Then I noticed who was with him: Cody, Lucy Rosales, and Emma Brisbane. They sat down at a table by the front window, with Nick pulling out Emma’s chair. She was smiling at him like he’d named a constellation after her.Bravo, Nick, I thought, since I’d suggested he invite her to homecoming. These Sage fantasies needed to end. Nick kept showing up at our dinner table, and while Sage was always friendly, nothing stopped her from texting as he talked. She wasn’t interested.C’mon, I planned to say if he hesitated.Emma’s cute, and really likes you, Nick. She doesn’t make cupcakes for just anyone. Ask her!
Although surprisingly, he didn’t hesitate. “I will.” He’d nodded. “Good idea.”
Sage was still eyeing their table a couple of minutes later. Her face looked a little pale. Luke noticed too. “You all right, Sage?” he asked before I could. “Shrimp not sitting well?”
“Oh, I’m fine,” she answered brightly, but then mumbled, “Her? Really?”
Because for whatever reason, Sage wasn’t a huge fan of Emma. “I just can’t explain it,” was how she phrased it. “But sheirksme.”
But she’s nice, I wanted to say.She’s nice and won’t break his heart.
The homecoming dance went down in the PAC’s lobby, and it was my first dance of the year. There were two dance floors: one on the first floor, and then another on the second, which had its own lobby of sorts for the auditorium’s balcony. It was designed as an overlook for the downstairs lobby, so you could see the DJ and everyone else down below. Almost like a cruise ship.
Our group mostly stuck to the first floor, dancing together amid the sea of people at first, but then we swam off in different directions. Sage and I ended up next to a group of freshmen girls, and we swayed together for a while, even during the fast songs. She seemed a million miles away.Could she be jealous?I wondered. Because when we’d gone and said hello to Nick’s table on our way out of Bistro, I felt frustration radiating off Sage’s body. “You guys look great!”Emma had told us, and I knew it had taken everything in Sage to say, “You too! Iloveyour dress.”
Meanwhile, I’d asked Nick why he bailed on the tie, and he kind of glared at me. “I guess I wasn’t feeling it.”
Now, though, Sage was checking out the second floor with Nina, and I was leaning against the wall near the DJ booth with Luke. We both had plastic cups of water (I wished it was something stronger) and he was holding his phone up, taking a video of Jack and Reese making out by the speakers. “For when she denies it,” he’d reasoned.
He cut it off about a minute in, after Mrs. Collings broke things up. My phone buzzed and I fished it out of my pocket to see a message from Luke. The music was way too loud to talk.
The question is, it said,do I put it in the group chat now? Or later?
I glanced over to see him smirking, and when we made eye contact, he raised an eyebrow.Which is it?
I went back to my phone.I say bombs away…
So eager,he replied.
I looked at him again and rolled my eyes. He laughed, and my breath caught—even though the music pretty much drowned it out, his laugh made my heart jump. It was the best sound. My fingers flew across my touch screen and then hit the send button before I really thought about it.I love your laugh,appeared in a blue bubble.
I watched Luke read the message, smile slipping off his face. Then his phone shook in his hands as he tapped a text back. My stomach dropped when mine pinged:Is there somewhere we can talk?
We made eye contact again, and Luke looked like I felt: scared as shit. I could see the nervousness in his eyes as I bit the inside of my cheek and nodded.
Down the hall, the Edelson Meeting Room was used as a greenroom for guest speakers, and I couldn’t decide whether I hoped it was already occupied or not when I opened the door and turned on the lights.
It was empty, and I swore loudly from the extreme brightness, squeezing my eyes shut. I hadn’t been in a decently lit room since before dinner. The room was dark again when I reopened them, and Luke had his iPhone illuminated. “We’re probably not supposed to be in here,” he said quietly.
“No.” I shook my head. “Probably not.” I fumbled to switch on my flashlight as well—I wasn’t sure it was a good idea for it to be so dark. I shined my way over to the couch, and my heart pressed down on the gas when Luke joined me. We sat in silence for what seemed like hours, and then Luke started to speak.
“Okay, I don’t want to be this type of person,” he said, not looking at me. “I neverthoughtI’d be this type of person, someone who overanalyzes every interaction we have, right down to how many times we make eye contact.” He paused, took a deep breath. “So I’m just going to ask: Do you like me? As more than a friend? Because that’s what I’ve been getting from you, but maybe I’m completely delusional.”
I didn’t say anything.
“Because I like you, Charlie,” he added. “I like you so much…” He hesitated. “And I really hope you feel the same way.”
Charlie, I thought. He’d called me Charlie. I hadn’t heard him say my name since the first day of school, before we’d officially met. I remembered listening to his voice, wondering who he was—
But you can’t do this, I reminded myself.Thiscannothappen.
I shoved my sweaty palms under my legs and took a deep breath. “Morrissey…”
“Like that!” His excitement made me flinch. “You don’t call anyone else by their last name. Just me. And I think it’s a shield. I think calling me ‘Morrissey’ forces you to keep some type of distance between us. Never once have I heard you say ‘Luke.’”
I tried to swallow the lump in my throat. “But up until now,” I whispered, “you’ve called me ‘Carmichael.’”
“Yeah, well, I was trying to flirt with you,” he admitted. “And youknowthat.”
