Read Online What If... All the Rumors Were True by Liz Ruckdeschel - Free Book Online Page B

“It’ll be easier for me to pass them around, since I know everybody here and you probably…don’t.”
    Haley had to admit Whitney was right. “Thanks,” she said, relieved to be rid of the offending Republican propaganda. Haley nevertheless felt the need to follow Whitney around on this hearts-and-minds-winning mission. Mostly, it was to get out of cozying up to the elderly gentlemen in attendance, a task Coco had just been tapped for. Haley cringed as she watched Coco lean down and speak into the good ear of a former club president, revealing all too much of her meager décolletage.
    Haley and Whitney strode up to the first table, where a silver-haired couple was sitting beneath an umbrella. She wore frosty pink lipstick and a chunky beaded necklace that covered up her wattle, and a stiff tobacco-colored skirt suit. He had on his old college fraternity pin, an official-issue green country club blazer and a green and white repp tie. They both were sipping gin and tonics. “Vote for Mrs. Eton!” Whitney said brightly, placing a flyer and a button on their table.
    â€œYou’re preaching to the choir,” the woman said, picking up the yellow
Vote Eleanor
button and dropping it disdainfully back into the basket. “You can keep your button. I never wear political slogans on my person.”
    â€œI’ll wear it,” the old man said, snatching it back up and giving Whitney a wink. He heartily pinned it to his lapel, next to his Sigma Nu insignia. “If we support the woman, why not tell the world?”
    â€œWilliam, you look positively vulgar,” the woman said.
    This from a woman in plastic jewelry,
Haley thought critically. She instantly felt guilty for her snobbish sentiments.
Must be contagious,
she realized, looking around at the setting.
    â€œWe have to keep moving, Dr. and Mrs. Burnham,” Whitney said politely. “Give my best to your poodle Peaches, and have a lovely afternoon.”
    â€œAs long as the gin is flowing, we will, dear,” Mrs. Burnham said. “We will.”
    As Whitney and Haley made their way from table to table, Haley watched Spencer, who was now obediently following Coco’s every move around the party, just as if he were the poodle.
    â€œCoco can’t wait to be the First Girlfriend,” Whitney observed from a distance. “I bet she’d marry Spencer the day after the election if he’d have her, just so she could live in the governor’s mansion and be part of New Jersey’s ruling family.”
    â€œCome on,” Haley said, scoffing. “You really think she’d consent to be a child bride?”
    â€œAll I know is, Coco loves the word
first,
especially when it’s attached to her name,” Whitney said. “Besides, it is Spencer we’re talking about here.” Spencer, who at that moment was leaning down to kiss an adorable towheaded baby. “Wouldn’t you marry that?”
    Haley glanced over at Spencer’s mother, who seemed especially plastic as she leaned down to pose with a crippled World War II veteran. “And become the next Mrs. Eton? No way.”
    â€œHarsh,” said Whitney, who couldn’t help but giggle. “So I guess you heard Sebastian’s back in town.”
    â€œYeah, with Mia Delgado nipping at his heels,” Haley said, annoyed that there would now be a full-fledged model roaming the halls at Hillsdale High.
    â€œCan you believe it? I thought we got rid of her last spring, but apparently they spent the summer together in Miami, and now Mia’s in our class, which seems to make the football team pretty happy. I was sort of thinking of asking her to be in the look book for my spring line. Do you think she would give a classmate a discount? Oh, what do I care. Daddy’s back, and now he’s footing all the bills. He doesn’t seem to care if I’m in the red or the black, whatever that means.” Whitney