Total pages in book: 188
Estimated words: 179812 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 899(@200wpm)___ 719(@250wpm)___ 599(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 179812 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 899(@200wpm)___ 719(@250wpm)___ 599(@300wpm)
Looking at myself in the mirror, I pat my emerald dress. “You guys really think so?”
“What Snow said,” Meadow, another one of my best friends, says. “You’re freaking stunning.”
“But then again, you’ve always been stunning,” says Echo, the third friend present.
“She’s right,” Tempest says, smiling. “All these things, this dress and that make-up, they only highlight how naturally gorgeous you are.”
When we moved to Bardstown nine years ago, I never thought I’d make so many friends, let alone such nice friends. But despite being a socially awkward redhead whose skin tells the truth no matter what my mouth is saying, I did manage to find some really good friends who remind me of how lucky I am to have them in my life. My luck may be questionable in the parents department, but I lucked out with friends who feel like family.
Smiling at Tempest in gratitude, I turn away from the mirror and face them. They’re all situated on the bed, with Snow and Meadow, propped up by the headboard, and Echo and Tempest lounging on the foot. They also each have a glass of piña colada that I made for them as my thanks for helping me out tonight; Snow’s is of course virgin.
Wringing my hands, I address all of them. “But are we really sure I should do this?” My eyes find the clock on my nightstand. “I think I can still get out of it. I know it’s not the best thing to cancel, like, thirty minutes before. But if I make a good enough excuse, I think—”
“No.” Meadow sits up straight, her brown eyes stern. “Absolutely not.”
Echo shakes her blonde head as well. “You’re going.”
Tempest agrees, her red-painted lips pursed. “I did not just spend an hour on your gorgeous hair and your beautiful face for you to sit at home and watch movies with us. You’re going.”
No, they’re right. If for nothing else, I should go just because all my friends dropped whatever plans they had for tonight—probably with their men; they all have significant others—and came over just because I told them I was finally taking their advice.
There’s a specific reason why these girls are here in particular. It’s because they all know my secret. Or rather, secrets. They know who I am, who Snow is. What our connection is to the Thornes. And they know, despite everything, what I feel for one specific Thorne.
First, it’s super surreal that anyone knows at all when I had no intention of telling anyone ever, not even Snow. But Snow and I, we lived in a very volatile environment. And like I overheard our mom and stepfather fighting and thereby pertinent information from all that, Snow did too. One day, she overheard them arguing over my biological dad and why he ended up leaving and of course, her name and her birth came up. This was after we’d moved to Bardstown and so when she came to me crying and betrayed, I told her the truth. I had to. There was no other choice. And then I told her it didn’t matter who her father was. We were still sisters and I loved her to pieces.
As for the rest of these girls, I realized there’s something to be said about sharing your burden with people you can trust, and I trust these girls with my life.
Meadow used to be my neighbor when we first moved to Bardstown, and since we both went to the same school and were both outcasts—me because of being the weird new kid and her because of her weight—we hit it off right away. She was the first person I ever told and she’s kept my secret all these years.
I met Echo when I changed schools. Or rather, I had to change schools. In my sophomore year, I was sent to a school called St. Mary’s School for Troubled Teenagers. It’s an all-girls reform school where people are sent as a punishment for the crimes they commit on the outside. Crimes like stealing money from your guardian so you could run away from them; or driving your ex-boyfriend’s car into the lake because he broke your heart; vandalizing your boyfriend’s best friend’s room because he caused your break-up and so on.
I went there because of my neighbors. Not Meadow and her family but my other neighbors. Or more specifically, their son. He caught me lounging in their pool one night—it was unauthorized and completely my fault—and thought he could hit on me whenever he wanted. I kept rejecting his advances until one night he got handsy and I had to get physical. As in, punch him in the face and push him into his pool. Of course, he didn’t like that and accused me of attacking him and ratted me out for using their pool that one time.