Pride and Popularity

It didn’t take long for me to pick out Taylor from the large group. He must’ve been standing there for a while, because he was in a pretty relaxed pose as he stared right at me. Thankfully, Jordan broke my connection with Taylor’s eyes as he spun me out into an extended spin—an extended spin that brought me approximately three feet from a very sulky Emmalee Bradford. Oops! Evidently she wasn’t too happy to spend her morp in the back of the gym as she listened to lousy music and watched me dance. I didn’t blame her.

And then I was gone, whisked into a series of rotations that brought me next to Jordan again. It was the most exhilarating experience, and he made me feel so, well, light.

“Taylor is the guy standing there in the red shirt,” I replied a little breathlessly.

“Yep. I figured it was him. That guy has not taken his eyes off you since we started dancing.”

“Really?” My steps faltered again.

Jordan effortlessly matched my pace and chuckled. “You sure he doesn’t like you? Kate said a bunch of stuff, but I’m not buying it. That, my friend, looks like a man in love.”

I gulped. “In love?” I couldn’t help myself; I turned my head to see Taylor.

“Whoa. Watch your step. There.” He spun me in the opposite direction of Taylor.

I didn’t even know I had messed up that time. “Sorry. Thanks.”

“So is that pretty li’l blond, the girl, then?” He laughed. “The one folding her arms and looking madder than a bull in Spain?”

“Yes. I feel bad.” I glanced back at Taylor again.

“Don’t look at him,” Jordan ordered. “Look right at me.”

“Why?”

“Chloe. Look into my eyes. There. Keep focused.”

They were brown. I didn’t know Jordan had brown eyes. And now they were laughing at me.

“What?” I grinned.

“Good. Keep looking at me and smiling. Very good.”

My smile grew. “Are you gonna answer me or what?”

“Do you want to make him jealous or what?” Jordan did a series of quick whirls that brought me up close to his side. I looked right into his eyes.

“Good girl. Very good. If you want to know what Taylor is doing, just ask me. I get to look at him, but you don’t. Understand? And believe me, I’m having more fun smiling at Taylor than I thought I would. He really doesn’t like me. Now just make sure your focus is on me.” We did three backward steps and then another series of twirls that brought my hip next to his other side. I stayed completely focused on Jordan.

I couldn’t stand it. “Okay. What’s he doing?” I intently studied the back of Jordan’s neck as he glanced over at Taylor.

After another group of breathtakingly fast-paced twirls, I was in front of Jordan again. One of his hands held my waist as he lowered me down for a dip.

Dip? We didn’t practice a dip!

Jordan’s leg slid as he lunged forward and allowed me to fall back more. He was in complete control. And so after my brief panic, I relaxed and trusted him. “He wishes he was in your arms already,” I heard Jordan whisper as my head fell back to enjoy the world upside down. With another twirl, Jordan’s hands encircled my waist as he spun me in an effortless lift back to standing position. “I have never seen such a hungry look on anyone’s face before. No—no, don’t look. Stare right at me.” The music ended. “Now laugh,” he directed.

“I am laughing.” I giggled.

“Good girl.” He chuckled and then looked at Taylor. I thought I saw him wink. Jordan looked back at me. “That boy is putty in your hands.” 

Eighteen Betrayal And Denial

Saturday morning at 10:00 found me luxuriously lying in my bed as I ignored everything I had to do. My mind raced with thoughts of the dance the night before. The whole way home, Alyssa and Madison had praised Jordan nonstop for his dancing abilities and how we were the only thing that made the dance worth attending. I laughed to myself at the memory of Jordan’s imitation of Taylor, performed for us on the way home. Good. Taylor deserves to see what it’s like to want something. I smiled again and stretched my wiggling toes, thinking of Madison and her date, Collin.

Collin had handled being around me pretty well. I mean, there was a brief awkwardness at the beginning of the evening when we all met at my house, but nothing like what I thought it would be. I guess my dad was right. For the most part, Collin managed to avoid talking to me at all by playing with his phone.

Alyssa seemed to enjoy herself. I could tell she wasn’t too impressed with her friend from the orchestra class, but he was nice. I think they were one of the only other couples who actually danced to a few songs.

I was so busy with Jordan in the back of the gym that I really didn’t see much of anyone else at the dance. We did all get together and have our picture taken at the very end, which was cool. I was glad I would have something to remind myself of morp.

“Chloe?” My mom knocked on my door. “You’ve got a phone call.”

“Come in,” I called as I sat up.

“Here.” Mom handed me the phone. “Don’t talk too long, okay? We’ve got chores today.”

“All right.” I nodded my head. I waited until my mom had left the room before I said, “Hello?”

“Hi, beautiful.” It was Blake.

Unprepared for his deep voice, I couldn’t contain the shudders that sizzled down my back. I was a little stunned that he still had the same effect on me.

“Hi. Long time no talk,” I improvised.

“Miss me bad?” he teased.

What does he want? “Nope, not as bad as you wish I had. So what’s up?”

“Knowing how much you despise Taylor, I thought you’d be interested to learn something new about your friend Alyssa, something I learned last night.”

Alyssa? “Is it good or bad?”

“Bad.”

My chest tightened up. “Bad? What do you mean?”

“I mean it’s not good. It’s bad.”

“Blake!” I almost shouted. “Get on with it.”

“I know why Zack broke up with Alyssa.”

I gasped. “You do? Why? What happened?”

“Taylor.”

“Excuse me?”

“Taylor. Taylor broke them up.”

My mind raced with a hundred questions, but I only managed to get two out. “What do you mean? H–how do you know?”

“He told me last night when he came to the hotel after some dance.”

“He told you?” I couldn’t believe it.

“Yeah. Well, okay, it was more like he told Zack. But I could hear every word.”

“How? What did he say? How did it happen?”

“Well, he came in fuming last night. I guess the dance didn’t go like he thought it would. I don’t know. But after his normal rude greeting to me he stomped into his dad’s office and slammed the door.”

I frowned into the receiver.

“Then he came right back out again,” Blake continued, “demanding to know where his dad was. I told him he’d left hours ago and pointed out it was after 11:00 p.m. Taylor seemed really surprised at the time. He even started to laugh.”