Page 59 of Stardusted

I’d at least won the argument about the shoes. I could walk in my flat black ankle boots. Amelia’s deft hand with makeup didn’t hurt my look tonight, either. Dramatic smoky eyes, razor-sharp eyeliner, and fire-engine red lipstick. Way more glam than I usually wore. But I hadn’t wiped it off.

I contemplated the girl in the mirror. Maybe it wasn’t a bad thing to look…different for a night. Tobesomeone different. Someone not dealing with all the insanity I had been.

Robots and aliens and whatever the hell was happening with my hand.

I tugged the dress’s sleeve down over my arm. With all the marks hidden, I could almost convince myself it hadn’t happened. Almost. Not quite. The buzzing panic had dulled with time, but the jitters were still there. So was the compulsion to check over my shoulder.

Whathadhappened, though—I’d come to terms with one big truth: there was nothing I could do aboutanyof this right now. I couldn’t change the mess I’d stumbled into. Nor could I explain it. Not really.

Notyet.

I could start looking for thewhy. Solving the mystery.

And tonight, I was safe enough here, in the crowded dance club, wearing this pretty dress and a full face of makeup, dancing with my best friend.

Besides, if aliens were going to stage a full-on invasion, they could’ve already done it. I’d seen those robots. We wouldn’t stand a chance.

They were clearly here for a different reason. And if I was lucky, that reason had broken into a million pieces when that artifact had dissolved.

Really, that’d be the best-case scenario?—

“You sure you’re okay, Rae?” Amelia’s concerned tone cut through my thoughts.

Too late, I realized I’d been staring blankly at myself. I blinked and met her eyes in the mirror instead. Her expression was uncharacteristically serious, her mouth compressed.

She stepped closer, lowering her voice and nudging me with her elbow. “You’ve been out of it tonight.”

When I tried to smile and failed, she turned her attention to her hair, raking her fingers through her curls. Her shoulders drew tight though, before she said, “I know yesterday probably shook you up. You’ve been under a lot of stress these last few days, with work. Your shitty car. Not to mention midterms. You know if you need to talk or if you need help with…well, anything.” She grimaced and dropped her arm, flicking an uncomfortable glance past me. “Even, like, money for Faith or something…”

My jaw dropped open in surprise. “A?—”

“I know,” she cut in, rolling her eyes. “I’m just letting you know I’m here.”

I forced my mouth to close. She’d offered me money. Amelianeverflaunted her family’s wealth. In fact, she hated talking about it. With a passion.

She’d told me before that even acknowledging it felt like bragging. That life, those people, were plastic and fake and far from who she wanted to be. If she could’ve changed her last name, she would have. In One Willow and Maryville, and in circles where that mattered,Delarosabasically translated to dollar signs.

It had been a long time since she’d tried to help me like that. Probably since I’d been applying for scholarships. She’d tried to pay for my schooling from her own trust fund, and she’d been just as awkward about it then. I hadn’t let her, of course. I wasn’t sure which one of us was more uncomfortable with the entire thing.

But tonight, she’d offered anyway. In case it could help.

My heart gave a thick, hollow thud. She really was the best friend a girl could ask for. And I was hidingeverythingfrom her.

I fisted my marked hand in my dress and forced my tight throat to work in a swallow. God, for one heart-wrenching second, I wanted to spill it all. The school encounter, the strange tablet, the lights that drove me off the road. The internet rabbit holes. The creeping, exhausting fear.

Iwantedto.

It all bubbled up, a flood I didn’t know I’d been drowning in. My world was fracturing. And with it, I couldfeelthe crack forming between Amelia and me, too, this widening chasm in a friendship that had always been bulletproof.

But then I imagined saying it out loud…

Aliens.

It sounded too ridiculous. Too sci-fi. Toocrazy.

Even Amelia, who knew me better than anyone, would worry I’d lost my mind. And honestly? I wasn’t sure I hadn’t. Not completely.

I had to wait. I needed proof. Something solid. Maybe even an explanation—or at least a somewhat plausible theory.