Perfect (Book Two)

Eighteen: Surround Yourself With Normal, And Maybe You'll Be Normal Too.

"You're so lucky you get to go to Foxy for free," Emily's older sister Carolyn said. "You really should take advantage of it."

It was Friday morning, and Emily and Carolyn were outside on the driveway, waiting for their mom to drive them to early-morning swim practice. Emily turned to her sister, running her hand through her hair. As captain, she got free Foxy tickets, but it seemed weird to party so soon after Ali's funeral. "It's not like I'm going to go. I have no one to go with. Ben and I aren't together anymore, so..."

"Go with a friend." Carolyn smeared ChapStick over her thin, naturally pink lips. "Topher and I would love to go, but I'd have to spend all my baby-sitting money just on a ticket. So we're going to have a movie night at his house instead."

Emily glanced at her sister. Carolyn was a senior and looked just like Emily, with reddish-blond, chlorine-dried hair, freckles across her cheeks, pale eyelashes, and a strong, compact, swimmer's body. When Emily was named captain, she was worried that Carolyn would be jealous—she was older. But Carolyn seemed completely fine with the whole thing. Secretly, Emily would have loved to see her wig out about something. Just once.

"Oh hey!" Carolyn perked up. "I saw a funny picture of you yesterday!"

Emily's field of vision narrowed. "Picture?" she repeated hoarsely. She thought of the photo booth picture A had texted her yesterday. A had spread it around. It was starting.

"Yeah, it's from the Tate meet yesterday?" Carolyn reminded her. "You look...I don't know. Ambushed. You have this funny expression on your face."

Emily blinked. The picture Scott took. With Toby. Her muscles relaxed. "Oh," she said.

"Emily?"

Emily looked up and made a tiny, inaudible gasp. Maya stood a few feet away from them on the street, straddling her blue Trek mountain bike. Her curly, brownish-black hair was clipped out of her face, and she'd rolled up the sleeves o her white denim jacket. There were dark circles under her eyes. It seemed weird, seeing her at such an early hour of the morning.

"Hey," Emily squeaked. "Um, what's up?"

"This was the only place I thought I could actually catch you." Maya gestured to Emily's house. "You haven't said a word to me since, like, Monday."

Emily glanced over her shoulder at Carolyn, who was now rooting through the front pocket of her purple North Face backpack. She thought again of A's note. How could A have gotten those pictures? Didn't Maya have them...or had there been others?

"I'm sorry," Emily said to Maya. She didn't know what to do with her hands, so she placed them on top of her mailbox, which was a miniaturized version of her house. "I've been sort of busy."

"Yep, sure looks that way."

The bitterness in Maya's voice made the hair on the back of Emily's neck rise. "W-What do you mean?" Emily snapped.

But Maya merely looked blank and sad. "I...I just mean you haven't called me back."

Emily pulled the strings of her red hoodie. "Let's go over here," she murmured, walking to the edge of her property under a weeping willow tree. All she wanted was some simple privacy, so Carolyn wouldn't listen in, but unfortunately, it was kind of sexy under the tree's thick, concealing branches. The light was a very pale green, and Maya's skin looked so...dewy. She looked like a wood sprite.

"I have a question for you, actually," Emily whispered, trying to block out all sexy-wood-sprite thoughts. "You know those pictures of us, from the photo booth?"

"Uh-huh." Maya was leaning so close, Emily could almost feel the tips of her hair grazing her cheek. It felt, suddenly, like she'd grown a billion extra nerve endings, and they were all tingling.