It doesn’t come as much of a surprise to Alex Ryan when she finds herself falling head over heels for Connie O’Reilly. How could she not? There isn’t a person alive who wouldn’t be drawn to the irresistibly beautiful and charming Connie. It seems impossible she could reciprocate -- not when Alex is so awkward, so timid, so very much a girl -- until what starts as a sweet friendship blossoms into something so much more than Alex could have dreamed of. Alex knows what they have is a momentary thing, not enough to be called forever. Connie’s the most popular girl in the school, wealthy and admired. She’s going to go to Trinity, maybe marry a lawyer. She’s going to have everything Alex could never give her. She isn’t stupid, after all. Status and reputation might mean nothing to Alex, but to Connie they are everything. The only out-lesbian they know is ridiculed by everyone she meets, and it’ll be a cold day in hell before Connie lets that be her. But when rumours spark and new faces enter the picture, they’re both set to discover that, while it may be easy to walk away, it’s a lot harder to move on.

The Night Belongs to Us

“Stop pretending you don’t like it,” she muttered through gritted teeth. She whacked me with a cushion. “I know you do.”


“It just doesn’t make any sense. Why wouldn’t she look in the cup? Like, it’s very clearly blue.”


“You like Star Trek,Ryan. Don’t complain about things being unrealistic.”


“Star Wars. And that’s science fiction, it’s supposed to be unrealistic!”


She nestled up close to me a few minutes later and rested her head on my shoulder. I began to toy with her curls distractedly, twisting them around in my fingers. “What do you think of her?” she asked, nodding at the screen.


I shrugged. “I dunno. She’s a good actress.” I kept my eyes on the screen, glued to Winona Ryder, and tried not to think of all the times I caught myself staring open-mouthed at her picture in magazines, on billboards.


Chapter 27