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Prologue

VERONICA

No one had ever told asms

Like, I had a sense, froave me the complete picture How they were tricky How you had to be patient and vulnerable Naked in a lot of ways—more than just, you know, actually naked No one told ing up the incline of a roller coaster Of soe of a cliff

Really, what no one toldthey were

After having soht, to be exact), it was literally all I could think about Even in this stupid dress with the suffocating shapewear and the itchy netting The boning in the bodice that dug into my armpits and didn’t let me breathe The way asm department—were squished and flattened

All of this should be awful But it wasn’t Not really

Because it was ement party

And all I could think about was sex

And Clayton

“You didn’t lose the ten pounds you were supposed to, did you?”sniff going at full speed

“Nope,” I answered

“Veronica,” she said and then sighed, theto try”

“Was I?”

Clearly, while I’d been thinking about sex,about the ten pounds she wanted e to tell her to just calasot me was another five

But this hat she’d done to my half-sister, Sabrina She’d tried to bully and shame her into a size zero The woirl eat bread Or be happy

I would never understand howmother to Jennifer They were diametrically opposed

“Tonight…” Jennifer said, straightening herself up so she looked like the stick that had been stuck up her ass She wore a blue dress that hugged her body so closely I could practically see her hip bones through the material “…is important”