Chapter one
Masked Lovers
Adopted Siblings
“Asshole,” I snap. Iend the call and toss my phone on the bed before dramatically falling back onto the mattress. “I can’t fucking believe he just dumped me.”
“Bella, baby. Josh was trash,” Ashley says. “He was probably fucking that one girl you caught him sexting last week.”
“Probably,” I sigh.
“Now you can come with us to the party,” Beth grins.
“The masked party? Why do you want me to go to this so badly? It sounds like a terrific way to catch an STI,” I laugh.
“Oh, chill. Live a little,” she laughs. “All you do is show up in a full-face mask and you'll get paired based on the test I made you fill out.”
“So… speed fucking?” I ask, sitting up.
“Yep. Afterward, if you both decide to take off your mask, then you get to reveal yourselves. If both of you do not agree, then you walk away and never know who they are.”
“So, if they’re trash, I don’t have to know?” I ask.
“Exactly.”
“Alright. I’ll go,” I say after a second. “I don’t have a mask though.”
“I have another one,” she says. She jumps up from the bed and races over to her bag to pull out a black mask. It looks like a cat, and it’s covered in glitter.
“Dude. If I choose not to reveal to them, they’re still gonna have that glitter all over them,” I laugh.
“No. It doesn’t come off,” she says as she rubs her fingers across the glitter to prove that it doesn’t. “Pair it with that black body-con dress you just got.”
“That would look good,” I admit.
“Also, you just dyed your hair brown. No one has ever seen you with brown hair before so even less of a chance of anyone knowing who you are. New clothes, new hair and no one knows you’re coming,” she says happily.
“What if I end up getting paired with someone I know?” I ask.
“By the time you find out, you’ll have already fucked them and liked it,” she says with a shrug.
“That’s true. Well… let me get dressed. It’s soon, right?”
“Right! Get dressed. It starts in a few hours. We can stop for food on the way,” she says.
We are sitting in Beth’s car eating chicken nuggets when my phone rings. When I pick up my phone, I see it’s my older brother, Cory. He has been gone for months for his job. He’s a security dataanalyst for a tech company. He was sent to California to help open one of their new locations. He’s five years older than me, but even at twenty-five, he still makes time for me. I just wish I got to see more of him.
“Hey, Cory,” I say before taking a bite of my food.
“Hey. Where are you?” he asks.
“Out with Beth. Where are you?”
“At the house.”
“Oh my God! Really? When did you get back?” I ask excitedly.
“Just now, actually. Where are Mom and Dad?”