No way could they guess my secrets. I was just being paranoid.
But maybe, just to be safe, I should try harder to fit in and be normal. “Fine.” I sighed, already regretting giving in. “Let’s go shopping this weekend.”
Michelle squealed and started raving about some prom magazines she’d bought to help prep us for the occasion. I nodded and tried to look interested.
Suddenly, the full meaning of Anne’s words registered with me.
“Wait a second.” I turned toward her. “Why aren’t you going with Ron?” She and Ron Abernathy had been dating for months, just like Tristan and me. In fact, their first date had been at the Charmers’ masq ball last October.
Where Tristan and I had danced together outside in the leaves, the full moon’s light making his fake knight’s armor shine as if it had been plated in real silver…
“…so we’re not seeing each other anymore,” Anne finished in a mumble.
I’d spaced out again and missed hearing her answer. Geez, I was a crappy friend lately. “I’m sorry, it was too loud in here. What did you say?”
Anne stared at me then shrugged. “I said he and I got into an argument and I broke up with him. We’re not together anymore.”
“What was the fight about?”
Anne gathered up her things. “It was…family stuff. I really don’t want to talk about it. And the bell’s about to ring anyway. Come on, let’s go.”
I opened my mouth to argue but the bell rang, cutting me off. Then I got a good look at the set of Anne’s chin. Stubborn as she was, I wouldn’t get anything more about it from her today.
Obviously something major had happened that I’d missed either because I hadn’t been paying attention or she hadn’t wanted to tell me. When had she broken up with Ron? Had she been upset and I hadn’t even noticed? Had she tried to call to talk about it?
I caught up to her at the trash cans. “Anne, wait. At least tell me when you broke up with him.”
She took her time pouring her soda into the trash. “It was the week after your grandma…”
Oh. So that’s why I hadn’t heard about it. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you. That week was—”
She gave a quick shake of her head. “Don’t worry about it. I would have been out of it, too. Ready for third period?”
Part of me wanted to push her harder, find out what had happened. She had seemed completely blissed out every time Ron was around. What had changed?
Then again, who was I to try and pry the details of a painful story out of her? It wasn’t like I’d told her anything about my own breakup with Tristan. Or how Nanna had really died, or my family’s many secrets....
Yeah, I was definitely in no position to be nosy.
But it was one more thing between us pushing our friendship apart, and I didn’t know how to fix it.
And yet, I had to try.
* * *
I did my best to stay in the present and pay attention that Saturday when we all went dress shopping in Tyler, first at the mall then at several boutiques Michelle had looked up. I wanted to care about dresses and hairstyles and the merits of gold jewelry versus silver and rhinestones versus pearls. Maybe if I pretended hard enough, I could forget about the reality of my crazy, messed-up life and be normal again, at least for a little while. And maybe then the growing distance between me and my friends would disappear.
I tried to act excited as I gave Michelle total freedom to put together my look for the dance. But she didn’t make it easy when she picked out a long black satin dress with a plunging neckline and sequined straps. Black. On a vampire. It was so cliché it was ridiculous. Except she didn’t know what I was turning into, and she insisted it made my pale skin and red hair glow. More like glow in the dark. Still, what did I care how I looked? I wouldn’t be there with Tristan, and I would never be interested in anyone else. So as long as it made Michelle happy, it was fine with me.
“Hey, Sav, are you okay?” Michelle asked, surprising me from my thoughts as I sat in Anne’s desk chair the following Saturday night. I hadn’t even noticed her walk over.
Anne continued to tease Carrie mercilessly about being too wimpy to let Michelle apply her mascara. Carrie calmly ignored her as she sat on the daybed and put on mascara with the help of a small compact mirror.
“I’m fine,” I lied to Michelle, having to swallow back a lump so I could talk.
Carrie suddenly swiped Anne on the tip of the nose with the mascara wand, leaving a big spot of black. Anne screeched and stole the mirror, then licked her finger to wash off the spot. She called Carrie a rude name then stuck her wet finger in Carrie’s ear, making the blonde shriek out a few choice words about Anne’s germs.
“Watch your mouth, missy!” Carrie’s mother yelled from the living room where all three sets of their parents waited, no doubt armed with cameras and video recorders.
My mother was on the road somewhere in Arkansas tonight, unaware I was even going to the dance. I hadn’t mentioned it to her, and apparently neither had Dad. And of course the idea of being here to record the night in a scrapbook had probably never even occurred to my dad.
Did vampires scrapbook?
Probably not. They wouldn’t want a visual record of just how long they had lived.
“But Mom—” Carrie began.
“Carrie Lynn, you watch that mouth or you’ll go to that dance with a mouthful of soap.”
That made me crack my first sincere smile of the evening.
Michelle giggled, then dropped to her knees beside me on the thick carpet. “It’s good to see you smiling again.”
I blinked at her, unsure how to respond. “Sorry. Guess I’ve been a bit of a downer lately.”
She shrugged. “I would be too if I lost a guy that hot and then he turned around and started dating Bethany Brookes like it was no big deal.” Scowling, she sat back on her bare feet. “I thought you two were going to get back together! Especially after he called me the night of the Charmers Spring Show.”
Wait, what? It felt like my eyes were about to pop out of my head as I struggled to choose which question to ask first. And how did she even know I’d been dating him? I hadn’t told anyone but Anne. Someone else must have blabbed. Maybe someone in the Clann, like one of the Brat Twins? Or maybe a Charmer…one of the dancers or managers might have put two and two together after noticing Tristan and I were both gone from school and Spring Show practice at the same time and then he quit volunteering to help the team.
That answered how Michelle might have heard about us, but not the rest of it.
I took a breath and started with one question at a time. “He’s dating Bethany?”
She nodded, her hazel eyes big and solemn. “Rumor has it they’re going to the dance together.”
Wow, he sure waited a long time to get over me and move on.
Once again, I found myself trapped in a battle between my head and my heart. Logically I knew I should be happy for him. Bethany would make him laugh, go to parties with him, eat lunch in the cafeteria with him and the descendants. His parents would probably adore her, too. If I really loved him, I should want nothing but the best for him, right?
My heart said it infinitely preferred for him to be as miserable as I was for the rest of his life.
I sighed and moved on to the next question. “Why did he call you the night of the Spring Show?”
“He wanted to know where you had moved to. He needed to talk to your dad, I think. He made it sound like he wanted to get your dad’s