet. My dad got her right after school got out.”

The girls turned to one another, deciding whether or not to believe her.

“I didn’t hear you got another pet,” the blond girl said, her voice challenging. “I thought Gretta Holmes and I were the only ones in our grade that had pets anymore.”

Ruby stood up a little taller. “No, we got another one. My dad’s one of the ones that helped pass the law so we kind of have to have one.”

“What law?”

Suddenly Ruby looked a little flustered. “The Freedom of Pets Act, or whatever. I don’t remember what it’s called. It’s the law that says we can have pets.”

“I didn’t know there was a law,” the girl in the ponytail said.

“Well there is,” her friend snapped. “You probably just don’t know about it because your family doesn’t have a pet.” She turned back to Ruby, smiling as if she’d defended her. “Do you want to come over to my house? We could play and do hair.”

“We were actually out for a walk,” Ruby said.

“That’s okay, I can walk my bike. My house isn’t that far anyway.” She kicked at her bike stand and grabbed the handlebars before throwing a large smile at Ruby.

“Come on, Ella.” Ruby grabbed my hand and skipped down the hill back to the road.

As we started walking, the blond girl turned to her friend. “I totally understand if you want to go home, Sarah. You probably don’t want to hang out with me and Ruby since you don’t have a pet.”

The girl with the ponytail stopped walking. “Oh, that’s okay. I’ll just watch.”

“Well, it probably makes more sense for you to go home now,” she said, swinging her hair over her shoulder. “I don’t want you to feel left out or anything and I’d feel really bad if you got bored.”

As the girl with the ponytail turned her bike around and rode off, Ruby smiled uncomfortably at her friend. “I don’t mind if Sarah stays,” she said. “Ella won’t mind if she wants to do her hair or something.”

“No,” Jayne said, shaking her head decisively. “It’s better if it’s just us.”

Nineteen

J
ayne’s house wasn’t any bigger than Ruby’s, but it had a different feeling to it. Maybe it was all the gold furniture and picture frames, all the elaborate moldings and marble statues, but something made the house feel cold and unfriendly. Of course I didn’t really know her, but her house seemed to give off the same impression that Jayne did, as if people noticing how lovely it looked was the most important thing.

“Mom,” Jayne yelled as soon as we entered the foyer. “Where’s Missy?”

From the other room, high heels clicked across a marble floor and a moment later a grown-up version of Jayne appeared in the foyer.

She stopped in front of us. “Don’t yell, Jaynie,” she said, smoothing her daughter’s hair.

“Where’s Missy?” Jayne asked again. “Ruby brought her pet over to play.”

Jayne’s mom’s gaze moved over me slowly. “She’s in the den with your father.”

We followed Jayne to the back of the house where her father sat behind a large mahogany desk, reading the paper and sipping a drink. In the corner, on a fur-lined chaise lounge, Missy lay back, nibbling dark red raspberries.

It was strange to see another pet that wasn’t one of the girls I’d grown up with. I hadn’t expected to be so excited, but here I was, my legs shaking, my hands sweating. She wasn’t exactly like a Greenwich girl. Her lips were fuller than mine. Her nose was different, too, rounded on the end with a broader bridge that made her look almost feline.

She looked quite a bit older than me, though. I’d never seen a pet who was more than a couple years older than me. She was still beautiful, but there was no doubt that the years had left a mark.

She glanced up at us and popped another raspberry in her mouth.

“Daddy?” Jayne asked. “Can we steal Missy?”

He hardly looked up from his paper. “Of course, dear.”

Jayne clapped her hands and pulled Missy from the couch. The pet sighed heavily, gathering up her wide skirts as Jayne ushered us all out of the room and down a hallway to a large bedroom. Missy draped herself across the bed, the folds of her dress puffing up like an elaborate dessert, and closed her eyes as if we weren’t there.

Jayne slapped her lightly on the hand. “Don’t go to sleep. This is Ruby and her pet, Ella. We’re going to do hair and stuff.”

Missy remained unsmiling. She raised herself up onto one of her elbows and stared at the rest of us in a way that brought goose bumps to my skin. It wasn’t the meek look that a pet was supposed to give. It was forceful, almost aggressive.

“Why don’t you play with that pet,” she finally said, pointing a lazy finger in my direction. “I’m not in the mood for your games.”

Jayne narrowed her eyes and folded her arms. “Missy, if you don’t play with us I’m going to tell my dad. And he’s obviously home this time so you can’t use that as an excuse.”

Missy sighed loudly and dragged herself into a sitting position, but it was obvious that even though she was doing as Jayne had asked, she wasn’t going to be happy about it.

Ruby nudged me.
What’s her problem,
she mouthed, her eyes wide.

Jayne, however, didn’t seem to mind how Missy was acting as long as she was finally doing as she was told.

“Come on, Ruby,” she said, pulling her by the hand. “Let’s go pick out outfits for them.”

They disappeared down a small hallway and into a large walk-in closet.

Missy turned to look at me. “You have a very heart-shaped face,” she said, as if this statement was telling of something more.

“Uh, thank you,” I said.

“I didn’t mean it as a compliment. I thought thinner faces were more desirable.”

I stood in stunned silence, unsure how to respond.

“Where were you bred?” she asked, running her hands through her long blond hair. It was hair very much like Jayne’s only a bit thicker, a bit more brilliant.

“Greenwich.”

She snorted. “I should have known.”

A moment later Ruby and Jayne came back in, each carrying an armful of clothes and started laying them out across the couch. They didn’t look a thing like my everyday gowns.

“My dad lets me pick them out of a catalogue,” Jayne said, continuing the conversation she must have been having with Ruby in the closet. “Each one costs over a thousand dollars, but that’s because they’re exact replicas. This one is a Marie Antoinette gown, and this one is Scarlett O’Hara.”

Ruby’s eyes were big as Jayne held up the dresses. “I read a book about Marie Antoinette,” she said. “Did you know she was tried and convicted of treason and then had her head cut off in the guillotine?”

Jayne wrinkled her nose as if she said something disgusting. “Why don’t you put yours in the Marie Antoinette then, since you know so much about it? Missy doesn’t like it anyway because the corset is hard to get on.”

Ruby nodded obediently.

For the next hour and a half Jayne made us put on costume after costume. Then she had us walk down the long hallway, turning to pose in front of the mirror before we walked back again in what she called our “mini fashion show.” But after a while even that grew old. It was clear she’d done this many times before and even with another pet in the show she became bored, slumping back on the couch with a frown.

“Let’s go watch TV,” Jayne said and ran from the room with Ruby in tow, leaving me and Missy to stare at one another, still clothed in our elaborate costumes.

Missy unclasped the buttons on her gown and slipped out of it. She stepped over the mountain of fabric at her feet and lounged back on the bed once more, seemingly unbothered by the fact she was only in her underwear.

I turned away from her and climbed out of the Chinese kimono I was wearing, pulling on my own sundress as quickly as I could. I could feel her gaze on my back and knew that when I turned around she wouldn’t even pretend to be looking in the other direction.

“I don’t usually play these games,” Missy said. “But when her father’s home I can’t really say no.”

I kept my back to her.

“It isn’t much fun,” I said by way of agreement.

She huffed. “No, it’s not.”

“You don’t really like me, do you?”

My straightforwardness startled both of us and Missy raised her chin and turned her head away from me. “No,” she said. “I don’t.”

Her honesty stung, and my eyes burned. Even though I didn’t want to care about her, I couldn’t ignore the peculiar bond that tied us together. She was more like me than anyone else I’d met since I moved to the congressman’s house. It didn’t matter that she didn’t look exactly like one of the Greenwich girls. There was an invisible thread that bound us.

“Why not?” I finally asked.

She shifted on the bed, leaning up on one elbow with her head resting in her hand as she stared at me. “Because you’re so naïve I can practically smell it,” she said. “It turns my stomach just looking at you. You have no clue, do you? You’re like some poor little baby deer with those wide open eyes.”

I sank down onto the bed. “I’m not as naïve as you think I am.” My voice was small. It didn’t fool either of us and she raised one of her eyebrows, not even wasting words to argue with me.

“I’m not,” I insisted. “I was kidnapped. The Kimballs’ neighbor tried to set me free.”

Missy rolled her eyes. “Oh, I’m sure it was
terrible
for you.”

“It was! I saw how horrible the world is out there.”

“Then you know exactly how lucky we are.” She gazed around the room as if she was seeing it for the first time: the gigantic bed, the plush carpet, the velvet drapes. “I’ve never understood why anyone would want to leave a life like this. I can have anything that I want. All I have to do is ask for it. My master spoils me more than he does his own
family
. All I have to do is let their little brat pull my hair out and dress me up like a doll every once in a while.”

She picked up a little silver bell that sat on the bedside table. “If I ring this, they’ll come running to see what I want. If I want more pillows, they’ll get them. If I want lotion rubbed on my back, they’ll stop what they’re doing and help me. If I want to sit by the pool in the sun, I’ll do it. I don’t have to worry about making money or impressing people.”

I nodded, but there was a seed of worry burning in the pit of my stomach.

She stood up languidly and went to stand in front of the full-length mirror that stood opposite the bed. She picked up a brush from a small table beside the mirror and ran it slowly through her hair.

“It seems like a perfect life, doesn’t it?” she asked. When I didn’t answer she swung around to face me, her eyes fierce. “Doesn’t it?”

“Yes,” I squeaked.

“Well, enjoy it while you can because it won’t last forever.”

I froze. “What?”

“Have you ever wondered what happens when you get old?” she asked. “When they get tired of their shiny new toy and decide to move on?”

“We’re lifetime companions,” I said, repeating Greenwich’s slogan.

Missy snorted. “Sure we are. Have you ever even considered what happens if you get sick?” She didn’t wait for me to reply. “No, of course not. Why would you? You’re healthy. You’re young. Never in your wildest dreams would you imagine that you could drink from the wrong glass, or touch the wrong doorknob, and suddenly wake up in the hospital with tubes hooked up to your arms.”

“The kennel will take me back.” But even as I said it, I knew the congressman’s story about the kennel offering to give their previous pet the special care she needed might not really be true. I pictured the needles and Miss Gellner’s stern expression when she told us about the girls they’d had to put to sleep. Is that what had happened to the Kimballs’ previous pet?

“Have you thought about what happens when you come of age? When you’re a
woman
rather than a child’s plaything?”

I opened my mouth to respond, but all I could see, all I could
feel
, was the congressman’s lips on my cheek, his hot breath against my ear while he held me on his lap in front of his friends. The vision shifted abruptly to Penn. His warm body sliding against mine in the cool water. The press of his lips against mine. How badly I wanted to feel both again…

Missy tossed her head back and laughed. “You’re thinking about it now, aren’t you? I can see it on your face. It’s already started, hasn’t it?” She leaned forward, her expression suddenly serious. “They will tire of you. They always do. And when it happens, the people who were supposed to be your ‘lifetime companions’ will sell you off to the highest bidder.”

“But pets can’t just be sold to anyone,” I blurted out. My head spun, tiny dots of black crowding into my vision like I might pass out. “There’s the selection process…and the background check…they have to come from the top one percent…”

“Grow up!” Missy yelled, loud enough that I cringed, waiting for someone to appear at the door. But no one came. “They couldn’t care less what the kennel says about who they can and can’t sell their pet to. They own us. They can do whatever they want.” Her voice cracked.

“But they’re the ones that wanted us,” I said. “It’s what we were made for—to make them happy.”

Missy sank back onto the bed, stretching her smooth legs across the blankets. “Powerful men tire of their toys easily. And the novelty of a pet doesn’t last forever. After a while even the prettiest things become ordinary.”

“Then why—”

“We’re expendable, get it? You think you’re safe because you’re pretty and young, well, don’t get used to it. That’s all I’m saying. I let myself believe it once, but I won’t let myself do that again.”

“Missy, I didn’t realize—”

“No, you didn’t,” she snapped and grabbed a magazine from the side table. She flipped through the pages, obviously done with our conversation and done with me.

“You know how to read?” I asked.

Missy rolled her eyes. “Of course I can’t read,” she said. “Nobody reads magazines. I look at the pictures.” She grabbed another magazine off of the stack by her bed and tossed one to me. “Here, you can keep this one. I’ve already looked at it.”

The room stayed quiet, the only sound the shush of the pages as they turned.

“I get all the fashion magazines,” Missy said without looking up. “None of these girls are ever as beautiful as we are.”

T
he tapping pulled me from sleep.

I opened my eyes and stared up at the covers that still hid my face, holding completely still as I waited for the sound to come again. Had I imagined it?
Tap tap. Tap tap.
There it was, something knocking against the windowpane.

I pushed the covers off of my face. The teal-colored sky outside my window cast enough light to see by. It was colored with only the tiniest hint of pink along the horizon, as if the idea of morning was only the smallest suggestion of things to come. I sat up in bed. Through the glass, Penn’s smile shone white in the early light.

I tied the belt of a silk robe around my waist and opened the door. “Is everything okay?”

“Oh yeah, everything’s fine,” he said, pushing his hair back away from his eyes. “I’m sorry to wake you so early, but I wanted to show you something and I didn’t know if there’d be a chance after everyone else was up.”

“Do you want to come in?” I asked, opening the door a little wider.

“No. I didn’t bring it here. I need to take you.”

The look on his face was so hopeful that I couldn’t say no.

“Let me put on some slippers,” I said, grabbing a pair from beneath the bed.

We stepped out together into the cool morning. The air was still, almost silent except for the occasional frilly song of a robin. Penn took my hand lightly in his as we made our way down the path to the orchard. It was the first time he’d really touched me since the night we’d gone swimming and even after Missy’s warnings, the feel of his skin against mine made every inch of me come alive.

“What is it you want to show me?” I asked, even though I suspected from where we were headed that it had something to do with his secret garden.

Penn wagged a finger at me. “Uh uh, I’m not telling. Haven’t you ever heard of a surprise?”

“Okay, no more questions from me.” I pretended to zip my mouth shut, trying to cover up the smile that hid there.