Masqueraded Identities

Chapter Thirteen

Tay ripped it out of my hands and unfolded it. Her eyes scanned it, lighting up as they continued reading. She looked more excited than I did. Granted, it might be because she was hogging MY note and not letting me read it.

I snatched it out of her hand and read it.

My dear Phoebe,

Looks can be deceiving. Masks can hide a person's whole life story, the real them. A mask can be beautiful, but have an ugly person underneath them. It pleases me to know that your physical beauty matches that of your inner beauty.

I hope you feel that my mask is beautiful, as is the person behind the mask.

Love always,

Your masked lover

My mouth dropped open. It was so poetic, so perfect, so beautiful. It was so intense, and it instantly made me start pondering the meaning of all this. While it sounded as if he was referring to the masks we wore that night at the masquerade ball, the complex simplicity of the words made me wonder if there was a much deeper meaning.

I looked up at Tay, who stood there smiling. She was obviously amazed over it, as well.

“That was so cute!” she said. The way she said it reminded me of a mother seeing her daughter go off on her first date or something.

“Yeah,” I said, my mind far away. I should have been thinking of Mark. He was so sexy and artistic, after all. He spoke like this all the time. Yet, instead of thinking it was Mark, I couldn't help but think my masked stranger was someone so much better than Mark. Sure, Mark was awesome. I wouldn't be dating him if he wasn't. But in reality, who would you choose, the sexy, artsy type who stole your heart slowly, or the masked, beautiful stranger who captured your entire heart with one look?

I wanted so badly to believe my masked stranger was Mark, with the sexy, mysterious vibes his two notes had given me. But Mark hadn't given any clues to make me think so. No guy at this school really had. But the possibility of finding out who my Romeo was was a thrilling idea.

“I wish I made out with a sexy, masked guy!” Tay said in a high-pitched, fake, whiny voice.

I giggled, and said, “It's not that great.”

“How can you say that?! It's so sexy! Like, my ovaries exploded from the idea of it!”

I raised an eyebrow. “Shouldn't your ovaries explode from looking at hot guys? Or having them taken out surgically or something?”

She rolled her eyes. “You know what I meant!”

I laughed, and said, “It's nice, sure. It's sexy, yeah. But I don't know who he is! Here I am, with a boyfriend, while also in love with some masked guy I've never seen up until that night at the masquerade ball. I don't even know if I've seen my masked stranger around campus before.”

Tay nodded, and said, “That makes sense.”

We talked about it until the late hours of the night.

The next day, I was sitting in geography class, when suddenly a shadow appeared over me. I looked up to see Ryan, holding the same spider from the day before. The one I had thrown down the stairs.

“Hey,” he said, stroking it like it was a pet.

I snorted and rolled my eyes. “You're a freak.”

“Spaz.”

“Loser.”

Ryan put the spider in his jacket pocket, and faked being offended. “Oh, god. A loser? Do you really look at me so lowly? Oh, god, how will I live with myself?”