Sloane didn’t care. She had something else that needed to be said. This time to the other Robertson twin.

“What an awkward accident,” Carol said when Sloane was closing in. Her words were already sticky-sweet, as if she was innocent in everything and ready to passive-aggressively spar.

Sloane wasn’t having any of it.

“You know, I keep trying to figure out why it is that you are such an awful person, Carol, but, honest to God, I have no idea.” Sloane let her voice ring loud, in absolutely no mood to play with metaphorical kid gloves on. Carol sure hadn’t been. “At first I thought it was just the generic mean-girl mentality. You know, the terrible clichés you see on TV and in movies. Or maybe you’re just the stereotypical popular girl who, for whatever reason, thinks she’s better than everyone and tries to grab on to even more power because she’s really insecure. But, Carol, you know what?”

Sloane paused, just enough to give her an opening. Carol, however, had gone silent. No honey smile in sight or fake laughter to be had.

She continued. “I don’t give a flying fuck why you are the way you are, but just know that if you keep doing what you’re doing? One day you’re going to look around and no one will be there with you. It’ll just be you and your bitterness, wondering why you’re alone. Because if some good people don’t get their happy endings, then spiteful people like you, no matter your reasoning for being that way, don’t stand a chance.”

Sloane tossed her mic to the socialite.

Then it was her turn to leave.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Four

Sloane was leaning against the kitchen sink eating ice cream when Emma showed up the next day around lunch. There was still some glitter in her hair left over from the academy’s float, but everything else about her was somber. Sloane watched her in silence as she opened up the drawer next to the sink and took out a spoon. Then Emma took up the spot next to her.

“Last night, I told you to call me when you woke up today,” Emma finally said, spoon in the air. “I gave you space when you didn’t, thinking you might have slept in, but then I decided you might be avoiding your phone. So here I am.”

Sloane didn’t try and hide her sigh. “The video Carol was streaming live from the auditorium went viral. My phone isn’t handling the attention well.” She slid the carton of chocolate ice cream over across the lip of the sink. Emma accepted the invitation by putting her spoon in it to get a bite. “Plus, I figured if anyone really wanted to see me, they’d know where to find me.”