Sweet Valley Confidential: Ten Years Later Read Online Free PDF Page A

she wasn’t really with Todd—was the meanest part, but she felt as if she’d suffered enough from her mistake with Rick, who turned out to be really dangerous. He wouldn’t let her go home. It was truly frightening, a horrendous night with a bar fight and the police and Caroline Pearce catching her when they dropped her off in a patrol car, that she went easy on herself. It was actually all a lot of nothing anyway, but it did cause trouble and endanger her position as captain of the cheering squad. Besides, she made up for it by not making a fuss when Elizabeth started dating Todd even though Jessica had gone wih him to the Phi Epsilon dance. And it did make Elizabeth very happy. She couldn’t remember ever seeing her sister so excited about a boy. She felt that she had made Elizabeth so happy that she was able to forgive herself completely.
    And even added another proud moment by not taking credit for fixing everything.
    As if that made it all right.
    Nothing would ever be right with Elizabeth again.
    Todd interrupted her misery. “Come on, Jess, I’m not saying it wasn’t horrendous what we did, it was a terrible betrayal that we’ll have to live with. Nothing is going to change that. So what should we do now? Break up?”
    This was the point they always got to, over and over and over again: how to punish themselves for what they’d done. And the worst pain they could think of was to break up. That’s where the conversation always stopped.
    “I never want to lose you,” Jessica said.
    “You won’t,” he said.
    But Jessica worried.
    *   *   *
     
    Ultimately, Todd talked her into going to Lila’s party; if they continued to hide from everyone, he told her, they might as well move away. The idea of being driven out of Sweet Valley, even if they themselves were party to it, was off the boards for Jessica, and so she agreed to go.
    But with great trepidation.
    For the ten minutes it took to drive over to Lila’s house, she sat silently in the car. Actually, it was Lila and Ken’s house, but they were separated and working on a divorce. Except he was there most of the time. Even Caroline had trouble explaining that. But Jessica said Ken just loved Lila, no matter what. Some people are like that.
    “Hey, Jess.” Todd reached out and took her hand. “I’m here. I’m always here.”
    Jessica squeezed his hand and smiled, but she said nothing.
    Until they got to the house, and then miraculously, she turned back into Jessica the adorable.
    Lila Fowler was no different than she had been in high school. Still the same light brown wavy hair—only now it was ironed flat and streaked blond—hazel brown eyes, a perfect little figure, and just as rich and snobby as ever. Lila had never really changed, never grown, and now all she had left was her old cheerleader uniform. She’d done nothing with her life so far other than drop out of college in her third year. She’d spent a few months trying to get work as a model, but when the agencies didn’t scoop her up immediately, she gave up and went back to plying her natural talent as a shopper and a flirt. It was like the good old days, and Elizabeth said it made her feel popular, just like in high school.
    Lila, her perfect body delectable in the shortest shorts possible and a salmon-colored silk halter top loose enough to slide lightly over her just right, slightly augmented, perky braless breasts, answered the door with shrieks of delight and surprise. Surprise mostly because they were there at all. Unbeknownst to Todd, Jessica had called in the afternoon with some preparatory excuses in advance of the not being able to come one.
    “They’re here!” she called behind her, as if they were the special guests everyone was waiting for. Which, of course, they were. That’s the way it was anytime they went anywhere in Sweet Valley. Here come the freaks, as Jessica liked to describe Todd and herself.
    And pulling Jessica along, with Todd following, Lila took