Reckless by Cecily von Ziegesar Read Free Book Online Page B

not give something new a try? “Do you think it glows in the dark?”
    “I guess you’ll have to get Easy alone to test it out.” Brett had put the blue color on her toes already, and she wiggled them happily.
    “We’re supposed to go out to dinner tomorrow night,” Jenny confessed, pressing the tiny brush against her thumbnail and watching the polish spread. It was less Manic Panic, more blackberry glaze, and not bad at all. “It’ll be nice—I feel like I haven’t gotten to see much of him lately.”
    “And how much of Easy do you want to see?” Brett asked suggestively, and shook a lock of her wild red hair out of her face, trying not to use her hands.
    At the exact same moment, the door opened and Callie entered, wearing a stunning light blue Michael Kors dress and camel Jimmy Choo leather slingbacks that probably hadn’t even appeared in the pages of
Vogue
yet. Jenny and Brett exchanged glances, but Callie was clearly set on pretending like she hadn’t just heard her ex-boyfriend’s name mentioned. In fact, to Jenny’s absolute shock, Callie even sort of looked at her. It wasn’t a smile, exactly, but it wasn’t the same you-don’t-even-exist-to-me look that Callie had been shooting her for the last few weeks, ever since she’d found out about her and Easy. Maybe she was thawing?
    “Hey, Cal,” Brett offered, watching as Callie stepped around the two girls on the floor and headed over to her closet. “I like your dress—and shoes. Are they new?”
    Callie threw open her closet door and stood there, deep in thought, as if she hadn’t heard Brett. “What?” she said a moment later as, in one motion, she pulled the dress over her head and tossed it carelessly over the rack in Tinsley’s old closet, which she had taken over the second Tinsley’s things moved downstairs. “Oh, uh, yeah. New.”
    Brett and Jenny exchanged a look. Jenny’s brown eyes widened and she mouthed the words
“Everything’s
new” to Brett. Brett nodded, looking concerned. Apparently Callie was notorious for overspending whenever she was feeling depressed. Last year, when she’d failed a chemistry final, she’d maxed out her Visa Platinum card at Saks.com, even though it had an unfathomable limit. Jenny could see Brett’s eyes running over the stacks of shoe boxes. Enough to build a village out of cardboard. If Jenny’s anarchist-communist father had seen them, he would have shaken his head and muttered something cutting about conspicuous consumption. Secretly, Jenny thought it was kind of exotic to treat depression in such an extravagant way.
    Jenny leaned against the bed and watched as Callie stood in front of her closet, her bony shoulder blades sticking out even more than usual. Obviously she didn’t have to worry about bingeing when she was down. She pulled a flimsy mauve dress, whose Jill Stuart tags still hung off the zipper, from the closet. “Can you zip me, B.?” she said absently, glancing over her bare shoulder, her strawberry blond hair swishing against her neck. She tossed a faint smile in Jenny’s direction as Brett zipped her up.
    “Hold on—you’ve still got your tags.” Brett bent over and grabbed the nail clippers from where they were lying near Jenny’s toes. “Pretty dress. Where’re you going?” Tiny strands of silver thread glittered in the light as Callie spun in a circle.
    “Oh.” She examined herself in the full-length mirror next to her overcrowded closet. She wrinkled her nose guiltily, but clearly she didn’t
feel
guilty. “Sorry. Secret Society only.”
    Right,
Brett thought, her feelings of tenderness for Callie immediately evaporating. If she was going to keep on being Tinsley’s stooge, she could go ahead and zip up her own fucking designer dresses.
    Brett sat back down on the floor across from Jenny, trying not to show her irritation. She yawned. “Have fun.” She made her voice sound as uninterested as possible, as if they were talking about a Latin class and not