I try not to notice how this seems directed squarely at Brendan.
“It did go really well,” Brendan says, smiling back at her. “Though I’m pretty glad it’s over. One less thing to stress about.”
“God, I know how that is,” Jane says sympathetically. She edges closer to him.
Brendan’s eyes flick over to me for a moment and then back to her. “Hey,” he says. “Would you like to dance?”
My heart stops.
Jane beams at him. “Absolutely,” she says, then grabs his arm and pulls him onto the dance floor. And then they’re dancing, moving to the fast beat, so close together.
I think my blood has pooled somewhere in my feet. He askedherto dance, and not because she was some girl I picked out for him and he approved.
He asked her because she’sJane Shawand he really wants to dance with her.
Can I blame him for that, even a little bit?
I can’t, but it doesn’t mean I can keep my lungs from squeezing in at the thought.
It takes me a long minute before I realize I can’t just stand here and stare at them. I should find someone to dance with myself. I don’t want to, but that’s the Plan, even though I feel like that thin thread is fraying more and more with every beat of the music.
I’m about to ask the next guy I see, but the next guy I see is Jason, who is wearing the fluffy feathered red coat of Naked Mole Rat from theHemlockmovies. He’s headed this way. Looking super pissed.
Uh-oh.
“Jason!” I say, when he gets closer to me. “How is your head? I’m so sorry about what happened on the wall. I mean, I know I apologized before the med staff took you away, but you were kind of out of it then, so I just want to say I’m so—”
“What the hell, Su-Lin?” he yells at me over the thumping music, and I flinch back. “You were the one who told Emily I was a player?”
I cringe. “I . . . I may have—”
“I thought she just got that impression, but no. I talked to her earlier today, and she said youtold herI was.” His brows are drawn together. Even his spiky hair somehow manages to look extra angry.
Guilt floods through me. “Okay, yeah, I did. But I thought maybe you were. I thought—”
“But you didn’t even bother to ask me first, did you?” he says, getting right up in my face, and I shrink back. “Ithought we were friends!Ithought—”
“Hey, back off,” yells another voice, startling me, and suddenly Warren steps in between us, looking pretty pissed himself, and I have this moment ofoh god, did I do something to him too?
But he’s glaring at Jason.
“Who the hell are you?” Jason yells back.
Warren stands his ground and folds his arms. “Just leave her alone, man.”
I’m pretty sure that if it came to a fight, Jason could kill Warren in two seconds with his freakish upper body strength, but thankfully Jason’s not really a fighter or a total asshole, so he steps back. He glares at me and shakes his head, and more than anger there, I see hurt.
Then he storms off, back into the crowd.
I want to call him back, to really apologize—thatwasawful of me to just assume he was a player and then tell Emily like it was fact. But he’s long gone, and my gaze lands on Jane and Brendan dancing even closer than before, and I’m starting to feel woozy.
“I’m sorry,” Warren says. “I know that was none of my business. But I saw him yelling at you, and you looked kind of scared, and—”
“No, it’s fine,” I say, shaking my head. “He wouldn’t have hurt me or anything. He was just mad.” For good reason. “But thanks for looking out for me.”
Warren smiles. “Of course. Are you okay?”
No, I’m really not. I haven’t been for a while now. But even though Warren seems like a great guy, I don’t really know him, and I don’t want to go into all the details.
