Jake pulled away from me reluctantly. “Let’s go out,” he said with a strained smile, set on getting back in Mom’s good graces despite the ultimate impossibility of it.
When we got to the kitchen, Kelsie squealed and made me turn around. She looked like an angel. Her dress was gathered ivory with sparkly beading all over it. She had curled her hair and done her own makeup, and she looked gorgeous. Her date, Chris, looked handsome too. Nate came to me with a plastic box. It had a red rose on a rubbery wrist band. I held my hand out so he could put it on my wrist, then kissed him on the cheek, pointedly ignoring Jake’s withering glares. Nate looked nervous. Mom and Thorsten snapped pictures all the way to the door.
Jake walked out with our group and kissed me despite Mom’s narrowed eyes. “Have fun. Be careful.” He squeezed my hand tight.
“Don’t worry.” I kissed him again. “I’ll call you when I get home.”
“I’ll be up. You know that. No matter how late,” he added, as if he were always up late. Jake was one of those people who would go to bed before nine and wake up by seven every day by choice.
We climbed into Chris’s Volvo and waved goodbye. Nate smiled at me nervously. We chatted about Folly and school and people we mutually knew on the way there. Frankford’s prom was held at a hall, not the same one as Tech’s, but they were all kind of strangely familiar after you’d been to one.
We filed in and did the formal picture thing.
“Thanks for coming with me,” Nate said when he had his arms awkwardly around me. We smiled at the photographer, a bored-looking middle-aged lady.
“No problem.” We stepped down and went to our assigned table. “It’s fun to get to go to prom.”
“Well, it’s really cool that you went with me.” He cleared his throat. “And you look really pretty.”
“Thanks, Nate.” I smiled as reassuringly as I could. “You look really nice. I like your tux.”
“Um, I can’t really do the fast dance stuff, unless it’s like moshing, but if you want to slow dance, we could do that.” He was cute in a metal-faced, neck-tattooed way.
We went out onto the dance floor and he put his hands at my hips, so I put mine at his neck and decided to have fun dancing like it was our eighth-grade dinner dance.
“So, is Saxon going to, like, beat my ass?” Nate’s eyes made a nervous check of the room. Presumably for a sneak attack from Saxon?
I looked at him questioningly. “Saxon isn’t my boyfriend, Nate. Jake is. The guy who was at my house.”
“Oh.” Nate’s eyebrows pushed together for a minute. “Just, ah, Saxon said that he was going to beat my ass. I don’t really know him, so I figured it was because he found out you and I were, like, going. Even though it’s not, you know, a date or anything.” There were a few beads of sweat on Nate’s forehead.
I sighed. Between Jake glaring at him at my house and Saxon telling everyone that he was going to ‘beat Nate’s ass,’ it would be no wonder if poor Nate was right at the edge of a heart attack.
“I don’t know. I mean, about Saxon.” I looked him right in the eye and said firmly, “Just ignore him. He tends to talk a lot. A lot more than he should, in fact.”
As if on cue, Saxon appeared next to Nate. “Beat it, Nate. Or I really will beat your ass.”
“Excuse me.” We stopped dancing and Nate looked like he might faint. I glared at Saxon. “I’m dancing this dance with Nate. I’d tell you to ask me again later, but I have a feeling that I’m not going to want to dance with you at all tonight.”
Saxon’s eyes were black as pitch and sparkling with fury. “Finish your damn dance, Nate. But she’s not gonna give it up for you anyway. If you want a sure thing, I’ll hook you up with Tara Jordan. She’s technically my date, but she’s a little tipsy, so she’d be happy to be your date instead.”
“Saxon!” I cried.
But Nate’s face looked eager. I rolled my eyes at him. “It’s cool, Brenna. Do you want to dance with Saxon?” He was already looking around for Tara. So much for sweet Nate.
“Whatever.” He was gone like a birddog on the scent.
Saxon grabbed me and pulled me close. “C’mon Blix, don’t be pissed. It was agony watching you march around with that goon. I had to cut in before I forked my own eyes out.” He spun me around and dipped me low. “You look fucking hot.”
“Thanks,” I said flatly. I didn’t return the compliment. I knew he already knew how good he looked. He was wearing all black; black suit, black shirt, black socks and shoes. The only break in the outfit was a red tie. Like he knew I’d be wearing a red dress. Everything he wore was fitted perfectly and expensive looking. He knew how to dress, that was for sure. I needed to get my mind off how good he looked quickly. “So how did it work out with the Amazon?”
“What?” He looked totally confused.
“The girl. From the field hockey team?” I reminded him.
“Oh, her.” He smiled a smug smile. “If you’re asking if I screwed her, then yeah. And she’s as athletic in bed as she is on the field.”
“Great. That’s exactly what I wanted to know.” He tried to pull me closer, but I kept a little distance between us. “Thanks.”
“But we’re not an item.” He spun me neatly, and the momentum threw me right into his arms, nice and snug. “Neither are Tara and I. So if you still want some action, my car’s in the lot.”
“Just stop.” I stopped dancing and he pulled me back into his arms.
“Stop what?” He wrapped an arm around my waist.
“Stop this.” I pulled away from him. We were in the middle of the dance floor with two feet between us and couples moving awkwardly to avoid bumping into us.
“What do you want?” he asked, his black eyes bright.
“I want to be able to come to a prom and not be harassed by you.” When I saw the look of disgust on his face, I grabbed his hand. “Really? You want to know what I want? I want to talk to you without all of this bullshit between us. I want to be able to have you as a friend.”
“Not fucking possible.” He stalked off of the dancefloor.
I followed him, because, as always, nothing felt finished with Saxon. “Wait.”
“Why?” He threw his hands up. “You can’t imagine how sick I am of all of this, Brenna. All of this is just bullshit.”
“All of what? Prom?”
“You know exactly what I mean.” He closed the gap between us, stuck his face next to mine, and spoke low, for my ears alone. “Not prom. My whole fucking life.It’s bullshit.”
“Well, whose fault is that?” I pushed at his chest. “You want what you can’t have, you take whatever is the easiest thing you can reach. You let Jake go, you won’t accept friendship with me; what do you expect?”
I had followed him all the way out to the foyer. He pulled me into an empty dining room, dark and quiet compared to the wild, music-filled ballroom.
“I have fucked things up beyond repair.” He pronounced each word deliberately and turned his back to me.
“What? What have you fucked up?” I put a hand on his shoulder and turned him towards me.
“You and me.” He ran a hand over the short, shiny hair of his mohawk.
“I’m here, right? I’m talking to you. I’m with you. I’ll be your friend, if you want.”
“I do. And more.” He looked at me, his eyes begging.
“Well, learn to settle,” I snapped. “That’s all that bothers you in life? The one girl you were never compatible with doesn’t want to be your girlfriend?”
“There’s Jake, too.” He slumped into a chair.
“Jake’s an understanding guy. Didn’t you tell me that?” I sat in the chair next to his. “I know you gave him dance lessons.”
He looked up in surprise. “He told me that he’d kill me if I mentioned it.”
“Yeah, probably because he was embarrassed that he learned to dance from a dude.” I raised my eyebrows, waiting for him to answer back.