“You’re not making cocktails over there, are you?” Helene crowed, a giant blush brush in her hand. “If so, can you make me one, too, honey?”

Madeline grinned. “Sure!”

The doorbell rang again. “Sutton, can you get that?” Charlotte asked, her eyes closed as Helene swept sparkly silver powder over her lids.

Emma wandered down the long hallway lined with modernist photographs of cacti, shadows, and cloudless skies, and pulled at the ring-shaped knob of the huge door. When she saw the two girls on the porch, a hot, acidic feeling welled in her stomach.

“Hello there, Sutton,” Gabby said, pushing past her. A garment bag was draped over her arm, and she wore her orange silk Homecoming Court sash across her T-shirt.

“What happened with your car? I don’t see it in the driveway,” Lili chirped, clomping into the hallway. She had her sash on, too.

Don’t you already know? Emma wanted to ask, thinking about the lurking figure—or figures—behind Burger King. Perhaps the Twitter Twins had taken Sutton to get her car out on the thirty-first, too. Maybe they even knew where it had ended up.

But instead, Emma told the Twins the same lie she’d told the other girls: “There was a mix-up. Those idiots at the impound lot gave the car to someone else instead. But the cops are on it.”

“Hey, bitches!” Charlotte called from the kitchen before either twin could respond. “Come in and make yourself a drink. We’re in a parent-free zone!”

“I don’t count!” Helene let out a chuckle, which quickly devolved into a coughing fit.

Emma trailed after the Twitter Twins as they glided down the hall. “What are they doing here?” she murmured to Madeline as she crossed into the kitchen.

Madeline took a big swig of her rum and Diet Coke. “It was the least we could do after our botched prank.”

“They should leave,” Emma blurted.

Madeline wiped the condensation from her drink with a pink cocktail napkin and let out a sigh. “Sutton, don’t be like that. It’s not like we’re going to ask them to be part of the Lying Game. Chill.”

“Are you talking about us, Sutton?” Gabby practically shouted from the kitchen table, fiddling with her phone. Her voice grated on Emma’s nerves, and she felt her fists ball against her sides.

“Only good things,” Madeline trilled back. She squeezed Emma’s wrist. “Just be nice, okay?”

Charlotte jumped off the chair. Everyone oohed and ahhed over her dramatic Cleopatra eyes, her chiseled cheekbones, and perfect alabaster skin. Madeline climbed into the chair next, topping off her drink with another tip of the flask.

“So, girls.” She looked at the Twitter Twins. “Do you have dates for tonight?”

“We’re both going stag,” Gabby said. Her thumbs dashed over the keys on her phone at breakneck speed. “But I have my eye on someone.”