Emily heard a sigh and opened her eyes. Courtney’s face was inches from hers. “Oh,” Emily breathed. Courtney moved even closer. The room vibrated with possibility.
“I…” Emily started, but then Courtney leaned forward and touched her lips to Emily’s. A billion explosions went off in Emily’s head. Courtney’s lips were soft yet firm. Emily’s mouth fit hers perfectly. They kissed deeper, pressing harder. Emily was pretty sure her heart was beating even faster than it did in a fifty-meter freestyle sprint. When Courtney broke away, her eyes were shining.
“Well, I got my wish,” Courtney said giddily. “I always hoped I’d get to do that again.”
Emily’s mouth tingled. It took her three long beats before she realized what Courtney said. “Wait…Again?”
Courtney’s smile turned shaky. She bit her bottom lip and grabbed Emily’s hand. “Okay. Don’t freak out. But Em…it’s me. Ali.”
Emily dropped Courtney’s hand and moved a few inches away. “I’m sorry. What?”
Courtney’s eyes were glassy, as if she was about to cry. Light from the corner window spilled across her face, making her look both angelic and ghostly. “I know it’s crazy, but it’s true. I’m Ali,” she whispered, lowering her head. “I’ve been trying to figure out how to tell you.”
“To tell me that you’re…Ali?” The words felt leaden on Emily’s tongue.
Courtney nodded. “My twin’s name was Courtney. But she didn’t have health problems. She was certifiably insane. In second grade, she started imitating me, pretending to be me.”
Emily scuttled backward until her spine hit the wall. The words weren’t exactly making sense.
“She hurt me a couple of times,” Courtney went on, her voice strained. “And then she tried to kill me.”
“How?” Emily whispered.
“It was the summer before third grade. I was in the pool in our old house in Connecticut. Courtney came out and started dunking me. At first, I thought it was a game, but she wouldn’t let me up. While she held me underwater, she said, ‘You don’t deserve to be you. I do.’”
“Oh my God.” Emily curled into a ball, gripping her knees to her chest tightly. Out the window, a flock of birds took off from the roof. Their wings flapped fast, as if they were fleeing something terrifying.
“My parents were horrified. They sent my sister away and moved the family to Rosewood,” the girl across from Emily whispered. “They told me never to talk about her, which is why I kept her secret. But then in sixth grade, Courtney switched from the Radley to the Preserve. She put up this huge fight about it—she didn’t want to start over at a new hospital—but once she was there, she finally began to improve. My parents decided to have her live at home for the summer after seventh grade on a trial basis. She came back a few days before the school year ended.”
Emily opened her mouth, but no words came out. Courtney had been here in seventh grade, too? But Ali and Emily were friends then. How had Emily missed her?
Courtney—or was it Ali?—gave Emily a knowing look, as if she understood what Emily was thinking. “You guys saw her. Remember the day before our sleepover when I found you on the patio, but you said you’d just seen me upstairs in my room?”
Emily blinked fast. Of course she remembered. They’d caught Ali in her bedroom, reading a notebook. Mrs. DiLaurentis had appeared and sternly told the girls to go downstairs. Minutes later, when Ali found them in the backyard, she’d acted as if the incident in the bedroom had never happened. She had on a completely different outfit, and she seemed startled that Emily and the others were there, like she’d had no memory of the past ten minutes.
“That was Courtney. She was reading my journal, trying to be me again. After that, I stayed away from her. The night of our sleepover, Spencer and I fought, and I ran out of the barn. But Billy didn’t attack me like everyone thinks—I ran back to my bedroom, and he…well, he got the wrong sister.”
Emily put her hand over her mouth. “But…I don’t understand….”
“My sister was supposed to stay in her bedroom all night,” Courtney—no, Ali—went on. “When my parents saw only me the next morning, they assumed I was Courtney—Ali was supposed to be in Spencer’s barn. I tried to tell my parents that I was Ali, but they didn’t believe me—that was Courtney’s act. I’m Ali, I’m Ali, she always said.”
“Oh my God,” Emily whispered. The peanut butter crackers she’d eaten earlier roiled in her stomach.
“Then when the twin they thought was Ali didn’t come home from the sleepover, they flipped out. They figured I was Courtney, and that I had done something terrible. They couldn’t handle having a sick daughter home while the other was missing, so they sent the girl they thought was her back to the Preserve the next afternoon. Except…it was me.” She placed her palm over her heart, her eyes filling with tears. “It was horrible. They didn’t visit me once. Jason used to visit Courtney all the time, but even he wouldn’t listen to me when I pleaded that I was Ali. It was like a light switch went off in their heads and I was dead to them.”
The neighbor’s rattling Honda Civic passed. A dog barked, then another. Emily stared at the girl across from her. The girl who claimed to be Ali. “But…why didn’t you call us before they shipped you off?” Emily asked. “We would’ve known the truth.”