Zayne and I remain silent, and in this moment I can’t help but kind of hate Meredith. Other than technically stealing her part in the play, there’s no reason for her to be mad at me.
“I see.” She grins when it’s clear neither I nor Zayne are going to deny it. “Good luck to you and your mom, Dot. I’m going to go find my date.”
Zayne steps in front of her. “None of it happened. Little Birdie lied about the whole thing.”
“Hm.” She presses her lips together, squinting at the two of us. She spins on her designer heels with soles as red as her dress,leaving Mabel standing with us as she and struts into the center of the dance floor.
I swallow. My throat feels like dry crumbs are stuck in it. “Who’s her date?”
Mabel shifts on her feet. “She came with Carlton.” She tries to smile but fails. Her eyes land on Zayne’s arm still wrapped around my waist. “You two look really adorable together, by the way.”
I smile. “Thanks. Who didyoucome with?”
“Me and Rue came together as friends,” she explains. “Since neither of us had a date.”
I nod. “Nice.”
There’s an awkward beat of silence, and then she says, “Well…I’ll see you later, Dot. I’m going to look for Rue.”
I nod as she walks away, less dramatically than her sister.
“Who cares what they think?” Zayne squeezes my hand, so I turn to face him. He leans closer to my face, our foreheads almost touching. “Dance with me.”
Excitement bubbles in my chest. “Okay.”
We make for the dance floor, hand in hand. I can’t help but notice the whispers floating around us, the eyes that flicker from our faces to the ground just as quickly, and then back again. The not-so-subtle pointing and gesturing in our direction. The attention is just as bad as when I first arrived at Fallbrook. It’s exhausting. No matter how often this kind of thing keeps happening, I just can’t seem to get used to it.
My mind drifts away from the drama at hand as Zayne pulls me to his chest, places his hands on my waist, and gazes at my face.
I reach up and twine my fingers around his neck. A soft melody drifts around us, and we sway back and forth to the tune. Even with all the gossip surrounding us, this isn’t so bad. Not with Zayne’s intoxicating scent filling my senses, or his lipsbrushing feather-light across my forehead. Not with him holding me against him, so gently yet so firmly, grounding me to this moment in reality.
Someone taps my shoulder. Zayne and I break apart, and Carlton is standing next to us in a tux similar to Zayne’s, save for the red accents instead of yellow. I blink away the spell I’d willingly fallen into a moment before. “Hey.”
“Hi.” He wets his lips. Swallows. It looks like he wants to say more but doesn’t know how.
Zayne arches an eyebrow. “Do you need something?”
“I, uh—” Carlton gestures to me. “I was hoping I could dance with Dot. Just once, for old time’s sake?”
My gaze jumps from Carlton’s face to Zayne’s. He narrows his brows, squeezes my shoulder, then drops his hand. “It’s up to you,” he murmurs.
The last thing I want is to stop dancing with Zayne, but I’m also curious what Carlton wants to tell me. I know there’s something because of the way his eyes keep darting between me and Zayne. “Okay, I guess.”
Carlton grins, linking his arm through mine. “Meredith is a great dance partner,” he tells Zayne. “You’re welcome to have a dance or two with her.”
The jealousy that flares inside me at the thought of them dancing together is alarming, but Zayne just rolls his eyes. “That’s alright. I’m going to get a drink.” He starts to walk away, but then tenses and turns back to Carlton. His gaze narrows in on his arm linked with mine. “Try anything with Dot, and you’ll regret it.”
And then he’s gone, disappearing into the crowd of our classmates.
Carlton scoffs. “A little dramatic, isn’t he?”
“Not in the slightest.”
Carlton unlinks our arms to face me and puts one hand on my waist. He holds his other out for me to take. My palm hovers in the air, hesitating, before taking his hand. I rest my other on his shoulder, and we sway to the music. There’s a new song playing, and it’s slow like the last one. A heavy dose of Carlton’s expensive cologne tickles my nose.
A few months ago, I would have killed to be here with him, in this moment. To be his girlfriend. To have him look at me the way he is now, like I’m the last piece of gold in the mine. But now, all I can think about is how wrong it feels to be in his arms. How uncomfortable his gaze makes me because the feelings aren’t reciprocated. I just want Zayne to come back because I’d much rather be dancing with him.
“He’s lying to you, you know,” Carlton whispers into my ear. “Zayne.”
