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As I brushed past him, he touched my hand and whispered deliciously in my ear, “Later.”
We had a few more encounters, but finally it was almost time for the dance to close down and we hadn’t been alone together. I was grumbling about this to Harper as she snapped photos of the tired crowd. “Normally my parents would both be all over a catered buffet, but their daughter gets detained by the police just one little time and they’re not hungry?”
Suddenly, from out of nowhere, Tia barreled into us. She swatted me with the end of one of her braids as she grabbed Harper in a tight hug. “My dad is totally hitting on your mom. Sis!”
Harper peered over Tia’s shoulder at their parents. “Or, she’s just trying to get a good price from him on redoing the exterior of the B and B,” she said, sounding strangled.
Tia let Harper go and held her at arm’s length. “And you don’t get only me in the bargain. You get Violet, and Sophia, and Izzy, and all their children and shitty boyfriends. Think what fun Christmas will be for you from now on!”
Harper looked decidedly uneasy. “They’re probably just talking.” Then her eyes widened. “Oooh, Kaye, don’t look, but they’re laughing with your parents. None of them are watching the dance floor. Now’s your chance.”
I clutched at Tia. “Will you alert Sawyer for me? Send him behind the stadium.”
She saluted me. “Ten-four,” she said, which I was pretty sure was not what people were supposed to say when saluting. She vanished back into the crowd. I headed for the buffet as if I needed a word with the caterer. I kept going, behind the DJ’s equipment and the caterer’s van, into the darkness.
Sawyer stepped from behind one of the concrete pillars that held up the stadium. “Finally,” he said.
I melted into his arms just as a slow dance started, the last song of the night. He made no move to kiss me. I didn’t ask. After a long night of watching my friends touch their dates without a second thought, all I wanted was to tuck my head underneath Sawyer’s chin and feel his arms around me. We swayed just like that until the final lyric.
“That’s it.” The DJ’s amplified voice bounced around underneath the stadium. “Thanks, everyone, and have a good night! Fight, Pelicans, fight!”
Languidly, like waking up from the best dream, I pulled away from Sawyer and looked up into his eyes. “Happy homecoming.”
He stroked a stray curl away from my face. “Everyone had a great time tonight. Against the odds, you did amazing work on all of this.”
“I wouldn’t have been able to do it without you.”
He kissed me for one long, perfect moment.
And then he let me go, already receding into the shadows. “I’ll walk this way. You go that way. We’ve fooled them all. Ha!”
I looked back at him making his way around the dark side of the stadium. At the same time, he was looking back at me.
We would see each other at school on Monday.
But at that moment, it felt like our romance was over, and I would never see him again.
As I stepped back into the cordoned-off area of the parking lot, I heard my mother call, “Kaye!” Most of the school was already moving toward their cars elsewhere in the vast lot. The crowd I’d intended to get lost in was gone. My mother must have seen me come out from behind the stadium, and she’d guessed what I’d done.
I wasn’t going to drag my feet toward punishment one more time. Standing firm in my strappy sandals, shivering a little in my light sweater against the cool night, I let her cross the dance floor to me.
She stood eye to eye with me, silently assessing me, before she said, “You have done an excellent job with homecoming.”
“Thanks,” I said without enthusiasm, trying to disguise my relief that she hadn’t seen me with Sawyer.
“Ms. Chen and Ms. Yates both sought me out to tell me how proud they are of you, and what strong leadership skills you have.”
“Ms. Yates?” I’d thought she hated me. It was amazing how people threw their support behind something after it had been a success and they hadn’t lifted a finger.
My mother glanced over at Dad, who was still talking with Tia’s dad and Harper’s mom. “Manuel says Tia’s throwing an after-party at their house.”
“She is,” I said bitterly.
“Why didn’t you ask me if you could go?”
“Because I’m grounded!” I hadn’t even wanted to think about the party, much less tell her about it. All my best friends would go, and Sawyer would be there, while I stayed home. The pain was too much to bear.
My mother gazed at me like I was the biggest fool on this earth. Didn’t I know I was only grounded when I displeased her? She told me, “You can go.”
I walked away. I hoped she didn’t expect me to say thank you.
But secretly, my heart was beating a fast pattern that sounded like Sawyer.
I almost turned around and asked, “You do know Sawyer will be there, right?” But I would have said that out of anger, ruining any chance I had of seeing him again.
As it was, surely she suspected he would be at Tia’s party, as close friends as he and Tia were. It almost seemed as if my mother was giving me just enough rope to hang myself with.
A few hours later, I would find out how right I’d been.
* * *
I stayed later than anyone but Ms. Chen to make sure the DJ got packed up, the caterer was paid, and the chairs we’d set out were folded and carted back to storage inside the school. But I texted Sawyer that I was coming.
