“You okay?” Davis whispers in my ear.
I nod. “Yeah, that was so beautiful.”
“It was.” He pulls me into his arms, and I let the significance of what just happened wash over me. Wash over both of us.
“Thanks, Ada, it’s easy to see why you used to be in an orchestra. Now, if I couldpleasejust have everyone’s attention for a tiny, wee sec?”
I gasp. The worst possible person has taken the stage. Jenny Wallis, in a new pink dress, stands above us. Her face is arranged into a look of sadness, but I catch the flash of triumph as people turn to face her. “Our year group has been a lucky one in lots of regards, butas Ada just reminded us, the death of Rhys Muldoon shook many of us to the core.”
What. The. Fuck?
“Rhys and I were in class together since kindergarten…” she continues.
Betty balls her fists, moving towards the stage with murder in her eyes. Gavin tries to hold on to her, but she shakes him off. Davis releases me and steps in front of Betty, his face the picture of calm. “You have every right to be angry,” he says in a low voice. “But I think you’ll regret going up there. Don’t give her the satisfaction.”
Jenny is still talking. “Rhys was such a beautiful soul. I remember one time he painted a landscape of the Bombay Hills that looked almost professional,” she simpers, fake sympathy oozing from her like a noxious cloud.
I glance at Ada. She’s white-faced and shaking, but when our eyes meet, I swear I can read her thoughts.Not this time. I can’t be the crazy girl who attacks Jenny in public again. It’s what she wants, and I can’t do it.
I feel my hands ball into fists. Davis and Gavin are still talking to Betty, and Jake’s holding Ada like a human straitjacket… meaning nobody’s paying attention to me…
Which is why I can stalk right up onto the stage. “Shut your goddamn mouth, Jennifer.” I don’t lower my voice to avoid the mic picking it up. I raise it. “You’ve no right to talk about Rhys.”
“Oh my word, Cecelia….” Jenny looks me dead in the eye, victory beaming out of her even as she says, “You’re actingso crazyright now.”
“No, you’reacting fucking crazy.”
“How? I’m just trying to remember a classmate who can’t be with us today.”
“Fuck you,” I spit. “You helped ruin Rhys’s life. You and all your friends. And now you’re trying to stand up here and act as if none of it happened. It’s disgusting.”
“I’m sorry you feel that way,” Jenny sniffs. “But I’m not responsible for Rhys’s decisions. We all make our own choices.”
“And yet you choose to dothe worst thing every fucking time. Why are you like this, Jenny? What possible motivation can you have to be such a repulsive person at every stage of life?”
Hayley Dean climbs up the stage to stand in position behind Jenny, because of course she does. The netball centre and her goal attack. The dance team captain and her vice-captain.
“Cece, you’re not supposed to be up here,” Hayley says. “Jenny’s emceeing this event.”
“Oh, fuck off, Hayley, you’re as bad as she is. And everyone remembers what you did with Jeremy Appleworth in the church garden ’cause you were mad Fletch went to Wanaka for New Year’s without you.”
Hayley gasps. And in the roaring quiet that follows, the familiar voice of Fletcher Dean floats towards me. “I don’t know what she did…?”
“So, ask her,” I snap, without turning to look at him. I keep my eyes on Hayley. “It’s a wonder God doesn't strike you down every time you walk through that archway.”
“You fucking bitch,” Hayley screeches. She turns to face her husband, who I know for a fact is the associate pastor of that very church. “She’s lying, babe!”
Unfortunately, Fletcher is too busy staring at his best friend, Jeremy, who’s rubbing the back of his neck. “Sorry, mate.”
“Shut up, Jeremy,” Hayley screams.
Jenny rounds on me. “I think you need to leave, Cecelia. You’ve done enough damage.”
I haven’t. There’s nothing she can say or do that will stop me now. I step closer, right in her face. She’s half a foot shorter than me, and has the physique of someone who hasn’t enjoyed carbs sinceDolly Magazinetold her to avoid them during puberty. I could take her in a fight if it came to that, and if it doesn't, what are her other options? Destroy my livelihood? My reputation? Talk shit about me in my hometown? She’s done all of that already. And I’m still here, still going.
“You need to apologise, Jenny. You’re a bully, and I’m sorry your ex-husband is a dick, but you are, too. You always have been, and Idon’t care if you had a shit home life or whatever made you turn out like this, because it doesn’t excuse what you’ve done. You hurt people, on purpose. That’s fucked up. You did it to Rhys, to Ada, to me. You know it, I know it, and now everyone else gets to know it, too.”
The shocked look on Jenny’s face says my point has hit home. I give her my widest beauty-pageant smile, then walk off the stage and down the stairs. Around me, murmurs begin. Davis is waiting for me with serious eyes, and Betty’s still grinding her teeth as Gavin talks her down. But Ada’s wearing a big old grin. “Jesus, Cee. As far as stepping up goes, you just shot the fuckin’ moon.”
