Chapter 86

Ryan watched Jacky go. He was fucking this whole thing up by trying to talk to Monica. “I don’t understand why we were still on the ballot!” he shouted over the music.

“It doesn’t mean anything!” Monica shouted back. “The nominations were months ago! We were on Homecoming Court and we weren’t dating! It doesn’t matter!”

But it did matter now. “Can’t you tell them not to count our votes?”

Monica frowned, and Ryan remembered how much she loved being onstage. Even though they never won, she liked being popular.

“We’re not going to win,” she said. “We stand up there, and after they announce a winner we dance. You could even dance with Jacky then.”

“But you don’t want to take our names off the ballot.”

Monica sighed. “I didn’t say that! I’ll go talk to the other girls. It’s just that I’m not supposed to be involved with the ballots because I’m nominated.”

“This isn’t the presidential primaries,” Ryan said sharply, then added, “Sorry. That was mean.”

“Don’t worry,” said Monica. “I’ll talk to them. But… whatever happens… You came here with Jacky.” She nodded out at the dance floor. Jacky looked like he was having a great time, until Jacky caught his eye across the huge room, and Ryan knew he wasn’t have as good a time as he was pretending to have.

Ryan turned back to her. “You look great, by the way.” Her dress looked like liquid silver and her hair fell in soft curls around her face. But then, Monica always looked good.

“Thanks. Now go dance!”

Ryan made his way through the gyrating bodies. With all the people, Ryan suddenly felt invisible, which made him brave enough to grab Jacky by the hips and start grinding up on him. Haylee and Nina whooped approvingly. Soon Lance and Emily joined them, and Peyton and Alex, and even Matt shuffled in for a few songs, staring longingly at Nina the whole time. Nina, on the other hand, didn’t look concerned that her date hadn’t shown up yet. She and Haylee kept grabbing hands and whirling around and laughing, and then a bunch of the girls ditched their dates to join in on a huge dance circle.

A euphoria settled over him, like he was drunk. He’d never had this much fun at a dance, and he could easily forget about everything else. 

He was sweating and breathless when his phone buzzed in his back pocket. “That feels nice,” Ryan said in his ear. “That’s Cody, huh?”

“Yeah,” said Jacky, looking at his phone

The text said, do u have eyes on nina?

Jacky texted back, We’re all dancing

Haylee too?

Yeah

great

Jacky didn’t know if that was meant sarcastically, but he decided it wasn’t his mess to squirrel out of. He put his phone back and turned to face Ryan, wishing the DJ would play some slow songs.

Then Cody elbowed his way through the crowd. Jacky had to hand it to him; Cody showed up smiling and eased right in to dance beside both Haylee and Nina, both of whom seemed happy enough that he was there. Things are going to work out fine, Jacky thought.

A dance circle broke out. Alex moonwalked into the center, then tagged Lance, who did that fishing pole move toward Emily, who played along. Monica stepped in and did some of the cheerleaders’ hip hop moves, joined by Peyton and Nina, and then Cody was doing some weird dance with his feet kicking out and he reached out as if to shake Jacky’s hand, and that was how Jacky found himself in the middle of the dance circle. He did the lamest dance move he could think of, the running man, and Ryan running-manned into the circle with him.

As the flashing lights slowed and the music’s tempo decreased, Ryan stepped in close and pulled them together. Jacky didn’t care that the song was something by Taylor Swift. The adrenaline from the dance circle had his heart beating fast, and the swirling colored lights turned Ryan’s face into a kaleidoscope. They swayed together, and Jacky might have gotten lost in Ryan’s eyes if not for the drama unfolding over Ryan’s shoulder.

When the music slowed, Cody had turned toward his two dates. Now was the time when Cody would finally have to come clean, to make a decision.

Instead, Nina and Haylee looked at each other, and Haylee stepped into Nina’s arms, circling her hands around Nina’s neck while Nina’s hands rested on the black belt of Haylee’s purple dress. Without another look at Cody, they started dancing.

Cody stood there, dumbfounded.

“Sorry, man,” Jacky said.

Cody shrugged and moped his way off the dance floor.

Dancing closer to Ryan, Jacky could rest his chin on Ryan’s shoulder. Ryan was only an inch or two taller than he was, so it was the perfect height. He liked feeling Ryan’s breath in his ear, and the light pressure of Ryan’s lips on his neck. His nose right in the crook of Ryan’s neck meant he could close his eyes and focus on the scent of Ryan’s aftershave.

All too soon, the music trailed off, and the DJ’s voice announced, “Ladies and gentlemen, we’re going to take a short break from dancing right now.”

The crowd made the appropriate unhappy sounds, Ryan and Jacky included as they reluctantly released each other. The DJ continued. “Come on, now, don’t you want to find out who your Winter King and Queen are?” The crowd cheered.

Jacky’s stomach, which had started to uncoil, twisted again.

“I told Monica to take us off the ballot,” Ryan said into Jacky’s ear.

That was a relief. He looked around for Cody and located him near the refreshment table, cramming brownies into his mouth.

Principal Novak got up then, and made some lame jokes before finally getting around to calling out the nominees.

Jacky was about to pull Ryan over to Cody when he heard Principal Novak announce, “Ryan Sullivan and Monica Johnston.”