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“Dancing!” Jazz said shrilly. “There’s going to be dancing, and whatever happens after will be between two consenting people, or it doesn’t need to happen at all.”
“I don’t know about that,” Gibby said gleefully. “Nick brought a condom, after all.”
“I know how to make dental dams!” Nick announced rather hysterically. “My dad taught me! He—”
“—is coming over here!” Seth hissed, blood draining from his face. “Please stop talking about condoms and dental dams before he hears you!”
Nick whirled around in time to see Dad pushing his way through the crowd. When he saw Nick looking at him, he waved. “Nick! Hey,Nick! It’s me, your dad! Your father! The man who helped create you!”
“Oh my god,” Nick moaned, turning back around and slumping in his chair as if that would help. “My life is over.”
“Nah,” Gibby said. “It’s not like you had much of a life to begin with.”
“Just you wait,” Nick warned her. “You and Jazz are going to be gettingfreakyand your parents will be right there, watching your lesbian mating dance. They’ll probably even be taking pictures.”
Gibby made a face. “Not cool, Nicky.”
Before Nick could retort, Dad appeared at the table, looking far too pleased with himself. “Hey, didn’t you hear me shouting for you? You looked right at me. Wasn’t sure if you heard me or not.”
“I heard you,” Nick muttered. “Everyone heard you.”
“Good,” Dad said, patting Nick on the shoulder. “Then my job here is done.”
“Which means you can probably leave, right?” Nick asked hopefully. “No need to stay any longer. You’re old, which means you need sleep. Why don’t you head on home and take the rest of the night off.”
“Sorry, kid,” Dad said. “I take this chaperone thing very seriously. We even got a ten-minute speech about what to watch out for and everything. Can’t walk away from that.” He plucked a glass from the tray of a passing waiter, raising it to his nose and sniffing. “Good. Hasn’t been spiked, as far as I can tell. Don’t take a drink and then leave it unattended. That’s how they’ll get you. Seth, you look like you’re about to pass out. You all right?”
“Dad.”
“Nick,” Dad said in the same tone. “Yeah, yeah. I wanted to say hi. You won’t even see me for the rest of the night.” He smiled at Seth. “But I’ll be seeing you. You can bet on that.” He laughed as he ruffled Nick’s hair before disappearing back into the crowd.
“He knows,” Seth moaned. “He knows about the condoms.”
“Well, yeah,” Gibby said. “He’s the one who gave them to Nick—which, I mean, I get the whole safe sex thing, but that feels like a boundary that shouldn’t have been crossed. You guys have a weird relationship. Full offense.”
“He’s trying,” Nick said as he deflated. “Maybe a little too hard. He thinks he needs to make up for all the crap we’ve been through.”
“Is it working?” Jazz asked.
Nick wasn’t sure. He hoped so, but he wasn’t there yet. “I don’t know.” He looked at Gibby and Jazz. “How’re things going with your parents?”
“Nice deflection, Nicky,” Jazz said. She glanced at Gibby. “It’s going. My parents are still a little—I don’t know—starstruck, I guess, about what Seth can do.”
“Mine are still pissed,” Gibby admitted. “I think the support group helped a little, though. Dad said that Nick’s father seemed to be listening to him and Mom. He’s angry, but—”
“Can you blame him?” Nick asked. “Because I can’t.”
Gibby arched an eyebrow. “You’ve seemed to have done an about-face with the whole cop thing.”
Nick picked at the tablecloth as he muttered, “Better late than never.” He sighed. “No, that’s not good enough. It shouldn’t have taken this long. I have, like, years of hero worship to dismantleand work through that has nothing to do with Extraordinaries. I thought … I thought it was black and white, you know? Good guys, bad guys, a divide between them. I’m trying to figure out how to handle what happens when the good guysarethe bad guys. I’m getting there, but it’s harder than I expected it to be.” He looked up at Gibby. “He’s my dad, you know? It’s confusing. I’m angry with him, but I also want to believe that he can still make things right.”
“I hope so, Nicky,” Gibby said quietly.
“We’ll figure it out,” Seth told them. “We have to, because it’s the only way we’ll make it through this.”
“And it’ll still be waiting for us tomorrow,” Jazz said. “Tonight is about us.” A new song began to play, some pop mess that grated on Nick’s ears. Jazz, however, lit up, grabbing Gibby’s hand and rising from her chair. “I love this song! We’re going to go dance. Coming?”
Seth said, “We’ll be there in a minute. I want to talk to Nick.”
