Fielding all questions

Suddenly Izzy could imagine a future where her stupid night of defiance, if that was what it was, brought Tystalten crumbling down the mountain. Her sister would insist on a formal investigation. The assertion would be made that two older, beyond loaded men made her do coke and then have sex with them. Either Mina would be implicated alongside them, or she would get lumped in as another victim. And as much as she hated herself for what happened, Izzy couldn't see herself as a victim. Her whole body ached, but in a faintly pleasant way. It was her brain that was making it all a bad thing. Which it was, she reiterated privately. That was insane. And stupid. Yes, it was.

Logically, none of that would happen. What, her city hall worker sister in a faraway Midwestern state was going to bring her wrath down on a bunch of the most expensive people on the planet? In the absolute worst case scenario, Tystalten and Engblom could probably weather an actual war. She had a vague memory of the Swiss Guard gaining their reputation from holding out in the Alps for five hundred days or something. It was like a symbol of the guests' unimpeachability. They couldn't be touched, up here. But she worried all the same. Even if her sister convinced a news agency to run it that way, it would provoke so much terrible sympathy. She would have to go to meetings with girls who had actually suffered and act like she was one of them. Sisterly love would abound. She would probably kill herself.

Another massaging of the truth. "Yeah. It was fine. Just unexpected. Nothing crazy." That wouldn't pass muster. "Nothing that crazy. We smoked weed and it was really strong. And--" She left in the hyphens to make it seem like she was stuck up over the next part. Which was true in a limited way. "Yeah, things happened, with me and Mina and the guys." Let Rachel think they were rich twentysomethings like Mina. "Nothing I didn't... consent to." Izzy hated typing out that word to her sister, but if she didn't, she knew how this would go. This could only be one girl privately gossiping to her big sister. "This is silly. Telling you all this, I know, sorry. I shouldn't be. I guess I just got a bit worked up over nothing."

There. It was a masterpiece of half truths. Her heart sank into her gut. Twenty years of terrible lies in situations where it would actually matter, but the second something beyond insane happened, and she spat up something P.T. Barnum would rave about. She thumped her head with her phone. It made a sound against her skull that only she could hear. Then it buzzed, again. This time it would be Mina, she was sure of it.

"Let's get coffee," the girl wrote.