AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"Mom, what do you know?"
She's trying to leave. Ah! I use her method for whenever I try to run away form a particularly embarrassing situation, and tackle her from behind, wrapping my arms around her. "Mom, spill. Whatever makes you look that way, I need to know."
She sighs and turns around, wincing. "I'm not the best person to talk about that kind of thing to you, Dia, sweet. I'm yourmother."
I have no idea what she's on about, but everything in me tells me I need to push this.
"Do you know any legacies?" I counter.
She sighs. "No. Of course not. The legacies are children." She wrinkles her nose in distaste. "Well, young people, like you. You know what I mean."
I don't. I'm completely lost.
"The legacies," she says after a long pause, "are the children of the members of the Heritage private club, Dia."
I knew that. The Heritage is a huge club right off Fifth Avenue. Their building dominates almost a whole block. They organize galas, charities, that sort of things.
"So?"
Mom purses her lips, weighing her words more carefully than she usually does. "They lead a different life. I…" She shakes her head. "I don't know how to tell you, and it doesn't matter much anyway, unless the boy's serious about you. Is he?" Her eyes widen. "You've never talked about him before. Is…are you involved? Do you love him, Dia?"
I choke on a laugh, almost chuckling. Then I shake my head wordlessly, astonished she'd even ask. Of course I don't love Jason. Not even a little bit. I'm attracted to him, because, well, I have eyes. And I find him magnetic, fascinating, intriguing. I see a pleasing surface and all I want to do is dig deeper, scratch his skin away until I get to his soul.
I'm captivated. That has nothing to do with…that other word.
"Ah." Mom tries to smile. "Well, I'm not going to get into it, okay? But if you want to make room for this boy in your life, I want you to have an open mind, all the while paying attention to what you want—what you feel. Can you do that?"
I stare at my mother, a thousand questions flying around my brain.
I hear her, though.She's not the one I should get answers from.
"I can do that."
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
My phone's burning in my purse, demanding my attention. I resist the temptation of pulling it out for a whole hour.
It’s on silent, but I felt it vibrate twice, and I know who’s texting me.
“How’s your uppity school going? Turned you into a mini–Stepford Wife yet?” Harper asks me.
I roll my eyes. “I don’t know, did yours turn you into a bitch yet?”
I’m kidding. Harper has always been a bitch. But she’smybitch.
We attended school together from first grade until I transferred to Cross. While we don’t have time to hang out during the school year, especially back when I stayed on campus on weekends, we’ve caught up every chance we get. I suppose being in a school full of rich, privileged kids who don’t stop to give me the time of the day made me cling to my old crew.
Harper lives a few blocks down from me, on the same street as Spencer. They dated on and off, breaking up when Spencer felt like dating Trevor from the soccer team instead. Harper doesn’t seem to mind.
Evie joined up when we were ten, having moved from California. She’s your typical bleach blonde, athletic LA girl, except she has a soul. I think. She came with her mom after a messy divorce.
Gabriella was more Evie’s friend than ours, originally. They met up on the cheerleading squad. She’s cold and doesn’t have tons of time for us, but she did stab Ben Williams with a fork when the guy copped a feel of Evie’s breast without asking, so I pestered her to hang out with us until we became close friends. She’d totally stab some guy for me, now. Maybe I should introduce her to Jason.
Or not. Gabriella’s hot.
Too late, I recognize that this line of thought sounds far too close to jealous. Like, what the fuck, Nadia? Seriously.
Tara and Olivia took me under their wing when I started to work at my dad’s restaurant when I was sixteen. They might be three or four years older than the rest of us, but we started hanging out together by default, because I finished working at the same time as them and they never wanted to me walk to my friends’ by myself.
