Madame Z raised her eyebrows. "Do I look like I need more wishes?"
Yun Sun sighed loudly. "Well, I could sure use a wish or two. Wish me up Lindsay Lohan's thighs, will you?"
I loved my friends. They were so wonderful. I lifted the corsage, and Madame Z gasped and grabbed my wrist.
"For heaven's sake, girl," she cried. "If you're going to wish, at least make it for something sensible!"
"Yeah, Frankie," Will said. "Think of poor Lindsay-you want the girl to be thighless?"
"She'd still have her calves," I pointed out.
"But would they be attached? And what movie producer's going to hire a girl who's just a torso?"
I giggled, and Will looked pleased with himself.
Yun Sun said, "You guys. Ew."
Madame Zanzibar's breathing was uneven. She might have resolved to wash her hands of me, but her fright, when I lifted the withered rosebuds, hadn't been contrived.
I placed the corsage in my messenger bag, careful not to squish it. And when I drew out my wallet, I paid Madame Z twice the amount she'd quoted. I didn't elaborate, just handed over the bills. She counted them, then assessed me in a bone-tired, orange-lipsticked way.
Fine, then, her demeanor conveyed. Just… beware.
We headed to my house for pizza, because that was our Friday night ritual. Saturdays and Sundays, too, more often than not. My parents were on sabbatical in Botswana for the semester, which meant Chez Frankie was party central. Except we didn't have actual parties. We could have; my house was miles from town on an unmaintained dirt road, with no nearby neighbors to complain. But we preferred our own company, with an occasional pop-in from Jeremy, Yun Sun's boyfriend. Jeremy thought Will and I were weird, though. He didn't like pineapple on his pizza, and he didn't share our taste in movies.
The rain pounded the roof of Will's pickup as he navigated the winding curves of Restoration Boulevard, past the Krispy Kreme and the Piggly Wiggly and the county watertower, which stretched toward the sky in lonely glory. The cab of the truck was crowded with all three of us scrunched in, but I didn't mind. I had the middle seat. Will's hand brushed my knee when he shifted gears.
"Ah, the cemetery," he said, nodding as we reached the wrought iron gates to his left. "Shall we have a moment of silence for Fernando?"
"We shall," I said.
A bolt of lightning illuminated the rows of tombstones, and I thought to myself what eerie and disturbing places cemeteries really were. Bones. Rotted-away skin. Coffins, which sometimes came undug.
I was glad to get home. I went from room to room flicking on all the lights while Will ordered the pizza and Yun Sun shuffled through this week's Netflix arrivals.
"Something cheerful, 'kay?" I called from the hall.
"Not Night Stalker?" she said.
I joined her in the den and sifted through the stack. "How about High School Musical? There is nothing the slightest bit creepy about High School Musical."
"Surely you jest," Will said, clicking off his phone. "Sharpay and her brother doing their sexy dance with maracas? You wouldn't call that creepy?"
I laughed.
"But you girls go on, knock yourselves out," he said. "I've actually got an errand to run."
"You're leaving?" Yun Sun said.
"What about the pizza?" I said.
He opened his wallet and laid a twenty-dollar bill on the coffee table. "It'll be here in thirty minutes. My treat."
Yun Sun shook her head. "And again I say: You're leaving?. You're not even staying to eat?"
"There's something I need to do," he said.
My heart constricted. I ached to keep him here, even if just for a little longer. I darted back to the kitchen and pulled Madame Z's corsage-no, my corsage-out of my bag.
"At least wait till I've made my wish," I said.
He looked amused. "Fine, wish away."
I hesitated. The den was warm and cozy, pizza was on the way, and I had the two greatest friends in the world. What else did I truly want?
Duh, the grasping part of my brain told me. Prom, of course. I wanted Will to ask me to prom. Maybe it was selfish to have so much and still want more, but I pushed that line of reasoning away.
Because look at him, I thought. Those kind brown eyes, that lopsided smile. Those ridiculously angelic curls. The entire sweetness and goodness that was Will.
He hummed the Jeopardy! theme song. I raised the corsage.
"I wish for the boy I love to ask me to prom," I said.
"And there you have it, folks!" Will cried. He was far too euphoric. "And what boy wouldn't want to take her to prom, our fabulous Frankie? Now we'll just have to wait and see, won't we, whether her wish will come-"
Yun Sun cut him off. "Frankie? Are you okay?"
"It moved," I said, cringing away from the corsage, which I'd flung to the floor. My skin was clammy. "I swear to God, it moved when I made the wish. And that smell! Do you smell it?"
"Noooo," she said. "What smell?"
"You smell it, Will. Don't you?"
He grinned, still on whatever high he'd been on since… well, since Madame Z warned him away from heights. A clap of thunder rumbled, and he shoved my shoulder.
"Next you're going to blame the storm on the evil wish fairies, aren't you?" he said. "Or, no! You're going to go to bed tonight, and tomorrow you'll tell us you found a hunched and skulking creature on your comforter, smiling a twisted smile!"
"Like rotting flowers," I said. "You honestly don't smell it? You're not playing with me?"
Will dug his keys out of his pocket. "See you on the flip side, homies. And, Frankie?"
"What?"
Another boom of thunder shook the house.
"Don't give up hope," he said. "Good things come to those who wait."
I watched through the window as he dashed to his truck. The rain was coming down in sheets. Then I turned to Yun Sun, a balloony feeling pushing everything else away.
"Did you hear what he said?" I grabbed her hands. "Oh my God, do you think it means what I think it means?"
"What else could it mean?" Yun Sun said. "He's going to ask you to prom! He's just… I don't know. Trying to make a big production out of it!"
"What do you think he's going to do?"
"No idea. Hire a skywriter? Send a singing telegram?"
I squealed. She squealed. We jumped about in a frenzy.
"Got to hand it to you, the wish thing was brilliant," she said. She flicked her finger to indicate giving Will the push he needed. "And the rotting flowers? Verrrry dramatic."
"I honestly did smell it, though," I said.
"Ha-ha."
"I did."
She looked at me and shook her head, amused. Then she looked at me again.
"Well, it must have been your imagination," she said.
"I guess," I said.
I picked the corsage up off the floor, holding it gingerly between my thumb and forefinger. I took it to the bookshelf and dropped it behind a row of books, glad to have it out of sight.
The next morning I trotted downstairs, hoping foolishly to find… I don't know. Hundreds of M&Ms spelling out my name? Pink hearts sketched in silly string on the windows?
Instead, I found a dead bird. Its tiny body lay on the welcome mat, as if it had flown into the door during the storm and bashed its brains in.
I scooped it up with a paper towel and tried not to feel its soft weight as I delivered it to the outside trash bin.
"I'm sorry, little bird, so pretty and sweet," I said. "Fly to heaven." I dropped in the corpse, and the lid slammed shut with a bang.
I returned inside to the sound of the ringing phone. Probably Yun Sun, wanting an update. She'd left with Jeremy at eleven last night, after making me swear to tell her the minute Will made his bold move.