Page 69 of Every Shade of Shadow

“What?” I ask, doing my best to sound natural.

Lily cocks an eyebrow, looking me over. She looks to Ava, who’s in a surprisingly plum shade of purple today, with matching eyeliner. “Ava, what do you see?”

“Hmm,” Ava hums, casting an inquisitive gaze over at me. “A rather different Ana. Her melancholy is gone, for one, and there’s an air of excitement about her that certainly wasn’t there yesterday, no?”

“Quite,” Lily says, hands going behind her back as she paces around me. “I’m a little cruder than my brainiac stick-up-her-ass friend here, so I’ll speak my mind and simply say, you got laid, didn’t you?

And once more it’s like I’m made of glass, not that I’ve ever been good at keeping a poker face. When I was a kid, Gran gave up asking me if I took cookies from the cookie jar and just let me go wild.

Lily I’m probably okay confiding in, but I’m still not sure about Ava. She might be brilliant, possibly even a proper friend in time, but we’re still getting to know one another, whereas Lily reminds me of, well, Sab.

Who you still haven’t messaged.

I shrug. “Who knows.”

“Oh, don’t play dumb, girl,” says Lily, continuing to pace. “You’re glowing, which means you’re either pregnant or you’ve been dicked so hard you’ve been reincarnated. So come on, give us the scoop. You know we’re short on anything juicy around here.”

“But was it pain or pleasure you were seeking?” asks Ava cryptically, eyes moving to the rings around my wrist, dropping further to the light bruising around my ankles. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say we have a sadomasochist on our hands.”

“Which is perfectly fine,” says Lily, putting her hands up, “like I said, we don’t judge here. For example, Ava here likes it in the ass.”

Ava cuts her a look of irritation.

“What?” laughs Lily, stopping behind me. “We’re all sharing here, aren’t we, Ana?”

I’ve never liked talking openly about my private affairs. Even with Sabrina I was always careful not to overshare. But Lily seems to be forcing the issue.

“My lips are sealed,” I tell them.

Lily looks to the general vicinity of my pussy. “I doubt that, but okay, when you are ready to spill, we’re here. That’s all.”

“That’s why you guys came?” I ask them. “To interrogate me? What are you, hallway monitors?”

“You’ve forgotten, haven’t you?” says Lily.

“Forgotten what?”

“Your gown, for the ball? I’m not sure a bath towel is going to cut it, sorry, which means we’re going shopping.”

I look to Ava, who only nods.

“Show her the plastic,” Ava says to Lily, who reaches into her pants pocket and holds up a credit card.

“Did I mention my family is like fucking loaded? Like, techy, stoke-your-fireplace-with-fresh-bills loaded?”

“It’s true,” Ava admits.

“Yes, yes, great, great,” Lily goes on, moving back to stand in front of me, “so you get dressed, we’ll wait outside, and then the three of us will take a little stroll through the Woods of Eternal Suffering.”

“The what?” I laugh.

“It’s not as bad as it sounds,” says Lily, “unless you’re gang-raped by the wood elves with their twiggy little cocks, but hey, win some, lose some.”

Which I think is a joke.

Ava’s just staring at me, either trying to gauge my reaction or cursing my immortal soul.

It’s the weekend. I should probably stay in and rest (read: recover), but I can’t fault their enthusiasm, so I nod. “Sure. Give me five.”

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