Perfect (Book Two)

Fifteen: She Steals For You, And This Is How You Repay Her.

Mona emerged from the Saks dressing room in a square-necked, sheer green Calvin Klein dress. Its full skirt fanned out as she twirled. "What do you think?" she asked Hanna, who was standing at the racks right outside.

"Gorgeous," Hanna murmured. Under the dressing room's fluorescent lights, she could tell Mona wasn't wearing a bar.

Mona posed in the three-way mirror. She was so skinny, sometimes she dipped down to an enviable size zero. "I think this might be better with your coloring." She pulled at one of the straps. "You want to try?"

"I don't know," Hanna said. "It's kind of see-through."

Mona frowned. "Since when do you care?"

Hanna shrugged and looked through a rack of Marc Jacobs blazers. it was Thursday evening, and they were at the designer department of Saks in the King James Mall, frantically searching for Foxy dresses. A lot of prep school and out-of-college-but-living-in-the-estate-with-the-'rents girls attended, and it was important to find a dress that five other girls wouldn't be wearing.

"I want to look classy," Hanna answered. "Like Scarlett Johansson."

"Why?" Mona asked. "She's got a big ass."

Hanna pursed her lips together. When she said classy, she meant subtle. Like those girls in those diamond ads who looked sweet but had the words fuck me airbrushed into a strand of their hair. Sean needed to be so entranced by Hanna's virtue, he'd reject his V Club vows and tear her underwear off.

Hanna picked up a pair of peep-toe, camel-colored Miu Miu shoes from the sale shelf just outside the dressing room. "I love these." She held one up for Mona to see.

"Why don't you...?" Mona nudged her chin down to Hanna's bag.

Hanna dropped them back on the shelf. "No way."

"Why not?" Mona whispered. "Shoes are the easiest. You know that." When Hanna hesitated, Mona clucked her tongue. "You're still freaked about Tiffany?"

Instead of answering, Hanna pretended to be interested in a pair of metallic Marc Jacobs sling-backs.

Mona pulled a few more things off the racks and went back into the changing room. Seconds later, she emerge empty-handed. "This place blows. Let's try Prada."

They walked through the mall, Mona typing on her Sidekick. "I'm asking Eric what color flowers he's getting me," she explained. "Maybe I'll match my dress to them."

Mona had decided to go to Foxy with Noel Kahn's brother, Eric, who she'd hung out with a few times this week already. The Kahn boys were always safe Foxy date—they were good-looking and rich, and society photographers loved them. Mona tried to coax Hanna into asking Noel, but she'd waited too long. Noel had asked Celeste Richards, who went to the Quaker boarding school—a surprise, since everyone thought Noel had a thing for Aria Montgomery. Hanna didn't care, though. If she wasn't going with Sean, she wasn't going with anyone.

Mona looked up from her texting. "Which spray-on tan place do you think is better, Sun Land or Dalia's? Celeste and I might go to Sun Land tomorrow, but I think they make you look orange."

Hanna shrugged, feeling a pang of jealousy. Mona should've been going tanning with her, not Celeste. She was about to answer, when her own phone rang. Her heart sped up a little. Whenever her phone rang, she thought of A.

"Hanna?" It was her mom. "Where are you?"

"I'm out shopping," Hanna answered. Since when did her mom care?

"Well, you need to go home. Your father is stopping over."

"What? Why?" Hanna glanced at Mona, who was checking out the cheapo sunglasses at an esplanade kiosk. She hadn't told Mona that her dad had visited on Monday. It was too weird to talk about.