Chapter 2
Malena
After meeting with Dillian, I made my way back to the condo I shared with my best friends Cora and Sabrina.
We all moved in together last year as sophomores after having gone through the time-honored tradition of random roommate assignments as freshmen.
Today, Sabrina was leaving for her semester abroad, so it was time to put on a brave face and not think about my best friend being away for a whole semester.
I walked the half-mile down from campus, along the manicured road lined with redbrick row homes, before stopping in front of my building.
Locally known as “million-heir row,” the Radiant Residences were one of a few mid-rise buildings in New Harbor, Connecticut.
The condos inside were managed by the historic society and privately owned by wealthy parents of the students who lived here.
Mine was no different. Except I didn’t own anything. That was all Sabrina.
I took the elevator up to the seventh floor and unlocked the door, where I was met with Cora’s singsong voice. “You missed Pilates this morning.”
Summers at my parents’ house in Massachusetts were suffocating. I couldn’t so much as take a phone call without an explanation. But every year when the fall semester started, I could finally breathe again.
“I was in the mood for cardio,” I answered with a wide grin, hanging my keys on the little hooks next to the doorway.
Easily hidden, sex was something I could enjoy and move on from.
Just because my parents were delusional and wouldn’t allow it didn’t mean I was going to abstain.
Besides, nobody batted an eye when guys sowed their wild oats, or whatever other gross colloquialism people used to describe college students having sex.
So, I was going to have all the orgasms I deserved.
I walked down the hallway to Sabrina’s room, finding her hanging a few dresses and last-minute outfits she wasn’t taking with her on her semester abroad.
“Did you figure out how you’re going to supplement the lost tutoring money?” Cora Chen sat on Sabrina’s made bed, with her legs primly crossed beneath her. Her pin-straight black hair danced along her chin in a sharp bob.
Cora had been the one to set up all the forwarding and response capabilities so that I could use my burner phone as an extension of my real one. Something of a tech genius, she’d written her first line of code in elementary school. She was my fairy tech mother.
My closest friends since freshman year, Cora and Sabrina alone made up the two-Malena system circle of trust.
“Outside of the Keller Award?” I sighed.
Anything through the school was retrievable through the bursar’s office, and my parents would find out.
Tutoring through the library was the perfect pathway because it just set you up with people who needed help.
I was usually paid in cash or via payment app.
“Who would’ve thought finding under-the-table money would be this hard? ”
That’s why the contest was great. Winning meant a big fat check I could deposit and then coast through the rest of my time at Winchester. I wouldn’t even need to tutor next year when the slots became available again.
“Babysitting?” Cora suggested.
My brow crinkled. “On campus?”
I didn’t have a license because I purposely failed my driver’s test three times so my parents couldn’t make me commute back and forth from Winchester.
Cora’s head cocked to the side in thought. “Do you have any other marketable skills?”
I slumped to the floor and dropped my head to my knees. The only thing I had was a perfect GPA and helicopter parents.
“I can dance? But that’s probably not something I should do for money,” I deadpanned, then paused and thought about it. “And I can write.”
Cora’s shoulders fell.
Sabrina zipped her last piece of luggage before giving me her full attention. “If you don’t figure something out, I can—”
“I will figure it out,” I insisted. It was my own stupid fault for missing the tutoring sign-up deadline.
“Mal, I mean it. I can help with money.” Concern lined Sabrina’s brow. “It’s not a big deal, really.”
“It’s not just the money.” Although money was a major part of it.
Cora and Sabrina exchanged a knowing look, then turned a sympathetic one on me.
“If I win…” I never said this part out loud because I knew the path I was on wasn’t open to negotiation.
“If, down the line, I want to write—” I twined my fingers around the fabric of my shirt.
“Awardees have their pick of grad programs, freelance jobs, or internships. It’s a way to keep my foot in writing after graduation. ”
This award was a sterling qualification that nobody could look past. No way would I be able to work in the field and make connections while in med school, so winning would be solid proof that I could do it. I’d be able to, at least, get an interview for a freelance gig or two.
“With med school and everything.” I swallowed. “Obviously.”
Med school had been a goal of mine for as long as I could remember. I excelled in STEM-related classes. I liked the idea of helping people, and I wasn’t queasy around blood.
I just couldn’t be sure whether it had started as my dream. Because how was I supposed to know what I wanted when I was only allowed to want one thing?
“Okay.” Sabrina nodded and I released a giant exhale. She was skilled at picking up on when I’d maxed out discussing my future and was always willing to steer the attention away. “Well, that’s everything. Are you going to miss me?”
Sabrina was a member of the storied Alders family.
They were American political royalty and her father—Senator Alders—was making a run for the White House.
He’d be the third Alders president if he succeeded, and Sabrina’s semester abroad was very likely her last hurrah before she took on the role of first daughter.
“You can’t leave now, Sabrina,” Cora whined. “A hookup her first week back? Mal is clearly in heartbreak hotel.”
I guffawed a laugh. “Am not.”
Was I a little humiliated? Yes. Annoyed that I broke my flings-only rule for Kash, thinking maybe I’d fit in with him and his friends only for him to ghost last semester? Also yes.
But heartbroken? Far from it.
Sabrina smiled, pushed her dark brown hair over her shoulder, and outstretched her arms. “Are you sure?”
“Yes,” I insisted, fitting my arms around her small frame. “Now, go to Oxford. Drink warm beer, have sex with a cute accent, and drink more beer.” The reality that she would be gone all semester weighed on my chest like sandbags, but I kept my voice firm as I held her shoulders. “In that order.”
“Done.”
Sabrina gave Cora one last hug and made her way down the hallway. We followed a few steps behind her. “Don’t miss me too much.”
We said our final goodbyes and Sabrina was gone a few minutes later. Cora slipped away to her room and blasted her go-to 2000s music—a telltale sign that she was procrastinating—and I sprawled out in the living room to study for my MCATs.
Thirty minutes later, I was still nestled in the corner of our plush sectional couch when three knocks rapped against our door in quick succession.
“It doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence that you already forgot something,” I called toward the door as I stood and walked over, expecting Sabrina.
I swung it open to find an empty hallway. Looking both ways, I couldn’t even hear a voice or footsteps. On our doormat was a small, black, perfectly wrapped box, tied artfully with a golden ribbon.
I looked around the hallway one last time and picked it up. There wasn’t a note or a tag attached, but it did have our condo number written on the underside.
Curiosity getting the best of me, I opened it.
Beneath a few flimsy sheets of tissue paper sat a traditional Venetian mask. Macrame lace covered the corners, and long satin ribbons were stitched to flow seamlessly from them. One side winged out with a black feather, and the other was gilded with gold leaf and embedded with tiny crystals.
A note lay next to it, addressed to Sabrina.
Sabrina Madeline Alders
Scan the code
Wear the Mask
Keep the secret
- Scroll a peek inside a world that only a few would ever see. I didn’t have an angle yet, but I could figure it out. It was a hell of a lot more than I had before.
“Yeah… a little crazy is right.” Cora shrugged.
“Let’s just call Sabrina when she lands, figure out what she knows, and see if it’s doable.
” She glanced back up to me and her shoulders moved down a fraction.
“Although, based on that look”—she circled her finger in front of my face—“you’re already plotting. ”
I swatted her hand. “What look?”
“Same one you wore when you bought that second phone. The ‘Malena-found-a-loophole’ look.”
Smoothing my thumb over the mask, my heart raced.
This was how I won the Keller Award.