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“Hi.” I raised a hand lamely and barely refrained from closing my eyes and smacking my forehead. I was that awkward. “Um, for those of you who don’t know me, I’m Penelope Ewe. Friends and family call me P.”
“Pee-yew!” Someone yelled from the crowd, and I didn’t have to be a genius to know it was JT.
“Yep,” I gave a little laugh, “that’s me. Pee-yew, or as most of you know me, Skunk Girl. A dumb joke about my name that carried over from middle school. You know, for a long time, I walked the halls of Lakeview feeling entirely inadequate. You see, I wanted to be invisible. Because it’s easier that way. I was recently asked by someone what my biggest fear was—”
The ballroom doors creaked open, and I froze as I laid eyes on Topher standing in the doorway—stunningly gorgeous in a navy blue suit, hair curling around his ears, and it took everything inside me not to run and hide like I always did.
My throat tightened, threatening to close as his eyes found mine and the air rushed from my lungs. Even from across the room, I could see straight through blue-violet and everything became clear, like staring into a cloudless sky on a sunny day.
I closed my eyes, inhaling before I blinked them back open and continued. “And I told him that my biggest fear was being seen. Which is why I’ve spent the last six years hiding, pretending like my place here was irrelevant. I was comfortable being a nobody. The problem is, people see me all the time, just not in the way I want them to. But here’s the thing I realized. Maybe this whole time, people never saw the real me because I was too afraid to put myself out there. Maybe had I shown you,” I shifted my gaze to meet JT’s eyes, then Mikey’s, “all of you, who I really am, more of you would accept me, maybe even like me.”
When JT snickered, I laughed. “Or some of you would still be assholes.”
Everyone laughed at that and JT scowled, while Mrs. Leads shot me a warning glare.
“But the point is, I’m not scared anymore. And this person . . .” I glanced at Topher as I spoke. “Ironically, his biggest fear was to never be seen. But I see you. Not as the Royal or King, the jock, or the guy who has everything.”
Slowly, one-by-one everyone shifted, turning, seeking the source of my attention. And when I heard the collective gasp, I knew they found it.
He stood there, impossibly beautiful in his suit, eyes locked on mine, his expression unreadable.
“I see how smart you are. And good. You’d keep a secret, even if it hurt you, as long as it saved someone else from the same pain—”
“Why now? Why do this?” Topher interrupted, gesturing around him.
The crowd shifted their focus from him to me again, watching the volley like a tennis match, and the heat of being in the spotlight bared down on me like a thousand suns.
I tried to be brave as I gave a little shrug. “Because you wouldn’t listen to me any other way. And I was desperate. I thought that maybe if I did something bold, something that scared me and put myself out there by facing the very fears that ruled my life, then maybe you’d listen. Maybe you’d give me a second chance like I once gave you.”
He glanced away from me, and even from a distance, I could see the muscle in the side of his jaw twitch.
“You defended me when you could’ve continued on the path of least resistance,” I continued. “You gave me a chance. And for that, I’ll always be grateful.”
Below me in the crowd, someone hollered, “What the hell?”
A rumble rippled through the student body, everyone trying to decipher what was going on.
But Topher stepped forward, unfazed by the attention, and the crowd parted for him like the Red Sea, leaving him room to close the distance between him and the stage. “Is that all you are? Grateful?”
I shook my head, and it took a moment to find my voice. “I’m crazy about you,” the words rushed out of me, and with them, a sense of relief filled me up. “I’m head-over-heels, mad about you. And I’msosorry for what happened.”
A commotion rushed through the crowd.
“And why should I believe you?” Topher asked.
“Because . . . it’s not rational for me to love you. It doesn’t make sense. We don’t fit on paper. It’s not prudent or expected, and it certainly wasn’t what I wanted. I hadn’t planned for this, quite the opposite.”
Topher continued forward, only feet away, his eyes bright as he listened.
“’But the heart isn’t rational,” I continued. “And mine chose you with little regard for what I wanted. My only love sprung from my only hate,’” I said, quoting Juliet.
Topher stopped, just below me, finally close enough that if I wanted, I could bend down and touch him. And my heart gave a little kick.
“‘Too early seen unknown, and known too late,’” he replied back, also quoting Juliet. Then stretched his long legs and stepped up onto the stage in one giant leap. He moved closer until he stood right in front of me and I could smell sunshine and the citrus scent of his cologne on his skin.
“Forgive me?” I murmured, forgetting the mic. Forgetting the hundreds of eyes on us, not caring if anyone heard. “I understand if you don’t want anything to do with me, but at least forgive me, because I can’t stand the thought of you hating me.”
“You know they’re recording this, right?” He nodded his head out toward the crowd, but I didn’t even so much as glance in that direction.
