I shook my head bitterly. “Oh, great. A dealer with a conscience. Won’t even take advantage of a damsel in distress?”

He snickered. “You’re no distressed damsel. You’re a very dangerous queen bee.” He looked pleased when that got a little laugh out of me. We were silent for a few moments, before he said, “So…you got Prom Queen.”

“Yeah.” I reached up, brushing my fingers lightly across the plastic crown tangled in my soaked hair. “You’ll probably hear my mom scream clear across town when I tell her.”

“And the uh…the King is absent?”

I swallowed hard. Don’t cry again. Don’t cry. Don’t be weak over a guy.

“The King has found conquests in another kingdom,” I said, trying to sound as haughty and careless as I could. Like it was a funny little game that couldn’t really hurt.

Vincent didn’t say anything, but his silence was better than empty words of comfort. I would have known he was lying anyway. His relationship with Kyle was tolerant only because he supplied him with Adderall at a discount. But then he laid his jacket across my shoulders, holding the umbrella between his knees. “You must be freezing in that dress.”

I was. My entire body was covered in goosebumps and I’d been struggling not to let him see me shiver. The warmth of the jacket made my shoulders sag as the tension went out of them.

“This jacket smells like weed,” I said.

He nodded. “Probably because there’s weed in it.”

“If a cop finds me wearing this, am I going to get arrested?”

He smiled mischievously. “Only if they search you.”

We sat in silence for a few more moments, surrounded by the patter of rain and the upbeat dance music pounding through the door. Then the music changed, the melody slowing to become “Holy” by Justin Bieber.

“People are going to wonder where I am,” I said softly.

“Fuck ‘em.”

I looked at him in surprise, and he shrugged. “Fuck ‘em, Jess. They don’t need any more entertainment from you. Did Cinderella care about anyone wondering where she was when she ran away from the ball?”

I shook my head in disbelief. “You’ve seen Cinderella?”

“I have four little sisters,” he said. “Of course I’ve seen it — the animation is a classic! When that glass slipper shattered…” He laid his hand dramatically over his chest. “My heart shattered with it.”

I giggled, despite the festering pain still gripping my chest. “Who knew you were such a romantic?”

He stood suddenly, tucking the umbrella against his shoulder before he extended his hand to me. I stared at his open palm, blinking rapidly in confusion. “What?”

“Doesn’t feel right for the Prom Queen to not get her slow dance,” he said, a slight smile playing around his lips.

“Dance?” I said. “Out here? With you? In the rain?”

He shrugged. “Yeah. Why not?”