No.
“I indulged in a tiny bit of voyeurism to make this for you.…”
Wow.
Worse.
Onny groaned, turned away from the mirror, trudged to her bed, and flung herself on it with a deeply satisfyingoompf.Then she lifted her head and glanced at herlola’s letter. When she’d first found the letter, Onny had spent hours tracing the shape of her grandmother’s handwriting, a warm kernel of awe slowly expanding in her chest. But she’d stopped the moment she realized how fragile the ink was, and how it had already begun to smudge from the press of her hands. From then on, she’d kept the letter pasted onto its cardboard square close by, but she didn’t dare touch it. She didn’t want to lose what little she had left of herlola.
“What would you do?” Onny asked the letter. “I feel like you’d do something epic, but I’m not you. I don’t think I can pull it off.”
As if her grandmother were in the room, Onny could imagine her scoffing about the idea of planning. Her grandmother always seized new experiences without a second thought. For her seventieth birthday, she’d gone white water rafting. For her Christmas present last year, she’d demanded a belly-dancing class. And when her mother insisted that she should plan carefully, considering her age, herlolahad waved an indifferent hand:Don’t lecture me on planning when the best thing in your life wasverymuch unplanned,she’d said, with a weighted glance at Onny. Corazon had turned an indignant shade of tomato. Lola had winked at her:Why not let the universe steer you as it wants to,anak? You might find yourself pleasantly surprised.
Onny was all about letting the universe steer her, so maybe that was her grandmother’s answer? She would just wait and see what the moment demanded.
“Thanks, Lola,” said Onny, grinning.
She pushed herself off the bed, grabbed her phone, pulled on her blood-spattered gloves, tucked the love potion into a little wristlet purse, and headed downstairs.
Onny felt less like she’d walked into a Halloween party and more like she’d stumbled into the pages of the kind of fairy tale that has teeth and just enough shadows to raise your pulse. The white marble floor gleamed, and the string lights twinkled. Servers wearing fox masks and pristine white tuxedos carried platters offood and balanced drinks pluming with steam, moving gracefully through the growing crowd. Ice sculptures of monstrous, grinning skulls were backlit by long onyx candles. Autumn leaves and ivy wrapped around the pillar of the living room, and even though there was nothing cooking, there was a particular scent of campfires and cinnamon hanging in the air.
The main room forked off into two hallways. Down one was the dining hall set up with a long table groaning under the weight of desserts. The other connected to the stairs leading to the basement’s dance floor. It felt too early for dancing, so Onny searched the crowd for her friends. She thought she’d catch Ash’s tall, lithe frame at the fringes, or True cutting a warpath to a cooler of Dr Pepper, but she didn’t see them at all.
Maybe they hadn’t gotten here yet.
The front door was wide open, and her costumed classmates poured inside. There were the twins—Ali and Cali—dressed like sleek vampires. An amorous couple outfitted like a dish and a spoon blocked the hall leading to the basement’s dance floor. In the crowd, Onny caught sight of Mayor Grimjoy and Mr. Brightside. Both wore Ash’s Venetian masks and looked… like some sort of regal sun and moon gods? Onny couldn’t be sure, because right then a familiar figure stepped through the front door. Onny felt a sharp flutter in her chest.
Alexander the Great-Looking Abernathy had arrived dressed up as a Scottish laird. Kilt, tartan—everything. Drool. He spotted her from across the room. His eyes traveled up and down her outfit and then. He.Winked.
Onny waved.Why did she wave?A wink was not met with awave! That was like fist-bumping someone who asked for a high five. Fail fail fail.
On her wrist, Onny felt her purse wristlet carrying the vial of love potion bunch up. She flicked her hand. Across the room, Alexander nodded, mouthing,One second.
Onny froze.
Had she…
Oh no.
She had summoned him. She looked up and saw that a classmate dressed up as a werewolf had caught him in conversation. That should buy her a couple minutes, right?
Onny whipped out her phone:
Onny:Nbd or anything, but I’m currently dying.
Onny:In case you might be interested.
Onny:You know.
Onny:As my best friends.
Onny:Who are totally…
Onny:MIA???
No response.
Curse thee!
