Page 15 of The Promposal

As if she had eyes in the back of her horns, Mercedes again turned around to stare. Only this time she got up and walked toward us. At the last second, she veered off to the right to sharpen her pencil.

“Nice outfit, Mattie.”

Buddha give me strength. Past experience taught me that she didn’t actually mean what she’d just said. I glanced down at what I was wearing. Dark jeans and a black T-shirt because it was casual Friday and I didn’t have to wear that stupid uniform. And it wasn’t like she had room to talk. She wore a tight, red leather miniskirt and a practically see-through sheer white top. At least my clothes did what they were supposed to do. Clothe me.

Her nasal tone interrupted my thoughts. “Whose funeral are you going to?”

Was that all she had? “Haven’t decided yet. Don’t worry, though. You’re still at the top of the list.”

She continued to grind her pencil. “You know, I haven’t seen Jake’s promposal. Is there trouble in paradise?”

“If there is, it’s because the snake just entered the garden.” My chill retort did not reflect the turmoil raging just below the surface. Of course she would point out my lack of a promposal. How did she know exactly where to twist her knife?

That made Mercedes stop sharpening. “So in this scenario, I’m the devil?”

“If the cloven hoof fits.”

She let out a little laugh, shaking her long blonde hair from one side to the other. She removed her pencil from the device, now worn down to a little nub. “Do you know what I hate?”

“Since you’re Lord of the Underworld? Probably kittens. And laughter. All that is goodness and light. Maybe that there’s a black gaping maw where your soul should be.”

Mercedes cut me off before I could continue. “People who think they can get whatever they want. When it’s not true. You can’t get whatever you want.”

I would have laughed if I hadn’t been trying to figure out what she was so mad about. I mean, I had Jake. I did get what I wanted. That wasn’t really open for discussion.

And why was she glaring at Ella, too?

It was one thing to come after me, but I wasn’t about to let her start in on my doelike sister. “Okay, Mercedes, we’re done. I can’t pretend to have a conversation with someone who puts theuin stupid.”

“In case you hadn’t noticed,” she snapped, “there’s aniin stupid, too.”

I stayed quiet until realization dawned on her face, and then she stomped back to her seat. She made it all too easy sometimes.

“What did you do to make her mad?” I asked my sister.

Ella shrugged. “I don’t know. Be related to you?”

Technically, Ella was my stepsister. A point I used to bring up all the time. But since our relationship had changed and so dramatically improved, we both basically forgot the fact that we weren’t actually sisters. Because it felt like we were.

The bell rang, and we headed out into the hallway, toward the cafeteria. “Does it seem like Mercedes has been acting strangely?” At my raised eyebrows, she went on, “I mean, more than usual?”

“I guess she hasn’t been the same since that house fell on her sister. Or maybe it’s the daylight weakening her.”

Ella frowned slightly. “Even her fight with you felt ... weird.”

“That wasn’t a fight. More of a personality conflict. Which I win by default, since she doesn’t have one. “

She laughed. “I’m going to run by the office to see if my phone’s turned up. Save me a seat?”

“Yep.” I nodded and she left. I guessed that she would probably ask Dad for a new one soon as she was going into withdrawals without her cell. She kept grasping at air in our classes, like she was reaching for her phone only to be surprised each time that it wasn’t there.

I tried to go down the main hallway, but it was blocked off by a tired and oh-so-predictable flash mob dancing to what was presumably the couple’s favorite song. I wanted to cut through the gym, but the school was hosting a career day for the juniors. Which I totally didn’t get since in ten years most of the current student body would be spending their days drinking and blowing through their trust funds at an alarming rate.

It forced me to turn and go down a hall I didn’t normally use. It was quiet, practically deserted as everyone else was watching the dancing. I stopped short when I saw Trent sitting in an alcove, reading. His black hair stuck up in short spikes down the middle of his shaved scalp. He wore more eyeliner than Mercedes and had on a black T-shirt and black jeans, which reminded me why we’d become friends in the first place. Because on the surface we had seemed so similar.

Part of me wanted to just walk by him, to give him the same silent treatment he’d been giving the rest of us.

But he needed to be hit in the head with a clue-by-four and brought back to reality. The one where he had the world’s most perfect girlfriend that he totally didn’t deserve.

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