CHARM AND I WEREN’T EVEN FIVE MINUTES into our practice session with Heather when I realized the goriest, scariest haunted house would be less scary than this.
“Silver, your hands are ridiculous,” Heather said. “I know you’re, like, afraid of me but stop shaking.”
“Ha, ha,” I said. “My hands aren’t shaking.” And they weren’t—but they were bouncing around Charm’s neck.
Heather and I had put the horses through a light warm-up before starting our private practice session. Instead of focusing on dressage or jumping, we’d decided flatwork was a basic place to start and a good way to end the week.
“Take Charm though another spiral,” Instructor Heather called. She’d halted Aristocrat in the center of the arena and, with the reins resting on his neck, was gesturing at me.
I couldn’t wait to coach her next.
Charm and I started the pattern—the circle getting smaller with each rotation. I kept him at a posting trot and focused on keeping each rotation even.
When Charm’s body felt as if it started to strain, I stopped, turning him in the opposite direction and made another spiral.
“Nice,” Heather said.
I looked up, hopeful she’d say that she was ready for me to coach her now. I patted Charm’s neck.
“Ready to swap places?” I asked.
Heather laughed. She moved Aristocrat forward so that she looked that much more menacing from the top of his back.
“You’re not getting off that easy, Silver,” Heather said. “Who do you think you’re talking to?”
“What do you want me to do?” I asked. I wanted to get through this as painless as possible so I could start my weekend.
“Two more spirals,” Heather said.
I started to move Charm forward, but Heather raised her hand.
“No stirrups.”
Apparently, “painless” wasn’t going to be part of my vocabulary during this session.
An hour later, Heather and I had dismounted and were cooling the horses.
Every muscle in my body ached and I couldn’t wait to jump in the shower and wash off the day. We groomed the horses together, then started across the now moonlit campus to Orchard.
“What’re you doing tonight?” Heather asked.
“I don’t know yet,” I said. “Brit and I will probably watch a movie or something. You?”
“Troy and I are meeting up later,” Heather said, she shook her blond hair out of its ponytail. “We haven’t decided what we’re doing yet.”
“Cool. I’m sure whatever you do, you’ll have fun.”
And that reminded me to turn on my phone. I’d had it off while I’d been in the stable. As the phone lit up, almost like a flashlight as we walked across campus, it immediately started chiming.
One.
Three.
Four.
Five times.
All BBMs.
I opened the messenger and saw one was from Jacob and the rest were from Brit.
“Someone’s popular all of the sudden,” Heather said.
But I barely heard her. I’d opened Brit’s name first and was scanning her messages over and over.
Brit Chan:
Sash—I know you’re w/Charm but you’ve got 2 BBM me.
Brit Chan:
Srsly. (But don’t freak when you read this—it’s not an emergency.)
Brit Chan:
Okay. Your phone’s def off.
Brit Chan:
If ur not back in half an hr, I’m coming 2 stable.
That last message was fifteen minutes ago.
I opened Jacob’s message.
Jacob Schwartz:
Hey, S. U and Brit want 2 grab food @ The Slice 2nite?
I exited out of messenger, not able to type a message to him. Not until I knew what was going on with Brit.
“Something’s up,” I said to Heather. “Brit BBMed me a bunch of times. I think something big happened when we were riding.”
She turned to me. “What’re you talking about?”
And then her phone lit up.
She looked at the screen, shaking her head.
“I think I know what Brit messaged you about,” Heather said.
We were just yards from Orchard now, walking faster.
“What? How?”
Heather looked at me, chewing on the inside of her lip. “Julia just messaged me.”
“So? What did she say?”
I was getting more and more nervous by the second.
“She’s with Brit and Alison in our suite,” Heather said. She hesitated.
“Heather! Just tell me! You’re freaking me out.”
Heather sighed. “The gossip blogger struck again.”
I almost laughed. “That’s it? The gossip blogger ? Seriously, I thought something awful had happened.”
Heather pulled open the door to Orchard, her expression not even close to laughing.
“It did, Sash. To Paige.”
“What?”
Dashing forward, I almost left Heather in the hallway as I hurried to the Trio’s suite. But she caught up with me and, together, we walked inside where Alison, Julia, and Brit were clustered around Alison’s laptop on the coffee table. It’s just gossip, it’s just gossip, I repeated to myself. But that didn’t make me any calmer.
I knelt in front of the Mac, my heartbeat out of control as I stared at the page, reading to myself.
It looks as though Manhattan’s once-perfect princess Paige Parker has taken a fall from her throne. The poor girl had just gotten everything—including her first clichéd knight in shining armor—Ryan Shore.
But this afternoon, the Prince and Princess were caught having a not-so-refined shouting match behind the science building. The verdict? A split among the couple.
I guess not all endings are happily ever after.
</3
The broken heart symbol made me want to cry.
“This—this isn’t true,” I said. “There’s no way.”
Julia shrugged from her position on the couch. “It sounds pretty accurate to me. Why else would someone target Paige by name? No one has any motive to go after her.”
I sat down on the floor as if I’d been pushed. Brit reached over and put a hand on my shoulder.
“Sash, it really could just be gossip. Someone trying to mess with people.”
“It has to be,” I said to Brit. “There’s no way Paige and Ryan broke up.”
Paige and I really weren’t speaking, but I didn’t care. I had to make sure this wasn’t true. And … if it was, I’d be on my way to Winchester, if Paige wanted to see me, to support her.
I grabbed my phone, which I’d tossed on the Trio’s recliner, and typed a message to Paige.
Sasha Silver:
P? I know things are weird w/us right now, but I don’t care. R u ok?
Everyone watched my phone, waiting for Paige to BBM me back.
Almost immediately, a typing signal appeared beside her name. I braced myself.
Paige Parker:
Angry, but totally fine. Ryan and I did NOT break up.
“Omigod, I knew it!” I said, leaning back against the couch.
“Stupid blogger,” Alison said. She was curled up under an afghan at the end of the couch. “I don’t know why anyone would do something so mean. It’s beyond gross.”
While everyone started talking, I typed another message to Paige.
Sasha Silver:
I *knew* it. I’m really glad u guys r ok.
Paige Parker:
Thanks, Sasha. I’ve been getting a million msgs all day. Everyone believed the post!
Sasha Silver:
It sounded so real and, for a sec, I was freaking out 4 u. But I’m so glad ur w/Ryan and everything’s ok.
This time, it took Paige a few seconds longer to start another message.
Paige Parker:
Thanks, S. I hope ur doing ok and I’m sure I’ll run into you soon.
Sasha Silver:
Def. Bye.
I closed out BBM, feeling a little sad that my conversation with Paige was over.
“I’m happy for her,” Heather said, looking at me. “Ryan’s a good guy.”
“He’s perfect for her,” I said. “I just wish the gossip blogger would stop. Or that people would stop reading it.”
“Good luck with that,” Julia said. “Everyone loves gossip.”
And, unfortunately, I knew she was right.