Amá gasps. “See?” She points while widening her eyes at me. “Thisis elegance.”
Sky crosses her arms as she stands in front of the triptych of mirrors. She’s got on a dress Amá chose for her—billowy with long, flared sleeves. The color is a shiny pink. I don’t know the brand but I saw the price tag when Amá hurled it into my arms to hand to Sky. It is five thousand fifty dollars. Yes, it looks amazing on Sky. But what any of us would do with a dress that nice, I don’t know.
Sky seems to have the same thoughts. She shifts her weight on her feet. “I just don’t know where I would wear this.”
“To your sister’s wedding.” Amá shrugs like it’s a done deal.
“But this is way fancier than Sage’s wedding dress. And, I’m sure, whatever Teal’s going to wear.”
“That’s their problem, not yours.”
I wave my hand. “Uh, I’m sitting right here, you know. And no offense, but neither of you are invited to my wedding.” Carter and I had decided that over text. I didn’t want my family involved more than necessary, seeing that this whole arrangement was a lie. And he didn’t want his family there, either, to “avoid drama.” Hence, no one but us would be present at our disappointing courthouse nuptials.
Amá just cuts a look at me that saysWe’ll see about that. Out loud, she insists, “Your hermana looks like a runway model.”
“Agreed. She looks phenomenal. But she also looks miserable.”
Sky isn’t even listening to us. Her face is pitiful as she folds and unfolds her hands, examining the fabric on her arms.
Amá can’t deny that Sky is unhappy. So she gestures to me and says, “Fine. You pick her new wardrobe, since you’re so smart.”
“Fine.” Do I want to be my sister’s personal shopper? No. Do I want this to be over with as soon as possible so I can get some lunch? Hell yes. I stand and grab Sky’s hand and we disappear into the changing room together.
“What are you doing?” she asks. “I don’t need an audience to change.”
“Um, just last Saturday you basically invited Carter in my bedroom while I was in my underwear.”
“You had a towel on!”
“Whatever. I’m just saying, we need to get it together. Let’sfind you a bunch of Amá-approved clothes so we can eat, for gods’ sake.”
Sky sighs as she steps out of the dress and pulls on a tattered pair of too-short boot cut jeans and an even worse-looking giant coral hoodie. As she sits to pull on her white Payless sneakers, I take a long look at her.
When Sky fell at sixteen, she was something like five foot nine with almost no curves to speak of. Now she’s almost six feet tall with hips and an enviable round bottom. I mean, I have to squat alotto get what she’s got natural.
My baby sister basically had this super traumatic, supernatural coma, and woke up an adult, but she hasn’t had any time to really adjust to it. She’s always sort of curling in on herself like she doesn’t own her limbs. A lot of times it seems like she’s flailing, trying to figure out this new body. She’s tall, and thin, with rosebud lips, cheekbones people emulate with contour, and hair that’s light chestnut on top and naturally fades to a honey blond at its ends. She literally looks like a young Shakira—not that Shakira really ages—and yet she’s still dressed like an insecure teenager from 2009.
And she looks sad as hell.
“Hey,” I say softly so that Amá can’t hear. Lord knows that woman is a snoop. “What’s the matter?”
Sky shrugs. “I’m just hungry like you.”
“No, you’re upset.”
Sky sighs. “I saw Adam at the wedding.” She raises an eyebrow at me. “He talked to you, didn’t he?”
“Yes.” I sit down next to her. “He asked if I was your sister.”
Sky looks down. “He didn’t ask you out or anything?”
I make a face. “No. Why would he?”
Sky shakes her head. “I…His grandpa mentioned he’d be there at the wedding. I was really excited. I wore…you know.”
Oh, I know. Sky insisted on wearing the dress she had been planning on wearing to prom the year she fell. Nadia had saved it in plastic wrap all these years. It was a knee-length, electric blue halter top with dull, plasticky jewels sewn into the bodice that, for a sixteen-year-old, was cute, but for a grown woman, was…kind of a lot. Also, the fact was that dress had been out of style for almost a decade. But none of us said anything—not Sage, Nadia, or even Sonya. ’Cause Sky never got to go to prom. She never will. So if she wanted to wear her prom dress, not one of us was gonna stop her.
“I felt…I felt beautiful.”
