“Wait…” Ryan trailed off, looking back and forth between me and Elliot. “Are you dating this emo kid?”
I cocked an eyebrow at him. “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“Very.”
Shaking his head, he laughed cynically, his lips forming a tight-lipped smile. “You fucking bitch.”
“Excuse you?” I barked back. “What the hell did you just call me?”
“I make one small mistake last year, and you still can’t get over it?”
“You call fucking someone else while you were dating me ‘a small mistake?’”
“I apologized—”
“Oh.” I clapped my hands. “Good for you. You apologized. Doesn’t mean I have to forgive you, let alone agree to dance with you.”
“No means no, dipshit.” Elliot smirked at him.
“How about you mind your own business, you fucking emo freak?” Ryan spat.
“You thinkI’mthe freak? You’re trying to force someone who doesn’t like you to go out with you. I think you’re the only freak here, dude.”
Kendra slapped a hand over her mouth, inhaling her laughter. Ryan stood in stunned silence, struggling to pick his jaw up off the floor.
I didn’t even dare look at Meredith. And honestly, fuck what she thought anyway.
“Anyway, I think that’s a ‘no’ on the dance, Ryan. Sorry.” I chuckled while tugging at Elliot’s hand.
“Not sorry,” Elliot mumbled.
A smile lingered on my face as we wove our way through a crowd of people, desperate to escape the disaster that was ensuing. The music slowly faded back into focus. My ears were buzzing.What the hell just happened? Elliot’s hand was still wrapped tightly around my own. I led us to the large circular table filled with an assortment of snacks—pizza, chips, a cheese platter. Not that I could stomach any of it right now. There were a few other people who seemed to need a break from all the chaos as they approached the table, shoveling food onto their plates. They all seemed to freeze when Elliot and I walked over. I glanced down at our interlocking fingers.
“Uh, you can let go of my hand now,” I muttered.
“Oh, right.”
He pulled his hand from mine as we stood next to each other, awkwardly picking at the food in front of us. My shoulder brushed his upper arm, sending an electric current through my body. I cleared my throat.
“Thanks for…that.”
“What can I say?” He smirked. “I guess the whole knight-in-shining-armor thing really did go to my head.”
“Or maybe you just needed an excuse to fake-date me.”
Elliot’s smile deepened. “Seriously, though. It seemed like you needed an out.”
“You have no idea.”
“Wanna talk about it?”
“Nope.”
“Then wanna dance?”
I snapped my neck up, looking at him with furrowed eyebrows. “What?”
