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“Guilty as charged.” Ms. Perez blushed.
I was about to ask Evan a question when he turned his attention on Ryan and said, “So, Aria, care to introduce this young man to me?”
“Of course! Ryan, this is Evan. Evan—Ryan.”
“Ah, the star athlete… now I remember.” He reached out and shook his hand. “Nice to meet you.”
“Aria’s told me a lot about you, Mr. Hunter.” Ryan offered a smile.
“Good things, I hope.” Evan smirked at me. “And please call me Evan. I’m still too young for that ‘Mister’ crap.”
We all laughed.
“Treat my niece well.”
“I will.”
“Good. I’ve got my eye on you.”
God, he was just as protective and territorial as Noah. Maybe it ran in the family or something. I often wondered what my other uncle was like.
Ms. Perez took a sip of her fruity beverage and told us how proud she was of our achievements. She had high hopes for our academic futures and wished us an amazing night.
“Go,” Evan said. “Frolic amongst your peers.”
“You just wanna get rid of me so you can hang out with your hot date,” I teased in a low voice.
“Come here,” he said. “Give me a hug.” He pulled me into his arms and whispered, “I missed you.”
“I missed you, too.” I hugged him back and recognized the scent of his cologne. It was the same cologne that Noah often used:Eternity, by Calvin Klein. If I closed my eyes, I could have convinced myself that it was Noah I was hugging.
Reluctantly, I withdrew and slipped my hand into Ryan’s before I politely said my goodbyes to Ms. Perez. She smiled and gave me a little wave as I walked off with the most popular guy at school. Turning my head, I caught the way Evan gestured two fingers at his eyes and then pointed them at Ryan with this serious look on his face.
Is that supposed to be a friendly threat?
Ryan looked uneasy as he looked at me and chuckled. “We might have a hard time sneaking off while your uncle’s here.”
“Don’t worry about him.”
“If you say so.”
Hopefully, he wouldn’t sabotage our plans. I hadn’t expected him to be here, but I wasn’t disappointed.
Ryan led me to our table, where the rest of our friends were seated. We sat down, socialized, and indulged in the delicious dinner our hundred dollar tickets had covered.
??
Time had flown much quicker than I expected, which meant I was enjoying myself. It made me sad knowing this would be the last time I would ever see anyone here again. All my friends thought I was going to Berkeley in the fall. I didn’t want to explain why I was moving back to New York, especially since I had expressed how much I hated living there.
Whoever hired our DJ had made an excellent choice. He had played many of my favorite songs: “We Are Young” by Fun, “World Hold On” by Bob Sinclar,“Get Lucky” by Daft Punk, “Koko” by Sander van Doorn, and so much more.
I couldn’t keep my eyes off Evan all evening. I was crushing on him. He was laid back, funny, charismatic, not to mention good looking. He and I… we had this understanding: a bond. Throughout the weeks of getting to know him, I realized he had quickly gained my trust. Evan’s place had become my haven. I still remember that evening when he took photos of me. In hindsight, I’m certain he was going to let me kiss him. We weren’t biologically related, so it wouldn’t have been the worst thing if that kiss had actually happened. I couldn’t help but wonder if Evan was actually attracted to me. Maybe we had been so high that night that we didn’t care about the rules anymore. He’d had a chick over, and I’d disrupted things…
Ugh, I didn’t want to analyze it. All I knew was that my stomach twisted in knots every time he looked at me with thosealluring brown eyes. Perhaps the reason we’d connected right off the bat was because we both felt like outcasts in the family.
Slow dancing in Ryan’s arms, I kept wishing it was Evan I was dancing with as we swayed to a beautiful love ballad.
The music suddenly faded, as Jenna Connelly (our student council president) took the podium and tapped on the mic.
