Sara Shepard - Never Have I Ever

Ethan stared at the back of his hands.

Say something, anything , Emma silently pleaded, closing her eyes.

“There you are.”

Emma’s eyes flew open. The double doors had swung wide, and a girl in a long, dark wig stood on the sidewalk. Ethan shot away from Emma like a bullet fired from a gun. “Sam,” he said.

“I was looking for you.” Samantha’s gray eyes were cold. Her boobs looked weirdly squished in her corset. When she saw Emma, her scowl turned her pretty features into an ugly mask.

“We were just talking,” Ethan blurted, moving to Samantha and taking her arm. “I was about to come in and look for you.”

Samantha pivoted toward the door. “C’mon. Let’s dance.” She gave Emma an icy wave and pulled Ethan back into the gym. Ethan looked over his shoulder and met Emma’s gaze.

A small squeak escaped Emma’s mouth, but when she tried to say more, nothing came out. When they were gone, she pulled the detective hat off her head and mashed it between her hands.

Bing. Sutton’s phone chimed inside Emma’s bag. If it was a text from Ethan, Emma was going to throw the phone into the fountain in the middle of the courtyard. But instead, the text was from Madeline. WHERE ARE YOU, BITCH? WE MISS YOU! YOU DIDN’T MAKE A SECRET GETAWAY WITHOUT US, DID YOU?

Another clap of thunder sounded from the gym. Emma stood up, resolute. Ethan’s non-answer wasn’t going to ruin her night.

She hit REPLY. ON MY WAY BACK INSIDE. After adding a tongue-wagging smiley, she hit SEND. Forget Ethan. Forget love. She had two twins to watch.

The next forty-five minutes passed quickly, filled with a tour of the haunted house, snarky costume-rating from one of the corner banquettes, and keeping tabs on Gabby and Lili, who made the rounds in their court sashes and spent most of the time on the dance floor as though nothing were amiss. Countless students approached Emma and the others to compliment them on a dance well done, though a notable few steered clear: Garrett, whom Emma hadn’t seen since the closet incident, and Ethan, whom she unfortunately couldn’t help but see chatting with Samantha— Sam —at one of the coffin tables. Every time Ethan glanced her way, Emma pretended she was having a fantastic time.

Finally, Emma, Charlotte, and Madeline tumbled out into the night, linking arms and laughing at the best and worst costumes of the night—dorky Amanda Donovan, who’d dressed as Mr. Peanut; John Pierce, a fabulous gay boy who always had everyone laughing, who’d come as Lady Gaga; and, of course, Davin-as-Freddy-Krueger, who’d tortured Madeline by extending and retracting his freaky knife-nails in her face all night. “I should’ve gone stag like you, Sutton,” Madeline moaned.

Laurel appeared next, loosely holding hands with Caleb. They gazed at each other and giggled softly. When Caleb bent down to kiss Laurel lightly on the lips, Madeline whooped. “Yeah!”

“Sex goddess!” Charlotte seconded.

Laurel broke away from Caleb and shot the girls a mock glare. Emma grinned at her as she skipped toward the group, glad that she had found someone she really liked.

Madeline had parked her car in the school’s lot earlier in the day in preparation for the camping expedition. As the girls headed toward the car, Gabby burst through the door, riding piggyback on Kevin Torres. Her goddess wings drooped, her floral crown was squished and tilted, but her Homecoming Court sash was still proudly in place. Kevin put her down gently on the bench, and they made disgusting cooing noises to each other.

Lili followed, also still wearing her sash. As soon as she saw Gabby and Kevin, her face stiffened, her lips puckered, and she curled her fists hard, accidentally lighting up her Lady Liberty torch. She swung a wide arc around them.

Madeline unlocked her SUV with two short bleeps. Emma climbed into the front seat next to her, while Charlotte and Laurel squeezed into the middle row. Sleeping bags, pillows, backpacks, flashlights, and an illicit bottle of vodka had been packed in the cargo space earlier that day. Very quickly, the cabin filled with the mingling odors of perfume, costume makeup, and cinnamon Altoids, which Laurel had passed around as soon as Madeline started the engine.

Just as Madeline adjusted the driving mirrors, there was a knock on the window. “Hey!” Gabby waved.

“Shit,” Emma whispered. “Let’s get out of here before they ask to come along again.”

Madeline looked at her. “Sutton, we already invited them . ”

Emma’s jaw dropped. “You did? When?”

Madeline shrugged. “It seemed only fair after the court prank.”

“Inviting them to get ready with us was only fair,” Emma said, the pitch of her voice rising higher and higher. “I don’t want them camping with us!”

“Calm down.” Charlotte sounded bored. “It’s just one night.”

Laurel looked back and forth between everyone, her cheeks still flushed from her night with Caleb. “We can’t exactly uninvite them,” she said. “Besides, they know where the springs are. None of us have ever been before, and apparently they’re hard to find.”

“The springs are hard to find?” Emma echoed weakly. Suddenly, the seat belt across her torso felt like a vise. She had to get out of here. She racked her brain for an excuse, but before she could come up with anything, Gabby wrenched open the door.

“Hey, girls!” She climbed past Charlotte and Laurel to the very back seat. Lili begrudgingly followed. When it was clear that the only available seat left was next to her sister, Lili let out a groan and plopped down, too, putting as much distance between them as she could. She gripped her Liberty torch as though it were a weapon.

Emma’s skin felt hot and prickly at the nearness of the Twins. Her brain spun. Would Lili and Gabby do anything to her with the other girls around? Maybe if she played it cool—and stuck with Laurel all night—nothing would happen.

No no no , I thought desperately, willing Emma to get out of the car.

“Okay, bitches.” Madeline revved the engine. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

Everyone whooped. “Hot springs, here we come.” Charlotte draped her arms across the back of the seats.

Laurel swiveled around and looked at Lili and Gabby. “You remember how to get there, right?”

“Yeah. We just went camping there with our dad.” Gabby’s voice was languid and happy, as though she’d just spent hours at the spa. “He didn’t want us to swim in them, but we did when he went to sleep.”

“That’s not true,” Lili said sharply. “Dad didn’t care if we swam in it.”

“Yeah, he did,” Gabby said. “He thought we’d drown.”

“You’ve got it all wrong.” Lili sounded really worked up. “You always get everything wrong.”

Everyone fell silent at the razor-sharp tone of Lili’s voice. “ Rrow ,” Madeline whispered.

The car rolled over a speed bump and out the school exit. Someone had draped spiderwebs over the gates and affixed devil horns to the large, many-armed cacti lining the path. Madeline turned up the winding roads that led toward the mountain. A sports car with round, xenon-bright headlights passed them going the other direction.

The girls began to chatter about the dance—Madeline and the disastrous Freddy Krueger, Laurel’s burgeoning crush on Caleb. “And how about you?” Madeline nudged Emma. “You disappeared for a while. Did you find someone fun?”

“Definitely not,” Emma said quickly. She wanted to forget the whole Ethan thing ever happened.

“What did you think about the dance, ladies?” Charlotte asked, swiveling around and looking at the Twitter Twins. “Was being on the court everything you hoped for and more?”