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But something in Thayer’s expression stirred an emotion deep inside of me. Thayer wasn’t trying to look debonair—
he was pissed. But what was he pissed about?
Who are you? Emma wished she could ask the boy in the photos. Why did you leave? And why, every time I see a picture you, do I get the chills?
That made two of us.
Madeline aimed the remote at the TV, and Jersey Shore appeared on the screen. She opened a big white binder labeled HALLOWEEN HOMECOMING in bright orange letters.
“Okay. Char, are we al set with the decorator?”
“Check.” Charlotte nodded, pul ing her light yel ow shorts down over her thighs as she sat on the shaggy cream carpet. “Her name’s Calista—my mom’s used her for lots of parties. We’re doing cauldrons, skeletons, werewolves, and a haunted house. The rest of the gym is going to look like MI6 in L.A. Dark and sexy.”
“A perfect place to sneak booze,” Madeline piped up.
“Or a perfect place to hook up with someone who isn’t your date,” Charlotte added. Then she turned to Emma.
“Don’t get any ideas, Sutton.”
Emma didn’t bother protesting. Let Charlotte make her jabs; she knew now that they didn’t mean anything.
“Now we need a theme for this court fete,” Laurel said. Charlotte rol ed her eyes. “It’s so stupid the court fete has to have a different theme than the dance. Sometimes I want to kil the seniors who came up with that tradition.”
Madeline walked to the window and heaved it open with her long, slender arms. “Oh, let’s just plan it and get it over with. I say it should be something spooky yet glam, but not so glam that the faculty wil be pissed and not let us do it.”
Laurel propped her legs up on the coffee table. “What about vampires?”
“Ugh.” Madeline made a face. “I’m tired of vampires.”
“What about a gala event for the dead?” Emma said.
“You know, a real y fancy party, except everyone invited is a corpse?”
Charlotte narrowed her eyes, thinking.
“Wish you’d thought of it yourself, don’t you, Char?”
Emma teased. She knew it was something Sutton would say.
Charlotte just shrugged. “It’s interesting,” she admitted.
“But it should be rooted in something real. Not just a party ful of dead people.”
A thought popped into Emma’s mind. “What about a fancy bal on the Titanic? Except it can be after the ship sank. So it can be at the bottom of the ocean, and everyone can be a corpse, but they’re stil partying in high style. Something Kate Winslet’s character in the movie would’ve approved of.”
Laurel widened her eyes. “I like that!”
“Agreed.” Charlotte clapped her hands. “I bet Calista could rustle up some real y good Titanic décor.”
Madeline reached into her pocket and extracted a pack of Parliaments and a pink lighter. A blue spark shot into the air, fol owed by the heady smel of cigarette smoke.
“Anyone want one?” she asked, exhaling out the window. Everyone shook their heads. “You should stop that, Mads.” Charlotte hugged a throw pil ow. “What’s Davin going to say when he goes to kiss you and you smel like an ashtray?”
“I’m not a hundred percent sure I’m into him yet.” Smoke poured out of Madeline’s nose. “Maybe ashtray breath wil keep him at bay.”
“Wel , don’t breathe on me.” Charlotte formed her arms into an X and held them out in Madeline’s direction. “I don’t want anything ruining my chances of hooking up with Noah.”
“Who are you taking, Laurel?” Madeline asked. Laurel ran a hand over a snag in the carpet. “Caleb Rosen.”
“Don’t know him,” Charlotte announced in a loud voice. Madeline gave Laurel a tepid smile. “I have math with him,” she said. Her monotone made it unclear whether she approved or disapproved.
Emma blinked. “You guys have dates?”
Madeline ashed out the window. “You mean you don’t?”
“Wel , I was going with Garrett,” Emma said,
remembering the ticket Garrett had given her when they broke up. He and Sutton must have planned it before she vanished. “But then I got grounded. So I didn’t ask anyone else.”
Madeline blew a plume of smoke out the window. “Just ask someone, Sutton. Tons of guys would be thril ed to go with you.”
Emma stared at the back issues of National Geographic and Motor Trend that lined the bookshelf. She wondered if school dances were Ethan’s thing. “I can’t think of anyone,”
she said after a moment.
I wanted to elbow her. Sutton Mercer did not go stag to dances. Madeline gestured a wide arc with her cigarette like she was doing the top half of a bal et move. “Real y, Sutton? You don’t even have a little crush on someone?”
“Nope.”
Charlotte smacked Emma with a pil ow. “Stop lying. Laurel told us.”
Emma stared at Laurel, but Laurel just raised her shoulders unapologetical y. “I know you snuck into that pool with someone. I heard you guys.”
“Spil it!” Madeline’s eyes twinkled.
Heat flooded Emma’s cheeks. “It’s no one, I swear.”
“Come on, Sutton!” Laurel pressed her palms together.
“You can tel us!”
Emma ran her tongue over her teeth. Did she dare tel them about Ethan? They were Sutton’s friends, after al , not her murderers. And now that Emma had cleared them, they’d begun to feel like her friends, too.
