Unfriended (12 page)

Isabel Ryan was standing in the doorway.

I stared at Isabel as she walked toward the counter, not entirely able to believe what I was seeing. Isabel wasn’t supposed to be in On A Blender. Isabel wasn’t supposed to be in Connecticut at all—she was supposed to be on Nantucket. Although, I realized with a sinking feeling in my stomach, I hadn’t checked her location on Constellation in a few days. She easily could have come back, and I wouldn’t have been aware of it. I had no idea why she was here now, but I didn’t think it was to get a Pomegranate Paradise Pow or have a fun catch-up with me over all the great times we’d shared.

As she got closer, I could see that she looked extremely happy. And it was an expression that I didn’t like to see.
It was like when I’d been in detention and the arson kid had looked gleeful. You knew that no good would come of it.

I looked over at Justin and realized that it wasn’t a coincidence that she was here now. Justin had set this up. I had a sudden impulse to hurl his stupid wallet at his head.

“Justin,” I said, not quite able to keep the hurt from my voice.

He didn’t look at me, but focused on Isabel, his expression still blank, as though it was totally normal for him to lie to me. “Sorry, Maddie,” he said, using the nickname that I’d always hated and that nobody but Ruth was allowed to use.

“Why are you doing this?” I asked, trying to make sense of what was happening. Justin and Isabel were here together? And that meant that they were … what? Friends? Dating?

Justin turned to me as the first rumble of thunder sounded from outside. And in that moment, it was like the mask he’d been wearing slipped off, and I could see what was underneath it, what he was really feeling. Justin was
angry
. Angry and embarrassed and … hurt? I squinted, trying to make it out, but the expression was only there for a moment before the blankness returned. Justin turned back to face Isabel, who had arrived at the counter, looking very pleased with herself.

I could see now that she was a little more tan, and her bangs had grown out a bit. But aside from that,
she looked the same as she had the last time I’d seen her, when she’d been staring daggers at me across the Rosebud Ballroom.

“Well,” she said. She stood right next to Justin, very close, and I noticed that he took a tiny step away from her. If she was aware of this, however, she didn’t let on. Her smiled widened. “Madison MacDonald,” she practically purred. “We meet again.”

I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at that. “Yeah,” I said. “It seems we do. What are you doing here, Isabel?”

From the added height her four-inch heels gave her, Isabel looked down at me, and I struggled to stand up taller in my flip-flops, suddenly wishing I wasn’t wearing a smoothie-stained shirt that read
Blend Me A Tenor
. “Seriously?” she asked, her tone contemptuous that I would even ask such a stupid question. “I would have thought it would be obvious, Madison.”

I looked from her to Justin and back again. “Um, no,” I said. “I just stayed open late to give Justin his wallet back.”

She shook her head and gave a high, giggling laugh that made me wince. “God, I can’t believe you bought that,” she said. “I didn’t think you would. I thought that even
you
had to be too sharp to fall for it. But Justin here”—as she said his name, she touched his arm, brushing her fingers over it for a few seconds longer than normal—“told me that you’re always willing to help out your friends.”

I was probably a little slow on the uptake, but it hadn’t occurred to me until then that Justin had left
his wallet behind on purpose. The thought gave me the shivers—that this, whatever it was, had been planned days in advance. “I’m sorry,” I said, still trying to wrap my head around the two of them in cahoots. It was just bizarre to see them standing next to each other, like two chapters of my past had suddenly, without my consent, decided to join forces. “Are you two … together?” I asked.

Justin, who had been watching me this whole time with his expression unchanging, suddenly frowned and looked down at the checkered linoleum floor. Isabel stiffened slightly and glanced over at Justin, her grin faltering.

And just like that, I understood what was going on. I hadn’t been a girl for seventeen years for nothing. As clearly as if they’d told me that this was the situation, I could see that Isabel liked Justin and wanted to go out with him. And there
was
something between them—maybe they’d made out, which, ew—but it was clear Justin didn’t want to turn it into anything more.

“Not exactly,” Isabel said, turning back to me with a slightly forced smile. “But that’s not why we’re here.”

“Then please tell me why you
are
here,” I said. “The shop is now closed, I’ve been working all day, and I’m not feeling particularly fond of either of you at the moment.” Justin glanced up at me when I said this, and I frowned at him. I had no idea why he had thrown his lot in with Isabel, but I was going to make sure that he knew I wasn’t happy about it. But rather than looking away, or ashamed, Justin just stared back at me coolly, his expression hard.

“Well, I had to talk to you somehow,” Isabel said. She wasn’t smiling now. Her tone had turned serious and businesslike. “And Justin was kind enough to assist with that. Really, we would have done this sooner, but I needed to make sure the conditions were right. I’ve been preparing this for a month, you know.”

I swallowed and felt myself shiver again. But I worked very hard to make my voice sound even and steady as I asked, “Preparing what?”

Isabel began to smile again. “My revenge,” she said, as though this was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Your revenge,” I repeated. I said the word slowly, but my thoughts were racing, trying to figure out what she could possibly be using against me, trying to determine if she was bluffing. When I’d had a remarkably similar conversation with Dell at the tail end of our prom, it was obvious the things he’d tried to do to me—because he’d already
done
them. But aside from a coworker who refused to work, which I highly doubted was Isabel’s doing, there was nothing in my life that had gone wrong. I looked at her closely, but Isabel just nodded, her expression unchanging. “Okay,” I said. “Well … I’m sorry to tell you that whatever your revenge was, it actually wasn’t that effective. Because everything in my life is really great right now. So nice try, but no banana.” Immediately after saying this, I sighed. Clearly, staying in the shop after-hours was taking a toll, and making me speak in fruit colloquialisms.

But Isabel didn’t seem bothered by this. Instead, her smile widened, like I’d just given her the answer she’d
been looking for. “Your life really
is
good right now, isn’t it, Madison?” she asked. “Your boyfriend … your three best friends … and don’t think I haven’t noticed how
popular
you are. Even after my cousin hacked you, you’re still superclose with all your buddies, aren’t you? Hanging out at the beach, going to pool parties …” Her smile was now gone. “My life, on the other hand, hasn’t been going as well since you trashed it.” She took a step closer to the counter.

Every impulse I had told me to take a step back—or find and wield some garlic at her—but I forced myself to stay absolutely still, looking right back at her.

“You should know,” she continued, her voice growing ever colder, “what happened to me after what you did to my prom. I was officially reprimanded by our headmistress. I almost got suspended, because she thought I had pocketed the money allotted to pay the DJ—the DJ you stole. Not to mention the fact that you tricked my date into dumping me the night before. I was a laughingstock at school. Totally ostracized. I had absolutely no friends after that.”

That seemed more about how Isabel’s friends were lame than anything to do with me. “Really?” I asked, a little incredulously. I tried to remember back to Isabel’s Friendverse profile when we’d looked at it during the Promgate planning session. I could have sworn I’d seen something about a BFF on there. “What about your best friend, um …” I paused, trying to recall it, but the name wasn’t coming. Something with a B, but that was as far as I was getting.

Isabel blinked at me, surprised. “She doesn’t matter,” she said quickly. “Because my social life at Hartfield was
ruined
.” She looked at me levelly. “Did you think I was just going to let that slide?”

“The only reason I did what I did,” I said, matching her icy tone, “was because you had been trying to sabotage
our
prom from the outset. You stole our crown and wrecked my prom dress—”

“And it sure seems like you’re really suffering, doesn’t it, Madison?” Isabel interrupted me, voice dripping with sarcasm. “Not to mention what you did to Justin,” she continued, touching his arm again. “
Using
him like you did. Unfortunately, all that little ploy managed to accomplish was introducing two people who had something in common—namely, a score to settle with you.”

I looked at Justin, not quite able to believe that he was this upset about the prom thing. He met my eyes for a moment before dropping them again. But I realized his resentment might have been building for a while—and it explained some of his slightly odd behavior before the prom. But this—whatever
this
was—seemed to be taking things way too far.

“Justin,” I started, trying to reason with the only rational person in front of me.

But Isabel shook her head and continued as though I hadn’t spoken. “Really, I’m just doing what I have to, Madison,” she said. “I mean, you got to wreck my life and walk away scot-free, and I’m afraid we just can’t have that.” She put her hands on her hips, and I felt a little bit
like we were in a showdown, like the one I’d seen in an old Western with Nate, at our drive-in.

I realized suddenly that this whole thing had a feeling of déjà vu about it. I’d been in a similar situation—twice—and there had always been a certain dark-haired, black-souled person present. I looked outside, searching for a lurking figure in a black hoodie. “Where is he?” I asked.

“Who?” Justin asked, sounding genuinely confused.

“
Dell
,” I said, answering him but looking at Isabel. “Your charming cousin. I assume he’s behind this?”

Isabel’s lip curled in a sneer. “Frank,” she said contemptuously. She shook her head. “I’m afraid my cousin is officially worthless. He’s sticking to the little bargain you struck with him. I haven’t even seen him except at a family reunion three weeks ago.”

“Oh,” I said, surprised. This all might have made more sense if Dell, as usual, had been the mastermind, trying to settle his old grudge with me. The fact that I was only dealing with Isabel—and Justin, although he just appeared to be along for the ride after letting himself be used as bait—made me relax a little. Dell was a skilled hacker who had managed to commit all kinds of internet fraud and, most likely, a number of unprosecuted felonies. If he’d been involved, I might have actually been concerned about what his intentions were. After all, he had managed to successfully derail my life once. But what was Isabel going to do to me? “What do you want, Isabel?” I said, crossing my arms. I was suddenly finished with being insulted in my place of work.
I wanted to get some dinner, go home, log on to iChat, and talk to my boyfriend.

“What I want is simple,” Isabel said, smoothing down her bangs. “Oh, I’d had some larger thoughts—bigger, more complicated plans—but then it came down to an eye for an eye. Nothing more, nothing less.” She raised an eyebrow at me again, and I got the distinct feeling that she’d been practicing this in front of the mirror.

I glanced at Justin, but he was still looking down at the floor. He seemed—for the first time that night—a little discomfited. He swallowed hard and stuck his hands back in his pockets.

“An eye for an eye,” I repeated.

“Exactly,” Isabel said. “I only want to do to you what you did to me. And that’s to leave you totally friendless—no boyfriend, no best friends, no big social circle of everyone who, for some reason, thinks you’re so great. No friends at all, in fact.”

I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing out loud. The whole idea was just so preposterous. “Okay,” I said, not quite able to keep myself from smiling. “So let me get this straight. You’re going to break up me and my boyfriend and then turn all my friends against me?”

“Oh, no,” Isabel said, shaking her head. “Of course I’m not going to do that.” She looked at me and started to smile again. “You are.”

I looked at her, trying to tell if she was joking. She didn’t appear to be, which just made this whole thing all that much more ridiculous. I shook my head, beginning to get really annoyed that she was wasting my time. “Actually,” I said, feeling my voice slide into sarcasm, “I don’t think I feel like doing that. But thanks so much for the offer, Iz. Now if you wouldn’t mind leaving, we actually closed at six.”

I started to turn away when I realized I was still holding Justin’s stupid wallet. I turned back, holding it out, fully prepared to just throw it at him if he didn’t take it this final time. “Here,” I said. “Take it or I’m going to drop it.”

Justin continued to look down at the floor, so I just let it fall to the counter and headed to the back to get my
bag, hoping that Justin and Isabel would take the hint and leave.

“One thing, Mad,” Isabel said, stopping me. “There’s something that I wanted to give you.” I turned back to her and saw that she was removing a silver flash drive from a crowded-looking key ring. She held up the drive, then placed it on the counter and slid it across toward me.

I saw, to my surprise, that it was a flash drive I recognized.
Making Sure You’ll Never Forget …
was written in tiny, curling script on one side, and …
Your Night To Remember
! was printed on the other. It was one of the flash drives that had gone in our prom gift bags, but I had no idea what it had to do with anything. I held it in my hand, now thoroughly baffled.

“You’ll want to take a look at that when you get a moment,” Isabel said, adopting a light, conversational tone. “I think that it should prove … illuminating.”

“What is on here, Isabel?” I asked, staring down at the flash drive resting on my palm.

“Now, I’m not going to spoil the surprise by going into particulars,” she said. I looked up and saw that she was smiling. Justin picked up and pocketed his wallet, but was still looking down. “But I think it should help … clarify your decision.”

“My decision?” I echoed. She nodded, and I raised my eyebrows. “You’re serious. You really think that I’m going to dump my boyfriend and ditch all my friends?”

“I think you just might,” she said, her voice still light and pleasant, like we were discussing the weather
or how cute her bangs were. “If you don’t, I’m going to make public everything that’s on that drive. And what’s more, all the information will appear to have come from you.”

I felt my jaw drop but closed it immediately, not wanting to let Isabel see me unnerved. But I was. At the moment, I was feeling very, very far from nerved.

“After all,” she continued cheerfully, “you’ve done it once. I don’t think it would be that hard for people to believe that you were capable of doing this again.”

“But I didn’t do it in the first place,” I said, finding my voice, still staring at her. “I was hacked—”

“Mmm,” she said. She smiled at me. “But I don’t think people are going to believe that happened
twice
. Do you?”

I stared at her for just a moment longer before shaking my head and putting the flash drive back on the counter. “No,” I said, pushing it back toward her. “You do whatever you want to with this. I don’t want to see what’s on it. I’m going to tell my friends that She Who Shall Not Be Named has returned, and that something is going to happen, so we can all deal with it together. But I’m not about to play your little game, Isabel.”

I realized I had nothing more to say, really. How stupid was she, to think she could blackmail me into ending my friendships? Into breaking up with Nate? I shook my head and looked at Justin. “I really didn’t expect this from you,” I said, a little shocked at the quaver that came out on the last word. But it was hitting me, somewhere
deep inside, that Justin had betrayed me. After what had happened with Ruth, I would have thought the second betrayal would have been easier. But it wasn’t. Instead, it was like pressing hard on a cut that had just begun to heal.

Justin looked up at me, and I saw a flash of something—regret?—in his eyes. I couldn’t be sure, as a moment later it was gone.

“All right, Mad,” Isabel said conversationally. “It’s your call.” She shrugged and started to turn toward the door, Justin following behind her. “I was just curious,” she said as she paused and looked back at me. “What do you think Nate is going to do when his acceptance to Yale is reversed?”

That stopped me cold, and I could feel my heart hammering. “What are you talking about?” I asked, trying my best to keep my voice steady, folding my arms across my chest.

“He was accepted early decision, right?” Isabel asked. I just stared at her, wondering how she even knew this.
I
wasn’t even entirely sure of that. “Because,” she continued, “if he didn’t apply anywhere else—if he has no backups—then he’s really going to be in trouble when Yale kicks him out, now isn’t he?”

“Why would Yale kick him out, Isabel?” I was trying my best to sound calm. The very fact that Isabel was tossing around Nate’s name was unsettling me. As far as I knew, she still thought my boyfriend was named Nathan. The fact that she’d not only found out his name but had clearly done research into his life sent a shiver
down my neck that had nothing to do with the air-conditioning level in the store.

“Because,” she said, drawing out the word, and I realized, all at once, how much she was enjoying this. This moment, right now, was what she’d been waiting for. It must have been like Christmas morning and a Lilly Pulitzer sample sale all rolled into one. I gritted my teeth. Isabel smiled. “I know that he was one of the engineers of the Stanwich Senior Prank. And I can prove it. And I also have proof that he was the one who stole the Hartfield mascot costume.”

My breath caught and I gulped, forcing myself to keep my expression neutral and not betray any of what I was feeling. Which, at the moment, was a growing sense of dread. How—
how
—did Isabel know about Nate and the prank? I barely knew the particulars of the prank. But I did know that he had been involved. Could he still get in trouble, now that the school year was over? I had no idea. But the fact that Isabel had connected Nate and the prank was bad. It was
really
bad.

I glanced down at the flash drive on the counter, instinctively, and Isabel followed my gaze. “Not there,” she said. “I’m keeping the irrefutable evidence of what your precious boyfriend did somewhere much safer than that.”

I cleared my throat, and found that it took me a few tries before I was able to get out sounds that sounded like words. “How do I know you’re not bluffing?” I asked. “About Nate?”

She gave me the kind of smile that I would imagine
lions give gazelles as they size them up for an entrée. “I guess you’ll just have to trust me on that one,” she said. “And decide if it’s worth the risk.”

I looked away, at the pictures of the far too happy, smoothie-clutching couples who were so thrilled about blended fruit and rollerblading. Their lives seemed much simpler than mine was at this moment. I turned back to Isabel, drawing on all my acting skills—even if they had been recently described by the local theater critic as “acceptably adequate”—to fake a bravado that I certainly wasn’t feeling. “I don’t believe you,” I said.

Isabel shrugged, looking totally unconcerned by this. “Believe whatever you want,” she said. “But I have information on all of you. Your friends. Everyone who was part of your little crew during the prom. You. And, believe me, it’s stuff that none of you will want getting out.”

“And how did you come by this information?” I asked, grasping desperately at straws.

Isabel smiled again. “I guess I should rephrase what I said earlier. It seems my cousin isn’t totally worthless, after all. But he should really learn not to leave his laptop lying around at family reunions.”

Outside, another low rumble of thunder sounded, letting me know that the storm that had been threatening all day was finally thinking about heading toward us.

Isabel glanced outside, and it seemed to break her out of the supervillain monologue she had been so clearly enjoying. “Anyway,” she said, a briskness coming back into her voice. She nodded down at the flash drive.
“I’d recommend looking at that. And then make your decision. I’ll give you until tomorrow morning—should we say ten?” she asked, as though we were making plans for brunch.

Justin was looking intently out the window, doing a very convincing imitation of someone who wasn’t actually hearing or experiencing anything that was going on around him. She touched his arm again. Justin looked at her, and she nodded. “I think we’re done for now,” she said. She turned and yanked open the door, setting the bell jangling. Justin met my eyes for only a moment before ducking his head and hurrying out the door.

“Oh, and Madison,” she said, turning around in the doorway, just as thunder sounded again, louder this time.

“What,” I said, not even really phrasing it as a question. I saw that her smile was gone. She looked deadly serious.

“If you tell any of your friends about this conversation, or that something is going to be happening, I’ll know. And then all bets will be off. Understand?”

I didn’t nod, but just stared back at her. She held my gaze for a moment before turning and leaving, stalking off toward a red sports car parked outside the store.

The door swung shut behind her, the bell dinging faintly and then falling silent. And as thunder rumbled again, closer than ever, I felt my knees wobble and my legs threaten to give out. I let myself lean hard against the counter, feeling my heart pound, wondering what the hell had just happened.