Is Bridgeport big enough for Kae, Robyn, Alex and Jasmine? They're all beautiful, captivating, and a little bit crazy... but there can be only one It Girl.
[ Based on the It Girl series by Cecily Von Ziegesar ]
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"Crazy Daizy or Maliblu?" Alex asked, holding up two brightly colored bottles nail polish for Kae to examine. The two of them were sprawled out on the floor of Waverly 303, leaning against the spare bed, the one formerly occupied by Jasmine. Kae's old cot had been returned to storage in the basement, and she had taken over Alex's bed—the thought of sleeping in the bed that Jasmine had been kicked out of creeped her out. All necessary equipment for at-home manicures was spread out between them: bowls of warm, soapy water, cuticle sticks, nail file/buffer, hand lotion, stacks of cotton pads, bottles of clear base-coat polish, Q-Tips, and nail polish remover. It was like a salon or, at least, as close as you could get to it at Bridgeport.
Alex had suggested a mani-pedi night earlier that day, and Kae was thrilled. Apparently it was something Robyn and Jasmine and Alex had done all the time, and Kae was pleased that Alex felt comfortable enough with her now to sort of let her fill their intimidating shoes. Kae imagined that their mani-pedi nights had never been as mellow as this, though. From what Kae had seen of their interactions, they were always fraught with underlying intensity and competitiveness. It seemed like each of them was desperate to come off as much cooler, more sophisticated than the others. Even Alex could get completely wrapped up in one-upping Jasmine and Robyn.
"Um, Maliblu's a little too bold for me." Kae wrinkled her nose at the sparkly blue bottle. "I don't think I can get away with blue nails." Her toes, stuffed uncomfortably into one of those foamy toe-separator cushions, were painted a bright cherry red.
"I thought artists were supposed to be daring," Alex teased, and pressed the little bottle into Kae's palm, careful not to smudge her still-wet base coat.
Kae picked up the polish and examined it. She could be pretty boring sometimes. Why not give something new a try? "Do you think it glows in the dark?"
"I guess you'll have to get Chris alone to test it out." Alex had put the blue color on her toes already, and she wiggled them happily.
"We're supposed to go out to dinner tomorrow night," Kae confessed, pressing the tiny brush against her thumbnail and watching the polish spread. "It'll be nice. I feel like I haven't gotten to see much of him lately."
"And how much of Chris do you want to see?" Alex asked suggestively, and shook a lock of her hair out of her face, trying not to use her hands.
At the exact same moment, the door opened and Robyn entered, wearing a stunning light blue Givenchy dress and Balmain leather slingbacks that probably hadn't even appeared in the pages of Vogue yet. Kae and Alex exchanged glances, but Robyn was clearly set on pretending like she hadn't just heard her ex-boyfriend's name mentioned. In fact, to Kae's absolute shock, Robyn even sort of looked at her. It wasn't a smile, exactly, but it wasn't the same you-don't-even-exist-to-me look that Robyn had been shooting her for the last few weeks, ever since she'd found out about her and Chris. Maybe she was thawing?
