When she entered the bedroom, she did not turn on the light.

In the dark, the full-length mirror in the corner could not reflect anything concrete or substantial. There would be only shapes, varying shades of blue and indigo, the shadows of her movements.

Lauren slid into bed with her jeans still on, turning her face toward the wall.

She closed her eyes and wished her mother would come barging in. Hair wild, nightgown twisted, eyes blazing, finger pointing. Shouting where have you been and how dare you and you’re grounded.

It was three o’clock in the morning on a school night. She had made more noise than necessary coming in through the bathroom window. She had banged on the walls going down the hallway, pretending to be drunk and sloppy, though she hadn’t had a drink all night.

In the room across the hall, she heard her parents shift and whisper, although she couldn’t make out the words. Then the stutter of noise stopped, and the house was silent.

For someone who was supposed to have everything, it sure didn’t feel like much.

Her life, finally, had turned into nothing more than the cliché soap opera. She was pretty enough. Not really gorgeous, but good features and fantastic hair, which was the case with all soap actresses. And so, of course, she had followed the script. She had gotten incredibly close to the boy and lost him. She had gotten a modeling agent and been screwed. She had risen to the top, and then, horrifically, been abandoned and betrayed.

And, in classic soap opera style, she was going to blame someone else. Isabella fucking Swan.

Bella was pretty, too, but she wasn’t aware of it, and maybe that was why she didn’t fall into the natural play of Lauren’s script. She had first skipped the lines where she and Lauren were supposed to become friends, drawn together naturally because of their good looks. Even when introduced, however, she didn’t seem very interested. Then she had further ruined the careful plot by not attempting to rule the roost—she was so unaware of any power she may have had over the sheep of Forks High. And she hadn’t even shown up for the finale, hadn’t even finished the job, leaving Lauren’s life in a half-ruined state, not necessarily bad, just appalling, and no one can properly complain if they haven’t been properly wronged.