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He shakes his head, looking abashed. “Nah. My dad would throw a fit if that got back to him. A minister for the church with a son who doesmagic? Nuh-uh. That’s blasphemy.”
It makes me sad how overbearing Danny’s dad is. At every turn, it seems like he stops Danny from doing anything remotely fun without even being physically present.
“Whatever you’re doing, I’ll cheer you on instead,” he says.
“Now that’s a unique talent no one else has.”
For some reason, the pits of my despair have become utterly hilarious to me. No one else will be cheering me on. Rory wants me to fail. Finlay’s too wrapped up in his music act. And Luke, seemingly as bored as ever, is probably treating the school talent show as his own personal jester squad.
But I have other plans.
At first, I have no idea how to tackle this. I’m not giving in to Rory’s demands. There’s no way, psychologically, that I’m able to recreate whatshouldhave happened at the last Greenvale show. I have to come up with a whole new routine.
For that whole week, I rehearse choreography after class in my room. My audience consists of a single, hopefully appreciative cockroach. The choreography is wilder and more daring than anything I’ve ever performed on stage before, and all because Arabella had thought to warn me about making Headmistress Baxter look bad.
Cute.
Danny possesses more talents than I ever thought possible. I promote him from cheerleader to the head of costume design, which he seems enthusiastic about, and he helps me to assemble an outfit. Somehow, he gets a hold of Freya’s old Hallowe’en costume — the selkie, which had basically been a sheer white gown.
I ask him to cut it shorter and sew it tighter.
When Danny looks at me with a raised eyebrow and asks if I’m sure, I nod.
I’ve never been so sure of anything.
In time, the gown becomes a two-piece. Creating the top half is difficult for me to do by myself, so I get Danny to assist.
I’ve never stood undressed before a boy.
“Are you okay?” Danny whispers as he drapes the fabric over my plain bra, but his hands are steady, and he doesn’t look half as nervous as I feel.
Swallowing, I nod. I watch the crease of his brow as he diligently tightens the fabric of the gown around my chest, checking the measurements and snipping away large sheaths. The fabric wraps around my breasts like a bandage before draping over my right shoulder. He tucks and pulls until the basic shape of the bra comes together.
When his hands brush my skin, they’re a welcome warmth from the cold air in the tower. He pauses, meeting my eyes, before quickly moving away again.
My heart is racing. I’ve never felt like this for Danny, but I’ve also never been half-naked in front of him before, and I have a strong suspicion that it’s skewing a lot of things for me right now.
I throw my top back on and it feels like a semblance of normality returns. Asemblance— because it’s not quite fully there. Danny quietly stitches the costume parts together, building something that looks beautiful even folded up on his lap.
“You know that’s not the only thing I got,” he murmurs when I stretch out my legs. He rummages around in his bag and pulls out a handful of vibrant peacock feathers. “These were with Freya’s dress.”
“Luke’s costume,” I breathe, moving over to it. The feathers are soft against my fingers and majestically long. I have a weird desire to stroke it across my skin, skin that’s already been inflamed by Danny’s casual touches.
I feel unlike myself, as though all I want to do is hold Danny by the shoulders and straddle his lap, have him run those feathers down the sides of my bare skin, and maybe strip until I’m completely naked.
This dance is messing with my mind.
I’ve never been that way inclined. I’ve never really had strong sexual fantasies — especially not in the past few harrowing months — but right now, I don’t think I’d be able to say no to Danny if he suddenly tossed aside my costume and decided to kiss me or touch me or finger me or… havesexwith me? All I want is fingers and mouths and soft, warm breaths lighting up my skin.
I pause, wondering when the subject of my desires had become plural.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, Danny shows more restraint. I don’t know how he does it but one hour later the peacock feathers come out of the sink as white as snow. “Raided the art room,” Danny says by way of explanation. He also unfolds his palm, showing me a small pile of sparkly studs, which he begins to glue onto my costume.
I’ve decided not to question him on it, but I file away his resourcefulness and petty thievery for the future. In Lochkelvin, anything can be useful, and I have a lot more ammunition than I thought when it comes to Danny.
The night before the talent show, Danny brings his small portable radio up to my room. It has the added bonus of blocking out the irritating sound of Li singing Mariah Carey over and over again. We listen to the charts and dance when Flirtmagicks get to number one. Danny and I are dancing around in our pajamas in the cold tower, the both of us singing at each other, “With you, with you, all I wanna be is with you!”
For the first time in so long, I realize I’m havingfun.
