Chapters (51)
- Cover
- Dedication
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Acknowledgments
- P.S. Insights, Interviews & More . . .*
- About the Author
- About the Book
- Also by Alison Gaylin
- About the Publisher
He started laughing. And then he pulled off his baseball cap. His hair, close to shoulder-length before, was cut very short and bleached so blond it was nearly white. I still can’t get over it. He looks like a different boy entirely. “You’re next,” he said. He showed me the scissors. The box of drugstore hair dye in Darkest Copper. Gabriel’s in the bathroom right now, mixing up that dye. He says I’ll make a gorgeous redhead.
Love,
April Your Future Mom
5:00 P.M.
Dear Aurora Grace,
I am in a dressing room at Mervyn’s right now. I am trying on a pale green dress with spaghetti straps. I’m not crazy about it. It makes me look sickly white and it clashes with my hair (although you can’t really blame the dress for that. Everything clashes with my hair). But the good thing about it is, it fits under my clothes.
Gabriel is standing right outside the dressing room, and I am looking at myself in the mirror. My haircut is horrible—like I’ve got a copper bowl on my head. My skin is broken out from all the fast food I’ve been eating, and I’m so pale, like someone who’s been living in a cave her whole life. I don’t recognize my reflection, and I’m about to shoplift my own prom dress. Gabriel just asked how it’s going in here and I have no idea what to say.
I just took the picture of Jenny out of my jacket pocket. I am looking at her smile and her pink stuffed dog, Todd, in the hopes that it will make me feel stronger like it has in the past. But the only thing I can think of is that if Jenny were to see me now, she wouldn’t know who I was.
I don’t know how to steal. I’m going to get arrested for shoplifting, and the cops will find out who I really am, and Gabriel and I will be tried as murderers.
“We’re both in this together.” That’s another thing Gabriel says a lot, and he’s right about that. If someone pulls you into a room with them and locks the door and sets the room on fire, it’s still true that you’re both in it together.
Love,
Your Future Mom
6:00 P.M.
Dear Aurora Grace,
I didn’t get caught! I wore the dress out of the store under my biggest T-shirt and jeans and no one stopped me.