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CHAPTER 1
Ella
Once Upon a Time…
What a load ofbullshit. My life wasn’t a fairytale. I wasn’t some princess just waiting to be swept off her feet by a prince, someone who needed to ride off on a white horse for my happy ending.
Of course, that might have also had something to do with the music currently blasting through the speakers. I stabbed the needle into the fabric in front of me, working it through the multiple layers.
“Ella!” my twin sister’s voice called, fabric swishing as she opened the door to our shared room.
Biting my lip in concentration, I placed another stitch in my current dress project. Just a few more, and all the appliqués would be done. Tomorrow, I planned to start on the next one. But my portfolio was coming together, and I was so excited about it.
“You’re not dressed yet?” She groaned, and I knew she was looking at my current attire—not at all ready for the events of the evening.
Ignoring her voice, I kept sewing.
“Ella. Come on.” Her voice was right behind me, peering over my shoulder.
We’d shared a room for the last twenty years, and I couldn’t imagine living apart from her. Even in our sorority house, we’d stayed living together.
Only right now, I wished I had a space of my own so that I could work in peace.
“Ro.” Taking my foot off the presser foot, the machine stopped moving. I looked up at her, giving a slight roll to my eyes. “I’m almost done. Promise.”
She sighed, but the sound was resigned, like she’d expected this from me.
“You can keep working tomorrow. Don’t you want to go out with me?”
It was Halloween, and we’d both always loved the holiday. For so many years, we’d dressed in matching costumes, and then as different twin duos. One year, we’d been twin Lindsay Lohans fromThe Parent Trap. But it wasn’t until I’d started seriously pursuing sewing that we’d branched out in our designs, coming up with unique ideas together.
She was already dressed in her Halloween costume, but make itpink—per usual. This year, she was a pink witch. “What do you think?” She did a spin for me, her curls bouncing from the movement.
“You look amazing.” I’d made it for her, working on it from sketch to creation, but I hadn’t seen the full outfit in action yet. Even during fittings, everything hadn’t come together yet. But now, she’d finished her hair and makeup, all that was left to put on the pink and tulle witch hat sitting at the edge of her bed.
We’d practically been assigned our colors at birth. She was the pink twin, and I’d always been dressed in light blue. Not purple, for whatever reason, like so many sets of girl twins, but blue.
“Why aren’t you wearing yours yet?” Ro—otherwise knownas Audrey Rose—collapsed onto her bed in a pile of tulle. “I said I was going to get ready.”
Okay,maybeI’d gone a little overboard when I’d made her costume. It was hard not to when she’d smiled so much as I’d sewn all the layers together.
I winced a little. “What if I didn’t go this year?” It was a thought that had been pinging in my head for weeks, but one I hadn’t wanted to voice. Because I didn’t want to disappoint my twin. Maybe I was just feeling a little jaded, too.
“But it’sHallo-weekend.” Audrey pouted. “And we’refinallytwenty-one.”
Halloween weekend was always huge on campus, but for once, I had no desire to go out and party. I had enough going on this year. Junior year was busy enough without going to big parties all the time.
Plus, as my sister liked to keep reminding me, we were newly twenty-one. We had celebrated our birthday a few weeks ago, and I didn’t feel the need to party like that again any time soon.
“And what was the excuse for thelasttwo years?” I said, raising an eyebrow, thinking about the last Halloween party I’d had to drag her home from.
“Fun costumes?” She wiggled up onto her elbows, looking at me over that puff of pink. “Come on. I heard the Delta Sigs are having a gigantic party.” Her eyes grew wide. “Apparently, it’s one to beat.”
“Really?” It surprised me, since we’d been going to a different fraternity’s parties for the last few years, ever since we’d rushed Pi Rho Sigma our freshman year. And now–I’d had my fill of it. I had no desire to get puked on by an eighteen-year-old frat boy who couldn’t hold his liquor. Last year was bad enough. I scrunched up my nose at the thought.
But the Delta Sigma Iota chapter… We hardly interacted with them. I couldn’t even tell you the President’s name, or what he even looked like.
When I looked back up from my sewing machine, Audrey was pouting at me. “Come on,please.For me?”
