“It won’t forget you again,” I promise. I’ve veered off course in the past few weeks, but from now on, Liv and Zander come first, classes and Rush come second. Leo? A distant third.
“You’d better not.”
“I won’t.” I arrange her soft black hair. “Now, come on and help me with this stupid zipper so we can get that essay done.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Saturday evening,while Liv and I are getting dressed for the Halloween party, I try to warn her about O-Chi’s most infamous womanizer. “So, uh, what’s the deal with you and Braden?”
She shrugs as she pins a two-dollar Walmart tiara securely to my hair. “There is no deal.”
“Seems to me you two are getting a little friendly.”
“You think?” Her eyes meet mine in the mirror and I nod. She goes back to pinning. “It’s kinda weird, you know? Like, for months he didn’t even know I existed, and now—?” She shrugs again.
And now he’s moving in for the kill.
I flick a piece of glitter off my lip and keep my voice light. “You think you’re his next target?”
“It’s hard to tell.” She steps back to inspect her work and, satisfied, gets busy decorating my crown with fake flowers. “But all we’ve been doing is talking.”
Talking, huh? Step one of Braden’s game plan.
I try a different tack. “You know, I think there might be something going on between him and Peyton.”
Liv’s eyes nearly pop out of her head. “That girl fromKPT?”
I nod.
“Where did you hear that?”
“I’ve seen him with her.”
Liv flips her hair over her shoulder, trying to look bored. “Well, it doesn’t matter because there’s nothing going on with him and me. And you—” she urges me to my feet in front of the full-length mirror “—look amazing.”
My costume isn’t one of Leo’s suggestions, but itisinspired by his bizarrely vast knowledge of folklore. I blink at my reflection and a faerie with glittery eyelids blinks back.
Liv pops on her witch hat and squeezes into view alongside me.
I laugh, “Could we be any more opposite?”
“Yin and Yang, that’s you and me.”
My fingers snag on pearl sequins as I run a hand over the floral lace overlay covering the bodice of my lavender dress. I’m dusted from head to toe in glitter, and my iridescent wings, which I rush-shipped from a shop on Etsy, sparkle in the overhead light. Liv is all in black. Lacy black top, tight black skirt, over-the-knee black boots. She’s even wearing black lipstick.
She says to my reflection, “I look like I could totally kick your ass.”
I tease back, “Yeah, well, if you don’t stay away from Braden, I’m totally gonna kick yours.”
At O-Chi, I find Zander up in his room, putting the finishing touches on his costume.
“Hot,” he says when he notices my faerie getup. I was hoping more for “pretty,” but hey, I’ll take it. “Where’d you get that dress?”
“I borrowed it from Caitlyn, across the hall.”
“I like it. It’s nice and short.” He pulls me in for a kiss.
I laugh as I wipe glitter off his Mario mustache. “Please don’t ever grow one for real.”
