Page 121 of Just This Once

“Hey, that’s the sash and tiara I got Hudson for his birthday last year.” Oaklynn sighed with a wistful note of nostalgia in her voice and reached out. “I want to wear those.”

“I’ll take on the rest.” Raina scooped the remaining haul into her arms.

No one had been able to scrounge up a feather boa, but Raina had brought a red neck scarf that Faith put on. I pulled on some oven mitts, and Oaklynn dug up a pair of yellow cleaning gloves from under the kitchen sink.

Then we did up our hair and faces.

I gave myself a French braid while Faith placed glittery, silver star stickers around her eyes and fluffed her hair into a big-ass, awesome ’fro. Raina pulled her hair up into bubble pigtails, while Oaklynn slicked hers back into a high pony before attaching the king crown. Then she fixed on fake extended eyelashes and fingernails. And I went overboard on the makeup, slathering on neon green eyeshadow and extending my eyeliner at least half an inch from the edge of my eyes. Finally, I colored the ends of my braid with hair chalk, giving myself pink, blue, and orange streaks.

By the time we were done, we looked like the ridiculous adult version of Fancy Nancy.

“Perfect,” I said, nodding my approval.

Raina clapped silently, still excited. “I love it.”

“I wish someone had done this for me when I got dumped,” Faith added.

“I’m starting to wish I’d gotten dumped at least once so someonecoulddo this for me,” Oaklynn commiserated as she helped me fluff the tulle tutu I was wearing.

I sent her a dismayed blink. “You’ve never been dumped? Not even once?”

“You lucky bitch,” Faith charged.

Oaklynn only shrugged. “Well, technically Damien’s my first boyfriend. I never actually dated before him. I was more of a catch-and-release, party kind of girl.”

Raina patted her back sympathetically. “I guess we’ll have to do this for you when Damien dumps you, then.”

“Bitch,” Oaklynn warned with lifted eyebrows. “Don’t even joke about that.”

Raina snickered, and Faith and I joined in, laughing, only to hush ourselves so that Xander wouldn’t try to wander in here and see what all the commotion was about before we could surprise her on our own.

“Okay, are we ready?” I whispered.

The others nodded, and we tiptoed toward the living room.

Xander was still on one of the couches, watchingHope Floats—the scene where Birdee was on her date with Justin Matisse and touring the house he was building. Xander’s pale hair was swept up in a sloppy ponytail, more of it hanging down than had actually been captured in the scrunchie, and she was blowing her nose with a tissue.

Alec had been right. The poor child needed help.

Glancing back at Faith, Raina, and Oaklynn to make sure they were set, I nodded when they gave me a thumbs-up.

It was go time.

So I prompted my phone to play “I Can’t Get Next To You” by the Temptations, just the way they’d played it in the movie she was watching, so Xander would know for sure that all this was for her.

She glanced around in confusion and blinked at me as I strutted into the room first, lip-synching the words into the plastic star wand I was using as my microphone.

“What…?”

I pointed at the tooth I’d blacked out the same way Sandra Bullock had just as Faith joined the fun next, doing a country line dance into the room and tipping her cowboy hat jauntily before Oaklynn followed in her sash and tiara, and Raina popped in last, striking some hip-hop move that proved she had to have been on some kind of dance team at some point in her life.

“Oh my gosh,” Xander gasped when she realized what was happening. “You guys…”

She covered her mouth with both hands before laughing and crying simultaneously.

We went through the whole song, forcing Xander to join in, before I sank to the floor, worn out. Raina collapsed beside me while Faith and Oaklynn sank into a side chair together.

A stunned Xander merely stood there, shaking her head before she perched herself on the back of the couch. “That had to be the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me.”

---