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The rain ruined my makeup fast enough. It didn’t matter if I cried.
I tried to hold it back. I sat on the step, stifling the hiccupping sobs in my chest.
No one likes you. You’re fake as fuck.
I felt hot and cold at the same time. My stomach twisted with the alcohol I’d been sneaking all night. It didn’t matter what Kyle said. He was an asshole anyway, and I deserved better.
I wrapped my hands around my bare arms, covered with goosebumps from the cold. I was just as much of an asshole as Kyle. It was the only reason we’d ever really worked together. We’d deserved each other.
Two absolutely awful people deserved each other.
I jerked up my head at the sound of a footstep. Vincent stood to the right of the stairs, wearing a leather jacket, button-up black shirt and trousers, dry beneath an umbrella.
I sighed heavily, looking away from him. “Oh, God, it’s you.”
“Damn, people are usually way more excited to see me at parties.” He came up the steps and sat beside me, moving the umbrella so we could share it. I was used to him wearing oversized joke t-shirts and tight jeans. The sight of him in black, fitted clothes, was…nice. It was actually nice.
“Well, I’m not looking for any party favors,” I said, trying to subtly wipe my sniffly nose on the back of my hand. “Unless you’ve got Xanax.”
“I might. I’ve got whatever the people need.” I could feel his eyes on me, probing at me, like a doctor’s fingers looking for an injury. “You’ve never wanted downers before.”
“I don’t want to feel anything,” I said. I stared straight ahead at the soaked bags of trash. “Not anything at all.”
“I don’t usually comment on how people get their high, Jess. But something tells me I shouldn’t sell you xannies. Not like this.”
I shook my head bitterly. “Oh, great. A dealer with a conscience. Won’t even take advantage of a damsel in distress?”
He snickered. “You’re no distressed damsel. You’re a very dangerous queen bee.” He looked pleased when that got a little laugh out of me. We were silent for a few moments, before he said, “So…you got Prom Queen.”
“Yeah.” I reached up, brushing my fingers lightly across the plastic crown tangled in my soaked hair. “You’ll probably hear my mom scream clear across town when I tell her.”
“And the uh…the Kingis absent?”
I swallowed hard.Don’t cry again. Don’t cry. Don’t be weak over a guy.
“The King has found conquests in another kingdom,” I said, trying to sound as haughty and careless as I could. Like it was a funny little game that couldn’t really hurt.
Vincent didn’t say anything, but his silence was better than empty words of comfort. I would have known he was lying anyway. His relationship with Kyle was tolerant only because he supplied him with Adderall at a discount. But then he laid his jacket across my shoulders, holding the umbrella between his knees. “You must be freezing in that dress.”
I was. My entire body was covered in goosebumps and I’d been struggling not to let him see me shiver. The warmth of the jacket made my shoulders sag as the tension went out of them.
“This jacket smells like weed,” I said.
He nodded. “Probably because there’s weed in it.”
“If a cop finds me wearing this, am I going to get arrested?”
He smiled mischievously. “Only if they search you.”
We sat in silence for a few more moments, surrounded by the patter of rain and the upbeat dance music pounding through thedoor. Then the music changed, the melody slowing to become “Holy” by Justin Bieber.
“People are going to wonder where I am,” I said softly.
“Fuck ‘em.”
I looked at him in surprise, and he shrugged. “Fuck ‘em, Jess. They don’t need any more entertainment from you. Did Cinderella care about anyone wondering where she was when she ran away from the ball?”
I shook my head in disbelief. “You’ve seenCinderella?”
