Rachel was wearing a latex Halloween mask. It was the kind of mask you pull over your entire head, with eyes cut out and a slit at the mouth and two holes at the nostrils. The hair was molded onto the rubber and painted yellow. The skin of the rubber face was painted light peach, and the thing had a smirking red mouth and painted-on movie star eyebrows and eyelashes.

But Archie knew who it was supposed to be. It was supposed to be Gretchen Lowell.

The arousal Archie had felt a moment before evaporated, replaced by revulsion.

“Take it off,” Archie spat.

Rachel just stood there, head cocked, the horrible Halloween mask obscuring her features. Archie could hear her breathing under the rubber. “Why?” she asked, sounding hurt. Her stance shifted. She dropped her hands from her hips.

She’d done this for him, Archie realized. It hadn’t been some bad joke. She’d thought he’d like it. “It’s not funny,” Archie said. The mask was grotesque. His eyes went to the floor, his knees, anywhere else. “It doesn’t even look like her,” Archie said. “You look more like her without it.”

She always liked it when he told her that she looked like Gretchen. He knew she took it as a compliment.

Rachel lifted her hands and peeled the mask up over her head. Her hair was messy, her face pink. Her lipstick had smudged. “You think I look like her?” she asked hopefully. She tossed the mask on the floor. Her eyebrows lifted. “Tell me how I look like her,” she said.

Archie looked at where the mask lay on the floor, inside out, pink and glistening, like something fetal, then back at Rachel.

She bit her lip, looking at him with anticipation, waiting. She had resumed her provocative stance, a hand on each hip, one leg turned out slightly.

Archie would never understand women.

“You have similar hair,” he said flatly. He looked her up and down. “Your breasts are a similar shape and size.” He reconsidered that. “But your areolas are smaller,” he said. “You’re roughly the same height. She’s a little taller.” He knew exactly by how much. “Two inches taller,” he said. “Your face shape is the same. Her nose is slightly longer. You have similar mouths. But you have capped teeth. Her teeth are natural. You both have blue eyes, but Gretchen’s are lighter, with a darker blue ring at the edge of the iris. Her eyes are a little larger and farther apart than yours. You have beautiful skin, like she does. But you’re tanner. Her skin is very pale, almost translucent. It feels smoother than your skin does. And you smell different. She always smells flowery to me.”

He looked up at Rachel defiantly. He expected her to be offended. He wanted her to be offended.

Her mouth was slightly open. “You did it,” she said softly. “You slept with her.”