“Thanks for the dance, Kimmie. Find me before you go,” he said, and with that, Vronsky turned and pushed his way back through the crowd. Kimmie was gobsmacked. The whole thing happened so fast, she didn’t have time to hide her feelings. Hot tears welled in her eyes, which she angrily wiped away with the back of her hand. She looked over at her sister, who had missed the whole thing, and Kimmie felt slight relief that at least there were no witnesses to her humiliation. One stupid dance where he barely even looked at her? That’s what she had been waiting for all week? WTF?!

Not wanting to ruin her makeup, she knew she had to calm down, or better yet, find a way to forget. She moved toward Steven and tugged on his stupid track suit.

“I want to party,” she said. “What do you have?” Steven looked at Lolly to see what she thought. “Don’t look at her, she’s not the boss of me.”

Lolly shrugged, not wanting to deal with her right now.

“Sure, whatever. But if you drop it in the toilet don’t come crying back to us for more.” Steven pressed something into Kimmie’s hand and nodded her toward the direction of the bathrooms. Kimmie nodded and made her way through the crowd, passing Anna who was still dancing in a circle of girls, including Vronsky’s cousin, Bea.

While Kimmie waited in line for the bathroom she looked around to see if she could spot Dustin. She thought about texting him but knew she couldn’t. Not now after she’d stuck him in the friend zone and told him she was in love with someone else. The fact that she had admitted her feelings so openly and had been so naive as to use the L-word made her feel like crying. But she didn’t. She held herself together and patiently waited for her turn to go into the bathroom so she could see what Steven had blessed her with.

If she had texted Dustin, he wouldn’t have received it anyway. He was currently on a Bronx-bound subway to see his brother. After leaving the club and walking aimlessly for a few blocks, Dustin had texted Nicholas and asked for his address. When his brother wanted to know why, Dustin simply replied: Because I’m going to get on the subway right now and we’re going to hang. Dustin only had to wait a moment before receiving a pin for his brother’s location.

Besides the zoo when he was younger, Dustin had never been to the Bronx before. He had no idea what kind of neighborhood his brother was living in, or whether it was safe to go there at this time of night.