Page 102 of A Dead Girl's Guide to Living
This wasn’t like Springfield when we’d had to share, I didn’t think of her in any particular way back in Springfield… this time… there had been too many lingering looks since then.
Too many secrets shared, at least on my side.
She was funny. Annoying. Sharp. Chaotic and steady at the same time. Unreasonably cute. Uncomfortably observant.
I cleared my throat.
I held my breath as I slid the key into the lock, listening to it creak open—revealing, in all its budget-motel glory, one queen bed.
Oklahoma City was going to be the end of me.
Sittingin a booth only hours later at a greasy diner about two blocks from Frankie’s, I gripped my burger with something akin to a death grip and tried very hard not to look across at Dove, who sat opposite me—looking a lot different than usual, making it very, very hard not to stare.
She was wearing a black fitted T-shirt tucked into a pair of high-waisted dark jeans, ripped at the knees, paired with a chunky belt and worn-in black boots she’d ecstatically pulled from her duffel, exclaiming, “I hadn’t remembered I packed these!”
It was an outfit that said, No, I didn’t try too hard, and I still look better than you. She’d let her hair down from the usual messy space buns, and it fell in long, tousled waves that looked like they’d taken hours to style, but I’d watched her simply untie it, run her fingers through, and it had fallen perfectly, like she’d just stepped out of a salon.
Like, what the hell?
And she smelled different. Like she’d put on something she didn’t normally wear. The scent was spicy, a little sweet, a mix of vanilla and something that reminded me of the incense she burned back at her shop. It was the kind of scent that curled into your brain and moved in permanently.
I jerked my gaze back to the burger and took a bite, tasting nothing and everything all at once.
I needed to get a grip.
I took a sip of water and eyed the pills I had to take. One more bite of burger first. I maneuvered it carefully, trying not to spill anything on my clothes.
I’d managed to pull together a pair of dark denim jeans that actually fit, my best black V-neck sweater, and I’d tousled my hair with some texture cream I’d packed, using the crappy motel hair dryer.
“You clean up nice,” Dove had said casually when I’d emerged from the bathroom.
I hadn’t known what to do with the fluttering in my chest or the tingling in my stomach. I hadn’t known how to unpack how it felt to have her look at me… like that. Because there had been a look. That look that had been becoming more and more frequent between the two of us.
“So, Ellis,” Liv’s voice cut through my thoughts, and I blinked up at her, the burger going limp in my hand, “you ever been out before?”
I set down my burger and wiped my hands on a paper napkin. “No,” I answered honestly. “I was sick most of my teenage years, and by the time most people were sneaking into clubs or getting drunk at their friends’ houses, I was usually too tired, or on some sort of medication I couldn’t mix with alcohol.”
Dove tilted her head slightly, and her loose, glossy hair shifted gently over her shoulders—shoulders more visible in her fitted shirt, her figure no longer swallowed up by an oversized tee. I felt the immense weight of her attention the moment her eyes landed on me.
I scooped up my pills, tossed them back, and drank my water, just to give myself something to do.
“Well,” Liv said, leaning back in the booth, her arms folded behind her head. “I practically lived at parties when I was alive. Bonfires, house shows, raves. You name it. I’m genuinely surprised I lived as long as I did, considering half the stupid shit I got up to.”
Dove laughed, the sound so real and unfiltered it did something both wonderful and terrifying to my chest.
“What about you,mystique?” Liv asked with a grin, her eyes twinkling.
Dove shrugged and smiled coyly, tearing a piece off her grilled cheese. “Well, I mean, I went to parties and stuff. Theywere okay, mostly loud and full of obnoxious people. I never really got into the drinking or the drugs that went around. I hated feeling like shit the next day, and it just seemed like a lot of effort for a few hours of fake confidence.”
She smiled at Liv, and I noticed the faintest dimple curve into her cheek as she did.
“I like to have fun,” Dove added. “I just like it on my terms. Always have.”
I took a few more bites of my burger before deciding I was done, focusing on finishing my water and trying not to panic about the venue we were about to enter.
“You’ll like tonight,” Dove said, a small, secretive grin playing on her lips as she looked at me, like she’d been reading my mind.
I wasn’t sure if it was her words or just the way she said them, but for the first time since the plan had been announced, some of the terror ebbed away. Maybe it was the lingering scent of vanilla still teasing my senses, or the way Dove smiled, as if she knew something I didn’t.
