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to scare her.
    She was about to turn eighteen.
    How could she still be fighting such an adolescent malady as acne?
    Of all nights to be sporting a big fat ugly white pimple.
    Sabrina Merryweather had invited her over for a party. Her parents were away on business, and she had secured a keg from her college-age brother and was inviting a few of her closest girlfriends along with an impressive selection of boys for an intimate party in her backyard.
    And looking back at her through the mirror was Qua-simoto’s frizzy-haired gawky younger sister.
    She couldn’t go.
    Not looking like this.
    She had already lied to her mother and told her it was an innocent slumber party. They were going to the Criterion Theatre to see that new Alicia Silverstone movie Clueless . It was supposed to be a hoot. But that was just the cover story. No boys were interested in seeing a romantic comedy loosely based on a Jane Austen novel.
    Why did she have to lie anyway?
    She was on the verge of adulthood.
    But as long as she was under her mother’s roof, she had to follow her annoying rules. Hence the elaborate girls’ movie night and slumber party yarn.
    She had gone to so much trouble concocting the fake scenario; she couldn’t bow out of the real one now. And Sabrina seemed so happy when she told her she would come. Graduation had seemed to melt away the friction between them. Hayley wasn’t actually certain what had caused their rift that began sophomore year, but she was relieved it was finally coming to an end.
    They had been best friends in grade school. Slumber parties at each other’s houses. Science partners in eighth grade. Sat together on the school bus and shared math notes. But when they reached high school, Hayley had felt Sabrina pulling away by Christmas of freshman year. By sophomore year, the mean girl cliques took root and that’s when Sabrina officially froze her out, sacrificed their years long friendship in order to secure her own place with the “in crowd”, the fashion conscious, backbiting, ostracizing, rumor spreading, name-calling girls who stick together in order to feel a sense of security, a sense of identity, a sense of superiority. Sabrina had always been insecure for as long as Hayley could remember and she craved that kind of acceptance, and she was willing to do whatever it took to become one of them—even if it meant losing Hayley as her most trusted friend. It devastated Hayley, and it took her a long time to trust again. But now as their high school years were coming to a close, Sabrina seemed to be holding out an olive branch with this invitation. Maybe she wanted bygones to be bygones.
    No, she couldn’t disappoint Sabrina and be a no show.
    She would just have to live with the zit.
    Her mother was out shopping at the grocery store so it was now or never. She slipped past her younger brother, Randy, who was stretched out on the couch watching Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (she would later learn he was more interested in star Kevin Sorbo’s biceps than the rip-roaring sword fighting action sequences). He never even noticed her leaving.
    It was a short walk to Sabrina’s house and it was getting dark by the time she arrived. The lights were off in the house.
    She rang the bell.
    No answer.
    She rang it again.
    She stood outside five minutes.
    Then it was ten.
    Twenty.
    Thirty.
    She sat down on the steps, folded her hands, and checked the zit on her face.
    It was still there.
    After two hours, it slowly dawned on her that Sabrina wasn’t coming home.
    And there was no party.
    Hayley dreaded going back to her house on Snow Street.
    Her mother would be full of questions.
    Where was Sabrina?
    Why didn’t she call if she needed to cancel?
    Should I call her parents?
    Hayley was embarrassed.
    Humiliated.
    She knew deep down that Sabrina and her gal pals Nykki and Ivy had probably just gotten a better offer.
    And whatever it was, they weren’t about to