“Do you want to dance?” Russ asked.
She looked back at him. “I don’t know. Can you swing-dance to Lil Wayne?”
He grinned. “I mean...Ican.”
He held out his hand. Cherry smiled and shook her head, but she still took it. Russ put his other hand on her hip. What happened next wasn’t really swing dancing—it was normal house-party dancing, with a bit more hand-holding and a few unnecessary spins.
But thenextsong, “Low” by Flo Rida, apparentlywasa good swing-dancing song. Russ pulled Cherry closer and tried to lead her through some slightly more elaborate steps. She couldn’t keep up. They were both laughing. Almost everyone at the party was dancing now—there wasn’t space for Russ to fling Cherry around. He held her hip and twirled her right in front of him, so they were eye to eye every time she spun back to face him.
Stacia and Grace and Elizabeth came dancing in from the kitchen. Stacia was holding two drinks. She danced up to Russ, holding out a drink for him, her arm moving with the music. He took it from her, matching her rhythm. He was still holding Cherry’s hand. He held it over her head and twirled her away from him, then let go, still dancing—sort of with Stacia, sort of with Cherry—as he took a sip.Grace grabbed Cherry’s hand and shouted the chorus of the song at her. Cherry nodded along.“Low, low, low, low, low, low, low, low.”
Cherry looked back at Russ. He was twisting down to the floor. Stacia was dancing over him, her arms in the air—halter top riding up so high, you could see the little cross tattooed just under her left breast.
Cherry let go of Grace’s hand and backed off the dance floor. She felt a little disoriented.
A girl was standing on one end of the couch, dancing. Cherry sat at the other end and tucked one of her heels under her knee.
She watched Russ dance with Stacia. And another girl. And then with two of his guy friends.
Another song had started before he looked over at Cherry. He held his arms up, like,What gives?
Cherry just waved.
Russ stood still for a few seconds, the only still thing on the improvised dance floor. Stacia was right next to him, flicking her hair from side to side, with her arms folded behind her back, pushing her chest out.
Cherry smiled at Russ.
Russ smiled back. He took a step toward her, holding out one hand.
One of his friends—a big guy waving around a beer bottle—stumbled between them. Russ caught the guy. Then started dancing with him. (Boys didn’t really dance together. They stood near each other and held their drinks in the air and shouted into each other’s faces.) Russ kept glancing past his friend at Cherry.
Cherry got up to use the bathroom—and to steady her nerves. She’d swear she felt Russ watching her as she left the room.
The bathroom was down a hall. It was also less gross than she would have expected. None of the towels matched, and Russ and his roommates used an old picante-sauce jar to hold their toothbrushes—but everything was clean.
Cherry looked in the mirror. She was flushed from her cheeksdown to her neckline. Her eyes were extra shiny. She shook her head. Then shook her head again. Then reapplied her red lipstick.
She made a decision:
When Cherry walked out of this bathroom, she was going to stop shrinking away from Russ. When he reached out to her, she was going to reach back.
Against all odds and all her past experiences, this cute, charming guy seemed really interested in her. He’dliterally saidthat he was interested in her.
And Cherry was very, very interested in him.
She was going to stop turning away from him in disbelief. She was going to start movingin.
She opened the bathroom door and walked out to the living room.
Russ was right where she’d left him...
Making out with Stacia.
A couple hours later, Cherry drove Grace and Elizabeth back to the dorms.
Chapter 5
Funny that this used to be an album Cherry would listen to when she was sad. She hadn’t stopped smiling tonight since the moment Goldenrod started playing.
