Page 104 of A Dead Girl's Guide to Living
Now she was talking to Jules and Siena as if she’d known them forever, telling them about our trek across Route 66—omitting a lot of the details—twirling her straw between her fingers. Her shimmering brown hair caught the neon lights, and there may have been half a second when the noise and the fear faded, and there was just her.
“All right, my beautiful nerds and queerdos!” our trivia host called out, clapping their hands, the dazzling blazer catching every flicker of light. “Welcome to trivia night, the best night of the week, if I do say so myself! You’ll see on the table the trivia sheet for your answers. As I read out the questions, you’ll get two minutes of discussion time before you need to lodge your answer. At the end of all the questions, you’ll swap with the table on your right for marking.”
They sucked in a dramatic breath before huskily whispering, “Are we ready?”
Loud cheers echoed around the room, and Dove let out a little wolf whistle.
“First category is movie quotes. Let’s see how cultured you lot really are!”
Okay... this could go well, I thought. I mean, all I’d done was grow up watching movies. Movies were good. I knew movies. What else had I really had to do with my time when I was sick but read books and watch films?
“Our time to shine, Ellis,” Dove said with a laugh, nudging me slightly.
I couldn’t help the small smile that reluctantly slipped onto my face.
Maybe this wouldn’t be a disaster after all.
This was a total disaster.
I couldn’t quite put my finger on which part was worse right now. I was feeling too many emotions. Siena was smiling at Dove like she wanted to eat her alive, and Jules kept leaning over the table toward me, laughing a little too hard at my answers, which weren’t even funny.
I wasn’t trying to befunny.
I was trying towin.
Dove leaned in as Siena said something that made her laugh—a realDovelaugh, all bright-eyed and relaxed, and something horrible twisted behind my ribs as I watched the twinkle in Siena’s eyes while she sipped her cocktail. I couldn’t tell if Dove was just being Dove, that friendly, warm, magnetic person she was, but the way Siena was looking at her had my stomach twisting up so painfully it hurt.
And among all that, Liv had decided to grace us once more with her presence, throwing out stupid answers—loudly—to the questions the host called out.
Not that anyone besides me or Dove could hear her.
“What is the capital of Australia?” the host called from the stage. “And it’snotSydney, people.”
“Outback Steakhouse!” Liv shouted grandly, clapping her hands on the table so hard my ears rang and my eye twitched.
Dove’s knee suddenly nudged against mine under the table, and she looked at me with a small grin. “Relax,” she breathed, her favorite word to say to me tonight.
I could relax. I could be… not tense. I wasn’t tense. I was fine. Everything was fine.
Jules twirled a strand of her hair around her finger, smiling at me like I was her planned dessert, and I stiffened, scratching the back of my neck awkwardly and looking back down at the sheet of paper.
My handwriting had become increasingly aggressive as the night wore on.
“What is the tallest mountain in the world?” the host asked, flourishing a glittering card.
“Your mom!” Liv hollered, dissolving into a fit of laughter and clapping me so violently on the back I nearly fell off my stool.
“Whoa!” Jules gasped, leaning out as if to catch me. I steadied myself quickly.
“You okay?”
“I’m fine,” I said quickly, trying to ignore the heat rising in my cheeks as Liv cackled. “Forgot the seat didn’t have a back.”
Across the table, Siena giggled and flicked a half-folded napkin at Dove, who swatted it away with a snort.
I wanted to toss the trivia sheet and pen across the bar. Instead, my knuckles went white from the death grip I had on them.
“Mount Everest,” Dove said, throwing a careless arm over my shoulder. “Focus, Ellis.”
