Mark My Words

87 | It's The End Of The World

Joanna Spencer had a death wish. It started with her attraction to the actual devil, Arden Dodge, and every second after. She still wasn't out of her Arden Dodge era and wouldn't be, it seemed, for quite some time. She could feel her adrenaline in her veins, shuddering every breath she took like it was subzero in the ballroom as she stared across the room to where Georgina had her eyes honed in on Joanna and Darling.

"She likes when you hang out with me," Darling whispered to Joanna, who turned her attention away from Georgina for a split second. Darling was smiling up at her, teasingly, like she was insinuating something.

"I don't care what she likes," Joanna said.

Darling laughed and sighed in a sing-song tone, "You're lying..."

"I'm not. Also, are we really going to be roommates, or were you just shitting me?" When she asked it, Darling's eyes drifted away, licking at her bottom lip. She smiled at some guy from their grade in passing, and the guy looked back several steps later, as if to make sure Darling's attention was still on him. It wasn't.

"No, we are gonna be roommates," Darling reassured, tossing her hair back. "George doesn't know."

"Really?" Joanna said, and immediately thought, This is a recipe for disaster. Darling would have told Georgina if she knew Georgina would be okay with it. Ergo, Georgina was far from okay with this, and the only reason Joanna could think that without losing her mind was because she refused to entertain the thought that Georgina's likes and dislikes were parallel with Arden's.

But that was a fact she couldn't ignore. She just didn't think about it.

"Arden wants to room with me," she whispered, horrified.

Darling took a long sip of her drink, and that said enough.

"Shit," Joanna said, a hand over her face.

"You know what they say, though. Rooming with friends is one way to ruin a friendship. I think Arden will understand that. She won't be angry with us over this if I explain that to her."

Joanna knew that, and even if 'friendship' wasn't Arden's goal, it was the same exact reason why she didn't want to room with Rosalie. Arden was the sort to snap boundaries over her knee like a stick.

The speakers mounted on the columns crackled then and that bitch Whitney Vasquez started talking. Joanna rolled her eyes and gestured to the stage at the far side of the ballroom, where Vasquez was at the microphone saying, "Alright, everyone, please take your seats! Take your seats, please! Thank you!"

"Who's Miss Cinderella up there?" Darling said with a little whistle. Vasquez had to be wearing the biggest damn ballgown Joanna had ever seen. It was amusing seeing so many affluent Montgomery snots strut their money like Vasquez was.

"That would be Whitney Vasquez. You're lucky there aren't two of 'em, otherwise you'd probably be dealing with one at Adam's."

"I dunno, Blake Miles is pretty close," she hummed. They both scanned the crowds for Jamie-Lee, because wherever Jamie-Lee was causing trouble, Blake wasn't too far behind.

They spied Jamie-Lee with ease, fulfilling his destiny as the Class Clown by wearing a bright neon-green tux. Joanna had overheard him in French class explaining that this way, he could photoshop a different pattern onto his suit for every photo and make it look like he wore something different every two seconds of prom. She thought it was idiotic, but she got a riot out of it anyway.

Joanna really didn't care to sit down even after the third time Vasquez got on the microphone, sounding more and more annoyed every time she told everyone to take their seats. Joanna snickered, wondering if she was imagining that Vasquez was staring in her direction. She passed her tongue over her teeth, grimacing a little as she looked back at the table where she would be sitting directly behind Georgina.