Nothing except her videos and her platform. She created those on her own, and they meant everything to her. But Golden Rule had been an illusion too.

Jewel had her number, all right, and seemed hell-bent on pushing those buttons until they broke. Nicole closed her eyes. Focusing on her breathing, she pushed the feelings of despair always lurking at her edges back into their corners.

She would not let Jewel get the best of her.

She would not let Jewel make her feel desperate too.

Leaning into her calm, Nicole said, “I know you’re used to people throwing themselves at you, doing whatever you want, but the world doesn’t actually work that way. I’m not going to disrupt my entire life because you say so.”

“Maybe you didn’t hear me the first time,” Jewel said. “I hate repeating myself, but I’ll do it just this once for you. I need you. There’s no Golden Weekend X without the Reigning Superstar of Golden Rule: The Six-Foot, Plus-Size Beauty Queen. That article was brilliant. I’d noticed you before—it would have been impossible not to—but that article sealed it for me.”

Nicole rolled her eyes. A few weeks ago, a journalist had contacted her to do a feature and that was the title they went with. The reporter asked if she had ever modeled before (most people did, really), and she’d made the mistake of telling him about the one local pageant she had entered and won. But the reporter had also christened her the “wildly unpredictable and talented love child of Kristen Wiig and Eddie Murphy” and called her impressions “sublime,” so she decided to forgive him. If her sketches landed her an audition for SNL, she’d give him her firstborn child.

The only downside to Golden Rule was it paid in social capital. She couldn’t survive on exposure, but she’d invested in the app to create a highlight reel as a means to sell her one-woman show.

Jewel spoke slowly, enunciating each word with careful, measured precision. “What will it take to make you say yes?”

Outside, the sun shone on the trees and grass. Cars drove up and down the street. Kids ran around the small playground.

And inside, Nicole stared at the picture of her parents, phone pressed to her face, heart beating quietly inside her chest.

STREETCARBOUVIER

Stella watched the invitation from Jewel Van Hanen in stunned silence.

There was no way in hell her parents would let her go to Golden Weekend X. The name alone suggested debauchery of the highest order.

“I have to convince them. I have to. There simply isn’t an alternative.” Stella rolled off her bed and began pacing the length of her bedroom. “What do you think, Asriel? Should I go for it?”