Chapter 88

“Go get ‘im!” Lance said, and shoved Jacky forward.

He still couldn’t believe Ryan had said those words. Everyone was still clapping, less enthusiastically than before, and once Ryan and Monica had stepped down from the stage, the DJ had put on the Dirty Dancing song again. Jacky started trying to make his way forward.

“I’ll help,” said Matt, and shoved a tall, gawky boy out of the way.

“Hey!”

In Matt’s wake, Jacky made his way toward the stage.

Jacky wasn’t coming. Ryan couldn’t breathe, and the only thing that was keeping him from the edge of panic was the fact that Monica’s date wasn’t up here, either. He looked over at her. “Who’s your date?” Ryan asked.

She blinked, and the fakeness of her smile became obvious. “I… don’t have a date.”

He wanted to slap himself. Of course she didn’t have a date. In all these weeks, she had never mentioned having a date.

“I thought Brayden Cobb was going to ask you,” Ryan said dumbly.

“You really think I’d come to the dance with Brayden? He’s a jerk,” said Monica.

Fuck fuck fuck, Ryan thought. Everyone was going to stop clapping soon. Everyone would realize that Ryan’s date had run off and Monica didn’t have a date and furthermore, Ryan had planned to make her stand there by herself while he danced with his own date. Where was Jacky? He tried to think of someone, anyone, who he could call upon to dance with Monica, without making it look like she didn’t have a date.

Matt stumbled onto the open floor.

When Jacky stepped out from behind the hulking football player, he could see an expression on Ryan’s face that had nothing to do with him. Ryan was looking at Matt like the sun had risen.

Confused, Jacky glanced from Ryan to Matt and back to Ryan. Then he saw Monica, her chin lifted but her eyes shining. Jacky turned to Matt and hissed, “Go dance with Monica.”

“What?” Matt said.

“Go. Dance. With. Monica.”

Matt looked up at Monica, swaying. Fuck, he was totally drunk. “Oh.”

Together, Jacky and Matt walked across the empty space. Jacky had never felt more self-conscious. Ever since the accident, he had perfected the art of remaining invisible. Now he was anything but invisible. They were all going to see him, with the sleeve of his suit jacket pinned into his pocket so it didn’t flop around. “Why don’t you pin it up?” Ryan had asked while Jacky’s mom did the pinning. “You always do this thing, tucking it in the pocket. Everyone knows you don’t have an arm.”

“This is the way I want to do it,” Jacky had said. He wanted people at first glance to see him, not his missing arm. At this moment, however, he knew everyone saw it.

He looked up to meet Ryan’s eyes. Ryan had relief written all over his face, and that horrible fake smile he’d been wearing while he was up on stage had broken into a relaxed grin. Jacky couldn’t look at him without smiling himself.

In that moment, it seemed a silence had settled over the gymnasium. Before he had quite reached Ryan, Ryan stepped forward and took Jacky’s hand, lifted it, and put his other hand on Jacky’s hip. “I didn’t think you were going to come up here.” On the last word Ryan’s voice wobbled, even though he was still smiling.

“I’m here,” Jacky managed to say without turning into a crying mess.

Ryan looked away, blinking. Then he tilted his head forward, and Jacky tilted his head up, and he let Ryan kiss him. In front of the entire school.

Oddly enough, the applause behind him got louder. A few deep whoops came from Lance, and a high-pitched whistle that was Cody’s trademark. Jacky and Ryan looked at each other and laughed. The music got louder and Jacky felt a slap on his shoulder from Alex as he and Peyton walked by to dance.

After that, the evening flew by. Once they were out of the spotlight, Ryan and Jacky slipped off the dance floor to hide under the bleachers. They ended up kissing until Ryan decided they would get in trouble and went to make sure Monica was okay and Jacky remembered Cody.

“Thanks for stepping up, buddy,” Ryan said, clapping Matt on the back.

Matt wasn’t dancing with Monica anymore, but he had stopped drinking and was standing around with their group of friends, including Monica, who was laughing with Peyton. “Oh, god, I thought I was going to be standing up there alone—thank God for Jacky!”

Ryan squeezed Jacky’s hand and he ducked his head and blushed.

As for Cody, they finally found him flirting with Madysen Morse, the girl who had taken their tickets. “Watch out for this one,” said Nina, walking by with Haylee in tow. She was smiling, though, and Cody just laughed.

“So, are you guys a thing now?” Jacky asked her.

The two girls looked at each other. “It is very strange,” said Nina. “We were always spending time with Codymitchell, all three, together. And then we try to be friends, just two of us, and we find we like that. So… perhaps. We like to kiss sometimes and do target practice.”

After that, they went into the hallway to get their photos taken. Jacky made a big show of waving money around. “My sugar daddy,” Ryan cooed, and crushed Jacky to him until Jacky complained that he couldn’t breathe, although that was probably from laughing too hard.

They stayed until the very last song, “Closing Time.” Jacky rested his head on Ryan’s shoulder and Ryan rested his head on Jacky’s head as they swayed along. “This was the best dance ever,” said Jacky. “Not that I’ve been to many dances.”

“This was definitely the best dance,” Ryan agreed. “I… guess your mom will be picking us up?”

“Sort of…” Jacky said.

Ryan raised an eyebrow. “Sort of?”

The song ended, and everyone began drifting to the doors.

“I, um… I’m going to drive us home,” Jacky said.

“What?” Over the past weeks he had noticed that Jacky hadn’t been having panic attacks in the car anymore. “You got your license?” He crushed Jacky to his chest in the midst of the crowd.

“No,” Jacky said quickly. “I’ve been practicing, that’s all. I still have to do my driving hours and finish driver’s ed.” He laughed into Ryan’s suit jacket. “It’s not that big a deal.”

“It is a big deal! Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I wanted it to be a surprise,” said Jacky. “I have to wear my prosthetic arm to drive, and I didn’t want to wear it all night. So I’m driving us home.” Jacky was smiling too much for this to be the only surprise. Ryan waited. “But then my mom is going to stay with one of her friends tonight.”

“Oh,” said Ryan. He raised an eyebrow. “Did you get a few more tips from your magazines?”

“Maybe.” Jacky’s face turned bright red even though he tried to play it off. He glanced around. The gym had nearly emptied out. When he spoke again, his voice was soft, and he leaned close to Ryan’s ear. “I bought some stuff… if you wanted to… you know.”

“Really,” Ryan murmured. He still had Jacky pulled close to him, and he used the opportunity to plant a kiss on Jacky’s temple.

“I mean, if you want to,” Jacky said quickly. “If you’re ready—”

He never got to finish that sentence, because Ryan was kissing him again, this time on the lips. 

The End

Thank you for reading WAITING ROOM! There is a sequel called Breathing Room if you want to check it out!