Birthday Vicious by Melissa de la Cruz

Author:Melissa de la Cruz
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin

16

THE SCREAM HEARD AROUND THE WORLD

ASHLEY HAD NEWS, AND WHEN Ashley had news it could not wait. It required an all-Ashleys conference call, run from the nerve center of the entire operation—her four-poster bed. She’d already wasted ten minutes trying to track everyone down, because apparently everyone was too busy with their own unimportant little lives to help Ashley in her hour of need.

Lili was annoyed because she was about to meet Max to go over last-minute details about their camping trip, A. A. was at home playing video games, and Lauren had yet to pick up the phone—Ashley had spotted her leaving school with Sadie Graham, of all people, but she was too upset right then to deal with that information, because this was a true emergency.

In fact, this was the worst crisis in her entire almost thirteen years of life—much worse than the cancellation of Preteen Queen, and much worse than getting dumped by Tri. The first she could pretend she didn’t care about, and the second she could lie about. But not this!

This was going to go public. There was no way this could be covered up. Ashley flung herself on the bed, speed-dialing each number over and over. The Ashleys had to be the first to know.

“What is it?” Lili demanded. “Max just told me not to forget to buy something called ‘deet.’ Does anyone even know what that is?”

“It’s bug spray. Anyway, Ash, if this is about your party, can it wait until tomorrow?” A. A. moaned. “I’m kind of not in the mood.”

“Hello?” Lauren had picked up finally! “What’s up? Make it fast, because Étienne gets annoyed when I answer the phone—”

“WILL YOU ALL PLEASE LISTEN!” Ashley shrieked. It was always me, me, me with these girls. “I have some terrible news.”

“The party’s off?” Lili asked, shocked.

“No!”

“You can’t get the StripHall Queens? Bummer.” That was A. A., of course.

“No!”

“Your parents won’t let you invite the whole grade?” asked Lauren. “Maybe I could come talk to them and explain how—”

“BE QUIET!” Ashley roared. “It’s not about the party, okay? It’s about me. Me and my parents!”

“They’re getting divorced !” cried Lili, and then there was a clunk like she’d dropped the phone.

“They are so not getting divorced, thank you very much!” Ashley was indignant.

“But your dad’s left? Is that it?” A. A. sounded distracted. “Don’t worry about it. My dad left, and it’s more fun. Plus, he feels so guilty he buys the best Christmas presents. And sometimes Ned’s dad sends us random things out of the blue, like that guitar signed by all the members of Imagine Dragons. Although sometimes the presents aren’t that great, like one time he sent us an Ab Roller and we had to give it to the maid.”

“Daddy isn’t going anywhere,” Ashley fumed. “Would you please all stop talking and listen?”

“Sorry, Ashley,” said Lauren. That was more like it. Ashley sat up on the bed, legs crossed, phone gripped in trembling fingers.

“My mother,” she began, not sure she had the strength to go on.

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