Rights were preemptively acquired by Lionsgate, and a film is currently in development.
Read on below, and pre-order the novel ahead of its June 5 releasehere.
The first party Lavinia takes Louise to, she makes Louise wear one of her dresses.
Credit: Doubleday
I found it on the street, Lavinia says.
Its from the twenties.
Someone just left it there.
Can you believe it?
They probably just thought it was trash.
She puckers her lips.
She puts on lipstick.
Andthatis the problem with people.
Nobody understands what things mean.
Lavinia fiddles with Louises collar.
Lavinia ties the sash around Louises waist.
Anyway, the second I saw itChrist!
I wanted tooh, I just wanted togenuflect, you know?
Kiss the grounddo Catholics kiss the ground, or is that just sailors?
Lavinia puts powder on Louises cheeks.
Likeits all so fingperfect, right?
Lavinia shoves the lace in Louises face.
You could fall in love, says Lavinia, wearing a dress like that.
So you know what I did?
Lavinia gives Louise a beauty mark with her eyebrow pencil.
I stripped down to my underwearno, thats a lie; I took my bra off, too.
Lavinia does Louises buttons.
Now Lavinia is laughing.
Stick with me long enough, she says, and I promisethings will justhappento you.
Like they happen to me.
Lavinia does Louises hair.
At first she tries to do it, like shes done her own: savagely and exuberantly tendriled.
Lavinia puts her hands on Louises cheeks.
She kisses her on the forehead.
God, says Lavinia.
You look so beautiful.
I cant stand it.
I want to kill you.
Lets take a picture.
She takes out her phone.
She makes it a mirror.
Lets stand against the peacock feathers, Lavinia says.
Louise doesnt know how.
Lavinia waves the camera.
Everybody knows how to pose.
Just, you know: Arch your back a little.
Pretend youre a silent-film star.
Thereno, no, chin down.
Lavinia moves Louises chin.
She takes their photo.
The last ones good, Lavinia says.
She turns the phone to Louise.
Which filter do you like?
Louise doesnt recognize herself.
Her hair is sleek.
Her lips are dark.
Her cheekbones are high.
She looks like shes not even real.
Lets go with Mayfair.
It makes your cheekbones look shiny.
Lavinia has captioned the photo: alike in indignity.
Louise thinks this is very witty.
Louise thinks:I am not myself.
Thank God,Louise thinks.Thank God.
**
They cab it to Chelsea.
Its New Years Eve.
Louise has known Lavinia for ten days.
They have been the best ten days of her life.
Days dont go like this for Louise.
Louises days go like this:
She wakes up.
She wishes she hasnt.
Chances are: Louise hasnt slept much.
Louise invariably hangs up.
Louise weighs one hundred fourteen and a half pounds on a period day.
She puts on her makeup very carefully.
She draws on her brows.
She checks her roots.
She checks her bank balance (sixty-four dollars, thirty-three cents).
She covers up the flaws in her skin.
She looks in the mirror.
She makes herself smile.
Her therapist told her to do that, too.
Louise walks the twenty minutes to the subway.
She spends the ride into Manhattan staring at her reflection in the darkened subway windows.
Louise goes to work as a barista, or at GlaZam, or to teach an SAT lesson.
She likes lessons best.
Not that most people ever check these things.
She looks in her phone-mirror, a few times, to confirm shes still there.
She checks Tinder, even though she hardly responds to anybody she matches with.
She sips her drink very, very slowly.
They say if you havent made it in New York by thirty, you never will.
This is how they meet:
Lavinias sister, Cordelia, is sixteen.
Shes at boarding school in New Hampshirenot Devonshire Academy but one of its rivals.
Shes home for Christmas break.
Their parents live in Paris.
Lavinia found one of Louises SAT tutor?
Im afraid I dont know a damn thing, Lavinia says over the phone.
And I know Ill corrupt herunless somebody else is there to stop me.
You know what I mean.
How much does a person pay for these things?
One fifty an hour, says Louise.
Ill start tonight, Louise says.
Lavinia lives in a floor-through brownstone apartment on Seventy-seventh Street between Park and Lex.
Lavinia has flowers in all of her window boxes.
All of them are dead.
Lavinia answers the door in a sleeveless black dress made entirely of feathers.
Her hair comes down to her waist.
Thank God youre here, she says.
Cordelia is sitting at the dining-room table.
She is wearing her hair in one long thick braid, coiled and pinned.
She doesnt look up from her book.
There are antique fans all over the walls.
Lavinia kisses Louise on both cheeks.
verify she goes to bed by ten, she says, and leaves.
Cordelia finally looks up.
She isnt really that oblivious, she says.
Thats just her sense of humor.
She thinks its funny to tease me.
And you.Louise doesnt say anything.
Im sorry, says Cordelia.
I started studying already.
Her smile twists at the edges.
She makes Louise a pot of tea.
you might have chocolate-vanilla or you might have hazelnut-cinnamon-pear-cardamom, she says.
Vinny doesnt have any normal tea.
She serves it in an intricately patterned teapot (Its from Uzbekistan, Cordelia says.
Louise doesnt know whether this is a joke).
She sets it down on a tray.
If she keeps the spoon dry the sugar will not settle in the cup.
Louise sips her tea without any sugar in it.
Cordelia gets all the questions right.
Im going to Yale, Cordelia says, like thats a thing people just decide.
Then Im going to a Pontifical University in Rome for my masters.
Im going to be a nun.
Then: Im sorry.
I meanI do want to be a nun.
Thats okay, says Louise.
She drinks another cup of sugarless hazelnut-cinnamon-pear-cardamom tea.
I feel guilty, says Cordelia.
I dont really need a tutor.
Dont feel badI mean, youre doing a very good job.
Its justI know all this already.
Maybe Vinny really does want you to be my babysitter.
Onlyshe wont be back by ten.
Thats okay, Louise says.
I trust you to make your own bedtime.
Thats not an issue.
Cordelia smiles her strange half-smile again.
Vinnys the one with the cash.
Cordelia and Louise sit in silence on the sofa until six in the morning.
Louise reads clickbait articles from Misandry!
She is very tired, but she also needs three hundred dollars more than she needs sleep.
Lavinia comes home at dawn, covered in feathers.
Im so terribly,terriblysorry, she exclaims.
She trips over the threshold.
Of course, Ill pay you for the hours.
She catches her skirt in the door.
Feathers slice the air as they fall.
All my pretty chickens, Lavinia cries.
She gets on her hands and knees.
What, all my pretty chickens and their dam.
Ill get some water, Cordelia says.
Its a bad omen.
Lavinia has fallen over, now, laughing, with a black feather in her hand.
Louise grabs the trailing feathers from underneath the door.
Lavinia grabs Louises wrists; she pulls her in.
It died a noble death.
This dressit has beenfelled in battle.
And what a battle!
Oh whats your name again?
Lavinia yanks her wrist again, but joyfully.
[Louise doesnt know who that is.]
Ive had the most wonderful, wonderful night in the world.
One of those nights.
Ibelievein things again, Louise!
Lavinia closes her eyes.
And love and fairy dustGod, Ilovethis city.
Cordelia leaves a glass of water on the steamer trunk.
But Lavinia is scrambling to the sofa.
I can fix that, you know.
Its just the hem.
I can sew it back on.
If you have a needle and thread.
A needle and thread?
Lavinia looks at Cordelia.
My room, says Cordelia.
you might fix it?
I meanunless you dont want me to.
Dont want you to?
Lavinia gathers up her skirts.
Lazarus, back from the dead.
She piles them in her lap.
I have come to tell thee!
She flings back her arms.
Oh, Im soso!sorry.
Dont be, Louise says.
I knowI knowyou must think Im ridiculous.
I dont think youre ridiculous.
Louise doesnt know what Lavinia wants her to say.
I mean
Lavinia doesnt even wait.
Youre not judging me?
Im not judging you.
Louise speaks very slowly.
Yes, she says.
It was justit was only just a few of us.
Me and Father Romylos and GavinGavins a narcissistic sociopath.
He told me so, once.
One of the nicest people in the world, but technically, a narcissistic sociopath.
Anyway, we decided to see if you’re free to break into the Botanic Garden.
Apparently you’re able to!
She shows Louise a photograph.
Lavinia and an Orthodox priest and a bald man in a turtleneck are collapsing in a hedgerow.
Father Romylos is the one in the cassock, she says.
Are there even any flowers this time of year?
Cordelia has returned with a sewing kit.
She hands it to Louise.
Its my favorite thing in the world, breaking into places!
It makes you feel so aliveto be somewhere youre not supposed to be.
Ohdont look at me like that.
Louise is sewing the hem.
She hasnt even looked up.
Like you think Im horrible!
I dont, says Louise.
What she is thinking is this:
Lavinia isnt afraid of anything.
Im not drunk, you know, says Lavinia.
She sways her hairher long, coarse, wonderful hairacross Louises shoulder.
Do you know what Baudelaire said?
Louise puts another stitch in the hem.
Baudelaire said that you should get drunk.
On virtueas you choose.
Vinnys drunk on virtue, says Cordelia.
Its only prosecco, she says.
Even Cordy drinks prosecco.
Cordelia winks at Louise as she picks stray feathers out of the couch cushions.
God, dont you just hate her?
Lavinia puts her feet on the steamer trunk.
I bet you dont even believe in God, do you, Cordy?
Shes kept it up a whole yearcan you believe it?
Before that she was vegan.
Andoh, God, yourebrilliant!
She has seen the hem Louise has fixed for her.
Are you a costumier?
I have a friend whos a costumier.
She makes eighteenth-century outfits every year for Carnevale in Venice.
Im not a costumier.
But you’ve got the option to sew.
Lots of people can sew.
What else can you do?
Louise is caught off guard by the question.
Dont lie to me.
You have the mark of genius on your brow.
I could tellsoon as I saw you.
And youyou kept vigil with Cordy, didnt you?
She just needs three hundred dollars.
Are you an actress?
Youre pretty enough to be an actress.
Im not an actress.
(Louise is not pretty enough to be an actress.)
Then youre a writer!
But she hesitates long enough before saying no that Lavinia seizes.
She claps her hands.
You are a woman ofwords.
She scoops up the flash cards:assuage, assert, assent.I shouldnt have doubted you.
I mean
What have you written?
Oh, you knownot a lot.
Just a couple of stories and things.
What are they about?
Now Louise is fully afraid.
Oh, you know.
Girls in New York.
Lavinia is staring up at her with those bright and blazing eyes.
New York is the greatest city in the world!
Ofcourseyou want to write about it!
Youre right, Louise says.
I am a writer.
Cordy says I have a sense about peopleI always can sense if a person is going to be interesting.
Its like telepathy, but for poetic qualitiesit makes things happen.
She stretches like a cat along the sofa.
Im a writer, too, you know.
I meanIm working on a novel, right now.
Im on a sabbatical, actually.
Thats why Im here.
Living in squalor, you see.
Ive taken the year off to finish it.
But my problem is I dont have any discipline.
Im not like Cordy.
(Cordelia is back at her Newman and doesnt look up.)
Me, I just go to parties.
She yawns, long and luxuriant.
Poor Louise, she says, so softly.
Ive ruined your night.
The light streams in through the window.
Its fine, Louise says, you havent.
Your beautiful Friday night.
Your beautiful winter Fridayright in the middle of the holiday season, too.
You probably had plans.
A Christmas party, right?
I didnt have a date.
What did you plan, then?
Before I smashed it all to pieces?
I was going to go home.
Maybe watch some TV.
Truth is, Louise was planning to sleep.
Sleep is the most seductive thing she can think of.
But its almost New Years Eve!
I dont really go out, much.
But this isNew York!
Lavinias eyes are so wide.
And were in ourtwenties!
It is expensive to go out.
It takes so long to get home.
You have to tip for everything.
There are puddles in the subway stations.
She cant afford a cab.
Come with me, Lavinia says.
Ill take you to a party!
Of course notnow, sillywhat am I, crazy?
Theres a New Years Eve party happening at the MacIntyreits going to be wonderful.
Its going to be their best party yet.
And I owe you!
All those extra hours you stayedI owe you interest.
You owe her one-fifty an hour, says Cordelia, from the armchair.
Seven untilshe checks her wristwatchseven.
Jesus f, says Lavinia, so violently Louise starts.
I gave all my cash to the busker.
He was playing New York, New York outside the Bandshell.We were very tiredwe were very merry.
Now youhaveto come, she says.
If I dont see you again, I wont be able to pay you for tonight.
She smiles so ecstatically.
I owe you more than money, she says.
I owe you the most beautiful night of your life.
Now, the MacIntyre Hotel is not a hotel.
Louise has never had one of those nights before.
A girl in a tuxedo.
Someone in a lion tamer uniform.
People in black tie.
People who actually own black tie in black tie.
A man in a cassock (Dont tell him I told you, but hes actually defrocked).
I dont know her real name).
He keeps Excel spreadsheets of all the women he dates).
Bring me more gin!
You and I, of course, we know the truth.
We know how easy it is to fake it.
But girls like Louise dont know this.
This is the happiest Louise has ever been.
Are we even allowed to be onstage?
Louise asks, but Lavinia cant hear her over the music.
New Years resolution, Lavinia roars.
Be it resolved: we shall drink life to the lees.
Lavinias dress has fallen over her shoulder, exposing her breast.
She doesnt even care.
Then two hands close over Louises eyes.
Someone kisses her on the neck.
Guess who, she whispers, into Louises collarbone.
Louise jerks around so quickly.
The girl is so confused.
Lavinia has stopped dancing.
The girls voice is loud and monotonous and artificial, like shes speaking lines from a high school play.
It is no less artificial, and no less loud.
Her smile hangs desperately off her mouth.
SorryImlate, she says.
Nobody reacts to this, either.
The music is so loud.
The girl gets closer.
She blinks very intently.
Not even a nod.
The worst part is that shes still smiling.
Even when she goes over to Lavinia.
Even when Lavinia recoils.
Ive missed you, she says.
The girl gyrates up to Louise.
Im me, she says.
Mimi, she says, like Louise is supposed to know her.
Oh, says Louise.
Mimi hands her her phone.
She knots her arms around Lavinias neck.
Mimi snatches the phone back.
She scrolls through the photos.
We look great, she says.
Im gonna post them all.
Now the moon is full.
Promise me something, Lavinia says.
I want to usher 2015 in right.
I want things to be as they should be.
I want it to be a better year than the last one.
She breathes out smoke.
Its got to be.
Of course, Louise says.
I want to recite poetry with you tonight.
At first Louise thinks Lavinia is joking.
But Lavinia is tight-lipped and unsmiling and more serious than Louise has yet seen her.
Dont let me forget, okay?
Okay, Louise says.
Yes, Louise says.
Louise cant remember any poems.
Lavinia takes a pen out of her purse.
She writes it on her arms.
more poetry!!!
The letters are misshapen.
She writes it on Louises, too.
There, Lavinia says.
Together they gaze out over the city.
There are so many stars, although Louise knows some of them must only be city lights.
Lavinias smoke spirals from her lips.
Whats your New Years resolution?
(be less boring, thats another one.)
Come onyou can tell me!
She says it like she means it.
She says it like Louise is safe.
Louise wants to believe her.
Its stupid, Louise says.
I bet it isnt!
Ill bet you a hundred dollars it isnt.
I want to send one of my stories out.
If its good enough.
Louise is so afraid, having said it, that she will have to do it.
Youve never done it before?
But not in years.
I bet theyre brilliant, says Lavinia.
I bet theyre genius.
I bet everybodys going to love you.
Come on, thats not
Dont contradict me.
I have a feeling.
Lavinia throws back that never-ending hair.
Lavinia shakes the last ember out of her cigarette.
Same one I make every year.
Same one Ill make every year until I die.
She takes a deep and delicious breath.
I want tolive, she says.
I mean really,really, live.
Do you know what Oscar Wilde says?
Louise doesnt but she knows it was probably witty.
Or maybe you think thats trite?
She spits the last word.
Thats what I want.
Mimis lipstick is smeared.
So is her eyeliner.
Shes tugging at Lavinias sleeves.
Shes still speaking in that clipped and amateurish way.
Well have some champagne!
Well take a selfie!
Then Louise gets it: whats so uncanny about that strange, pantomime way Mimi is talking.
Shes trying to talk like Lavinia.
Weve already taken a selfie.
Mimi is smiling so desperately.
Then well take another!
She pulls herself against Lavinia and holds out the camera.
She leaves a sloppy lipstick kiss on her cheek.
Shitmy eyes were closed in that one!
She cant keep her hand steady.
The photos all come out blurry.
Okay, were done here.
Mimi keeps pawing at Lavinia, pushing her breasts against her, leaning in to kiss her.
Just one more, come on!
She reaches out for Lavinias sleeve.
Louise cannot believe how loud a sound the rip makes.
For fssake, Mimi, dont you know when to fing leave?
Lavinias eyes are terrible.
Mimis eyes fill with tears.
Come on, Mimi keeps whimpering, like a dog.
Its one of those nights.
Youre drunk, Mimi.
An hour later Mimi posts every photo shes taken that night.
She tags Lavinia in all of them.
Lavinia doesnt answer her.
Are you looking for Mimi?
Lavinia grabs Louises shoulders.
We should jump, Lavinia says.
We should do it.
Not in real life.
But this isnt real life.
Whats the worst that can happen?
Its one minute to midnight.
Trust me, says Lavinia.
Tennine
Now Louise remembers everything she is afraid of.
The crowd catches them.
Now its almost dawn.
Everybody has spilled out into the street.
Theyve taken off their heels.
Girls walk barefoot on the ice.
Taxis are charging a hundred dollars a person just to go to the Upper East Side.
Where are we going?
Lavinia puts a finger to her lips.
I have a surprise for you.
The cab takes them through the West Village, the Lower East Side, across the Brooklyn Bridge.
Was it what you wanted?
Lavinia is huddled in an enormous fur coat.
She is blinking very intently.
Was it what you wanted?
Yes, Louise says.
I wanted to make you happy.
The cab rolls on past the water.
Just think, Lavinia says.
You could be home in bed right now.
Louise should be home in bed right now.But instead .
Lavinia opens the window.
The wind whips their faces.
Youre going to watch the sun rise.
The park wont open for hours.
I wanted to be near water, Lavinia says.
At last, Lavinia says.
Lavinia hands Louise a flask.
Drink this, she says.
Itll warm you up.
On theTitanic, they drank whiskey, Lavinia says.
They were so warm on the inside they didnt feel the cold.
They swam all the way to the lifeboats.
I think aboutall the timewhenoh, your dress!
There are wine stains.
There are cigarette holes.
And Louise thinks,you fed it up.
God, Im so sorryyour dress.
Lavinia tosses that long hair of hers.
It whips in the wind.
You had a good night, didnt you?
Yes, of course, ISo whats the problem?
We can always get another dress.
She says it like its so easy.
I told you, Lavinia says.
Things happen around me.
The gods will bring us another one.
Louises tears freeze-dry on her face.
Its a sacrifice, Lavinia says.
Lavinia shoves her forearm in Louises face.
more poetry!!!
You almost let me forget!
I
That clinches it.
Lavinia leaps to her feet.
She lets the fur fall.
She lets her beautiful white dress that makes her look like an angel fall, too.
Against the snow she is cold, bitten, naked.
Her breasts are blue.
Her nipples are purple.
F, F, F!
Shes hysterical, laughing.
You want me to
Louise is already shaking from the cold, now, under the furs.
You have to do it!
Lavinias eyes are so wild, so wide.
Louise is so cold.
Lavinia extends her trembling, blue-veined hand.
At first she thinks the cold will kill her.
If she were on theTitanicshe would drown.
Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
The thing about Tennysons Ulysses is that everybody knows it.
Youre not special for knowing it.
There is no such thing as fate, probably, and it is probably just coincidence.
Lavinia hurls the dress in the water.
It recedes; it comes back: borne uplike a drowned womanon the waves.
Lavinia and Louise look at each other.
They take a selfie of their naked bodies, from the lips down.
across the center of the photo.
Well get that tattooed on our arms, Lavinia says.
They are huddled, now, under the fur.
Lavinia has put her dress back on.
Louise has nothing but a shift, and a useless coat.
I want to remember this forever, Lavinia says.
She cant stop laughing.
Until the day I die.
But Lavinia isnt like other people.
Louise will know this.
She will be there.
They walk to the elevated train.
Lavinia hails a cab.
Take it, she says.
Louise marvels at Lavinias lipstick, still so dark even after all that champagne.
My coat is warmer than yours.
Louise cant afford a cab.
Its fine, Louise says.
Ill take the subway.
Lavinia laughs, like this is a joke.
God, youre beautiful, she says.
She kisses Louise on both cheeks.
I miss you already.
She throws herself into the cab.
Two minutes later, Louise gets a notification on her phone.
Lavinia has posted the photograph of the two of them on Facebook.
She doesnt step on the cracks in the sidewalk.
I hate, I despise your festivals, he is shouting, although nobody is looking at him.
He is looking straight at Louise.
At least, Louise thinks he is looking straight at her.
Louise gets off the R at Fifty-third Street.
Her heels make her bleed.
There is sand between her toes and it blisters.
She keeps her keys between her fingers.
He is smoking weed.
He is looking at her.
Hey, he says.
She keeps her head down.
She does not look at him.
Hey, little girl, he says.
Louise does not answer this, either.
You know its cold outside?
She thinksjust keep walking; just keep walking.
You know Id warm you up!
Id warm you up, little girl.
Dont you want me to warm you up?
Louise tries so hard not to hear him.
She is so fast, with the key in the door, even though her hands shake.
Dont flatter yourself, he calls after her, when she has at last made it inside.
I wouldnt f a dog like you with a ten-foot dick.
By the time Louise gets to bed its nine.
She sets her alarm for twelve.
