Page 19 of Now and Again

Ten minutes later, her phone vibrated in her pocket, and she thought,It’ll be my mum telling me to pick up milk on the way home.

It wasn’t her mum.

10 Crown Road, Easterbrook. I’m gonna get there about nine-ish. See you there?

Juliet’s first thought was that there was no way in hell she was going to that party. She didn’t belong with people like them, and they’d know it the second she stepped through the door. Her clothes would be wrong, her hair would be wrong, her vibe would be wrong. She’d go there and stand around for ten minutes, watching people whisper behind her back. Then she’d go home and feel awful for weeks. It was an appointment with misery, and she didn’t see why she would consider attending.

Actually, shedidhave a why. Riley had asked her to go. FreakingRiley Powell. She was like the queen of the school. Or at the very least, one of several major princesses. Juliet didn’t know how seriously to take it. Was she trying to be kind? Juliet felt utterly at a loss to read the situation. All she knew was, she didn’t know how she was supposed to say yes, and she didn’t know how she was supposed to say no, either. This was impossible. She half wished she’d never been in that library. She wouldn’t be in this position now. Trying to figure out Riley.

She decided, for the sake of argument, that she would go. What would the next step be? She’d have to figure out what to wear from her wardrobe. That didn’t take very long—she didn’t have anything. Next would be hair, makeup, and she knew nothing about those topics. Girls like her didn’t wear makeup, didn’t do anything fancy with their hair. What was the point? No one was looking at them.

Well, that decided it. She wasn’t an idiot. She’d both read the book and seen the movie,Carrie. She wasn’t going to the prom to have a bucket of pig’s blood dropped on her head. She would text Riley later with an excuse. It was a relief to make that decision. Her comfort zone was so, well, comfortable. She was going to slide quietly back into it and pretend this hadn’t happened.

But then something happened as she walked to her next class, something dreadful. She thought of a solution to her problem. She hadn’t meant to; it had just happened. Once it had entered her mind, things were re-complicated. There was a way that she could make herself socially acceptable, at least to the naked eye. And it was rather easy—kind of. She could ask her sister for help.

Her older sister Becca was aggressively normal. She was twenty and worked in a clothes shop. She wasn’t the sharpest pencil in the box, but damn, she knew how to coif. She’d begged Juliet on many, many occasions to let her loose on her person for the dreadedmakeover. It was always a no because Juliet never needed to wear that costume of normality; she could just quietly be herself… until now.

She texted her sister. She sort of hoped she’d be too busy to help. Again, it would decide for her.

Hey, I might be going to a thing tonight. You wouldn’t have anything I could wear, would you? Maybe give me a few pointers on hair and makeup?

The reply came back seconds later.

I HAVE WAITED FOR THIS DAY

Right. So this was happening. Her sister was going to use her as a human barbie. But Juliet swore to herself that if she looked in the mirror at the end product and she thought she looked even slightly ridiculous, she wasn’t going to that party.

Ten

NOW

Riley watched Juliet scuttle off down the hallway, mind somewhat blown. They’d been moving around each other like sentient grenades that might go off at any moment, and all it had taken was one intervention with her dad and Juliet had come right up, knocked on her door, and now the whole thing was sorted. They were fine. On good terms, even. They were just two people who’d sort of known each other once and were back in each other’s orbits. Friendly, cordial, relaxed. It was a weight off Riley’s back. She didn’t know how big that weight was until it was gone. Thank god for Mia.

Riley went back to her bed - guest bed, anyway - and lay back down, setting her laptop on her stomach and hitting play on this terrible Netflix dating show she’d been watching. The concept was that everyone kept masks on the whole time, so no one knew how genuinely good-looking anyone was. Everyone was trying to act like they didn’t care; that they were just there to ‘Fall in love with the person.’ Until they had to make a choice and the masks came off. Then they had to keep acting like nothing was different, even when they were obviously disappointed. The hilarity of it was the hubris. These people were as shallow as anyone else, and the effort it took to pretend otherwise was the pull of the show.

Riley wondered if she had it in her to fall in love with a person behind a mask. But she knew she liked a pretty face as much as the next girl. Still, the show had reminded her that there had been a time when she’d seen through a few superficial facts and understood beauty was present even before it became extremely obvious.

THEN

Riley was watching India being chatted up. It was one of the footballers, not one Riley knew, but she vaguely remembered him picking pasta out of his lap in the cafeteria last week.

‘So, er…. You like football?’ he asked India anxiously.

India shrugged. ‘I don’t know, it’s alright, I suppose. I prefer rugby though. The men are a bit beefier.’

‘Yeah?’ the guy said, trying to hide his disappointment. He thought he was getting the kiss-off. Riley knew better. India liked to play with her food before she ate it. Once she’d finished batting him around, she’d end up snogging him in the nearest vacant bedroom. Riley could have written the script for the evening. The same things that happened at every party would happen tonight. Christ, she was so bored.

‘Oh no,’ she muttered as she laid eyes on someone she’d been hoping wouldn’t be at this thing—Jack. ‘India, I’m just gonna get a drink,’ she said, ducking quickly out of his eyeline.

India was in the middle of squeezing the footballer’s arm and saying, ‘I’ve felt bigger.’ Riley scooted out of the living room, into the kitchen. There’d be alcohol there. She wasn’t a big drinker, but that was what you did at these things. Get off your face.

She picked up a lukewarm beer from a stack on the counter and popped the ring pull. It foamed all over the place, and she had to hold it away from herself quickly. Practically half the can ended up on the lino. She put the can down and grabbed a kitchen towel and began to mop it up. She knew this was supposed to be a wild party, but manners costed nothing.

Just as she was chucking away the wet kitchen towels, she heard the back door creak open. She looked over and saw it was only open a crack. Through that crack peeked a set of eyes she recognised. ‘Juliet?’

Juliet pushed the door open completely, and Riley nearly fell over. Juliet looked…different. A little eyeliner, a fitted top, her light hair straightened, it wasn’t that much had even changed. Just enough to show Riley the truth. She’d strongly suspected that if Juliet could learn to stop hiding it, she’d be pretty. What even Riley didn’t realise was that the girl wasgorgeous.

But Riley could tell Juliet was a bit nervous, so she didn’t want to make a big deal of the transformation. She pushed down her surprise, as well as any other feelings about Juliet’s new look, and said, super-casually, ‘So youarean Ally Sheedy after all.’

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