Free Birthday Vicious by Melissa de La Cruz Page A

more boring than good taste.
    So now she was slumped on an ivory suede sofa, sending IMs, listening to the thumping in-store soundtrack, and watching Ashley and Lili wander in and out of changing rooms, asking her opinion.
    She turned her attention to her iPhone. New IM: Ned wanted her to come home. He’d just bought the latest version of Dark Void for his Wii, something he’d been obsessing about all week. A. A. sighed—she had a different kind of obsessing to deal with right now, and that was the Ashley vs. Lili fashion smackdown, round five hundred sixty-four.
    Those two had never seen an outfit they didn’t want to rip off each other’s back and claim as their own. They both emerged simultaneously from their respective changing rooms, leaving A. A. to act—as usual—as fashion referee.
    â€œThat’s way too similar to this dress,” Ashley told Lili, frowning at Lili’s cascading ruffles. “You don’t want to look like a copycat, do you?”
    â€œBut chocolate brown looks so much more striking on me, don’t you think, A. A.?” Ever since her number-one rating on AshleyRank, Lili wasn’t going down without a fight.
    â€œI think the dresses are pretty different,” A. A. said, but she could tell Ashley wasn’t convinced. Ashley picked at the ruching on her dress, a discontented look clouding her face. “And anyway, Ash—you’re only going to wear this for half an hour, right? It doesn’t matter if it kind of  looks like Lili’s dress.”
    â€œActually, it kind of does,” snapped Ashley. She stood on her tiptoes and stared at her reflection in the full-length gilt mirror propped against one wall. “It’s my party, after all!”
    â€œYeah,” said Lili with a sigh, bunching her jet-black hair into a ponytail and twisting in front of the mirror,checking out the neckline of her dress. “What’s going on with the party, exactly? Any new developments?”
    â€œNo. Why, should there be?” Ashley turned on one stockinged foot and marched back into her changing room, yanking the velvet curtain shut.
    Lili raised an eyebrow at A. A., as if to say, I told you so . On the way out of the restaurant last night, Lili had asked her if she’d noticed anything odd about Ashley’s behavior. A. A. just shrugged, but now that she’d had time to think about it, maybe Lili was right.
    Ashley was acting a little secretive. Maybe she was just sick of incessantly going over every detail of the party. Or maybe, more likely, she didn’t want anyone to know some of the big surprises she had planned. Not even the other Ashleys. Huh! A. A. crossed her long legs and picked up her iPhone again. Let Ashley have her secrets. As long as one of them wasn’t “Ashley and Tri get back together and start grossing everyone out with their lovey-dovey act,” A. A. really didn’t care.
    Ashley re-emerged, peering out to make sure Lili wasn’t hovering.
    â€œWhat do you think?” Ashley asked, doing a mock catwalk stroll toward the mirror and then striking a pose. Her dress was a stunning turquoise blue, witha jeweled neckline. “Is this drop-dead gorgeous or what?”
    â€œOmigod, it was made for you!” A loud, too-cheery voice announced that Lauren had arrived.
    â€œWhat kept you?” Ashley demanded.
    Lauren’s laugh was shrill. She heaped her handbag and coat on the couch next to A. A. and began talking too fast. “Oh, you know—the decorator forgot to bring the right swatches, so it was a total mess . . .” But she stopped talking when she noticed that Ashley was no longer listening and had wandered over to the clothing racks across the room to check out the selection there.
    A. A. wished Lauren wouldn’t gush so much. She was one of the gang now—well, sort of, and maybe not forever. Although lately it seemed like Lauren was sort of