something to Whitney,â I murmured to Nicole as we changed out of our wet swimsuits.
âNo! Not without Sarah,â Nic whispered back.
âI think we should,â I insisted. âWeâve waited too long.â Sarah hadnât talked to Whitney yesterday like sheâd promised. Somebody needed to do something.
âHey, Whitney? Could you come over here for a second?â I called.
Nicole gave me a look that said, Are you out of your mind? But I didnât care. Whitney came over to our side of the cabin and stood by Libbyâs bed, very straight and still, with her hands clasped in front of her. She looked like she was bracing herself for what was next. âYes?â
âUh,â I began. How was I going to say this? A speeded-up version of our Whitney-dissing played through my head. Control freak brags too much dump her. âYou remember the dance on Saturday?â I asked weakly.
Whitney remained perfectly still. âYes.â
âUh. Well. When you walked out, Nic and Sarah and I said some stuff.â That was as far as I could go. Nic obviously wasnât going to jump in and take over.
There was a long pause as Whitney waited for me to go on. âSome stuff?â she said finally.
âYeah. Some really mean stuff. Whitney, we know you heard us. And we all feel really, really, really awful. We are so sorryâall of us.â
âDo you feel awful because of what you said or awful because I happened to overhear you?â Whitney asked quietly.
Ouch. The truth was, if she hadnât happened to overhear us, then we wouldâve dissed her, laughed about it, and then never given it a second thought.
âWe feel awful because of what we said. But we were just being . . .â cruel, heartless, vicious, â. . . gossipy, and none of us meant any of it. You know how it is when a bunch of girls get together. One person says something about someone who isnât there and then everyone else starts talking and youâre just saying stuff that you never expect will get back to the person, and . . .â
This was not going where I wanted it to go. I looked to Nicole for help, but she just raised her eyebrows at me. I knew what she was thinkingâthat incredibly annoying people were at constant risk of being ridiculed every time they left a room. She still thought Whitney had brought this all on herself by being so . . . Whitney-ish.
Whitney let out a little impatient sigh. âNo, Darcy. I donât know how it is. I make it a practice never to say mean things about other peopleâever.â
I slumped over and held my head in my hands. âThatâs a really good practice. One Iâm going to follow from now on. Whitney, we are really, really sorry. We said a lot of terrible things, but we didnât mean any of it. I guess we thought we were being funny, but we werenât. We were just being horrible.â
Whitney nodded, like she was considering everything Iâd said. âIâm curious about something. Todayâs Thursday. And this happened on Saturday. Why has it taken you five days to bring this up?â From the way she said âfive,â I could tell sheâd been counting off every single day that went by without us apologizing to her.
âWell, Nicole can explain that,â I said, spiking the ball to her when she totally wasnât ready for it. But why should I be the one doing all the talking? I wasnât the only one who was there.
My comment hit Nic right between the eyes and woke her up from a daydream. âOh. Uh. We . . . kept wanting to, but we were pretty embarrassed about the whole thing. We didnât really know what to do.â
I guessed that was an okay explanation. Not the way I wouldâve put it, but at least Iâd made her speak.
âWhitney, we are so sorry! Really, we are. Do you forgive us?â
Whitney pressed her lips together. She seemed to be giving it serious
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