Not What She Seems: A Novel, page 28
So it was clear to Faith that Bethany had to go. And because Abby, Caitlyn, and Joss were on Bethany’s team, because they were insipid creatures who were barely capable of independent thought and looked down on kids who were different than them, they had to go too.
But Faith wasn’t going to get her hands dirty. The fun in this place of sin was planting the seeds and moving others around like chess pieces to do what she wanted. The fun would be to mastermind everything and see if she could get someone else to do the ultimate thing and kill. She’d let them take the heat, then slip away and melt into the world. Find a new life, and do it all over again at Faith’s pleasure.
The summer before senior year, Faith quite literally bumped into Daphne Franklin. Daphne was quiet, relatively new, having moved to Colleton over the summer. She’d already had a run-in with Bethany and her crew at the pool when Bethany’s boyfriend, Raul, paid a little too much attention to the strange new girl.
Faith watched them from her seat as she basked in the sun. She watched Bethany take her anger out on the innocent girl rather than on the one who really was the cheating culprit. The boyfriend. From that moment, during summer at the pool, Daphne became Bethany’s target. And Bethany became Faith’s.
Don’t get it wrong. Faith didn’t take Daphne under her wing, help build her confidence, spruce up her style, or stay by Daphne’s side because she was some champion for the unpopular. Faith wasn’t going after Bethany to teach her a lesson in women’s empowerment and all that shit. Faith didn’t give a damn about any of it. She made Daphne a tool to eliminate the girl who always made Faith feel second-rate.
Over the course of the year, Faith grew Daphne’s confidence so much that she eventually convinced Daphne to go after Bethany’s boyfriend herself.
“I mean,” Faith said, “since Raul can’t seem to leave you alone, and since you’re already being blamed for his wandering eye, you might as well get some fun out of it, don’t you think?”
Daphne wasn’t sure. “I mean, he is gorgeous, but he’d never be into me.”
“But don’t you want to know what he’s like?” Faith asked. “Don’t you want to know how he tastes?”
Faith knew. But there was no point in letting anyone know about that.
“Do it in secret,” Faith told her in Faith’s large bedroom, where Daphne sat on the stool in front of Faith’s vanity mirror with Faith behind her, tilting Daphne’s head this way and that to see how well the makeup came out. Faith leaned over until their heads were side by side; their reflections (one wide eyed and worried, the other most assured) stared back at them.
“What do you mean, secret?” Daphne asked.
“I mean have Raul in secret. Just you and him. Bethany doesn’t have to know. It’ll be delicious. You kill two birds with one stone, as my dad always says. It’s the perfect payback for all the shit Bethany’s put you through.”
“But you’re like her best friend. You hang with her and the others all the time.”
“Only because my dad golfs with hers, and we grew up together. I have to be her friend. But I hate how she treats people.” The lies slipped from Faith like raindrops coming down harder and harder. “I tell her all the time to leave you alone. That it’s Raul she should be pissed at. But I think she’s dickmatized. He must be really good.”
Daphne covered her face with her hand, giggling behind it. Her face flushed. “Faith! Oh my god!” She looked around like Faith’s dad or stepmother would walk in at any moment. They would not. They knew better than anyone else how much Faith valued her privacy, and her room was most certainly off limits.
Faith pulled Daphne’s hand from her reddened face, kissing her on her cheek. “Take him, Daphne, and enjoy it.”
“What if I can’t?”
“You gotta have some faith, girl.” And then she laughed and laughed.
Faith’s plan worked perfectly. Daphne and Raul were screwing every chance they got, right under Bethany’s perfect upturned nose. Faith was adding fuel to the fire, implying that Daphne was out to push Bethany out and take Raul for herself. But it didn’t matter because graduation was coming up and she and Bethany would go to Harvard, just like they’d always planned.
Everything was coming to a boiling point, and Faith sat back, enjoying the show. The angst from all sides infusing her with such entertainment, she found pleasure in nothing else. But then college offers began rolling in, and Bethany called Faith with news Faith couldn’t control.
“I got in! I’m in Harvard! Check your mail. What did they say?”
Faith had gotten their answer. She hadn’t been accepted. Bethany was, yet again, always fucking first. Faith couldn’t allow that. Even if Raul broke Bethany the Saint’s heart, in a matter of months she would fly off to Massachusetts, and Faith would be left with nothing but second choices. It was time for a big finish to all of this shit.
“Are you sure he took photos?” Daphne asked between wails a week later. “Are you sure Raul would do that?”
Faith looked heartbroken. “I would never lie,” she lied. “I am so sorry. I wouldn’t have believed it myself if I hadn’t heard Raul and Bethany talking about sending it out.”
The tears refreshed. “But why? Why would he do that? I thought . . . I thought . . .”
“Love you?” Faith finished. “Is that what he told you?”
Daphne nodded, still unable to speak.
Faith patted her back. “What was it like, when he said it?”
“It was beautiful,” Daphne sobbed. “It came out of the blue. We weren’t even doing anything. Homework. And he just said it. He said he was going to tell Bethany that it was over between them.”
But the only thing Faith heard was that he’d said he loved Daphne, and it wasn’t during sex either. Those were the only times she’d ever heard anyone utter those hollow words to her.
They loved her because she screwed them, Raul included. But apparently, he was capable of loving someone with no sex involved. Someone like Daphne. What did he see in her that he hadn’t seen in Faith? Faith obsessed over that question for days after she and Daphne had made the plan to stop Bethany before the photos got out.
“If you confront him first, he might send it as payback,” Faith said. “Bethany surely would. So you have to stop her. Teach her a lesson not to fuck with you ever again. Teach them both a lesson because they’ve been planning to make you look like a complete idiot all of senior year.”
Daphne agreed.
A week later, two months before graduation, Daphne and Faith waited outside of Bethany’s house. Bethany’s parents had gone on a weekend trip, and Faith had conveniently suggested Bethany have a sleepover. One big hurrah before graduation and their high school lives ended. Bethany agreed.
They partied hard. Raul and his friends came over, and they partied even harder, drinking, smoking weed, sex, everything. To Faith’s surprise, Raul did nothing with Bethany, who was already three-sheets-to-the-wind kind of drunk and passed out on the living room couch. Eventually Raul’s friends trickled out and left for home. Bethany’s friends dropped one by one until it was only Raul and Faith left. Faith pretended to be sick, too sick to stay over. She wanted to go home, which was the next street over. Raul, being so kind, offered to take her and did, but not before Faith left the back door open.
When Raul drove off, Faith went in, greeted her stepmother, who was heading to bed, and went to her room, still pretending to be sick. When her father and stepmother were asleep, Faith sneaked back out through her bedroom window, which didn’t have the alarm probes on it like the doors and windows on the first floor.
Daphne was waiting for her around the corner, wearing all black like Faith had instructed, a match to Faith. Together they went back to Bethany’s home. They went in and to the garage, where Bethany’s SUV was.
Daphne got into the driver’s seat and turned the car on. “We shouldn’t have the car on with the garage door closed,” Daphne rushed out, her voice trembling. “It can like . . . kill.”
Exactly my point, Faith thought, letting her breath out low and slow to release her annoyance. Ever since Daphne said Raul had told her he loved her, Faith could barely stand to be around her. She kept thinking, What does she, like Bethany, have that I do not?
Faith couldn’t understand it. She didn’t want Raul in the slightest. She found him to be a big uncouth ogre, and apparently lovesick. But not for her. She didn’t like that. The way to hurt Raul, for not loving her, though she didn’t want him to, or maybe she did, was to take from him the thing he did love . . .
Faith’s eyes zeroed in on Daphne.
Luckily Daphne couldn’t see her roll her eyes. “Don’t worry. I’ll turn the engine off but leave the ignition on so that way the battery runs out and Bethany will be basically stranded until her parents come home. She’ll have to cab it anywhere she wants to go or just stay home. It’ll fuck up her whole weekend.”
“And the pictures of me and Raul?”
“I saw the camera in her bedroom. We gotta be quick though in case someone shows up. Head up the stairs to your right. Don’t touch anything but the camera. Bring it out. I’m right behind you once I turn the car off.”
Faith directed Daphne to the living room where the girls slept like the dead. Daphne would enter Bethany’s room and find the small digital camera on the desk, the camera Faith had purchased at a CVS one town over and left there during the party. It was the camera she’d taken various pictures of Raul and Daphne on without their knowing. Only she never had any intention of distributing the photos. That would be disgusting, and even Faith had lines she would not cross.
Daphne hesitated only a second, casting a look at the headlights illuminating the large garage and the engine idling.
“You’re turning it off, right?”
Faith made like she was heading around to the driver’s side. “Right now.” Another second and Daphne finally began to move her feet.
Faith slid into the SUV, humming quietly. From driver’s ed class, she remembered it only took a few seconds for carbon monoxide to fill the garage, but Faith felt she could help it along for extra measure. She pushed the gas pedal a few times, hearing the engine gun, hoping it wasn’t loud enough to alert Daphne. Then she got out, checking to make sure there were no signs of her or Daphne.
Faith entered the kitchen, leaving the door cracked.
She pursed her lips, locking her hands behind her back like she was some security guard on patrol as she checked the living room, right off the kitchen. The girls still slept. The others were collateral. Bethany was who she wanted. For getting into Harvard when Faith had not. For being first in class when it should have been Faith. For nothing at all. Faith tapped the door open more with her foot.
She didn’t need to go upstairs because Daphne bounded down the stairs, raising the camera in her hand in victory.
“Found it,” she nearly sang. Having the planted photos in hand was like a load was off her shoulders. The lucky girl.
Faith mimicked Daphne’s buoyant smile. The girl looked quite pretty in this moment. It was almost regrettable how things would play out for her.
“We should go.”
Daphne nodded. “Yeah. Okay.”
“All right then.”
Faith ushered Daphne past the door leading to the garage, talking all the while, hoping Daphne wouldn’t hear the car running. Daphne sniffed, her steps slowing.
Faith pushed her out the door to the backyard. “Do you smell gas?”
“Probably from when we turned the car on initially.”
Faith locked the knob from the inside, shutting the door behind them. They moved in the shadows, making their way out of the backyard. When they were safely down the street, Faith stopped, Daphne colliding with her back. Faith gritted her teeth, then plastered on a winning smile and turned to her friend.
“You don’t know what you’ve done for me, Faith,” Daphne said. She looked at Faith with so much gratitude and relief that it made Faith’s eye tic. It wasn’t remorse she was feeling. She wasn’t sure what.
“Delete them at home, then get rid of the camera. And say nothing to Raul, okay? Better he thinks he has something and realizes it’s gone than you lose your upper hand.” Faith held Daphne’s shoulders, ensuring the girl was paying attention.
Daphne nodded like a bobblehead. “I will. Thank you.”
Faith waved her off, watching the girl leave to where she’d parked her car and drive off. “I think I should be thanking you.”
The bodies were found late the following afternoon by the housekeeper with the car still running.
The funerals happened. Graduation happened, though the affair was muted and somber. The first in class still went to Bethany, which Faith hadn’t accounted for. She should have thought about that, that the admin wouldn’t put someone else in her place, memorializing it and her. Oh well, Faith still got to give the address. And she talked about Bethany, Abby, and Joss and how great their loss was. It was beautiful. Faith’s best work, she’d say. At least there would be no Harvard. Faith wasn’t the one left behind. She was doing the leaving. All in due time.
But there was still a loose thread to tie up. Daphne had been scarce since learning of the Colleton deaths. Faith had tried reaching out. Had gone to her house, but her mother said she wasn’t home, even though Faith knew she was. She saw Daphne less and less. She didn’t see Daphne at graduation at all.
It was unfortunate. Faith couldn’t leave town until she knew what was up with Daphne. She’d actually forgiven Daphne for that whole Raul-loving-her fiasco. Faith was going to let Daphne be. But now she couldn’t. Not with Daphne giving her the silent treatment, acting as if Faith had the bubonic plague.
With graduation over and the town still reeling from the loss, Faith paid Daphne a visit one night when Daphne was home alone, her mother having gone to work. Faith had taken a bus, then walked the rest of the way. Her parents thought she’d gone to bed early, depressed and heartbroken over Bethany’s death. They didn’t know that in Faith’s room, she was listening to MTV and BET and practicing all the latest dance moves that she’d be able to perform when she finally left for the East Coast and began to live her new life.
Daphne opened the door. The shock on her face, how it morphed into unadulterated fear, was nearly as good to Faith as an orgasm. Faith smiled, then switched to sadness, her face crumpling as she smashed it in her hands and cried.
“I don’t know what to do! I can’t believe this has all happened.”
Faith called upon her acting skills, learned from the classes her mother had made her take before skipping out on her and her father when she was ten. The selfish bitch. She almost hyperventilated. She needed to get inside the house. It was the only way she would get clear of this damned town.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Daphne deflated and took a few steps backward. “Come on.”
“Really?” Faith squeaked pitifully, feigning hesitation.
She peeked through her splayed fingers on her face, appearing as innocent and harmless as possible. Daphne’s expression was a world of confusion. Wariness, fear, exhaustion. She looked horrible, gaunt, like she wasn’t eating. Her blonde hair was greasy and matted. And her once-pristine face was at war with acne. Meanwhile, Faith ate like three grown men and her skin glowed like the sun’s rays. One needed sunglasses to gaze upon her greatness.
Faith shuffled in, closing the door behind her. She wiped at her face, sniffling. She looked around the small, simple house. It smelled like old fried food, and Faith fought the urge to gag and curl her lips in distaste. She’d never been in here in the year that she’d known Daphne. Now that she was inside, she realized she’d made the right choice.
She noted the mismatched furniture. The TV playing in the background, Comedy Central, and the tiny dinner table with two chairs. Just Daphne and her mom. She smiled. Too easy.
“Are you okay?” Faith asked haltingly. “You haven’t been returning my calls. Isn’t what happened horrible? I still can’t believe it. I can barely eat or sleep. The memorial. Their parents. Raul. Everyone is destroyed over this, Daphne.”
Daphne looked at her, unsure what to say, what to do. “You said we were draining the battery. You said that was all we were going to do.”
“I went there to help you out, Daphne. We went there to keep those pictures from getting out. Maybe one of them woke up when we left and thought she turned the car off but turned it all the way on. Who knows? They were so drunk and high.”
Daphne’s hands balled at her sides, her face reddening. “You let the engine run. You meant for them to die.”
Faith ran a hand over her face. “But you turned the car on, Daphne.” It came out calmly. She was in now, no need to continue to ham it up.
“I—I—I— You!” Daphne stuttered. Her eyes bulged, and cords in her neck strained against her throat.
“They’re gone, Daphne, okay? Gone. It’s too late for them. Tragic and all that shit.” Her hand fluttered in the air. “But it happens. You’re alive. You have free access to Raul. Life can be good.”
Daphne gawked, open mouthed, at Faith, clutching her stomach as if Faith had punched her. “Are you serious? I can’t . . . we can’t . . . there’s no way Raul and I can be together after this.”
Faith’s eyebrows rose. “Oh, then that is tragic.” She puckered her lips. “So what do you want to do, Daphne?”
Faith waited for the sniveling girl to say what she knew Daphne would say.
“We need to tell. We need to admit we did it. That we played a horrible trick, and it went wrong.”
Faith nodded. “They’d throw us in prison. That’s premeditated murder, Daphne. Are you ready for that?” Faith’s head tilted to the side.
“It’s what we deserve, Faith. Whatever Bethany and Raul did. The teasing, the pictures, it wasn’t worth her life. Her friends didn’t even have anything to do with it. We totally fucked up! Shit!”
“Imagine that.” Faith sighed. She reached around her back and pulled from her waistband a long hunting knife. It was from her dad’s arsenal. Looked like the one from that movie her dad liked so much, Crocodile Dundee. She showed it to Daphne, who shrank back, her eyes glued to the glinting metal.
