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My wish has come true in a terrible and ironic way.

We’ll talk. We’ll dance. We’ll spend time alone. He’ll have to touch me, correct me, hold me. His hands will be on my skin again. On my waist, my arms.

He’ll look at me with those dark eyes that see right through me.

Except now, everything will be different. Everything will be wrong.

I should have said no. It won’t work with the two of us. Pearson is wrong, even if his argument is convincing.

I can’t let go, I can’t be myself, I can’t come out of my shell. Not when anyone’s watching. And least of all with Phoenix.

He’s wrong, but in a twisted way, he’s right.

So why did I say yes?

Chapter 22

Lia

“Tyler? Mr. Pearson wants to talk to you,” I say as I walk over to the table where my friends are having lunch. It took me a while to pull myself together enough to remember Pearson’s request.

He looks up, surprised. “Me?”

I nod. “He asked me to send you over.”

“Do you know what he wants?” There’s a hint of panic in his voice. Understandable. No one likes being called to the principal’s office without warning.

“It’s about understudy rehearsals,” I explain, almost choking on the dreaded word.

Tyler stands up with a sigh and grabs his tray. “I’d better go then. See you later.”

He disappears, and I collapse into his vacant seat without getting myself anything to eat. I wouldn’t be able to choke anything down right now anyway.

Susannah’s forehead creases in confusion. “What did Pearson want to talk about?” she asks, voicing what everyone at the table is probably wondering.

I smooth a nonexistent wrinkle from my cardigan. “Just that Tyler and I are going to be rehearsing with Mr. Sutherland. Francesca will take care of you two,” I say, glancing at both her and Charlie.

Katie lets out a high-pitched squeal. “What? Phoenix is going to rehearse with you?”

I tense at her using his damn first name. Shit. “Looks like it,” I say, trying to sound indifferent, even though I’m anything but.

“Why?” Susannah asks, looking a little confused. “Pearson never lets the understudies rehearse alone. They’ve always practiced with the others.”

“But we haven’t done Swan Lake in a while,” Katie says. “Maybe Pearson is just worried that it will be too difficult to let you rehearse together.”

I give her a small, grateful smile, but Susannah doesn’t give in. “Yes, but why does he care so much about the understudies? I mean, it’s totally unlikely that they’ll ever be needed.”

Her words sting. “But not impossible,” I reply before I can stop myself.

Why are you letting her provoke you like that? I ignore the reproachful voice in my head because I don’t have an answer to the question.

Susannah straightens her back, and all at once there’s an expression in her blue eyes that I’ve never seen there before. Anger and . . . jealousy? No, that can’t possibly be. What on earth could she be jealous of? She got everything I wanted.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she hisses.

Our silent agreement from this morning not to talk about the performance has obviously just vanished into thin air.

“It doesn’t mean anything,” Charlie says, giving me a pleading look. He doesn’t want me to upset Susannah any more than she already is, since he’s going to have to dance with her very soon. “Right, Lia?”