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Had Riley forgotten how old they were?

Riley bent down and grabbed her bag from the floor. “I knew you’d say yes, so I came prepared.”

With a grin, Riley stood and set the large bag on the bed as Blaire eyed it curiously. A weird sense of dread washed over her. She wondered what Riley was up to when she took in the cheeky smile on her face.

Riley unzipped the bag and pulled out a completely black, strapless bodycon dress. Blaire widened her eyes in surprise.

“Just wait.” Riley grinned ear to ear as she held the dress up to show off the details.

The dress had a steel-boned, transparent corset as its upper half, with a sweetheart neckline and satin over-bust cups with the same satin fabric as vertical strips that covered the corset boning. Between the boning on the corset, from the bottom of the cups down to the natural waist, and the entire back, lay a sheer black material. The corset was designed to close at the back with tight lacing that allowed the strings to hang free once cinched. The black form-fitting skirt of the dress started at the base of the ribs where the natural waist ended, which, judging by the length, should fall mid-thigh on Blaire.

It looked gorgeous, but the dress didn’t suit her. She had long legs, but dresses like this suited curvy women with larger breasts than she had. She wasn’t small. In fact, she was decently blessed in that department. Not Charlotte-levels of blessed, but a conservative C-cup. The dress looked like it fit someone with a D, at least.

Blaire shook her head at the weird analysis of herself. It had been a while since she had been overly critical of her appearance. She hadn’t worked out at all since arriving at the academy. Without Caleb there to constantly drag her self-esteem down, she found herself not caring as much. She took care of herself, of course, but she didn’t feel like she had to overwork to avoid consequences for not achieving perfection. There would always be a new bar to reach.

Blaire shook her head quickly, ridding herself of the thoughts that threatened to encroach on her good mood like kudzu vines suffocating everything in their path.

“There’s absolutely no way I would look good in that,” she finally said with a self-deprecating laugh.

Riley gave her a look like she was insane. “You would look sexy as hell in this dress, and Lukas is going to love it!”

Blaire’s cheeks warmed, but Riley wasn’t paying attention, digging around into the bag again and pulling out a pair of black suede heels. They matched the dress nicely, but Blaire couldn’t dress like this.

“Riley…” Blaire shifted uncomfortably.

“Relax! Everyone dresses up for the club, and you’ll look fantastic. If anything, wearing jeans and one of your pretty tops will make you stand out like a sore thumb.”

A knock sounded at the door before Blaire had the opportunity to protest further.

“That’s Mera.”

“How do you know?”

Riley grinned sheepishly. “Well… I already knew you’d agree to go out, so I told Mera to get ready and meet us here.”

Blaire blinked at Riley as she started laughing and walked to the door, letting Mera inside.

Mera had dressed for a gothic nightclub. She wore a black miniskirt embellished with chains linking small D-rings that were sewn to the skirt like a belt low on her hips. She also wore a black leather over-bust corset with chains linking together wrapping around the ribcage. Beneath her corset, a black fishnet top covered her arms all the way to her fingers with her thumbs sticking out through holes. She styled this with a pair of chunky platform boots that buckled up the sides and matching fishnet stockings with rips in various places.

“Damn, Mera, you look badass,” Riley said as she walked back over to Blaire’s bedside. “We still have to get ready.”

Mera shrugged and glanced around awkwardly, clearly not comfortable with compliments. “That’s fine, but Kai, Lukas, and Seth are at Aiden’s dorm getting ready, and they said they’d meet us in the courtyard in fifteen minutes. That was”—she checked her phone—“five minutes ago, according to my last text with Kai.”

“Fifteen minutes?” Riley tossed her hands in the air. “There’s no way we’ll be ready. Call Kai and let him know to give us thirty from now, and we’ll hurry.” Riley began digging in her bag again. “We gotta get moving.”

Mera sat on the edge of Lukas’s bed, tapping on the screen of her phone.

Blaire picked up the dress on the bed with a sigh. “Do I have a choice?”

Riley grinned. “Nope. Get your sweet cheeks up and get ready to put on a show.”

Mera looked up from her phone, rolling her eyes at Riley.

This was going to be a disaster. They scrambled to get ready.

Mera helped Blaire with her makeup, giving her a black smoky eye with a sharp winged liner and only a gloss to accent her naturally pink lips. Mera said using a nude or natural shade on the lips, when paired with dramatic eye makeup, drew more attention to the eyes, creating drama. Blaire wasn’t going to argue. She didn’t fool around enough with makeup to know the ins and outs of it all.

Mera also teased and fluffed Blaire’s hair, spraying it with so much hairspray it sent her into a coughing fit. It gave Blaire’s long, blonde hair a wild and windswept look.