Fabián craned his neck around, his eyes resting on the other side of the dance floor. “Well, Ruth definitely didn’t see it happen.” I looked over—Ruth was talking to a Black girl wearing a bedazzled NASA shirt and locs pinned up with sparkly barrettes. Ruth looked completely transfixed. The girl even had shimmery blue eyeshadow.
Ruth’s favorite color of eyeshadow.
Wait, was Ruth . . . flirting? I moved my napkin down to get a better look. At least she was having fun.
“Well, looks like it’s just you and me, Fabes,” I said. But Fabián had already left to do crazy complicated dance moves with some cute sophomore boy with green hair, the one whose name I was pretty sure was Austin, and who had asked Fabián to Homecoming.
I waited for my ice, alone.
■ ■ ■ LATER
Emerson brought me an ice pack a good ten minutes after the assault over to where I’d been hiding out on a wicker lawn chair away from the dance floor. “Sorry,” he said. “I stopped to whup Eben’s butt on Xbox.”
Oh my god.
“Thanks,” I sniffed, snatching the ice from him. My nose no longer stung, but the ice felt good on my face.
“Listen, are you okay on your own? I gotta finish my game,” he said. “I’m really sorry.”
I sighed. “Fine—” I began, but Emerson was already running off toward the house. Great. Just great. What if we went on a date and I somehow got another injury?
I was happy my friends were dancing, at least. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Matty start to dance with some dude I’d never seen before. Damn it. That boy was cute, too. The competition was already stiff, and I was sleeping on the job. I just didn’t know if I could rely on Emerson as a Homecoming date anymore, what with all the violence.
But before I could make a decision, someone called out, “Hey, Parvin.”
My blood chilled enough to stop my nosebleed. Wesley was heading my way, and worse, Teighan was with him. What gives? Yessenia had told me she was inviting people from band—not our entire high school. I quickly threw my ice pack into a bush.
“Hey,” I called out casually, as if my heart wasn’t racing. It still hurt to see the two of them together. Wesley wore a navy sports coat, something I never thought I’d see in my entire life, and his arm was at Teighan’s lower back, guiding her my way.
That should have been my lower back.
It looked like he and Teighan had coordinated outfits, judging by her navy dress. They even wore the same kind of shoes where you don’t wear socks; the ones people wear on yachts, or polo fields. He grabbed two cups and poured some horchata from the table nearby.
“How’s it going?” He nodded, his dark blond hair still in a tight military cut. He looked completely different from the gangly dork with braces I’d fallen for over the summer. In front of me was a blond clone of Hudson, one who now reeked of cologne instead of salt and soap.
“Fine,” I lied.
Wesley handed Teighan a cup. She took a sip and promptly spit it out.
“Ugh!” she cried. “What is that stuff?”
Wesley took a sip, shrugged, and kept drinking. For some reason Teighan was looking at me for an explanation.
“Um . . . horchata?”
“I saw you talking to Emerson Cheng,” Wesley said. I prayed he wasn’t referring to Emerson attacking me on the dance floor.
“Yep.”
“Is he your date to Homecoming?” Wesley was looking me in the eyes for once, and it was so easy to dive deep into them and pretend we were back on the beach. I could practically get a phantom whiff of sunscreen just from that look.
“Why do you care?” Teighan interrupted. I snapped out of it. Yeah, Wesley, why do you care? You dumped me, remember?
“No reason,” he said, and laughed nervously, shifting his feet back and forth. “Well, time to dance.” He turned to Teighan and led her back to the dance floor.
I grabbed my ice and brushed mulch off it as I watched them walk away, the wheels in my head turning.
Was Wesley jealous?
Just then, Ruth came over. She must have seen the whole thing.
“Was that . . . ?” Ruth asked.
“Yep,” I replied.
“Do you want me to kill him for you?” she asked, deadly serious.
“With what?” I replied. “A glue gun?”
Ruth shrugged. “It’s how I’d want to go.”
Suddenly, I felt super tired. I had put on a good front with Wesley and Teighan, but the truth was, what he did to me at orientation still hurt. He made me feel amazing when he’d kissed me at the beach, but now I felt ashamed I let it happen in the first place. I thought today would be fun and important, but now I felt sad all over again.
“You sure you’re okay?” Ruth wheedled. “I feel like . . . I feel like you don’t really talk about it. Maybe talking about it would be good?”
I bit my lip. Having a meltdown at Yessenia’s party wasn’t a part of the plan.
“Who were you talking to?” I changed the subject. “She’s cute.”
Ruth’s pale skin went full crimson. “Parvin, Naomi is sooo cool! She’s a sophomore, and she’s already got an internship at Jet Propulsion Labs in California, where they make spaceships and stuff.”
Whoa. This girl sounded almost as ambitious as Ruth Song. Just then, I noticed Matty head to the dessert station (a chocolate fountain where you could dip fancy French macarons). Even though I’d shaken Matty’s hand, I knew I should try for another moment of physical contact.
“She asked for my number,” Ruth continued, gushing.
“Cool.” I got up and tracked Matty’s trajectory, then walked into him right as he got to the chocolate fountain, pretending to reach for the same macaron. Lightning went up my arm from where our hands grazed each other.
“Oops, sorry!” I smiled.
Matty smiled back, his eyes as green as the pistachio macaron. “No worries. Did you want this one?”
“You have it,” I said with a shy smile, pretending to be one of
