The Finishing School by Joanna Goodman

Author:Joanna Goodman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2017-04-10T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 22

LAUSANNE—November 1997

At midnight, Kersti bursts out of her room to get Cressida. She still isn’t used to them not sharing a room. They both have single rooms on the fourth floor now, which is supposed to be a privilege for the top senior students. Kersti’s lonely, though. Her small room with the single bed and the sloped ceilings sometimes feel like a cell. She misses Cressida’s company.

Their feud at the end of last year is mostly forgotten. The night Cressida confided about her affair with Mr. Fithern, Kersti decided she wouldn’t speak to Cressida for the entire summer. It was already May, which meant only a few weeks of silent treatment to get through until the end of the school year.

She lasted about two weeks, which made things very awkward in their room. Cressida kept trying to explain, tell her side of it. But Kersti was too hurt. At first, she couldn’t get past the fact that Cressida had claimed to still be in love with Magnus while she was already seeing Mr. Fithern, but morbid curiosity ultimately trumped Kersti’s self-righteousness. She couldn’t stand being excluded from Cressida’s unfolding drama. It was killing her not to be able to ask Cressida all the questions that kept popping into her head. She wanted to know everything about the affair. She wanted details. Where did they rendezvous? Was he going to leave his wife? Who else knew? And naturally, Kersti wanted to know if Magnus would be available again.

She finally caved the night of the Ascension holiday. She was in bed unable to sleep and Cressida was at her desk, working on an essay. She always did her homework in the middle of the night—an afterthought. “You told me you loved Magnus and that’s why you wanted him back,” Kersti blurted into the dark. “You knew I liked him, but you had to take him anyway—”

“I didn’t take him from you,” Cressida said, turning around to face her.

“And the whole time, you were also screwing Mr. Fithern. Why?” Kersti demanded. “Why couldn’t you just let me have Magnus?”

“It wasn’t my decision to make,” Cressida said. “Magnus is his own person. He made his own choices. I had no control over that. Besides, I did have feelings for him.”

“Did?”

“Do.”

“But you have stronger feelings for Mr. Fithern,” Kersti said, turning on her bedside lamp. “You said so. I don’t get why you had to have both!”

“Haven’t you ever loved two people at the same time?”

Kersti thought about Cressida and Magnus and the answer was yes, but she said nothing.

“I didn’t think Charlie and I had a future,” Cressida said.

“So you used Magnus as your backup, which also kept him away from me. Just because you could.”

“No, Kersti. I had a fling with Charlie. I never planned to fall in love with him. I planned to be with Magnus. Magnus and I made sense. Charlie and I . . .”

She shook her head, bewildered. Like she was the victim in all this. “I may be impulsive,” she said.

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