Read Online The Elite by Jennifer Banash - Free Book Online

cherubs—complete with gold- leaf trim—and the minimalist style Edith had favored last year had been replaced by massively uncomfortable, sprawling antique furniture with way too many spindly legs. Swirling silk-damask drapes in shades of French blue and gold, and tinkling crystal chandeliers hanging everywhere certainly didn’t help the space feel less like a museum. All the apartment needed now were a few peasants and a guillotine. Every time she entered the Louis XIV nightmare that her apartment had become, Madison was happier than ever that she had declared her own room with its white-on-
    white decor, and sleek
    chrome furnishings, completely off- limits.
    A sharp rap on the door snapped her out of her thoughts.
    Madison sat up and crossed her legs beneath her as Edie entered the room in a cloud of Vera Wang perfume, a bronze Norma Kamali sheath dress hugging her bony size- zero frame, and strappy gold Jimmy Choo sandals on her feet. Ancient 5 8

    T H E E L I T E
    Roman coins spilled from her throat in a shower of gold, and a platinum-and-diamond ring sparkled on her left hand—in which she held a large, cream- colored envelope. Her blue eyes, expertly outlined in bronze liner, were as unfocused as ever due to her chronic pill popping. Edie referred to her monthly intake of Valium as her “therapy.” Madison had quit trying to get her mother to stop overmedicating years ago, but if Edie wanted to float through life in a haze of prescription narcotics, then who was she to stop her? They’d played that game for as long as Madison could remember—and she was tired of losing.
    “There you are!” she exclaimed, sitting down on Madison’s bed and crossing her slim ankles.
    “Where else would I be?” Madison snapped, pulling a hair tie from her wrist and pulling her slightly tangled blond hair back in a ponytail.
    “I see someone forgot to take her Prozac,” her mother said with annoying calm, reaching over and straightening the rumpled corner of the comforter.
    “Someone around here certainly needs medication,” Madison said dryly, picking at a loose thread on her fifteen-hundred- thread- count Egyptian cotton sheets, “but I think we both know it isn’t me.”
    Edie shook her head, the corners of her lips turning up in a smile. “Tsk- tsk,” she clucked, “I guess someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.”
    “I woke up on the wrong side of my life this morning,”
    Madison said, her green eyes flashing, “but that’s besides the point.”
    5 9

    J E N N I F E R B A N A S H
    “Well, maybe this will cheer you up.” Edie threw the envelope she held down on the bed and smiled, showing rows of brilliantly Zoom- whitened teeth—courtesy of Dr. Haven, cosmetic dentist to practically the entire Upper East Side.
    “What is it?” Madison asked suspiciously, picking up the heavy envelope to examine the return address.
    “The Van Allens are throwing a welcome home party for Drew,” Edie said excitedly, squeezing Madison’s arm.
    “ That’s supposed to cheer me up? A party? What am I—
    six?” Madison pulled away, uncurled her legs, and walked over to her dressing room, which had been converted into an enormous walk- in closet. She began sifting through her jeans, looking for her favorite pair of Rock and Republic Stevie jeans with the pink Swarovski crystals on the back pockets. Drew couldn’t even act like a normal human after being away for three months—what were his chances of being able to pull it off at this party? Well, screw him, she wasn’t going. Not even if he begged. OK, maybe she’d consider if he really begged—
    and brought her flowers. And Godiva chocolates. And told her that she was right—every time they fought for the rest of their lives. Then she could probably live with it.
    “You know, Madison,” her mother began in the mea sured, I’ve- had- just- about- enough- of- your- shit tone Madison had heard more times than she could count, “if this is the