I can’t count on many things here, but I can count on that.
Rafael lends me some clothes, telling me I should “at least look nice” for my date. I’m uncomfortable in his suede jacket and too-big dress shirt, but I look better than when I’m in my giant hoodie.
Just not as comfortable.
“Be careful,” Rafael sighs, patting some wrinkles out of the shirt. “And don’t eat too much. And don’t get any stains on my jacket,” he adds, poking me in the collarbone.
I laugh. “Okay. I’ll try.”
He grips my shoulders. “Hey, but for real … be careful.”
I nod seriously. He lends me some money to catch a cab down to the village so I don’t have to walk.
I gave up trying to pay him back weeks ago now. The last time I tried to pay him for cigarettes, he pulled up a Wikipedia article about his family and spent half an hour jabbing a finger at a net-worth with more zeros at the end then I care to remember.
My German isn’t
very good, but the cab driver understands where I want to go well enough. I tip him and slide out of the backseat in front of the bar Olive specified.
I glance at my phone to check the time. It’s not quite six, but I pull a pack of cigarettes out of the pocket of Rafael’s jacket and fumble to light one. Might as well get ahead of schedule.
I’m surprisingly nervous. I’ve never been on a date, let alone with another girl. For a girl as straight as a pin, this is certainly not how I expected my first date to go.
I take a long drag on the cigarette after I light it. The familiar motion of smoking calms me down, even as the hot smoke raking down my throat makes me want to die. Hopefully this will make my breath so bad she won’t want to kiss me.
Of course I want my disguise to be convincing, but even I have my limits … and actually seducing a girl from the neighboring school is where I draw the line. If I wasn’t grateful for the cover her interest in me has provided, I’d be offended.
I’m still leaning against the wall by the door when an extremely nice, shiny Audi pulls into the parking lot of the bar. I can see through the windshield that it’s Olive.
Even if the dean insists otherwise, it’s pretty obvious that the girls’ school has the same affinity for rich patrons as Bleakwood. In the end, beneath the sparkling facades, they’re one and the same.
I pull the butt of the cigarette out of my mouth and flick it onto the sidewalk below me, grinding it out as I watch Olive out of the corner of my eye. She slides out of the driver’s seat in a sleek black coat that does little to conceal the revealing dress beneath it before walking toward me in heels that I know I’d break my neck trying to wear. Her blonde hair is curled and shiny even in the light of the streetlamps. She’s pulled it into a half-up, half-down sort of thing, making her look like some sort of elven princess—or a vampire one—as her lips are painted dark red.
She’s more of a woman than I could ever hope to be.
No wonder she can only see the boy I’m pretending to be. Compared to her, no one would ever suspect me of being anything else.
“Alex!” she chirps, and I look up, pretending to just notice her now.
“Hey, Olive,” I say, hoping I sound surprised rather than as nervous as I actually am. I don’t know what I was thinking, agreeing to this.
I already know whatever happens tonight is only going to lead to more trouble for me.
And yet … here I still am.
She strides up to me, hips swaying, and wraps one arm around mine. I stifle the urge to flinch away, but she notices how I stiffen at her touch. Unless I’m mistaken, I swear a secretive smile tugs at the corner of her mouth.
“What do you know about the village?” she asks, nodding down the darkening street.
“Not much.” I shrug and glance at the bar behind us. “I know that this is a bar.”
She laughs and tugs on me to start walking, but to my surprise, we walk right past the bar’s door and continue down the street.
“Sure,” she says, a bit of reluctance in her voice as she agrees. “But that’s hardly the kind of place for a proper first date.”
Proper first date.
My throat goes a little dry at the sound of it.