the show.” He hands me a larger box. “Everyone at the dance has to know you’re my girl, too.”
My breath hitches, and I’m afraid I might cry. I lift the lid off the box and gasp. Inside is an amazing corsage made of metal wire and crystal beads – all in glittering ice blue and silver, like the skeleton of a flower. Gabriel points to the matching buttonhole on his lapel. His fingers dig under the neckline of my dress, brushing against my nipple as he threads the pin through the fabric. My whole body is alive with fire and need and… something else. I can’t speak. My throat’s closed over. My heart is dancing and I’m not sure if I’m going to throw up or float away.
“Thank you,” I manage to choke out. Gabriel laughs, holding his hand up to Noah for a high five.
“We’ve rendered Mackenzie Malloy speechless. We’re the greatest boyfriends in the universe.”
Noah returns the high five with a rueful smile.
“Obviously,” Gabe continues, “I’m the superior boyfriend because my dick is so large and my songs make girls cry…”
I let them argue about dick size as I stare down at their gifts – perfect pieces of themselves they’ve given to me. George grins at me and grabs my phone to take our picture. Isaac has been hanging with Noah and Gabriel, and he got George a corsage too – a more traditional one with real flowers, but instead of a ribbon, it has a little fabric cat face.
I think how much this scene feels like something from a teen movie… the perfect moment where the heroine’s heart melts into her shoes. All these years I wished I could be someone I wasn’t – the pink princess with the perfect boyfriend and absolutely no dangerous mobsters trying to bury her alive. For tonight I have it – I have the impossible dream. The best friend. The two gorgeous boys who possess my heart. Lungs that still draw breath. And a ballroom filled with students ready to be blown away by my presence.
If only I could scrub the cemetery dirt from beneath my nails. I’ll never have a normal life as Claudia. But for tonight, I’m happy to wear Mackenzie’s skin.
We drink and laugh and party while we wait for our ride to get here. Noah and George argue about some film they both like, while Isaac and Gabriel choose music for us to dance to. George takes a million pictures with my phone before tossing it back to me. I can’t stop looking at the drop of crimson on my finger and the crystal shards on my breast. I tell myself tonight is perfect.
But it’s not.
It’s incomplete.
I peer down at my phone, my finger hovering over Eli’s number. My fingers have a mind of their own. They type a short message, and before I know what I’ve done, I hit send.
I miss you.
It’s the truth. The most true thing I’ve said to Eli since I met him. I’ve been hoping he’d call after Noah gave him the diary page, and then hating myself for my hope. I know it’s pointless, but I can’t let things stand between us without at least telling him how I feel. I owe him that.
The message bar comes up. SEEN. I stare at the screen until the words blur together. There’s no reply. I slide my phone into my bra and turn toward the windows just as Gabriel snaps a picture. Noah catches me and spins me under his arm, and between his dark smile and Gabriel singing a drinking song about hating the Irish, and George and Isaac staring adorkably into each other’s eyes, and Eli not being here, I feel raw and strange and untethered.
“This is your night,” Noah whispers, touching his lips to my forehead. His fingers stroke fire down my bare arms, threatening to undo me completely.
My night. My right. But not truly mine. Only by wearing Mackenzie’s skin can Claudia August’s dreams come true.
“Our ride’s here,” Gabriel announces. He tugs me to the door. That giddy smile of his drags me out of the strange dark place I’d spiraled into. “Wait until you see this.”
Sitting on the road in front of the house is a 1928 Cadillac 341A sedan – the car Al Capone used to drive around in. This was a perfect replica, right down to the armored plating on the sides.
I turn to Gabe in amazement. “You are ridiculous.”
“It seemed appropriate,” Gabriel grins. “Look, there’s