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Prologue Something Sweet, Something Rotten
☾
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LIFE-ALTERING CHANGE felt like the end of everything, always coming when least expected and always scary to face. For Rhiannon Liu, it all started on the night that she didn't like to talk about. She wished it was a nice story; that something cool and dramatic happened to her, like meeting a celebrity or finding a new hobby to obsess over or getting a tattoo without telling her parents. But no, this was the story about the end of the life she knew. R.I.P. the teenage dream. Literally!Which wasn't nearly as exciting as tattoos, for obvious reasons...
The night began like any other — with her getting ready to go out with her best friend. It was a ritual for them. They would dance to her Super Trouper vinyl for a few sugar-coated moments, buckling with laughter under the pink and golden glow of the lamplight. They would waste time picking at their skin in the mirror and searching Rhiannon's collection of magazines for makeup ideas and holding up different dresses to their bodies like pageant stars, soaking in their reflections.
Rhiannon still looked normal then: her eyes were hazel, her hair black enough it would sometimes shine in the moonlight. A cloud of freckles was dusted across the bridge of her nose, much like her mom. The thing about her was that there was too much of her mom in her features and very little of her dad. People liked to remind her of this — of how she was the spitting image of her mom and equally as pretty, of how she bore little resemblance to her dad — but she was fine with that. Just like she was fine with going by her mom's maiden name, and not her dad's. It wasn't like she'd proudly wear the name of someone whose guts she hated.
"What about these?" she asked, holding up two hangers.
Lori lolled her head to the side in thought, then pointed at the pink dress with a lacy trim. "That one. It's so your color."
"Exactly what I was thinking." Rhiannon beamed. She felt so known. "But I don't think I have any jewelry to go with it."
"Take my locket. It'll match," Lori said, tugging the accessory off. It was a cute little thing. A heart of gold.
