Owen noticed and asked, “Everything okay?”
“Just looking for Casey. He’s supposed to be here, but evidently Rodney isn’t coming.”
“What?”
“Yeah.”
I thought on what he must have felt like. He’d been so excited leading up to the dance, particularly picking out his suit with me. “What a jerk,” I muttered.
Once the auction was over, I followed the crowd into the ballroom of the old historic courthouse.
“You mind if we hunt down Casey really quick?” I asked O. “Kind of a friend crisis situation here.”
“Of course, Keeg.”
We found Casey, who was wearing the suit we’d purchased together. He sat at the bar on the opposite side of the ballroom.
I asked Owen to give me a moment, and I approached Casey and slid onto the stool beside him.
“Case,” I said.
He turned to me, his cheeks red, tears sliding down his face. “Did Steve blab on me?” he asked, his voice trembling.
“Yeah, you know that chatterbox.”
I was trying to be silly to cheer him up, and he smiled for a moment before his face trembled and a few more tears escaped his eyes.
He lifted a flask to his mouth and took a swig.
“Is that—”
“Serena’s? Yes. She said it used to be her breakup flask, but she doesn’t need it anymore, so she’s bequeathing it to me. Nice of her to put some whiskey in there for me.” He took another swig. “I guess Rodney was looking forward to breaking it off with me, since he was eager to tell me that all that time he’d been mysteriously busy, he’d really been seeing not one, but two other guys.”
“That’s terrible. What an asshole.”
“Yeah, apparently. I thought about just going home, but you know, in high school, I never really got a dance.”
“We danced all the time at homecoming and prom.”
“A slow dance. Steve always had a girlfriend, and you would even go with girls. I would sit off to the side and watch…and sulk.”
Another swig.
“Casey, maybe we can talk more and drink less,” I said, reaching for the flask, which he yanked out of my reach.
“If I can’t have a man tonight, at least let me have this.”
“Look, I’m sorry, Casey. But we don’t have to let fucking Rodney ruin another dance. Dance with me.”
Casey sniffled. “Really?”
“Of course. I’m sure we can find all sorts of guys who’ll dance with you tonight. You know they’re falling out of the closet left and right in this town.”
“I don’t know how I’d feel about anyone else dancing with Casey tonight,” a voice came from behind us.
We turned together to see Steve approaching, dressed in his old prom tux, indicated by some dust he still hadn’t cleaned off it and a missing button. Although, he’d combed his hair and even pulled out his dress shoes, trying to put on the best appearance he could manage on such short notice.
Holy hell.
