(See: Paris Hiltonsown experience of abuse at such schools.)
While there, Elissa became close with two other rebellious girls, Alyssa and Alissa.
In the years that followed, Alyssa and Alissa would die, too.
The Elissas, out June.
6 from Legacy Lit, is Leachs search for answers about what happened to these three young women.
We snorted Pixy Stix, pretending the powder was cocaine.
We burned incense, acting as if the fumes were pot.
When we got back to the kids club, we decided to make condom water balloons.
Id never seen a condom in person before and I marveled at the different shapes they formed.
One, growing wide and circular like a silicone breast implant.
Another, becoming long and narrow, like the limp limb of a balloon animal.
There was nothing to do but throw them on the ground.
Then, we let it rip.
Holy shit, Elissa and I both screamed.
The balloons cannonballed, splashing water and latex onto The Breakerss red brick-lined grounds.
With each toss we thought less about appearing cool to the boys.
Soon, we forgot they were even there.
We were besotted in our girlish abandon; nobody existed outside of us.
That was the thing about being friends with Elissa.
I had to understand that there was no pleasure without pain.
That the further she pushed my elastic limits, the more outsized the reward.
The more uncomfortable she made me feel, the more fun wed have in the end.
The fictional ones like Lux Lisbon, Daisy Buchanan, Marissa Cooper.
Or the ingenues so mythologized, they feel like characters: Edie Sedgwick, Peaches Geldof, Paris.
Robbing them of their innocence at the first chance.
Instead, these poor little rich girls experience a youth so romanticized, its lure is undeniable.
Theres a cost to joining this lineage and sometimes its the ultimate price.
In sixth grade, Elissa was just beginning to hear the ringing.
The danger was still to come.
Excerpted fromTHE ELISSAS: Three Girls, One Fate, and the Deadly Secrets of Suburbiaby Samantha Leach.
Copyright 2023 by Samantha Leach.
Reprinted with permission of Legacy Lit.
