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“Why aren’t you inside?” she asked.
“You changed,” I said, ignoring her question.
“How was the rest of your dinner?” she replied, ignoring me in kind.
“I don’t know. How was it?” I asked, wondering if she lingered nearby and had been listening. If she had seen the black thing in the road.
“I’m asking you,” Sorina said, sliding off the hood.
She was so close to me I had to back up a little, but she slipped her finger into my jeans, pulling me back.
I reached down, wrapping my hand around her wrist, pulling her finger from my jeans, a wash of anger flittering over me, dropping me into my past, where grabbing and pulling, and softly violent taking left me scarred. She dropped her hand.
“It was fine. Ended early.”
“Why are you out here and not inside with your date?” she asked.
“I was mean to her. She went inside.”
Sorina smiled, genuine, her teeth glinting in the light. “Walk me in?” she asked, reaching out her hand.
I offered my arm and her own slipped into the space I left for her as we turned toward the school. I leaned down to Sorina, speaking in a hushed voice. “The Deacon said Amber Hughes was a runaway. Said we should pray for her.”
“The power of prayer? You don’t believe in it?” she asked.
“No,” I said, stepping onto the school’s front steps. Two teachers sat at the door, Mrs. Vaughn and Coach Richards, watching as each student came in. They checked our names off on a list, and I noticed when Mrs. Vaughn checked Sorina’s name, she blinked rapidly before shaking her head and ushering us in. I glanced back at her as we walked down the hallway toward the gym.
Sorina was small and dainty on my arm. Other students in the hall watched us as we walked by, and just as we were about to step into the gym, I felt a warning ripple through me. But not before Sorina flinched, turning back.
At the entrance, Deacon Rex smiled at the teachers.
“Deacon Rex, how nice of you to come,” Mrs. Vaughn said. “I thought you were chaperoning the winter formal?”
The Deacon smiled his broad smile, his eyes likely crinkling behind his glasses. “Yes, but I thought I would get some practice in. Unfortunately, we don’t have many young people on the hill. I’m afraid I’m out of practice with our young, hopeful next world leaders.”
Mrs. Vaughn smiled, and I rolled my eyes. As if anyone from Hart Hollow High would change the world.
Well, maybe Kyrie would.
Sorina pulled my arm, dragging me into the gym.
When I turned to her, I saw a faint red color around her eyes. Before I could ask her if she was alright, she said she needed to use the restroom and left me alone.
* * *
I was genuine with my apology, and Kyrie quickly forgave me. I didn’t think she was ignorant or naïve. I wanted her heart sometimes. Wanted herlove. But I’d lost it long ago. If I ever had it to begin with.
We sat on the bleachers as our classmates mingled, dancing. I didn’t dance, or have any desire to, and when Nathan asked her for a dance to prep in case she won the title of queen, she left me alone on the bleachers. I breathed out when she walked away, content to observe my classmates, as I often did.
That was the first time I spoke to Jessica Clement. I smelled the cigarette smoke before I saw her; she smelled of tobacco and warm vanilla sugar, a perfume I would grow to associate with her.
She sat next to me with a dramatic sigh, her twin across the room with a group of people, watching us.
“Hi, loner boy. Where’s your date?” Jessica asked, crossing her legs.
“Kyrie?” I asked, pointing to her in the crowd as if she didn’t know exactly where she was.
“Why aren’tyoudancing with her?” Jessica asked, turning her body toward me. It wasn’t the first time I’d been on the receiving end of Jessica’s flirtations, and it wouldn’t be the last. “I don’t know how to dance,” I said, hoping for a nail in coffin situation, but she took it as a challenge, a flirtation.
