#Chapter 26: Behind the Mask

Celeste

While I was busy at the ball, the winter weather picked up. The atmosphere inside the warm greenhouse garden was a facade, just like my mask.

Now, as I walked back to Fiona’s house, the icy wind whipped around me and the fresh snow crunched under my feet, causing the hem of my dress to become damp. Every sound was muffled by the snow, casting the world in a heavy silence.

But I didn’t feel any of that, because with every step towards Fiona’s house, the crushing weight of the evening bore down on me more than the snow and the wind.

Tears blurred my vision, causing the snowflakes in the air to morph into shimmering white stars. The realization that the fairytale, the brief respite from my daily life, had come to its end was more crushing than I had anticipated. I felt as though I had been suspended in a beautiful dream, only to be jolted awake by the cold slap of reality.

Of course Matt would choose Sabrina over me. She was a bitch, but she was a hot and beautiful bitch. For all