CHAPTER NINE

We said hello to Dr. Drummond, who was surrounded by a bunch of laughing adults. He stepped away from the circle to talk to us, holding hands with a tall woman with dark hair in tight ringlets and dark eyes. She smiled kindly at us, and I liked her immediately. I again introduced Ella, and he shook Ella’s hand. “Any family member of Mattie’s is always welcome in my home,” he said in his deep and booming voice.

Ha. He said that now, but he hadn’t met my mother. He’d rethink that open-door policy then. Instead of telling him as much, I just enjoyed his infectious smile that made me think he probably had an excellent bedside manner.

“Let me introduce my girlfriend, Dr. Bahati Okafor.” I mentally ran through the things Kenyetta had told me. Dr. Okafor had moved here from Africa about ten years ago to finish up medical school and do her training. She’d met Dr. Drummond at the hospital where they both currently worked. She was training to become an oncologist.

It was her father’s first serious relationship since Kenyetta’s mother had died.

“Nice to meet you, Dr. Okafor.”

“And you as well, Mattie and Ella. But you must call me Bahati.”

“Thanks so much for having us. You have a gorgeous home,” Ella said, and Dr. Drummond shot her one of those “I approve of Ella” looks that adults were always giving her.

“Thank you for coming,” he countered. “I know Kenyetta is especially thrilled to have you here, Mattie.”

“I’m thrilled to be here,” I said in my best Ella imitation.

Dr. Drummond and Bahati both smiled again and told us to make ourselves at home.

“The party’s this way,” Kenyetta said, tugging on our hands. We followed her out to the backyard. She was having a glamour/spa day party. The other girls were getting their nails, hair, and makeup done by professionals at different stations, and the entire backyard was decorated in sparkles, pink tulle, and white flowers.

Kenyetta seemed a little lost, even though it was her party. I wondered whether it was just Jake not showing up, whether she was upset that Bahati was there, or if something else was going on. I was about to ask her when Ella spoke.

“Do you know one of the things I do at school?” Ella asked Kenyetta. “I’m a cheerleader. Mattie’s told me how much you love to dance. Do you think any of your friends would like to learn a cheer routine?”

Her entire face changed into one of pure glee. “Let me go check!” Kenyetta ran off and began talking to some of the other girls.

Huh. Ella distracted Kenyetta without me having to do anything. One item off my to-do list.

“If I’m not back in half an hour, come rescue me,” my sister said. “Because I really want to get a pedicure done before we leave. The woman they have doing them is from Gigi’s, and she is the best. I’ve been trying to get in with her for weeks, but she’s always booked.”

Kenyetta returned with a handful of giggling girls, and they dragged Ella away. I took my gift bag over to a table that overflowed with presents. Like a gift volcano had erupted under the table and now it was spilling out over the top. I set it down, and the massive cake off to my right drew my attention. It was white and pink and looked scrumptious. But it hadn’t been cut yet. Darn. Despite eating all the ice cream in Malibu last night, I was still jonesing for some junk food.

I wondered if I could steal a tiny sliver from the back of the cake when I heard someone ask, “Are you stalking me now?”

Seriously? I turned around to see Mercedes Bentley scowling at me. “Stalking you? My standards are much higher. I mean, I could bring it up at the next Stalkers Anonymous to see if anyone else is interested in the job, but I wouldn’t get your hopes up.” What was Mercedes doing at Kenyetta’s house? It was so weird to see two completely different parts of my life converging on a single spot.

“I know you think you’re oh so funny.”

“I’m hilarious. If you’re not bright enough to see it, that’s on you.” That would have been an excellent phrase to walk out on. I couldn’t do it, though. Even though I knew that I shouldn’t have cared, I had to know why she was here. “What are you doing at a child’s birthday party? Hoping to trick some kids into following you back to your gingerbread house?”

Instead of looking upset at the wicked burn I’d just delivered, Mercedes appeared way too smug and self-assured. “My daddy is friends with Dr. Drummond, and he wanted us to put in an appearance. And you . . . what? Travel around looking for something to do given that your life is so pathetic? Crashing a kid’s party is probably a big day for you.”

“I’m Kenyetta’s tutor, thanks.”

“That poor girl,” she sighed.

I had a whole bunch of repressed feelings to unload, and I aimed both barrels at Mercedes.

But before I could say anything, she spoke. “Ella seems sad,” she said, using a fake sympathetic voice. “Did something happen to the perfect princess?”

Something was off in her tone, where she sounded too innocent but actually knew exactly what had happened to my sister. Which wasn’t possible. Maybe I was getting paranoid in my old age.

Even though there was no way she could know about Trent and Ella, it seemed like Mercedes knew more than she was letting on. Otherwise she’d be standing in some corner texting and chewing her hair instead of trying to aggravate me. What did she know and when did she know it? Part of me wondered if she’d somehow been involved. Which seemed farfetched because it wasn’t like she had held Trent down and forced him to cheat on Ella.

But I wasn’t in the mood to play her games. “I’ve already punched an idiot once this week. Don’t think I won’t do it again. And I’m sure your suck-up of a father wouldn’t appreciate having to pay for another nose job.”

She let out a strangled, shocked sound, which I enjoyed probably more than I should have.

And as much as I wanted cake, I wanted to be far away from Mercedes more. I would not ruin Kenyetta’s party by smashing her birthday cake in Mercedes’s face.

Regardless of how much that image filled me with a certain kind of joy.

“And no Jake?” she called after me, and it was like those words had rooted me to the ground. I had to turn and look at her to see what she’d say next when I should have just kept walking. “You think everything’s going your way and then . . . poof. It all falls apart.”

Either she was intensely psychotic and trying to upset me, or more intuitive than I’d given her credit for and somehow figured out that things were not going well in my life. “Enjoy the party,” I told her. “I don’t want to keep you. I’m sure you have plans to convince one of these girls to trade her voice for a pair of legs.”

I stormed off, not looking where I was going and nearly clotheslined myself with a row of white twinkling Christmas lights. I noticed a big white tent off to my right that had the word “Massages” on a sign out front. I ducked inside. I was in desperate need of a massage to relieve some of this anger. I didn’t want to get kicked out for acting on some violent tendencies.

Fortunately, they had a table free and led me to a curtained off area where I did my best to relax and enjoy myself and not think about Ella, Kenyetta, Mercedes, Trent, or Jake.

Especially Jake.

About twenty minutes later, I felt tons better and remembered that I was supposed to rescue Ella from the tweenagers.

I looked all over the backyard but couldn’t find her. And since her phone was still missing, it wasn’t like I could call her.

Again not looking where I was going, I almost ran straight into Bahati.

“Mattie! Are you enjoying yourself?”

I nodded enthusiastically. I wasn’t going to let one bad Mercedes run-in ruin my day. “I am. The massage tent is amazing.”

She leaned in and whispered, “I thought it might be nice for the adults to have a place to escape to.”

That she had been involved with the planning kind of surprised me. Maybe she and Dr. Drummond were more serious than Kenyetta had let on.

“Good thinking,” I said. “You haven’t by chance seen my sister, have you?”

“Yes. I saw her in the house, in the library.”

“Thanks.” I started to walk away because I’d done enough interfering recently, but I couldn’t help myself. “Hey, Dr. Okafor?”

“Bahati, please.”

“Bahati. I know this is none of my business, and you didn’t ask what I thought, but I’ve been where Kenyetta is. My dad got married a bunch of times, and I’ve had more stepmoms than anyone should have. I know what it’s like to be the only person in your father’s life and then to have to suddenly share him with someone else. Maybe you could show her that you becoming part of her family doesn’t mean less time and attention, but more.” Bahati looked at me, and I didn’t know her well enough to read her expression. Had I offended her? I’d probably overstepped. She was a grown woman and a doctor, for crying out loud. She didn’t need my help. I began to walk away. “But what do I know? Still just a teenager.”

I found Ella in the library, reading a magazine.

“Mercedes is here,” I warned her. “We had some words. None of them were nice.”

“I saw her take off a little while ago.”

“Did she leave by her own choice or was an exorcism required?” I asked.

Ella just smiled and shook her head at me.

“So why are you holed up in here instead of being out with the party and getting all glamorous?” Like I knew she normally loved doing.

She shrugged one shoulder. “I kind of wanted to be alone with my thoughts for a bit.”

Uh-oh. “And what did you and your alone thoughts talk about?”

“Mostly Trent.”

I sat down in the armchair across from her. “And?”

“This morning I found out that Liam Fiorelli is going to be okay. He’ll have some scarring on his face from the fire, which is a shame because he’s ridiculously gorgeous, but he’s going to make it. And I think it’s kind of sad that I was more upset about my favorite rock star getting into an accident than I was about my so-called boyfriend kissing another girl. I’ve been trying to figure out why, and I think it’s probably because I knew this was coming. Not the him kissing somebody else part, but I’ve been preparing for our breakup for a while. I hurt the whole time he ignored me, and we drifted apart, bit by bit.”

“Oh, Ella.” It was so sad.

“I think that’s why it doesn’t hurt quite as much today. I’m not devastated, when I probably should be.”

“Well, are you at least going to confront him?” Because Trent deserved to be confronted. And possibly slapped around.

“I wasn’t planning on it.”

I hit the arm on my chair with my fist, which made it ache a little bit. Looked like I wasn’t fully recovered yet. “Don’t let your fear of confrontation let him get away with it!”

“It’s not that I’m afraid to talk to him. I know I sometimes run away instead of standing up for myself. But there’s nothing to be said. If he doesn’t know that what he did was wrong, me telling him it was messed up is not going to help. He’s a footnote, and I deserve to be treated better. I’m accepting what’s happened, and I want to let go. I’ll feel sad for a little while, and then I’m going to move on with my life.”

She was way too forgiving. “I can’t believe you’re letting him off that easy. He should suffer at least a little.”

“I think you took care of that for me.”

I snorted. “In case you were wondering, punching a cheating jerk is highly satisfying.”

“If only I’d had this article a few weeks ago, all of this might have been avoided.” She held up an issue of Seventeen. “Remember this? I used to love this magazine.”

We were about the right age for it now, but Ella had subscribed to it when she was eleven and then graduated to Cosmopolitan when she was fifteen. I had secretly read some of her stash, and the one thing I remembered about Seventeen was an article that said I should practice kissing on my hand. Which turned out to be faulty advice since kissing Jake for the first time was nothing like kissing my hand.

“Why?” I read through a few of the article titles on the cover. “How would knowing how to straighten your hair like a pro have helped you out?”

“No, the ‘How to Tell If Your Guy’s Cheating on You.’ Listen to this list.” Ella began to read, and as she did so, my heart started pounding loudly in my chest.

“He’s suddenly uncommunicative. Tells stories to explain his absence. Has secretive phone calls and texts. Has cheated in the past. Shows a decrease in affection. Misses important dates and events. Changes his routine and spends less time with you.”

As Ella read through the list, all I could think was Jake. That’s Jake. Jake does that. Jake, Jake, Jake, Jake . . .

When she finished, I groaned and put my face in my hands. “Oh my Buddha. My boyfriend is cheating on me, too.”

That made Ella stop reading. “What? Why would you say that?”

I started using my fingers to tick off my reasons. “He’s always taking these private, mysterious calls and texts. He leaves the room to talk on his phone. Something is going on with him, and he won’t tell me. He’s missing chances to make out. He is skipping important prom meetings and didn’t come to the birthday party today. The only thing he hasn’t done on your list is cheat in the past.”

“Well . . .”

My eyes went wide, and my heart slammed hard into my rib cage. What was she implying? “Well what? What does that mean?”

“I mean technically, and this is only technically, Jake had feelings for you while he was dating me. He kind of emotionally cheated, even if you guys didn’t kiss until after we broke up.”

“That doesn’t count!” Or did it? Had Jake been a cheater this whole time and I just hadn’t known it?

Was this why Mercedes had been so smug? Had she finally accomplished her goal and landed Jake behind my back? My stomach flipped over, and I felt dangerously close to barfing all over Dr. Drummond’s very expensive-looking area rug.

“I don’t know why I said that.” Ella put one of her hands on top of mine and squeezed. “I’m a little insane right now. You need to ignore everything I’m saying. Jake is not a cheater. You know that, right? He’d never do that to you. He cares about you too much.”

“Before last night, wouldn’t you have said the same thing about Trent?”

At that, Ella fell silent. There was nothing she could say. Even if he’d become distant, neither one of us could have predicted what Trent would do or who he would be kissing that was not Ella.

Was this why Jake was pulling away from me? Was it why he hadn’t asked me to prom yet? Because he didn’t plan on going with me?

I stood up. “If he’s cheating on me, I want to know.”

She looked confused. “How are you going to know? If he is cheating on you, my guess is he probably won’t tell you the truth if you ask him.”

“You and I, dear sister, are going to follow him. I’m going to find out, one way or another, whether he’s stepping out on me.”

Ella sighed. “You do know that’s crazy, right?”

I nodded. Maybe I was crazier than a bag of rabid weasels, but I was not going to keep living in this limbo. If Jake was cheating on me, I was going to catch him in the act. I wanted actual proof and not just these gut-wrenching, heart-twisting suspicions.

Time to get my Nancy Drew on.