Free The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff

me to come get you?"
    I rolled onto my back and squeezed my eyes shut. "I don't think so."
    Roswell sighed. "Come on, you don't want to miss this. 'Tis the season for girls to dress like hookers. We'll catch up with the twins, get a little socially lubricated. I have this feeling that Alice is particularly looking forward to your company."
    I scrubbed my hand over my eyes. "I'm not ditching out on you. Okay, I am . But not like that. Jesus, what time is it?"
    "Almost nine."
    On the other end of the line, a door opened and Roswell sighed. I could hear his mom in the background, telling him that someone needed to feed the dog and it had better be him. He said something back, but it was muffled, and I heard her laugh from somewhere far away.
    The idea came to me that I'd gotten up for a little in the morning and that I'd had a really awful conversation with my mom. The whole thing was like a bad dream, though, and I couldn't pull all the threads together.
    Then Roswell was back, talking into the receiver. "Is everything okay?"
    "It's fine. I'm just not into going out right now. Not tonight."
    After I hung up, I put the pillow over my head and was just starting to drift back into a pleasant state of oblivion when the phone rang again.
    This time, I checked the caller ID but didn't recognize the number. I answered anyway, thinking it could be someone from school, calling about homework or something else just as improbable. I was thinking, but not admitting, that it could be Alice.
    If I'd had any trouble recognizing Tate's voice, the lack of formal greeting would have tipped me off.
    "Mackie," she said, "I need you to listen to me."
    I took a deep breath and flopped back down on the bed. "How did you get my number?"
    "If you didn't want me calling, you should have told Danny not to give it to me. Now, where can we meet, because I really need to talk to you."
    "I can't," I said.
    "Yes, you can. Okay, fine. I'm coming to your house. Are you at home? I'll be at your house in ten minutes, so you'd better be home."
    " No! --I mean, I won't be here. I'm going to this party with Roswell and I'm just about to leave."
    "Party," she said. Her voice sounded cold, and I could picture the look on her face suddenly--this weird mix of frustration and hurt. I had a miniature daydream, just a half second, where I imagined touching her, running the ball of my thumb over her cheek in an attempt to make her stop looking so sad, but it guttered out the next second when she said, "Something is disgustingly wrong, and you know it, and you're going to a party? You're unbelievable."
    "I don't know anything , okay? I'm hanging up now."
    "Mackie, you are such a--"
    "Goodbye," I said, and hit End .
    Then I called Roswell back.
    He answered on the first ring, sounding easy and cheerful. "What's up? Are you calling to wish me luck in my quest to rescue Stephanie from the tyranny of clothing?"
    "Is it okay if I come with you?"
    "Yeah, that's fine. Not with the clothing thing, though, right? I mean, that's kind of a one-man job."
    I laughed and was relieved to find that I sounded almost normal.
    Roswell went on in a fake-conversational voice. "So, you remember that I called you fifteen minutes ago, right? And during the course of that conversation, I asked if you wanted to go to a party and get chemically altered and possibly ravish Alice--I mean, I think I really sold the ravishing--but you said no? I mean, you do remember that, right?"
    I cleared my throat. "I changed my mind."
    He was quiet on the line for a long time. Then he said, "You sound like shit, though. Do you feel okay?"
    "No, but it doesn't matter."
    "Mackie. Are you sure you actually want to go to a party?"
    I took a deep breath. "All I want right now is to get out of the house."
    After I hung up, I closed my eyes and tried to get my head together. Then I rolled off the bed and stood up. If I was going to go with Roswell, I needed to do something about the rumpled state of my hair and also put on a