“A cleaning emergency. She went to go help her mom.”
He smiles. “Let me guess. Chandler’s house?”
“Who’s Chandler?”
“Freshman kid from LA. Starts at Twisted Pine next week. He threw a party last night hoping it’d help him make friends. I didn’t go but I heard they destroyed the place.”
“Where were his parents?”
“Gone for the night.” He laughs. “I saw the photos. It’s gonna take days to clean that place up.”
“You think that’s funny?” I ask as I turn right at the intersection. “That party ruined my day with Shayla. And ruined her weekend.”
“It’s her job. If she doesn’t like it, she shouldn’t be a maid.” He looks up from his phone as we wait at a red light. “You really shouldn’t be hanging out with her.”
“Shayla? Why not?”
“Because she’s not one of us. If people at Twisted Pine find out you’re hanging out with the maid, you can forget about making friends there.”
“If the people there are that snobby and shallow, then I don’t want to be their friend.”
I shouldn’t have said that. It goes against the plan. I’m supposed to fit in. Make friends with Braden’s inner circle.
“You won’t survive there if you don’t have friends. They don’t have to be real. You can hate the person and still be friends.”
“I can hate my friends? That doesn’t make sense.”
“By friends, I mean connections. People who can do shit for you. Make things happen. You need to find those people as soon as possible.”
“How do I find them?” I ask. “Could you help me?”
“Hell, no. You have to do this on your own.”
“But since you’re my cousin, it should be easier, right? Easier than someone who doesn’t have any connections?”
“Nothing’s easy there. You have to earn your place. Us being related isn’t going to help. You’re starting from nothing. You have to do what it takes to get ahead. And if you keep being friends with Shayla it won’t matter what you do. Nobody at Twisted Pine will want to be associated with you or seen with you.”
I slow down as the car in front of me turns. “Anything else I should know?”
“Never date a guy from Legion. Don’t kiss him. Don’t fuck him. Don’t hold his hand. Don’t even talk to him. Just stay the fuck away.”
“Why? Because you play against them in football?”
“That’s one reason.”
“What’s the other? Because they don’t have money?”
“Yeah, and because they go to a shitty school. We don’t associate with those people.”
“What if the guy’s rich? Does it matter?”
“There’s only one rich person there,” he says through gritted teeth. “And if you go near him, I might just have to kill you.”
A chill goes down my spine, and I shudder, swerving the car a little.
“Watch it!” Braden says. “What the hell?”
“I got it,” I say, tightening my hold on the wheel. “So who’s the guy?”
