1:12 PM
December 2nd
Two BCBG’s saleswomen were fussing over Massie, Kristen, and Dylan, and they wouldn’t have had it any other way. Between Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Year’s, Massie had six invitations stuck to the purple magnetic board in her bedroom, not including the OCD/Briarwood Nondenominational Tree-Lighting Ceremony. And she didn’t have a single new thing to wear.
Dylan burst through the door of the dressing room wearing a pink beaded V-necked tank top and silver wide-legged satin pants. She did a full 360-degree turn, then froze with her hands on her hips as if the famous fashion photographer Patrick Demarchelier were about to take her picture.
“Does this make me look too sexy?” she asked, laughing at her own goofy model pose.
“I dunno, but does this make me look too gorgeous?” Massie said. She emerged in a gold-and-green halter dress.
But no one even looked at her outfit.
“Dylan, you look like an eight-letter word for great,” Kristen said as if Massie weren’t even there.
“Ah-mazing?” Massie shouted immediately.
“I was talking to Dylan,” Kristen snapped. She was sitting on a fold-out chair outside the dressing rooms, doing a crossword puzzle.
“Are you pissed because I said I didn’t want to go to Abercrombie?” Massie said to her own reflection in the three-way mirror. “‘Cause you know they won’t have anything party-worthy at A&F.”
“I don’t need any holiday clothes,” Kristen said. “I have tons from last year.”
“Why not drink a carton of expired milk while you’re at it?” Massie said, expecting to hear Dylan laugh. But the dressing room was silent.
“Kristen, want me to buy you something?” Dylan asked Kristen.
Massie turned away from the mirror and looked at her friends. Of course! Why didn’t she think of it sooner? Kristen was just upset because she couldn’t afford new holiday clothes. She wasn’t mad at Massie. Kristen was mad at her poverty-stricken parents.
“Yeah, we’ll get you something new,” Massie said.
“No thanks, I don’t need your charity,” Kristen said, stuffing her crossword puzzle book in her bag.
“But that’s what friends are for.” Massie put her arm around Kristen’s shoulders.
“Yeah, some friend,” Kristen murmured before pushing Massie’s arm away.
“What’s your problem?”
“Nothing,” Dylan chimed in. “She doesn’t have a problem, do you, Kristen?”
“No.” Kristen crossed her legs.
“See,” Dylan said. Then she turned to Kristen. “Hey, why don’t you try something on anyway? You know, just for fun.”
“‘Kay.” Kristen shrugged. She stood up and started browsing.
Massie looked at Dylan and whispered, “What’s up with the female dog?”
Dylan shrugged and went back into the dressing room.
Massie rolled her eyes and did the same.
“Can I help you find any sizes?” someone shouted.
“No thanks, I’m all done.” Massie stepped out holding an armful of clothes. “Here you go,” she said as she unloaded them on her salesgirl, Ava-Jade. “I’ll take everything plus whatever my cranky blond friend wants.”
“Great,” Ava-Jade said with an elated smile that showed off her over-bleached teeth.
Massie reached into her red suede Prada push lock bag and pulled a card out of the inside zipper pocket. She placed it on top of the pile in Ava-Jade’s arms. “Charge it.”
Ava-Jade looked confused. “Uh, we don’t accept the OCD student ID, just Visa, American Express, and MasterCard.”
“Oops, sorry.” Massie giggled. She sat down on the fold-out chair and began searching the inside of her bag. “I know my Visa is in here somewhere.”
Massie took out her cosmetics case, Chanel compact, cell phone, iPod, PalmPilot, house keys, dog treats, and silver Tiffany pen. Then she turned her Prada upside down and shook it. She looked up at Ava-Jade and bit her bottom lip. “Uh, I think I left my wallet in the Hermes.”
Ava-Jade dumped the pile of clothes onto Massie’s lap and walked away.
“That sucks,” Dylan said when she stepped out of her changing room. She made a big show of handing a heap of clothes to Collette, her salesgirl. “I know there’s a lot here; do you need some help taking it all to the register?” Dylan placed her mother’s ultra-exclusive black American Express card on top of the pile.
“No, Miss Marvil, you wait here. I’ll be fine.”
“Great.” Dylan smiled and sighed. “I hope I can carry it all home.” She chuckled.
Massie rolled her eyes and looked away. “My life sucks,” she muttered under her breath.
Kristen walked back into the changing area holding a navy blue T-shirt dress.
“Massie brought her OCD card,” Dylan announced. “But don’t worry, I’ll pay for it.”
“Thanks,” Kristen said with a relieved smile. “You’re the greatest friend in the world.”
As soon as Kristen shut the dressing room door, Massie slapped Dylan’s arm. “What’s going on here?”
“Massie!” Dylan shouted when Massie’s slap knocked her Marc by Marc Jacobs cross-body bag to the ground. Everything spilled out. “You broke my bag.”
“I did not.” Massie dropped to her knees. She started scooping up the various lip glosses, brushes, Luna bar wrappers, and loose soy chip crumbs. She had never felt so pathetic in her entire life.
Suddenly Massie recoiled. “What’s this?” She picked the shiny white scarf off the floor and rubbed it against her cheek. Then she held it up to the light and examined it from both sides.
Dylan’s face went white. “Oh, that’s my mom’s hankie. She used my bag last night and must have forgotten to take it out.”
“Don’t lie to me,” Massie said as she bunched it up in the palm of her hand and whipped it back on the ground. “It’s a knockoff! Your mom wouldn’t even use this to wipe dog poo off her shoes.”
“Yes, she would.” Dylan grabbed the scarf from the floor and stuffed it back in her bag.
Massie felt her entire body starting to quiver. She stood up, gently resting her hand on her stomach, fighting the urge to puke on Dylan’s new Dolce & Gabbana mules. “You got this from Alicia, didn’t you? How could you?”
“How could I?” Dylan stood. “How could you?”
“What?” Massie felt dizzy. She leaned against the mirror. The cool glass felt good against the back of her neck.
“Whaddaya think?” Kristen bellowed as she threw open the dressing room door. She walked out modeling the navy T-shirt dress.
“Kristen, do you have any lip gloss in your bag?”
Kristen crinkled her blond eyebrows and nodded, obviously confused by Massie’s reaction.
“Can I grab some?” Massie kept her eyes on Dylan, making sure she didn’t throw any signals to warn Kristen. But before Kristen could answer, Massie had already locked the changing room door and was rifling through her LeSportsac.
“What do you think of this dress?” she heard Kristen ask Dylan.
“Who cares?” Massie heard Dylan say.
“What’s wrong with you?” Kristen asked.
Dylan was silent.
Massie got a paper cut from brushing her hand past Kristen’s crossword puzzle book but ignored the stinging pain. She was determined to find what she was looking for.
“Aha!” Massie pulled the scarf out like a birthday party magician would. She stepped out of the changing room, waving it like a victory flag. “Et tu, Brute?”
Kristen and Dylan stood beside each other with a look of utter panic in their eyes.
“What did she just say?” Dylan asked Kristen. Her eyes were still fixed on Massie and the scarf.
“It’s Latin for ‘you too, Brutus?’” Kristen explained. “It’s what Julius Caesar said when he found out his friend Brutus was one of the people who betrayed him.”
“Oh.” After a brief pause Dylan spoke again. “Well, if anyone betrayed anyone, it’s you.” She pointed to Massie. “You’re the Brutus.”
“How am I the Brutus? You’re the one who joined Alicia’s army.”
“We only joined because we had to,” Kristen chimed in. “She threatened to tell our secrets if we didn’t.”
“What secrets?” Massie screeched.
“The ones we trusted you with,” Kristen said. “The ones you told her.”
“I didn’t tell her anything,” Massie said. “We pinky-swore!”
“That obviously doesn’t mean anything to you,” Dylan said.
Massie gasped. She threw her Prada bag over her shoulder and marched toward the exit.
Dylan and Kristen followed her.
“Wait, Miss Marvil.” Collette scurried across the store carrying three bags of clothes and an unsigned credit card slip.
“Signature, please,” Collette panted. She clicked her pen and held it in front of Dylan’s face.
Dylan kept walking while she scribbled her mother’s name on the slip. She placed the black plastic tray in a mannequin’s hand and continued after Massie.
“Thank you, Merri-Lee,” Collette shouted before she dropped Dylan’s bags beside the security guard. “Happy holidays.”
“How could Alicia possibly know everything we told you at the sleepover if you didn’t tell her?” Dylan shouted at Massie.
Massie stopped and turned around. “I have no idea. Maybe she guessed.”
“Well, for some reason she didn’t guess about you liking Cam,” Kristen shouted after her.
Massie stomped her foot on the ground. “Will you be quiet? There are people from school all over the place. What if someone hears you?”
“Now you know how we feel,” Dylan said.
“I didn’t tell Alicia anything,” Massie insisted. “Besides, if you really thought I betrayed you, why would you go shopping with me?”
“We needed a ride.” Kristen shrugged.
“Nice. Thanks a lot,” Massie said. She walked straight through the metal detector and back into the mall, where she was instantly surrounded by a torrent of holiday shoppers.
Kristen ran after her. “I would rather be poor than a liar.”
“Congratulations, you got your wish,” Massie shouted over her shoulder.
Suddenly a piercing alarm rang in BCBG. Massie stopped and turned. She saw the customers cover their ears and crane their necks, hoping they might see something. But all anyone saw was a beefy security guard grab Kristen by the arm and yank her back into the store. She had run out in the T-shirt dress and the tags had triggered the alarm. Dylan hurried to her rescue, waving her black AmEx in the guard’s face.
Massie snaked her way through the crowds, desperate to escape before anyone from school saw her crying. She wiped her eyes at least ten times, but the tears kept coming. How could they not? Her worst fears had come true: the Pretty Committee had officially fallen apart and she was stuck at the mall without a credit card.
“Finally.” Massie sighed when she got to Sears. No one from school shopped there.
Massie took out her phone and speed dialed Isaac. She waited for him beside the men’s ties and watches.
“Are you lost, dear?” a nice old saleslady asked when she heard Massie’s heaving sobs. “Did you lose someone?”
Massie tried to smile. “Kind of,” she said. “But I’ll be okay.”