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was.
    Pretending to ignore Marcus, Lorraine sat Gloria down on a banquette along the wall. “Now remember, nobody’s forcing you to do this. You can always come back another day after—”
    “I can?”
    “Well, not really. But imagine that you have a choice here.”
    “You’re right, I can’t live another day with my hair like this,” Gloria said, twisting her long coppery braid around her finger. “I’m sick of being my parents’ perfect little girl.”
    It was frustrating to hear Gloria complain about a life most girls would die for. With her peaches-and-cream beauty, immaculate grades, and angelic singing voice, Gloria had always been
that girl
, the one other parents wished their daughters could be like. But Glo also defied the principles of girl jealousy—it was nearly impossible to hate her. Gloria made life feel like a glass of champagne: sparkly and festive and luxurious. And she was completely unaware of how guilelessly charming she was.
    That is, she had been until Sebastian Grey had comealong. All of Chicago was celebrating their engagement as if it were some Hollywood movie, complete with ball gowns and horse-drawn carriages.
Boring
.
    Lorraine was happy for Gloria, but …
    She’d always been Gloria’s one and only—they did
everything
together. But after Gloria started dating Bastian, she began to cancel her weekly movie dates with Lorraine—a tradition for years—because she “couldn’t get out of” a country club dinner or the latest gathering with Sebastian’s fellow bankers. And then she wasn’t allowed to go with Lorraine to society parties because Sebastian didn’t approve of her being “surrounded by roving bachelors.” If Gloria was already slipping out of her life
now
, what would happen after she actually got married? Lorraine feared she would be left without a best friend. Completely alone.
    The week Gloria and Bastian got engaged—just before their senior year began—was the week Lorraine bobbed her hair. She was the first member of their class to go through with it, clinching her place as baby-vamp-in-residence. Lorraine could
perhaps
see a correlation between the events (the engagement came first, the bob came after), but so what? It had given the girls something else to talk about besides Gloria’s fat diamond. Gloria didn’t
always
have to be the one in the spotlight, did she?
    Still, she and Gloria were like sisters, and Lorraine could sense that something wasn’t quite right. Why else would Gloria be so determined to cut her hair, knowing full wellBastian would disapprove? Lorraine knew that, as her best friend, she shouldn’t let Gloria go through with the bob. But another, more sinister part of her was driven to push Gloria just to see what would happen.
    “You’re not the only one brave enough to have your hair bobbed, Raine.”
    “You couldn’t be more right,” Lorraine agreed, patting Gloria’s hand. “But I’m also not the one who has to sit in the same room tonight as your fiancé, your mother, and, lest we forget, your freak show of a cousin.”
    “Ughhhh, don’t remind me!” Gloria groaned, slumping deeper in her seat.
    “What is the princess ughing about now?” Marcus walked over to where the girls sat, whipping off his smock and jutting out his newly shaven jaw. “Ladies, what do you think?”
    “Not as if you had anything there to begin with,” Gloria teased.
    Marcus bent down so his cheeks were at her eye level. “Go ahead, you know you want to feel.”
    Gloria caressed his cheek with the back of her hand. “Oh, Marcus, could you be any more of a cake-eater?”
    Lorraine watched and felt a pang of jealousy. Why did Gloria get to have both Bastian
and
Marcus? Wasn’t one enough?
    “You’ve got to feel this, Raine,” Gloria said, taking Lorraine’s fingers and guiding them across Marcus’s jaw. “Baby smooth, right?”
    It was a simple movement, really, but Lorraine felt as though she were about to explode. She was touching