I lift a shoulder. “And?”
“Didn’t you hear me?” Kacey asks. “I said Viggo kissed me!”
“I heard.”
Her perfectly plucked eyebrows shoot upwards. “You knew?”
“I didn’t know. But I’d been thinking it was a possibility. You obviously thought he was the bee’s knees. I thought you might try it.”
Kacey shakes her head furiously. “Me? No. No way! I didn’t try it. He tried it. I never liked him, Connie. Not like that. I mean, I thought he was hot when he first started at school … and yeah, I thought he was smart and … well, I wouldn’t mind if some of that rubbed off on me. But I would never have tried anything with him. He had a girlfriend—you. And I like you. I’d give anything to be friends with you.”
Now I am shocked. “Are you serious?”
“Why wouldn’t I be? We’ve been hanging out lately, right? And I mean, I know we’ve never been exactly friends before but how could we have been? You and Jed were always a party of two—and I know you called us the überclones—and then you were hanging off Viggo like a puppy dog. I thought that was a bit weird because I never picked you as a girl who’d go all doormat. But I figured you saw something in Viggo that I didn’t. I thought he must treat you nicer in private than he did in public.”
“He never did,” Patience snaps.
“Why were you always so flirty with him?” I ask. “If you didn’t like him?”
Kacey looks at her fingernails. They’re painted bright pink, with palm trees and pineapples alternating on each finger. “I didn’t mean to be,” she says quietly. “I don’t think I know any other way to be with boys.”
“Oh, come on!” Patience cries. “Enough of all the deep-and-meaningfuls! Tell Connie what you told Em, Kacey! Tell her what you told me.”
“When I turned Viggo down, he got kind of angry,” Kacey says. “He kind of … yelled at me. Called me worthless, stupid, ugly …”
“Holy crap.” My hand is pressed to my mouth. “He didn’t … hurt you?”
Kacey looks up at me, eyes shining. “Not physically. But … a couple of the Landcare people walked in while he was going off at me. It was just before a meeting, see, and they came in and … he stopped. Stopped yelling. But I noticed his hands were all tight. In fists. Like he might have hit me if the others hadn’t arrived. Or, at least, like he wanted to.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Kacey shrugs, her chin trembling. “I wanted to. But I didn’t want to hurt you. And I thought … maybe it’s a one-off. Maybe you two had a fight, or he was stressed about something … I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt because … well, he’s Viggo MacDuff. Everyone looks up to him. And, plus, I liked you, so I wanted to believe he was actually a good boyfriend to you …”
“But …” Patience gestures with her hand for Kacey to keep going. “Go on! Go on. Tell her the rest. Tell her about the video.”