Page 76 of Mr. Match

She eyes me suspiciously. “What?”

“You have to take the day off classes tomorrow and spend it with me.”

I expect her to readily agree. We are sisters, right? She never gets to spend time with me and she’s always begging for more.

But she’s even more suspicious now. “Why? I think I have a test tomorrow. I can’t miss a test.”

“I don’t care,” I say, shaking my head to let her know I’m firm on this. “I want to spend your eighteenth birthday with you. All day. In fact, I think you should sleep over tonight.”

“Kat,” she says, dragging out my one-syllable nickname.

“I have a great surprise for you, OK? It will be worth it. I promise.”

“Well, I can’t promise. Not until I go to class and see what’s happening.”

“Then I can’t go to your brunch.”

She taps her foot on the floor, like she’s really thinking hard about her choices. Teenagers, is all I keep thinking. Finally, after almost a minute of this, she says, “Fine. It’s a deal. I might have to go to one class though. I can’t help it. And I can’t stay the night. I have a thing tonight.”

“What kind of thing? Not a boy.”

“No.” She sighs. “Not a boy. It’s just girl stuff, that’s all. But I’ll come by in the morning and we’ll spend the entire day together. My first day of my new adult life will belong to you. OK?”

She smiles that sweet, innocent smile I’ve missed so much over these past four years. And I melt. Just like I used to when we were small. It suddenly makes this whole day better.

“OK,” I say. “We have a deal. And personally, I think I got the better end of it. But I’m not going to gloat.”

“Are you going to wear that?” She eyes me with distaste.

“Oh, shit.” I laugh, looking down to my schoolgirl uniform from last night. “No. Give me five minutes.”

“Wear a dress, OK?”

And I suddenly see her too. She’s a little dressed up. A white dress, not short and skimpy, either. But kinda classy.

“Something like yours?” I ask.

“Yeah, but not white.” She has a dreamy look on her face. “We don’t want to match.”

“Got it.” I smile. “Be back in a sec.”

I walk into my bedroom and hit the closet. I don’t have a ton of clothes. I didn’t bring much with me. But I have one nice dress. It’s not white, either. It’s a pretty light green. Not short enough to be slutty. Not long enough to be a gown. Just… pretty. Kind of summery, but it’s the nicest thing I have, so it will have to do. I can just throw on my tan wool coat and my knee-high leather boots.

And when I’m ready, exactly seven minutes later—and after several ‘hurry ups’ yelled from the front room—I look at myself in the mirror.

“Hot,” Lily says, behind me. I smile at her in the mirror.

“We both look good,” I say.

“We look like sisters,” she says back. “We could be twins.”

“We don’t look that much alike. I’m three inches taller, for one.”

“And your hair is lighter. They do like the blondes.” She sighs.

“Who?” I ask, turning to grab my purse.

“Oh, the guys, you know. They all like the blondes.”