Page 23 of Come Out & Prey

“Oh, he loooooves me,” Silver giggles.

My eyes narrow and I squint down at her, trying to suss out what she means. Bruiser doesn’t like anyone he’s not torturing, but T is an odd duck even at the best of times. Her dad isn’t a creepy ‘daddy’ like Pink’s, but Silver has always given off a vibe that isn’tquite right. However, I have too much to worry about without going down this rabbit hole.

“Whatever, guys. Just get up here before security finds you and we all have to stand in front of Lucille to explain why you’re sneaking at this time of night.”

The girls do their best to scramble up the ladder in their inebriated state, the clinking bags on their backs full of alcohol making it a much more harrowing experience than it needs to be. I suck in a breath, watching the ladder sway back and forth as each one ascends, and I don’t let it out until the very last Heather is inside my room.

“Did you guys get blasted before you got here?” I ask, wrinkling my nose as Silver giggles in my face with enough gin on her breath to make me fail a breathalyzer.

“Of coursewe did. You’re such a stick in the mud, DD. You never want to tryanything,” Gold grumbles from behind me.

I turn, my mouth dropping open as they ditch their trench coats to reveal ridiculously sexy lingerie rather than pajamas. What the fuck is this, the Victoria’s Secret Pred Show? I mean, we’re gonna lie around my room and bitch about our parents, not perform at the Moulin Rouge. “What the hell are you all wearing?”

In true Heather fashion, they’ve donned matching teddies with garters, thigh highs, and heels, only varying in color. Their hairstyle of the day is high ponytails, and they’re made up within an inch of peeling their faces off with a palette knife. Conversely, I look like a dead fish in the water wearing my plain PJs and no makeup, which doesn’t help me feel better about Lucille’s earlier comments.

“We figured we could give you amakeover!” Pink exclaims, grabbing her backpack from the floor. She unzips it, dumping it on the bed to reveal a mini-fridge worth of airplane bottles of booze and a shit ton of makeup.

Silver gives me a smirk that makes my ass twitch as she does the same, bottles and products clinking as they join Pink’s on the comforter. I watch as Purple and Gold do the same, though a suspicious bag of white pills is the last thing to escape Gold’s bag. My eyes narrow as I look at them all, salivating at the prospect of turning me into one of them.

Something isn’t right here, and I don’t know what.

It feels weird, but that’s probably just leftover nerves from dealing with my scheming maternal unit. These guys may be shallow and bitchy, but they’re my best friends and would never do anything to truly hurt me.

“I don’t know, guys. I mean, the makeup is fine, and maybe I’ll try a few sips. But that,” I point at the illicit baggie, “is way above my weight limit. I can talk my way out of being drunk if they find us up here, but I’ll never explain away getting caught with illegal drugs.”

“Fine,” Pink huffs, rolling her eyes as if I’m a baby, handing me a tiny bottle of vodka. “Be a suck up your entire life, DD. It’s definitely worked for you so far.”

Did I mention Pink is actually meaner when she’s fucked up?

She is, and that’s part of why I don’t trust the gesture of solidarity. That girl flips her switch like a complete psycho when substances remove her mask, and she doesn’t give a single fuck who she splatters with her vengeance.

The rest of the Heathers snicker as they lay out the various sprays, brushes, and accouterments they plan on using on me. I sit on the bed with a sigh, carefully telling the story of my dress-capade, leaving out the parts that will get others in trouble if they get repeated. I don’t want my misery to get Matilda or Growlvinchy in deep shit with my asshole parents. I never know what they’re capable of, and Lucille, in particular, has proven me wrong many times.

Gold scurries over to the stereo, turning the music on full blast while I flinch.What happened to the stealthy?

She rolls her eyes at my reaction, slugging an airplane bottle of scotch. “Chill, DD. I guarantee they’re passed out in their own corners by now.”

“Definitely,” Silver concurs, nodding as she shoots her own bottle while dancing around the room.

Shaking my head, I turn so Purple can tie my hair up in a high pony, sweeping all the strands off of my face. Something has been bothering me ever since Lucille made her pronouncement about the dress shopping. I can’t wrap my head around it, so I decide to ask the girls to see if they think I’m being paranoid. “Do you guys think Lucille is trying to ruin the prom for me? If so, why? Theywantme to emerge, and it can’t have escaped their notice that tons of preds do it on prom night.”

“She’s a bitch, DD. She doesn’tneeda reason. Crusty old cows like Lucille think they are far more relevant than they are, and younger preds threaten their power and their waning sexuality. They lash out at us because they see the end of their reign approaching,” Pink remarks as she primps in the mirror. “They know we'll be at the top of the food chain soon enough.”

There’s a grain of logic in that, but I doubt B realizes it. She focuses more on flexing her power than being compassionate, and I’m reminded that Pink’s viral video of her mother without makeup chased her off of every social media platform two years ago. Her gross ‘Daddy’ was pleased as punch, and her mother doesn’t leave the house anymore. There wasn’t a wrinkle on her face. She simply looked older than a fucking teenager, despite the years of high-end surgical augmentation. Pink did it because her mother had the audacity to ground her for a weekend when she got caught plagiarizing on an English paper.

The bribes it must have taken to keep her from getting expelled from Shifter Secondary had to be egregious. They don’t actuallycareif you plagiarize when you’re from an elite family—they care you got caught, and it tarnished their reputation. The Council families were terrified that allowing her to be booted would shine a light onallof us, and most of the teens from elite families definitely didnotwant that to happen. So it got swept under the rug, and it filled social media with brainwashed idiots chasing clout by defending her to their followers.

I was the only one in our group that wasn’t worried about them looking through my papers. I don’t cheat—at anything—so they were welcome to root through my life all they wanted. That infuriated Lucille, so Pink fucked up and I still got punished.

Story of my life, I fucking swear.

“DD, are you evenlistening?” Purple asks snidely as her brush dabs at my brows.

They’re sitting on all sides of me like a swarm of piranhas, breathing booze and powder in my face. Each of them has brushes in their hands like X-Men claws and palettes balanced on their opposite palms as if I’m their own personal Sandra Dee.I can’t see anything, but I assume I’m going to resemble one of the makeup tutorials on RipTok by the time they’re done. I can feel the layers forming on my face, and it makes me cringe internally.

“Of course I am. Can you pass me another vodka?” Even though vodka is Lucille’s favorite drink, I can’t deny it’s delicious.

“Fuckyeah, DD!” Gold grins toothily, turning to root in the bag.

---