Devon couldn’t shut up about the invite for the next ten minutes. She even took a picture to show her boyfriend. She calculated the cost of such an elaborate invite, and said it had to be at least five Gs if not more. Kimmie had been surprised by Devon’s interest. Devon rarely got personal with her, mostly because her mother had specifically ordered Devon not to become friends with her daughter. “Kimmie needs a French tutor and positive role model for the nights when I’m out late, not a BFF, got it?”

Kimmie couldn’t help but brag a little, telling Devon about Jaylen’s famous father and his many celebrity friends. Though if she was being honest, she had no idea exactly what an old-school ’90s hip-hop party would be like. She’d never listened to much rap; Kimmie’s musical tastes were more along the lines of Lorde, Billie Eilish, and Lana Del Rey. Later that night, Lolly tried to explain the significance of ’90s hip-hop to her, which made Kimmie roll her eyes. She knew her sister worshipped at the altar of Taylor Swift, and she only knew about “old-school rap” because Steven loved it. Kimmie once caught Lolly making a “hip-hop terminology” cheatsheet and she told her she’d get better grades if she applied even half as much effort to her homework. Lolly deadpanned: “Bih please, the right bf is way more important than school.”

Lolly later told her that a lot of girls were planning on dressing like Fly Girls, which was yet another ’90s term Kimmie needed explained to her. Lolly was of course horrified at the idea of girls showing up to a party wearing jeans and high tops and informed Kimmie that she was going to wear a dress, and she should do the same.

“Make sure it’s short. This may be the only chance to dress like a total ho-bag until Halloween.”

Kimmie thought of this moment now as she stared at herself in the mirror at Bergdorf’s. She wondered if Vronsky would approve of her new Zimmermann dress. She stared at her reflection, annoyed she hadn’t made it another inch shorter when she had the chance three days ago. The saleslady recognized Kimmie’s look of doubt and quickly suggested that perhaps what the dress needed were some sexy new heels to go with it. Relief flooded through Kimmie. That was exactly what she needed.