Read Online What If ... Your Past Came Back to Haunt You by Liz Ruckdeschel - Free Book Online Page A

the middle of a fierce game of poker.
    â€œYou want something to drink?” Consuela asked Haley.
    â€œUm, iced tea would be nice, I guess,” Haley said. She’d never get used to being waited on by household servants. It just felt too weird.
    â€œIced tea,” Spencer mocked. “It’s five-thirty—we’re well into cocktail hour. Make that a Long Island iced tea, Consuela.”
    â€œNo, really,” Haley said. “Plain old iced tea is fine for now.”
    â€œAre you going to join the party, or are you going to be your usual prudish self?” Spencer slurred slightly on the word “prudish.”
    Ali had been staring intently at the playing cards in her hand, but now she glanced up. “Leave her alone, Spencer,” she said. “And deal.” She took a swig of pale brown liquid from her crystal cocktail glass. Whiskey, no doubt.
    Coco sat off to the side, curled on the couch with a pint of chocolate fudge ice cream in one hand and a soup spoon in the other.
Uh-oh—trouble.
The razor-thin, always-dieting Coco De Clerq eating ice cream—real, honest-to-God, full-fat ice cream—was an extremely bad sign. Something was seriously wrong.
    â€œHaley,” Coco said without enthusiasm. “You came. Good.” She stuffed a spoonful of ice cream into her mouth.
    Haley sat down on Coco’s sofa and watched Spencer deal another hand. “Thank God Mom and Dad are in Palm Beach this weekend,” Ali said, studying her new cards. “I don’t think I could handle them breathing down our necks every second. After a few months in college you get used to doing things your own way, know what I mean?”
    Ali De Clerq was a freshman at Yale, home for the Thanksgiving holiday—which would explain the unhappy expression on Coco’s face. Coco and Ali were very competitive, and one thing they used to fight over all the time was Spencer. Ali and Spencer always claimed they were just very close friends, but Coco had never quite trusted her big sis. Even Haley had to admit that sometimes it seemed as though there was more going on between Ali and Spencer, no matter how heartily they protested their innocence.
    â€œTotally,” Spencer said. “I can’t wait to get the hell out of here and be on my own. That’s one thing I miss about boarding school.”
    Haley suppressed an incredulous laugh and glanced at Coco, who miserably sucked on her spoon. Coco had more freedom and less supervision than almost anybody at Hillsdale High except Spencer—at least, until his mother’s recent election. The De Clerq
père
and
mère
were always partying or jetting off to some glamorous destination, and Spencer’s mother was busy with her political career. No one could stop Spencer, who’d been kicked out of more than one boarding school, from doing whatever he wanted, certainly not his parents.
    â€œCollege is like another universe,” Ali said. “The boys are so wild. And the parties! Your silly SIGMA bashes don’t come close, Spence.”
    Spencer had started a secret society called SIGMA, which threw floating parties known for their reckless abandon—drinking, gambling, hooking up, whatever. Students could gain entrance to the bashes only by exclusive invitation or by knowing that night’s password. Trying to get into a SIGMA party was the goal of every high school student in North Jersey.
    â€œSIGMA’s getting hotter this year,” Spencer vowed, sipping from his own tumbler of whiskey. “Bigger, too. I’m thinking of having a burlesque show, where the hotties of Hillsdale do a striptease—”
    â€œGet over yourself, Spencer,” Coco snapped. “No one’s going to do a striptease at a SIGMA party.”
    â€œThey will if they’re drunk enough,” Spencer said. “You’ve come close a few times.”
    Ali laughed and Coco scowled. “Please,” Ali