And now, as Kaci watched, Sterling Ames was getting up with Liv. Liv was pulling him toward the cliffs. It was dark, but Kaci could imagine the smile on Liv’s face almost exactly.

Kaci knew what was happening. She knew what Liv was doing. Why? Her life is perfect. Why does she keep trying her damndest to mess it up?

Kaci might have left then. She might have gone home and taken her lumps as they came. But then J.D. got up. He went to the bathroom.

Had he noticed Liv was gone? Would he look for her?

The next minute went by in a blur. Charlotte woke up. She saw J.D. The two of them heard Sterling and Liv.

J.D. and Charlotte went toward the noise.

And, keeping to the shadows, so did Kaci.

“What the hell?” J.D. had the kind of voice that carried. “Get off of her!”

J.D. was on Sterling Ames in a heartbeat. For a moment, Kaci’s heart pounded in her throat as the two of them exchanged shoves. The cliff. Watch the cliff, J.D.

And then Charlotte took a hesitant step toward Liv. “How could you?” At first, Charlotte couldn’t manage more than a whisper; then she escalated. “How could you?” she shrieked. “How could you… you… you… bitch.”

“Oh, don’t be a baby, Char.”

One second, Charlotte Bancroft was frozen, and the next, she’d hurled herself at Liv.

Neither one of them, Kaci thought as the two grabbed for each other’s hair, can fight worth a damn.

J.D. came between them. He pulled Liv back and held her when she struggled against his grasp, trying to get at Charlotte again, screaming like she was the one who’d been betrayed, like all of this was something that had happened to her.

“Let me go,” Liv demanded. She was crying. Or laughing. Or both.

“You were supposed to be my friend.” Charlotte wasn’t crying. She was irate.

“Go back,” J.D. told her.

“Why should I?” Charlotte asked. “So you can forgive her? So you can tell yourself it’s not her fault? Because her poor daddy just died?”

“You know what?” Liv was still spitting mad. “We’re done, Char. This friendship, or whatever you call it? Consider it over.”

“You’re drunk,” J.D. told her. “And you’re hurting.”

“You are hurting me,” she countered, straining weakly against his grip.

He let go.

The cliff. Watch the cliff.

Charlotte leaned forward. “You’re right, Livvy. We’re not friends, because I’m not friends with sluts.”

Liv lunged for Charlotte. Charlotte hit back. J.D. got between them. Liv walloped him, and he pushed her back. Charlotte leaped for her again, and Sterling edged forward.

Watch his foot, Liv. Don’t trip.

The silent warning went unheeded, and Liv—popular, fearless, privileged Liv—went over the ledge.

CHAPTER 57