Viv arrives a few minutes later, her eyes wide and mischievous because she loves a good gossip, or tea-spilling as she likes to say. The second she walks onto the rooftop patio, her Givenchy flip flops smacking the pavement, wavy bleach blonde hair swaying beautifully behind her, I don’t feel relieved to see her. In fact, I get the same feeling I normally get when I’m around her for too long, although it usually takes about an hour for that feeling to kick in.
The truth is… I kind of hate my best friend.
I mean, she’s fun and beautiful and our parents are friends and we’re in all the same socialite friendship circles, but deep down in the very center of my heart, I can’t stand her. I can’t stand a lot of things about my life, but every time I’ve even dared to mention it, Charlie will tell me to stop being a brat and be grateful for my awesome life.
I grit my teeth, force back my secret hatred of my best friend and wave at her as she approaches. I get up and hug her, then we sit next to each other on the lounge chairs.
“Spill,” she says, tipping her sunglasses down from the top of her head. “Are your parents getting divorced?”
“What?” I roll my eyes and stare out at the pool. “No.”
“Oh,” she says, sounding surprised. “Well, that’s good. What happened?”
I heave a sigh and find that it’s harder to say the words than I imagined. It feels icky, embarrassing. Like I have to confess that I’ve kissed a poor guy or something.
“My parents have gone completely insane and they’ve decided to pull me out of private tutoring in the middle of my senior year and send me to a freaking boarding school.”
Viv’s shoulders fall. “That’s it?”
“What do you mean ‘that’s it’? This is terrible news!”
She chews on her bottom lip for a second and then smiles at me. “Sophia, it’s really not a big deal. I mean, there’s like four months of school left, right? We’ll still hang out every day and party every night. It’ll be fine.”
“No, because I won’t be here in California.”
She sits up straighter. “You’re going away?”
I nod, happy that she’s finally looking concerned.
“But why?” she says. “There are tons of great boarding schools here in Cali.”
I shrug. “Like I said, my parents have gone insane. Maybe I could get myself emancipated due to their insanity.”
Viv chuckles. “You’re forgetting the number one rule of rich kids.”
“And that is?”
She looks at me like I’m dumb. “Hello? Your trust fund? Our parents use them to control us?”
I groan and lean back against my chair, covering my face with my hands. She’s right. She’s totally right. Right now I live on my parent’s dime. My trust fund is big enough to keep me set for life, but I don’t get it until I’m twenty one. Viv’s parents are even worse, because they’re making her get a college degree before she has access to her trust fund. That means we’re still stuck doing whatever our parents want until we’re old enough to get our money. That means if my parents told me to dress like a clown every day for a week, I’d have to do it.
That means I have to go to boarding school.
“So where is it?” Viv asks.
“Shelfbrooke.”
“Oh!” She perks up and gives me a reassuring pat on the arm. “That’s not so bad. It’s a pretty prestigious school. Lots of future congressman attend Shelfbrooke. The D’Villes go there, too.”
“Yeah but it’s on the east coast. Only losers live on the east coast.”
Viv laughs. I get the feeling she’s enjoying my pain a little too much. Shouldn’t a real best friend be here for me, suffering and freaking out too?
“It’s just a few months, Soph. I’ll still be here when you get back.”
“Our summer plans are still on, okay? I refuse to let my parents’ stupid new rule derail that.”
“Oh, it is so on,” she says with a grin. “Europe won’t know what to do with us.”
