Lucas shrugged. “It’s hot under that thing. I think I’ll leave it off.”
Hanna tied her own mask’s strings tight. “It’s a masquerade, Lucas. If Mona sees that you’ve taken yours off, she’ll kick you out for real.”
Lucas’s eyes were hard. “Do you always do everything Mona says?”
Hanna tensed. “No.”
“Good. You shouldn’t.”
Hanna flicked a tassel on one of the pillows. She looked at Lucas again. “What do you want me to say, Lucas? She’s my best friend.”
“Has Mona told you what she did to you yet?” Lucas goaded. “I mean, at her party.”
Hanna stood up, annoyed. “I told you, it doesn’t matter.”
He lowered his eyes. “I care about you, Hanna. I don’t think she does. I don’t think she cares about anyone. Don’t let it drop, okay? Ask her to tell you the truth. I think you deserve to know.”
Hanna stared at him long and hard. Lucas’s eyes were shiny and his lip quivered a little. There was a purple welt on his neck from their earlier make-out session. She wanted to reach out and touch it with her thumb.
Without another word, she whipped the curtain open and stormed back onto the dance floor. Aria’s brother, Mike, was demonstrating his best stripper pole dance to a girl from the Quaker school. Andrew Campbell and his nerdy Knowledge Bowl friends were talking about counting cards in blackjack. Hanna smiled when she saw her father chatting with her old cheerleading coach, a woman whom she and Mona had privately called The Rock, because she bore a resemblance to the professional wrestler.
She finally found Mona sitting in another one of the pillow-laden enclaves. Eric Kahn, Noel’s older brother, dangled next to her, whispering in her ear. Mona noticed Hanna and sat up. “Thank God you got away from Loser Lucas,” she groaned. “Why has he been hanging around you so much, anyway?”
Hanna scratched at her stitches underneath her mask, her heart suddenly racing. All at once, she needed to ask Mona. She needed to know for sure. “Lucas says I shouldn’t trust you.” She forced a laugh. “He says there’s something you’re not telling me, as if there would ever be something you wouldn’t tell me.” She rolled her eyes. “I mean, he’s totally bullshitting me. It’s so lame.”
Mona crossed her legs and sighed. “I think I know what he’s talking about.”
Hanna swallowed hard. The room suddenly smelled too strongly of incense and freshly cut Bermuda grass. There was a burst of applause at the blackjack table; someone had won. Mona moved closer to her, talking right in Hanna’s ear. “I never told you this, but Lucas and I dated the summer between seventh and eighth grade. I was his first kiss. I dumped him when you and I became friends. He called me for, like, six months afterward. I’m not sure he’s ever gotten over it.”
Hanna sat back, stunned. She felt like she was on one of those amusement park swings that abruptly changed directions halfway through the ride. “You and Lucas…dated?”
Mona lowered her eyes and pushed a stray lock of golden hair off her mask. “I’m sorry I never said anything about it before. It’s just that…Lucas is a loser, Han. I didn’t want you to think I was a loser too.”
Hanna ran her hands through her hair, thinking about her conversation with Lucas in the hot-air balloon. She had told him everything, and his face had been so innocent and open. She thought about how intensely they’d kissed, and the little moaning noises he’d made when she ran her fingers up and down his neck.
“So, he was trying to be my friend and saying nasty things about you to…to get back at you for dumping him?” Hanna stammered.
“I think so,” Mona said sadly. “He’s the one you shouldn’t trust, Hanna.”
Hanna stood up. She remembered how Lucas had said she was so pretty, and how good that had felt. How he’d read her DailyCandy blog entries while the nurses changed her IV fluids. How, after he’d kissed her in the hospital bed, Hanna’s heart rate had stayed elevated for a full half hour—she’d watched it on the heart monitor. Hanna had told Lucas about her eating issues. About Kate. About her friendship with Ali. About A! Why had he never told her about Mona?
Lucas was now sitting on another couch, talking to Andrew Campbell. Hanna made a beeline right for him, and Mona followed close behind, grabbing her arm. “Deal with this later. Why don’t I just throw him out? You should be enjoying your big night.”
Hanna waved Mona away. She poked Lucas in the back of his pin-striped vest. When Lucas turned around, he looked genuinely happy to see her, giving her a sweet, ecstatic smile.
“Mona told me the truth about you,” Hanna hissed, placing her hands on her hips. “You guys used to date.”
Lucas’s lip twitched. He blinked hard, opened his mouth, then shut it again. “Oh.”
“That’s what this is all about, isn’t it?” she demanded. “It’s why you want me to hate her.”
“Of course not.” Lucas looked at her, his brows furrowed. “We weren’t serious.”
“Right,” Hanna scoffed.
“Hanna doesn’t like boys who lie,” Mona added, appearing behind Hanna.
Lucas’s mouth dropped open. A bloom of redness crawled from his neck to his cheeks. “But I suppose she likes girls who lie, huh?”
Mona crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m not lying about anything, Lucas.”