Reason 15:

Unless Kendall is exaggerating,
his supposed Rules about dating
are totally disgusting.

It’s an insult that he refers to them
as Rules at all.

Private investigators cost a small fortune, so I spent the evening scouring photos of local events, looking for Cole’s friends. To no avail. Finally, I found a local agency that specialized in accident investigation and charged only twenty dollars an hour. I left a voicemail, inquiring whether they would negotiate a special fee for a local search.

Kendall crashed into our room at eight o’clock that night wearing a frown as wide as Nebraska.

I looked up. “How was dinner?” Ordinarily, I would have pretended I didn’t care, but after my encounter with Sterling earlier that day, I’d been obsessing over what he’d meant about Cole and my needing assistance and exactly what form his help would take.

Plus, I was curious.

There was something unsettling about the idea of Sterling dating Kendall. Sure, it had been my idea at first, but that was before I really thought it through. I couldn’t stand the idea of him loitering around our room like he lived there. Plus, there were basic differences in their temperaments that made them incompatible. Kendall would have to suffer through Sterling’s vindictive streak, while he needed someone who could match him blow for blow. She deserved a boy who would take care of her and listen to her endless prattle. Someone like Parker.

“The food was great,” she said. “The company was miserable.”

That was unexpected.

“You ate?” I couldn’t count on both hands the number of times I’d watched her stare longingly at my evening study snack and then complain about being fat, like it was my job to contradict her and force my food down her throat. In fact, she had not a single physical imperfection, which I’d tried to tell her without sounding creepy.

She gave me a narrow-eyed glare.

“Sorry,” I said. “What happened, though? You and Sterling seemed chummy enough when you left.”

“Chummy,” she said. “Yeah, as in friends. He has rules.”

“Rules?” A little shiver of dread wiggled its way down my spine as I imagined him discussing my Rules with Kendall—he’d threatened to make them public unless I stayed out of his business. And framing him for theft was pretty much the opposite of staying out of his business. “What Rules?” I asked.

“They were weird.” She wrinkled her nose. “Most of them were boring—stuff about his family and how to plot revenge. Until he got to the ones about dating.”

“Rules about revenge?” I couldn’t keep the curiosity out of my voice. “And dating?”

“He doesn’t do it,” Kendall said. “Dating, that is. Or, I mean, only once. No second dates. I thought we’d, you know, go out a few times, get to know each other like normal people. But he told me he doesn’t do second dates so anything I wanted from him had to happen that night. You get one shot—his words, not mine.”

“What would you want from him?” I asked as the pieces slid into place in my mind. “You mean like—” I made an awkward hand gesture that didn’t really mean anything at all. But Kendall understood. She nodded. Her nose scrunched up even smaller, until I thought it would disappear altogether.

“In other words, he doesn’t want to be my boyfriend.”

“Well, that’s okay, right?”

“You don’t understand,” she said. “Everyone wants to be my boyfriend. I’m never alone.”

“I think it’s for the best that your little theory was debunked before you make an ass of yourself one day, Kendall,” I said. “Because clearly it isn’t true. Besides, being alone isn’t that bad. In fact, it’s healthy. Look at me.”

She did, and the pity in her eyes made me want to hurl my highlighter at her face. But a little part of me knew I deserved her pity. Being alone wasn’t bad if it was intermittent, but my stretch of solitude was borderline monastic. “If you’re really this upset, you could always patch things up with Parker.”

“No,” she said emphatically. “He’s playing this weird limbo game that I’m honestly getting sick of. I’m giving him an ultimatum.”

“I’m guessing Parker won’t be happy if he hears about this little date with Sterling.”

She shook her head slowly.

“So you were using Sterling? That’s why you met him in front of the entire school and walked off together, dressed to kill? Parker probably saw the whole thing.”

“Well, that makes it seem so cold,” she muttered. “I gave Sterling a chance—I was open to the possibility. But it did occur to me that if Parker got jealous, maybe he’d stop taking me for granted.” She threw herself across her bed and kicked off her shoes, narrowly missing my head with one of them.

“Watch it,” I said. My head hurt trying to untangle this angst-ridden scheming. Even though he probably deserved it, I was bothered by this game she was playing—toying with Sterling’s feelings. Maybe because I’d been on the receiving end of it so many times, tormented by these social games I never seemed able to grasp. But Sterling wouldn’t have that problem. He could more than take care of himself.

“You’re so confusing,” she said, sitting up. “I mean, one second you’re nice and we’re having a perfectly normal conversation, then suddenly you snarl at me. And I don’t mean that in a good way, like what Sterling said about you.”

It felt like my skin sprouted an entirely new layer of nerve endings. Every inch of me was tingling to hear what she would say next. I gave her two seconds to elaborate before I snapped.

“What did he say about me?” I demanded. “And why would you think I cared?”

Kendall’s eyes opened wide. Really wide. Her eyelashes splayed out like butterfly wings. “Oh,” she said. “I can’t believe I didn’t see it sooner.”

“Tell me what he said,” I growled. “Even though I don’t care.”

“I don’t think I should.” She bit her lower lip and smiled at me strangely, almost the same way she smiled at cute boys. “You’re getting awfully upset about it. You have such a crush on him.”

“What a disturbing accusation.” But that just made her grin stretch from ear to ear.

“I think he kinda likes you, too.”

“That would be even more disturbing,” I said, even though the shiver that ran down my spine was hardly one of revulsion. “He’s a sociopath. I certainly don’t want his attention directed at me.”

“He said something sweet about you tonight.” Kendall was bouncing on her bed like a four-year-old who had to pee. “He told me that your unstable temper is your best quality.” She glowed, like she’d just handed me an Emmy.

Once again, Sterling revealed his ability to convey so much through a very few words. Yes, I had an unstable temper, but I certainly hoped that failing wasn’t the only noteworthy thing about me. “That hardly sounds like a compliment.”

“Yeah, maybe not,” she conceded, looking down. “But in context it sounded better. But he asked about you—your habits.”

To me that sounded more like Sterling was scheduling his revenge.

“He also kept talking to the waiter about sports. Told him he plays lacrosse, that their game is a sure bet this week, on and on about Vegas and gambling and fantasy football. When I finally asked him if he’d like to invite the waiter to join us, he told me he was helping you.” She paused, her expression so blank I almost wondered if she’d suffered a stroke. “Are you into gambling?”

“Or course not.” But the wheels were now spinning in my mind. I’d never known Cole to gamble. But I’d also never known him to be in financial trouble.

The expectant look in Kendall’s eyes made my skin crawl. She was waiting for me to unburden myself to her, one of those mythical girl-bonding moments that I wasn’t willing to concede actually existed.

I stared at my book, but five minutes passed and I still hadn’t read a single line.

“Kendall?” I looked over toward her bed, where she was frantically texting someone. Her long, lacquered nails clicked against the surface of the phone with each letter. “Where did you go for dinner?”

“Café Bastille,” she said. “I thought it was an odd choice. But then he got all weird about our waiter, even asked to be moved so we’d be in his section.”

Sterling was up to something, that much was certain. But for once, the insidious angle wasn’t obvious. Where was the personal benefit? Why was he grilling the waiter about sports when he could be making sure Kendall maximized her one shot at him?

My entire stomach seized up at the arrogance of his proclamation, at the disgusting, hedonistic way he had about him. It was fitting that the Marquis de Sade had been the subject of his little soliloquy in history class. He was both disturbed and disturbing.

It almost erased my guilt over framing him. Almost. But my thoughts kept circling back to the other thing he’d said to Kendall—he was helping me. There was nothing I could possibly need from him—at least, nothing that didn’t hinge on Cole.

Sterling knew what Cole was hiding. He’d lent Cole money to help him, and I’d repaid him in the coldest, cruelest way possible.

The alarm on my desk beeped, indicating it was time to switch subjects. And I wasn’t even halfway through my history outline for the next day. At this rate, I’d be up at least two hours later than I should be. But try as I might, I couldn’t regain my focus—Cole was in trouble and the one person who seemed able to save him had also sworn revenge on me. Was Sterling truly helping Cole, or was it all just another alligator tooth? Something told me whatever Sterling’s reasons were for latching on to Cole and me, I wouldn’t have to wait long to find out.