Page 13 of Sweet Nightmare

Eva looks concerned. “Why not? You need to talk to her and—”

“Aguilar paired me up with Jude for a class project,” I interrupt.

Her eyes go wide. “Holy shit.” Then she stands up.

“Where are you going?”

“M&M’s aren’t going to cut it for this.” She opens the pantry and coos, “Oh, hi, Squeaky! Good to see you’re okay. We missed you yesterday.”

I roll my eyes. “I can’t believe you named the mouse.”

“Hey, mice need love, too.”

Seconds later, she’s back with a bag of our favorite dill pickle chips.

“Where’d you get those?” I ask, making grabby hands.

“I have my ways. I was keeping them for an emergency, and this is definitely an emergency.” She opens the bag of chips before handing it to me. “Now spill.”

So I do, telling her everything that happened in class today. She stares at me in rapt silence until the end.

“I can’t believe she wouldn’t change your partner,” she says when I’m finally finished. “Everyone knows not to pair you with Jude.”

“I am so unbelievably screwed.” I shove another chip in my mouth as a knock sounds at the door. “If it’s my mom, tell her I’m dead,” I snark as I toss the furry blanket over my head.

I need time to figure out what I’m going to say to her. Right now, I feel like I can’t even be rational when it comes to all her lies.

“It’s not,” Eva says, going to answer it.

I raise my brows. “So you’ve got x-ray vision now?”

“No. But I did call in reinforcements.” She throws the door open and reveals Luis standing there, carrying Korean face masks in one hand and a bottle of cyanide-green nail polish in the other.

“Green?” Eva asks, brows arched.

“You’ve heard of fuck-me red? This is fuck-you green, perfect for breakups.” He hands it to her, then turns to me. “You look awful. Tell me everything.”

“I can’t do it again,” I say, shoving a handful of chips in my mouth so I don’t have to talk.

He turns to Eva. “What did Jude do?”

“How do you know it’s Jude?” I squawk.

“Please.” He waves a dismissive hand. “The last time you looked like this was when I first got to the island and that boy had just broken your heart. It took forever to mend you, so tell me what that jerk did this time so I can go kick his ass.”

I put the chips away before I’m tempted to eat the entire bag. Then I say, sulkily, “He never actually broke my heart.”

“Oh, please.” He rolls his eyes. “You cried yourself to sleep every night for six months.”

“Because I’d just lost my two best friends. Jude ditched me for no reason, and Carolina—” I break off because I don’t want to think about her right now.

Luis sighs as he settles himself on the couch and pulls me in for a hug. “I didn’t mean to bring her up. I’m just saying, you’ve got two new best friends who are totally willing to kick Jude Abernathy-Lee’s ass if we need to. Right, Eva?”

“I mean, I’m willing to try,” she agrees doubtfully. “But I don’t know how well it’s going to go. That boy is tough as hell.”

“True.” Luis contemplates for a second, then holds up the packets in his hands. “How about face masks, then? Looking good is the best revenge.”

I laugh, exactly as he intended. Then I say, “Only if I get the watermelon one.”

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