“Girl is gone with the wind,” Isabel muttered. She folded her arms in front of her chest and rested her weight on one leg. “I am so here for this.”
“You!” Apple continued, walking closer to Michelle Hornsbury. “You think you know everything now, don’t you? You think finding Rupert P.’s underwear in our room is evidence that we did something wrong?”
“Well, I wouldn’t call it not evidence,” Michelle Hornsbury said.
“You think something’s up?” Apple moved even closer to her, close enough to make Michelle Hornsbury inch away slowly. “You think something’s fishy. Well, guess what, Michelle Hornsbury: It’s our word against yours, you dig? If you even think of going to the police, the four of us will say that we were together the whole time, braiding our hair or some shit, and that just leaves you out to dry, doesn’t it? Because maybe we could’ve been your alibi, but we’re done playing nice! You know, I never liked you from the start, right after Rupert P. picked you up from whatever street corner you were standing on and helped you wash the dried splooge out of your hair like the sweet angel that he was, and now I know why! It’s because you’re a bitch. A sussy bearding basic discount-bin bitch!”
This whole time Apple had been inching Michelle Hornsbury across the room and we’d all followed along with her, careful, apprehensive. Apple swung open the door. “So you can take your dead fake boyfriend’s pants and kindly get the fuck out of our room.” With that she took the underwear out of Erin’s hand and threw it out the door for Michelle Hornsbury to fetch.
“You’re mad!” Michelle Hornsbury said.
“Quite frankly.” Apple let go of the knob, and the door swung shut in Michelle Hornsbury’s face.
Wow.
I didn’t know about anybody else, but I was taken aback. Even Isabel looked shocked, her mouth hanging open in proud awe. “Well gag me with a blueberry-flavored prophylactic,” she said. “What did I just witness?”
“Apple went in,” I said.
“Slay a bit!” Isabel said.
“Can everyone hold up with the boss bitch accolades?” Erin said. “What the hell was that with the lamp? Don’t tell me you were trying to kill her.”
“Another dead body is just a drop in the bucket at this point,” Apple said.
Well, that put another mark in my Apple-did-it column.
“Great going,” Erin said. “Did you get your rocks off, Apple? Because thanks to that little display, Michelle Hornsbury is going to go directly to the police with Rupert P.’s underwear in hand—evidence that you handed to her, I might add—and make us official persons of interest.”
Apple only shrugged. “I didn’t hand it to her. I threw it in her general direction. I did what needed to be done.”
“We need to leave,” Erin said. “This isn’t cute anymore.”
“But all the fun’s about to start,” Isabel said.
“What are you talking about?” Erin said.
“One of The Ruperts supposedly flung himself off a building, and we all know it was the other boys who actually did it. This is the biggest news story of the century, and I have a front-row seat to all of it. I need to update my website.”
“You’re vile,” I said. It just came out. I didn’t mean to start a fight with Isabel. Mainly because she scared me. But I had to say it. What we were doing was wrong. Even if we hadn’t killed Rupert P. Even if his death really was an accident. “Us staying quiet about all this is wrong.”
“I can’t with this broken record,” Isabel said. “We got away with it.”
“The other boys are going to go down for it.”
“Well, they were stupid enough to throw Rupert P. off a building!”
“Are you even a fan of theirs, or is every bad thing that happens to them just more fodder for your website?”
“We all went to their room to dump Rupert P.’s body,” Isabel said. “So check yourself before you start asking who’s a fan.”
She was right. But the night wasn’t over yet. Isabel’s heart may have been nothing more than a frostbitten tumor between her lungs, but mine still worked. I still had my morals. I was still a fan. I could still do something to change the outcome.
“I’m going to confess. To everything.”
Erin stepped in front of me before I could reach the door. “Think about what you’re doing,” she said. “Isabel and Apple and I are all sticking together on our story.”
“Really? So if I confess, it’s still your word against mine?”
Erin didn’t say anything to that, and I think, despite everything that had happened, that shocked me the most. “You’re my best friend.”
Isabel let out a snarl of a laugh.
“What’s so funny?” I said. I was tired of being afraid of Isabel. “You know, I could just go to the police and tell them you did it. I’ll just tell them you wanted to destroy the boy band for hits and retweets.”
“You’d lie like that?”
“Who said it’s a lie?” I said. She smiled and I hated it. “He didn’t die accidentally, Isabel.”