She gave a small shrug. 'Don't be. Guys are a dime a dozen, but real friends are way harder to find.'
'You sound like a Hallmark card.'
'My parents want me to be a doctor, but that's what I'm really going to do after high school. Be a writer for greeting cards.' Her smile faded and she sighed shakily. 'Things are difficult for me right now, Nikki. Nobody knows. Maybe that's why I want tonight to be as perfect as possible. It might be my last chance to be completely normal.'
I looked at her intently. I guess we really did have more in common than I thought. After all, I'm sure I was the least normal person in the entire room.
Possibly the entire world. 'What's wrong?'
She shook her head. 'I can't talk about it.'
'I'm having some issues, too.' To say the least. 'With Chris?'
I glanced over in his direction. Chris was laughing with one of his friends. 'No, it doesn't have anything to do with him.'
She raised an eyebrow. 'Well, if you tell me yours, I might tell you mine.'
Melinda looked so open, so curious, and hopeful that I'd share my big secret, that right then and there I decided to tell her. I'd only known her for a couple of months, but if anyone might be able to help me deal with my problems, it just might be her. I trusted her. It would be a huge weight off my shoulders if I could share it with somebody.
'Well. .,' I said, looking around our immediate surroundings to make sure no one was listening in. 'I just found out I'm a half-demon princess.'
Then I clamped my mouth shut. It sounded just as crazy as it did in my head, and the look on her face-sort of a stunned confusion as if that was the last thing she ever expected me to say-was enough to make me wish I hadn't said anything at all. Was it too late to take it back?
I cleared my throat nervously and tried to grin at her. 'I'm kidding, of course.'
Thankfully, that brought a smile to her face again. 'Well, it's good that you're kidding because I just found out that I'm a demon slayer, so I'd probably have to kill you.' She went quiet for a moment. 'I'm kidding, too, of course.'
'Funny.' I forced a laugh.
Although, I didn't think it was that funny. In fact, the idea that she was even remotely serious made me feel sick to my stomach.
I tried to put it out of my mind. After all, Melinda sure didn't look like somebody who might spend her spare time slaying demons.
Then again, at the moment I didn't look all that royally demonic.
A half hour later, Melinda was crowned 'Winter Queen. No big surprise there. The surprise was that Chris was crowned Winter King-despite my previous mega crush on him, I didn't even know he was up for the title. After the announcement, he wore the crown, tipped with little plastic snowflakes, proudly.
'I'm king,' he kept saying.
'Congrats.'
'We can leave now, if you want. We'll get the limo to swing by your house. I get the feeling that you're not having much fun.'
I was a terrible actress. Despite wanting to forget about Michael and about everything else, I was failing horribly. My problems hadn't left my mind for a moment.
The fact that Chris had noticed and didn't want to force me to stay any longer earned him significant bonus points. I'd go home and try to contact Michael one last time. But after that. . drinking the potion was my only option.
Fate. It was all about fate.
'Thanks,' I said to Chris.
'Let's go.'
I said good-bye to Melinda and some of the other members of the Royal Party. Then Chris took my hand and led me across the dance floor and out of the gym completely. After a moment we were back outside in the cold air. Was it this cold when we'd arrived? It had to be below zero out there. The sky was dark and clear and I could see the constellations overhead that Mom always pointed out to me when I was a little girl, although now I knew that she'd been making most of them up.
The limo was parked to the side of the parking lot near * a long fence, but the driver was nowhere to be seen.
'We'll wait inside until he gets back,' Chris suggested.
I wrapped my bare arms around myself and rubbed them to try to warm up. Chris opened the back door and disappeared inside. After a moment, I joined him. Once I was in, he reached over and pulled the door closed behind me.
Yes, it was much warmer in there. But dark. I could see out, but I knew the tinted glass meant that no one could see in. It was silent and peaceful and I could finally think clearly away from the loud, throbbing music in the gym.
Chris patted the seat next to him. 'Come and sit next to me. You look frozen.'
I sighed, but moved over to him. Getting closer to him helped warm me immediately.
'Lame dance, right?' he said.
I shook my head. 'The dance was great. I. . I'm just not feeling up to it tonight.' 'Why not?'
I pressed back in the seat. 'I've been dealing with some problems this week.' 'Like what?'
'Like'-I hesitated-'like, I found out that my father is dying.'
'Oh, my God, Nikki. That's terrible.'
And then I started to cry. Just like that. One moment I wasn't and then the next moment I was. Great big fat tears slipped down my cheeks and I covered my face with my hands.
Chris touched my shoulder and then pulled me toward him in a comforting hug against his chest. I leaned into him and hugged him back, letting it out while he held me.
'Nikki,' he murmured against my hair. 'It's okay.'
I shook my head. No, it wasn't okay. My father was going to die. I'd just met him and now he was going to be gone and I couldn't believe how much I was going to miss him.
Chris drew me even closer to him. I could feel the thud of his heart through his tuxedo shirt.
'It's okay,' he continued to say for a few minutes, holding me. And then, 'Oh, Nikki, you are so damn hot in that dress.'
I frowned and pulled away a little, my vision blurry from the tears. 'What did you say?' 'You like me, right?' 'Of course I like you-' 'Good.' He kissed me.
I braced my hands against his chest and managed to pull back a little. 'Chris, I think I need to go.'
'I thought you said you liked me.'
'I do, but this isn't right. I want to leave. I can call my mom for a ride.'
'You liked it when I kissed you yesterday.'
I sighed. He was right. I did like it. But a lot of things had changed since yesterday.
'I'm sorry,' I said. 'This has nothing to do with you. You're a great guy, really, but… I don't know. I just need to be alone right now.'
'You're alone,' he said. 'With me.'
'That's not exactly what I meant.'
His eyes were heavy lidded, his lips moist. I could now smell alcohol on his breath even though I hadn't seen him drink anything. He wasn't looking in my eyes, his gaze was sliding down to my chest.
'Come on,' he said. 'You, me, a limo. This is the chance we've been waiting for to get to know each other a
