Look - Zan Romanoff Page 0,10
probably the prettiest girl in the sophomore class. Not the most popular, but the prettiest, which means Kiley isn’t afraid of pretty girls. Which probably means Kiley has some sense that she’s very, very pretty too.
The only other thing Lulu knows about Kiley is that she dances, or at least she was in an assembly teaser for a dance theater show last year. That was the first time Lulu noticed her, up on stage, but to be fair, it was hard not to: She was the only black girl up there.
Also, she was, like, good.
Lulu ignores her and tries to look cheerful about it.
Luckily, there’s plenty to distract her. In the kitchen, Jules turns a TV on so he can watch the Lakers, but it’s part of an art installation that shows looped clips from news reports about missing and murdered girls spliced in with scenes from cop shows about the same thing. Whoever’s house they’re at—Isabel, maybe, someone said her name was?—her parents have truly atrocious taste, and an amazingly huge collection of stuff that demonstrates this fact. There are ugly “modern” sculptures and garish abstract paintings everywhere, and after the television incident, Lulu is afraid to sit on or really touch anything in case it turns out to be art.
At least the booze is stashed out back near the pool, where it’s obvious what it’s supposed to be.
Lulu scans the crowd for Cass and doesn’t see her. Something goes tight in her throat at the idea of spending the whole night standing around and making, like, small talk. Trying to get or keep Owen’s attention. Everyone looking at her, and looking at Kiley, and Owen and Kiley, and Owen and her, and thinking whatever they’re thinking.
Bea nudges her shoulder. “If this stuff is what these people think is appropriate for company, can you even imagine what they keep in their bedrooms?”
“Ooooh,” Lulu says. “Are you suggesting we find out?”
Bea widens her eyes like, Who, me?
“C’mon,” Lulu says. She and Bea lope away giggling. She hopes Kiley is watching them disappear and wondering what they’re up to. Imagining that it’s something super exclusive and cool.
Isabel’s parents’ bedroom is on the second floor, and Bea was right to guess that it would be weird. It looks like a vampire’s lair: Their round bed sits on a mirrored pedestal, covered in pristine white sheets, and everything else in the room is glass or crystal or bone, except the curtains, which are deep, purple velvet.
“Oh my god,” Bea says, turning in a circle. “Oh my fucking god.” She dashes over to the window and wraps herself in a curtain, fashioning it into a heavy-draped dress. “This is glamour,” she announces in a husky voice.
“Daaahling,” Lulu intones. “You are everything right now. You are the earth. You are the moon. You are a moondrop dancing with a god in the night.”
Bea laughs and lets the curtain drop. “What are you even talking about,” she says. “You’re a nut, Lu.” Before Lulu can answer, she goes on. “This is so wild. Can you imagine having parents who live like this?”
Lulu shudders at the thought.
“Oh no. Oh no,” Bea says. She points, and when Lulu turns around she sees it: a sculpture of a naked woman, but she has two rows of teeth where her legs should be.
“Gross!”
“Tell me about it.”
Lulu goes over to inspect the thing. The woman is arranged in one of those improbable comic book poses, boobs thrust forward, waist turned at an angle. Lulu tries to mimic it with her own body, but it’s basically impossible.
“No,” Bea says. “It’s like this, see?” She tries to out-pose Lulu, but her legs get tangled as she tries to step around the curtain. She windmills her arms, teetering, before toppling over. From her crash landing on the ground, Bea sticks her tits up as far as she can. “Closer?” she asks. “This looks hot, right?”
Lulu is laughing too hard to reply. She pulls out her phone and takes a video of Bea squirming.
“You animal!” Bea yells.
Lulu writes beatrizzzo is art over it and presses SEND with a flourish. Bea has her phone out now, and she’s taking a picture from the floor, which has to be a hideously unflattering angle.
“You!” Lulu reaches to grab Bea’s phone, but Bea pulls her down too. Lulu thumps next to her ungracefully, still laughing.
She looks up and sees Kiley in the open doorway, staring at them.
“Hey,” Kiley says. “I thought I heard voices. I was just going to