The Ivy: Scandal (30 page)

“Let me up!” he shouted by way of response, stumbling a little. “My ID card—can’t—seem to find…”

“Have you been drinking?” Callie called, staying where she was.

“Need to talk…I need to talk to you!” he insisted, slurring.

Thank god most of the freshmen in her dorm were probably at the dance.

“Go home, Clint!” she said, starting to shut her window. “Sleep it off!”

“Wait!” he cried. “You were right—about Alexis…whole time…I HAVE—information….”

Callie froze, chewing on her lip. Were these the drunken ramblings of a jackass (likely), or was she about to hear an earnest, alcohol-induced confession that might somehow pertain to the Insider? Worth a try, she decided, poking her head back out the window. “I’ll be right down!” she called. “Stay there, and stop shouting!”

“I’m sorry for shouting!” Clint shouted, heading over to entryway C.

“Just get in,” she said, letting the bright green door slam behind him.

“Callie,” he said, grabbing her elbow, “so glad you could come over tonight—I mean, me—let
me
…”

“Okay,” said Callie, shaking off his hand. “No more talking.” Inside C 24 she guided him over to the couch. “Sit,” she said, watching him flop down. “Good. Now drink,” she instructed, handing him a Nalgene full of water.

“You’rrrreallyprrretty,” he slurred, peering at her through half-closed eyes. A little water dribbled down his chin.

“Or you’re just really drunk,” Callie remarked, perching a safe distance away on the edge of the armchair.

“S’not sodrunk,” he protested, trying to set the water on the table and missing by a few inches. “Huh. S’funny.”

“Finish it,” Callie said. “Okay. Now what is it that you wanted to tell me?”

“Wha?” Clint blinked. “But I already told you.”

“Told me what?”

“That you’rrrpretty!”

“Oh god,” said Callie. “Give me your phone.”

“‘E.T. phone home,’” said Clint. “Wait—he can’t—she burned it.”

“This was a mistake,” Callie muttered, going into her bedroom to retrieve her new cell. Quickly she dialed Tyler’s number. “Tyler?” she said when he picked up.

“Callie?” his voice came over the line. “Please tell me you are with Clint.”

“Unfortunately, yes I am,” she said.

“Oh, good…
She found him!
” he called, presumably speaking to someone else. “Sorry,” Tyler apologized. “A bunch of us guys were just chillin’ at the Fly, and Clint had a
liiittle
too much to drink—”

“You think?” asked Callie.

“And then he somehow escaped. Right out from under my watchful eyes.”

“How shocking,” said Callie. “Would you mind maybe coming to pick him up?” she asked, glancing at Clint, who had slumped over one of the couch pillows and started to snore.

“No problem,” said Tyler, “just give me twenty minutes.”

“Ten would be better,” said Callie, hanging up.

She grabbed
Persuasion
and settled into the armchair so she could make sure Clint didn’t wake up and do something stupid. She’d been reading for a solid fifteen minutes when she heard him speak.

“You were right, you know.”

“Right about what?” she asked. He was still slumped across the couch, his chin propped up by the pillow, but his eyes seemed ever so slightly more focused now.

“Uhlexus,” he said on the exhale. “She’s a…evil…witch.”

“I’m sorry you feel that way,” said Callie, actually meaning it a little. He just looked so pathetic at the moment. “But I’m sure you’ll have made up by morning.”

“No.” He shook his head vehemently. “She’s still…the same. Hasn’t changed…at all.”

Callie nodded. “I can’t say I’m surprised.”

“She’s still…blackmailing…found out—this morning…”

“Blackmailing
who
?” Callie said sharply, remembering the thumb drive labeled C, A that she’d stolen out of Lexi’s office. Was there still
another
copy of the sex tape out there?

“S’not you.” Clint shook his head. “S’someone else…”

Callie relaxed. “Again, I’m not sure why any of this should be surprising.”

Clint seemed to shrug from where he lay. “Shouldnaever brokenup withchu.”

Callie propped her cheek in her hand. “Actually, I’m so glad you did.”

“Dunts’pose…?”

“No way,” said Callie. “Finally!” she cried a moment later, standing to get the door.

“I’m so sorry,” said Tyler, striding over to the couch. “He and Lexi are going through sort of a rough patch at the moment, if you hadn’t already guessed—”

“Wicked witch,” Clint muttered petulantly.

“Come on, buddy,” said Tyler, throwing his arm around Clint and helping him to his feet. “That’s it,” he encouraged, still supporting almost all of Clint’s weight and inching slowly toward the door. “Pick up those feet—one after the other…. There ya go…. See ya later, Callie—and thanks for calling me.”

“No problem,” she said, making sure they at least made it to the end of the hall.

Less than two minutes later the door to the common room flew open again.

Fortunately this time it was Mimi, Dana, and Vanessa, all clad in formal attire. “Did we just see what I think we saw?” asked Vanessa.

“What—Tyler and Clint?”

“Yuh-huh,” said Vanessa. “What on earth was that about?”

So Callie told them.

“Where are the boys?” Callie asked when she was done recounting Clint’s strange visit.

“We decided to do the ditching,” said Mimi, stifling a yawn. “The formal was rather boring, and we would prefer to spend this time with you.”

Dana nodded.

“Slumber party?” Vanessa proposed, her eyes widening maniacally.

“
Oui!
” said Mimi.

“I’ll get the marshmallows,” said Vanessa.

“I’m going to go put on my pajamas,” said Dana.

“Let’s all change,” Callie suggested, “and then bring our mattresses out here?”

“Brilliant!” said Vanessa, tossing the marshmallows onto the couch and dragging the coffee table over to one side of the room to clear space.

A few minutes later they had successfully combined their four twin mattresses on the floor to create one gigantic super mattress. Clad in pj’s, they watched Vanessa make s’mores, roasting the marshmallows over a scented candle. Then, in between bites of graham crackers and melted chocolate, they reminisced about the highlights of the dance, from Vanessa’s renewed hunt for a freshman “fish” whom she could train over the course of the next three years and raise into the perfect boyfriend to OK’s epic freestyle rap battle with DJ Damien Zhang.

“It all started to go downhill after he rhymed ‘royalty’ with ‘bow
to me,’” Vanessa explained, sending Callie into another spasm of sidesplitting giggles.

“Ah,” said Callie finally, wiping her eyes. “I should have just gone with you guys.”

“I take it you did not make any progress?” asked Dana gently.

Callie shook her head, then lay back on one of the mattresses and stared at the ceiling. “Unless you count Clint’s ‘revelation’ about how Alexis is still evil…”

Vanessa shrugged, climbing under the covers next to her. “Well, at the very least I think it’s safe to say that when your ex shows up blitzed out of his mind, trash-talking his current girlfriend, and—sort of—asking for you back, you definitely won the breakup.”

“Tsk, tsk, tsk,” Mimi clucked. “Callie is already winning after he restarted dating Lexi.”

“True,” said Vanessa.

“But what are you going to do, then—about tomorrow?” Dana asked quietly after standing to dim the lights.

Callie sighed, watching the flame of the candle flicker.

“If it were me,” said Mimi, hopping into bed, “I would simply not show. How will they manage to have the hearing if you do not attend? Trust me.
J’ai été expulsé de nombreuses institutions dans ma carrière académique
.”

“Your less-than-exemplary record with boarding schools is exactly why she should
not
listen to you!” said Dana. “Now, what you need is a plan, even if it’s just a backup—”

“Matt already volunteered to come in and ‘testify’ that I was sitting next to him at the
Crimson
when the third Insider article
was posted from a computer all the way on the other side of the offices,” said Callie. “So maybe if I don’t think of”—she yawned—“something before tomorrow morning then I can ask him to come with me…. But I don’t want to drag him into this—especially since, if Lexi
is
one of the students on the judiciary board, she’ll probably just accuse him of lying or colluding and find a way to have him kicked off the paper, too.”

“And you’re
sure
she didn’t do it?” asked Vanessa.

“I’m not sure,” said Callie, “but Grace seems to be, and since all the evidence we could find just seemed to exonerate Lexi…” She shook her head, pulling the covers up to her chin. “Maybe Matt was right. Maybe if I hadn’t wasted so much time obsessing about how Lexi had to be the Insider, I wouldn’t have been so blind to other possibilities.”

“
What
other possibilities?” asked Vanessa. “Who’s more conniving than Alexis Thorndike? Who else is a member of the
Crimson
and
was a veteran member of the Pudding?”

“Maybe whoever did it was only one or the other—or neither,” said Callie, her eyelids feeling heavy. “There are ways of getting into the
Crimson
without being a staff member or a COMPer….”

“
Oui
,” Mimi murmured.

“And maybe even ways to find out what happened at private Pudding proceedings without actually being there.”

“Hey,” said Dana. “Didn’t Clint used to bring you coffee at the
Crimson
a lot?”

“What are you saying?” Callie asked.

“He’s in the Pudding,” said Dana, “and he spent a fair amount
of time in the offices, right?
And
he showed up here the night before your hearing clearly feeling guilty about something—from the sound of it.”

Mimi gasped, throwing off her covers. “What if—he and Alexis—were conspiring together for the entire duration!”

Callie giggled.

“
Quoi
?” Mimi demanded.

“I’ve just never heard you sound so excitable,” Callie explained.

Mimi rolled over onto her stomach. “I am not eager to see you gone,” she said, propping her chin in her hands.

“None of us are,” Dana agreed. “You can’t leave school now—not when I was finally getting used to you three.”

“Aw, D-meister!” said Vanessa.

“I still don’t approve of most of your lifestyle choices,” Dana insisted, “but somebody needs to keep you all in line, and I guess I…don’t really
mind
being the one to do it.”

“I will try to take you not
minding
me as a compliment,” said Vanessa.

Callie was glad it was dark save for the light of the candle. Undetected, she rubbed her damp cheeks on the side of her pillow. She hoped they knew how much she had come to love them this year, because there was no way she could manage to say it out loud without breaking down completely. “I…don’t think it could have been Clint,” Callie said finally, trying to stay focused. “The whole reason Lexi hates me in the first place is because we started dating—why would she do all those things to keep us apart if they were secretly together the whole time?”

“Meh,” said Mimi, sounding sleepy. “It was worth a pondering.”

“What about…” Vanessa started. “You’re not going to like this, but—Oh, never mind.”

“What?” asked Callie.

“Okay, don’t freak out,” said Vanessa, “but have you considered the remote possibility that it might be…well…Gregory?”

“I
considered
everyone,” said Callie. “But I refuse to believe that he was involved.”

“Yes,” said Dana, “why would he ever do anything bad to Callie when he—seems to have a great deal of affection for her? I may not be an English major, but even I could tell that was a very—moving letter that he wrote to her before he left.”

“But in the letter he also asked for her forgiveness,” said Vanessa. “For things that she might
learn
he had done during his absence.”

“Clearly he was talking about his dad,” said Callie. “And his history with other women.”

“I still cannot believe that Alessandra turns out to be such a sneaky little liar,” said Mimi. “Though what did we really know about her, anyway? She just appeared—
poof
—out of nowhere. Kind of like this zit on my forehead.
Pop pop!
”

“All that stuff with his dad,” Vanessa pressed on, speaking over Mimi, “meant he knew he was going to be poor soon, right? Meaning he might have had a reason to suddenly resent the Pudding! He never seemed to really like being there, anyway.”

“If only he’d gotten my letter and come back,” Callie mused, “we could have asked him.”

“And what about that fifth Ivy Insider article?” Vanessa continued, refusing to drop it. “Didn’t you say he left Gatsby early that night, too?”

“So did you,” said Callie, yawning again.

“Yeah, with
you
,” said Vanessa, finally lying back down.

The room was quiet for a few minutes except for the sound of their breathing. The candle burned lower and lower until eventually the flame snuffed out.

“There is one more thing,” Vanessa murmured. Dana and Mimi were silent and had probably already drifted off.

“What?” Callie whispered, rolling onto her side.

“Remember when we snuck into his bedroom after the date auction,” said Vanessa, “because you wanted to prove that Alessandra was lying about how he had never even read a single Insider article? And then we saw what looked like an old installment in the trash?”

“So?” said Callie. “I was correct, wasn’t I? Alessandra is a liar. In fact, I bet he never even called her and she just made up that entire conversation.”

“You’re probably right.” Vanessa sighed. “I was just wondering if maybe she said all that to protect him because, after hanging around with him a lot, she discovered that he’d written the articles—that
he
was the Ivy Insider….”

“Mmm,” said Callie. “Mm-hmm…” She shut her eyes, overcome by that familiar falling sensation that often precedes sleep. Down, down, down, she drifted until, all of a sudden, her body gave a tremendous jolt.