Across the street, Dot stood on her porch, smoking a cigarette. She watched Father pull off, then flicked her cigarette butt into the yard before teetering through her front door.
With the house to myself, I spent the day reading and going over my note cards for Monday’s project. When Henry called at three o’clock asking if I was ready for our movie marathon, I had a lot of explaining to do, and he wasn’t going to take my news well.
“Henry, I only have time to watch one movie today. I’m going somewhere later.”
There was a long pause. “Where are you going?”
“To the library with my group. We have to put the finishing touches on our project.”
“Liar.”
Henry always knew when I wasn’t telling the truth. “Okay, I’m going to a party. I know it’s not something I usually do, but what’s wrong with trying something different? Switching things up?”
“You’re not switching things up. You just don’t want to hang out with me anymore. Admit it. You’re changing, Neva.”
Was I? “That’s not true. I can hang out with other people besides you. What movie do you want to watch? We can even do a fantasy.”
“I don’t want to watch anything with you. Have fun at your party.” The other end went silent.
I sighed and hung up. I hadn’t expected any different. Henry didn’t want me to have other friends, and maybe he was jealous, because he’d never been invited to a party. I understood how he felt. Neither of us could ever have normal friends.
I pushed Henry from my thoughts as I scrounged through my closet for something to wear. My wardrobe consisted mainly of T-shirts, sweatshirts, and jeans. I pulled out a light sweater with red sequins on the front in the shape of a heart and a pair of black skinny jeans.
When Noelle picked me up at six on the dot, I was already waiting on the porch. I didn’t want any reason for her to have to come inside. While I waited, the aroma of barbeque and sounds of normal people having a good time drifted from Dot’s backyard. It would have been nice if Father and I could have participated and gotten to know people, but I knew it was in our best interest not to.
Noelle was true to her word. She had a sheet draped over her dresser mirror, and her full-length mirror was turned to face the wall.
I noticed a short black party dress hanging from a dress form. I looked down at my sweater and jeans. “Oh, am I underdressed?”
“You’ll be fine. It’s a casual party,” Noelle answered, although what she’d pulled out wasn’t casual at all. “Sit on the bed, and let me start your makeup.”
I settled onto her bed with my legs folded beneath me and let Noelle work her magic. She smeared something cold on my face and then brushed something onto my eyelids and cheeks. She took a tissue and wiped my lips.
“I’m not wearing lipstick,” I told her.
She raised an eyebrow. “Really? I don’t think I’ve seen anyone with such natural red lips.”
I’d heard that plenty of times before. I never wore makeup, only on the few occasions when I’d attempted to pass myself off as older so I could move on with my life (which never worked).
Noelle applied two different colors of lipstick on me but ended up wiping them both off. “I’m just going to give you a clear gloss. Who needs lipstick with lips like yours?”
I blushed. My lips were one of my best features.
“We have the same skin tones, so my makeup matches you perfectly.” She snapped her compact shut and stood back. “You look great.” Then she gasped. “Can I add some curls to your hair? It’ll be so cute.”
I shrugged. “I guess.” I kept my hair cut short, and I never did anything to it besides let it hang. Every now and then, I might throw on a headband.
She grabbed a curling iron from her vanity and plugged it in. While she waited for it to warm, she ran the flat iron through her own jet-black hair. She watched herself in the small mirror on her vanity. Noelle was nice, but everything she was doing for me was almost too generous.
“Noelle? Why are you doing this?” I asked. I couldn’t help but be suspicious of her motives. My father had trained me to never fully trust anyone. Aubrey’s warning reverberated in my mind as well. She might be the nicest head on the three-headed dragon, but she’s still a part of the dragon.
“Doing what?” she asked absently, focusing on an unruly lock of hair.
“Being so nice to me. You don’t have to.”
She laughed. “I told you—I felt bad about blabbing about the mirror thing, so I wanted to make it up to you. Besides, I like you.”
That wasn’t something I heard every day. Although I had two friends, my insecurities sometimes got the best of me. Many times I caught myself wondering if Aubrey was only my friend because most of the girls at school didn’t like her, or if Henry would have gotten attached to anyone he’d met through that fence, no matter who they were. Was I the only option either of them had?
“You like me? Why?”
Noelle let out an airy laugh. “It’s hard to explain. I guess because you’re just real. We mesh. Hanging out with you is easy. You don’t say awful things about people or tell me what you think I want to hear just to make me happy. It’s just . . . nice.”
“Oh, thanks.” I, too, would find being in the constant company of Mia and Hadley exhausting, so I wondered why Noelle put herself through it. Maybe like Tate, she put up with them out of habit.
When she was done with her own hair, she curled mine. The curly strands kept falling into my face, which annoyed me, but I tried not to seem ungrateful.
Noelle took a step back, admiring her work. “Take a look at yourself.”
Sheepishly, I grabbed my purse and took out my trusty spoon. Of course, it didn’t give me the clearest picture of myself, but I loved the way I looked. It seemed like centuries since I’d felt as beautiful as I used to.
Noelle changed into her black dress. She looked fantastic. I felt like a bum next to her. Her dress was one shouldered and showed off her long, amazing legs. She slipped into some high-heeled knee boots. “All right, I’m ready.”
I stood and slid my purse over my shoulder while Noelle fiddled with my hair. I tried not to be envious of her, but it was hard not to.
She stood back and gave me a once over. “We almost look like sisters, don’t you think?”
We did, except she looked like the favored child, and I looked like the reject the family kept locked in the basement. “Yeah, we do. Uh, Noelle, do you have a dress I could borrow?” I felt strange asking to borrow a dress from a girl I barely knew, but I felt the sudden urge to look as glamorous as she did.
Her eyes widened. “Of course. I would have offered, but I didn’t want to seem too pushy.” She led me to her walk-in closet and slid the door open. I wasn’t surprised that it looked like it had been organized by a professional. The garments were organized by type and then color. There were even labeled dividers. “Pick whatever you want. The dresses are over there,” she said, pointing.
I ran my fingers along the gorgeous dresses. Tears came to my eyes as I was reminded of a time when I had a roomful of beautiful garments. I’d owned dresses in every color and expensive fabric imaginable, made especially for me by famous designers from other countries. Those dresses looked nothing like the dresses of today. I had shoes made from glass and the finest leather. They were rarely comfortable, but a princess was expected to look perfect from head to toe—comfort be damned. A sadness washed over me, but since I needed to be in party mode, I pushed the memories of my other life from my mind.
A white dress caught my eye. It was simple—short with spaghetti straps. It was fitted at the waist and flared out at the bottom. “What do you think of this one?” I asked, holding the dress in front of me.
“I love that one, and the color looks great on me, so it’ll look great on you, too. And . . .” She bent down to rummage through her shoes. “It’ll look adorable with these gray ankle boots,” she said as she held them out to me.
&n
bsp; After I changed, I felt naked at first, since I mostly wore jeans and long-sleeved shirts. Noelle assured me that I would get used to showing my legs. The ankle boots were a little big on me, but I could manage. I would have loved to see what I looked like in the full-length mirror, but I couldn’t. I silently cursed my curse and had to depend on Noelle’s proclamations of how hot I looked.
She handed me a black coat with big silver buttons to throw over my dress. “Okay, let’s go. I promised Tate I wouldn’t show up too fashionably late this time.” She took another look at me and squealed. “You look ah-may-zing! Wait until Tate gets a look at you.”
My heart fluttered, but I tried to force the feeling away. What was the use in having butterflies for a boy I could never have?
***
As Noelle and I made our way to Tate’s front door, the beats from the music pulsed through me. The door swung open as we climbed the steps, and two boys from school stumbled out. They both wore the school’s basketball jackets.
“Noelle! Finally, the queen has arrived!” one boy yelled. I shivered. The mention of queens always chilled my bones.
The other bowed.
Noelle giggled. “Oh, please.”
“Hey, who’s your hot friend?” the bowing boy asked, looking me up and down. I squirmed as his eyes traveled over me.
Noelle rolled her eyes. “Hello? Neva. She goes to our school.”
The boy looked up as if remembering. “Ooooh, the girl who’s afraid of mirrors. I don’t know why, looking like that.”
Noelle pushed him aside. “Shut up, Connor.” She grabbed my arm, and we entered the house. We removed our coats and tossed them on the pile on the couch.
Tate’s home was jam-packed with much more than fifty people. I wasn’t prepared for such a huge crowd. I’d pictured something much calmer. It only took me a few seconds to realize that Noelle and I were a little overdressed. Most kids wore jeans and sweaters. I would have been fine in my original outfit. Everyone greeted Noelle while casting strange looks in my direction. Most of them had to be wondering what I was doing at their elite popular-kid-only party. I searched the room for Tate. Maybe he would make me feel welcome, since he was the one who had invited me in the first place, but he was nowhere to be found.
“Let’s go to the kitchen,” Noelle suggested. I kept close to her, dreading the thought of being left alone. There, we found Mia and Hadley leaning against the fridge in identical short, strapless tutu dresses. The only difference was in color—Hadley’s was hot pink and Mia’s was a deep purple. Mia pointed at some girl a few feet away and whispered something to Hadley. They both snickered.
“Noelle!” Mia shouted, giving her double air kisses. Her gaze fell on me. I think it took her a few seconds to realize who I was. “What is she doing here?”
Hadley gasped. “Are you serious, Noelle?”
Noelle stepped forward and spoke to them in a hushed whisper. “Will you guys stop it? Tate wanted me to invite her, and she’s cool.”
Hadley threw me a dirty look, and then her face softened. “Well, you do look really pretty.” That was the first pleasant thing she had ever said to me.
“Yeah,” Mia added, nodding.
Was that all it took to win these girls over? Some makeup, a cute dress, and Noelle’s stamp of approval?
“Thanks,” I muttered. Just like their insults, their compliments meant nothing to me.
“Where’s Tate?” Noelle asked.
Mia rolled her eyes. “Outside with the other guys, acting like an idiot. It’s going to be a long night.”
The four of us made our way onto the patio. There, two boys held another boy upside down for no apparent reason.
“Put me down, put me down!” the boy shouted, laughing uncontrollably. It took me a few seconds to realize the boy was Tate.
The boys dropped him—fortunately, not on his head—and he stood up, laughing and red-faced. He held up his hands. “Five minutes,” he shouted. “I broke the record.” Everyone cheered as if he’d done something that would qualify for The Guinness Book of World Records.
I felt lost until Tate’s gaze landed on me. His eyes glistened like he liked what he saw.
“Neva, you came,” he said, making his way over. “You look great.”
“Thanks. Compliments of Noelle.” Even though Tate wore a plain black sweater and tattered blue jeans, he looked hot. For a second, I pondered whether I should tell him, and decided against it.
“Tate!” some kid yelled from the other side of the patio where a few coolers were lined on the edge.
Tate ignored him and kept his focus on me. “Let’s get you something to eat. I don’t have any apples, but. . .”
I grinned. “I’ll survive.”
Tate led me to the kitchen table covered with bowls of chips, pretzels, nuts, and a few plates of brownies. I wasn’t very hungry, but I helped myself to some pretzels. The fact that Tate couldn’t seem to keep his eyes off me made me feel warm and tingly.
“I can’t believe Noelle actually got you to come,” he said finally.
Suddenly the music stopped and everyone groaned.
“What’s going on?” Tate called to the boy serving as the DJ.
The boy shrugged. “I don’t know. It just cut off.”
“Well, fix it,” Tate called back.
The kid shook his head. “It’s not me, dude. It’s your janky equipment.”
Tate sighed. “I’ll be right back. Don’t go anywhere.”
I nodded and ate another pretzel. Suddenly, both Mia and Hadley were standing on either side of me. I hated when they did that. It made me feel cornered, like a trapped animal.
“Let’s go outside and chat,” Mia said.
“But—” I started to tell them that Tate had asked me to wait for him, but they pulled me away from the table before I could get the words out.
The girls took me away from the others to a patio chair by the side of the pool where the three of us sat, me sandwiched between them. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t afraid. These were girls who hated me, and here I was trapped between them—just the three of us.
Mia squeezed the soda can in her hand. “So you like Tate?”
“He likes you,” Hadley added.
I knew what this was about. “Listen, I know you guys all dated Tate at some point, but—”
It was true. Tate had dated every girl in their clique besides Noelle at one point or another.
Mia waved her hand. “Oh, that’s water under the bridge. At least it is for me. I am so in love with Blane.”
Hadley shrugged. “Yeah, that’s in the past.”
“Tate told me you guys dated back in junior high,” I told Hadley.
Mia practically spit out her soda.
Hadley gawked at me, open-mouthed. “Junior high? Try last month, honey.”
“Seriously, everyone knew about it,” Mia said.
Apparently, everyone but me. I tried my best not to keep up with who was dating who, since that seemed to change each week and had nothing to do with me. But why had Tate lied to me? He knew these girls already had a problem with me.
I shivered, wanting to run inside and grab Noelle’s coat. Was that why they’d brought me out here? What were they going to do? Throw me in the pool?
I looked back toward the house for any sign of Tate or Noelle. They’d both promised to keep Hadley and Mia in their places, but clearly, I was on my own for the time being. “It doesn’t matter whether or not he likes me, or who dated who. I would never go out with Tate.”
Hadley frowned. “Why not? You think you’re too good for him or something?”
“No, I’m just not interested, and I’m not allowed to date anyway. My father has a strict rule against it. I’ll never have a boyfriend.”
Both girls relaxed after that. “Good to know,” Hadley said.
I’ll never have a boyfriend. Those words hurt more than they should have. If it weren’t for the curse, I would have had a line of princes fighting for my
hand. There would have been an extravagant royal wedding, children to inherit our throne, and a lifetime of happiness. Now, I couldn’t experience anything as simple as a kiss.
“You guys are being awfully nice to me.” They weren’t really being nice, but considering how they usually treated me, this was a huge improvement. “Why?”
“Because Tate made us,” Mia replied bluntly. Hadley shot her a look. “Well, he did. He said he wanted us to be especially nice to you, because he likes you, and he didn’t want us to scare you away. What are we? Big bad monsters or something?”
Hadley stood and fluffed the tutu of her pink dress. “Well, let Tate down easy. If I were you, I’d do it sooner than later. It’s not right to lead a guy on, you know. They have feelings, too.”
She headed toward the house with Mia trailing behind her, layers of tulle bouncing as they walked. They were right, though. If Tate really liked me, at some point I was going to have to tell him that he and I were never going to happen.
I sat back on the lawn chair, lost in my thoughts, watching the ice-blue water in the pool. The gentle wind sent small ripples through the water. The scene was soothing, and I felt like I could fall asleep right there.
“Is this seat taken?” Tate asked. I had been so captivated by the water I hadn’t even heard him approach.
I swung my legs over the side of the patio chair. Tate sat beside me and handed me a plate with a slice of pepperoni pizza on it. “The pizza just got here. I wanted to make sure you got a slice before those animals devoured it.”
“Thanks. That was very thoughtful of you.”
He bit into his own slice, and we ate quietly. I wasn’t very hungry, but I made myself eat the pizza. Having a mouthful of food was a good reason not to talk, and I had no idea what to say to him.
Tate set his empty plate beside him. “The fair’s coming to town next week. You should go with me.”
I took a deep breath. It was best to get this over with. “Tate, I should tell you—I can’t date.”
“I’m not asking you on a date. It’s just two friends hanging out at the fair.”
Forever Snow (The Everly Girls Book 1) Page 7
