“Hold on, I’ve been wanting to ask this for weeks. Why do you keep calling me a minion?”

He stared at me for a moment as if he wasn’t sure if I was joking or not. Then, he did the thing I least expected: he burst out laughing. “I’m not calling you a minion, idiot,” he snorted. “It’s French. It’s like calling someone cute.”

“Y-you’ve been calling me cute this entire time?”

“Yes. Like right now. You’re really cute when you blush.”

I looked away, raking a shaky hand through my hair. “Don’t . . .

don’t do things like that. You can’t just keep teasing everyone like it’s a game.”

“It isn’t a game,” he said, a frown replacing the smug grin.

“And I don’t talk to everyone like that.”

I forgot how to breathe for a moment, suddenly overly aware of how close we were. At some point during our exchange, he had stepped closer; now he was standing right in front of me, near enough for me to touch him if I only raised my arm in the slightest. Just the thought of it brought back the ten-thousand-million-volt feeling I had felt on Thursday. “What do you—”

“Guys, I found it!”

I slowly closed my mouth, looking at Gina as she waved her wig in victory. I couldn’t trust my hands to stay at my sides, so I stuffed them into the pockets of my trousers, nails digging into my palms.

“And you’re also wearing your costume, perfect!” Jasper said, spinning around to take in the room. Nothing about him suggested that he felt even a single millivolt. “Is everyone else ready?”

Affirmative murmurs sounded from all around us, reminding me that we weren’t alone, even though the last few minutes had felt like they’d taken place in another realm outside of this reality, some kind of fucked-up parallel universe situation that had decided to spit me back out right here, sweating and flushed.

“Perfect,” Jasper said. Then he turned to me again. “Good luck out there.”

My throat felt tight. “Thanks. You too.”

I was about to push past him to head out the door when his hand suddenly caught my wrist. It was all I could do to stop myself from fainting when he suddenly leaned down a little and whispered into my ear. “I’m not playing any games with you, Seth Williams. You’ll see.”

Holy fucking shit. Aware of Gina eyeing us curiously, I tried to keep a blank face despite the blush creeping up my neck, my hands trembling in their polyester prisons. Jasper lingered a few more seconds before he stepped back, reached out to straighten my tie, and turned on his heel.

My heart felt like it was trying to hammer its way out of my chest as I left the backstage area and entered the auditorium.

The room I had grown to love for its comfort and quiet had transformed from a safe haven into a bustling harbor, the high-pitched laughter and layered chatter as obnoxious as the screeching of seagul s. The rows before me were packed with students and teachers whose eyes followed me as I hurried up the stairs to the control panel.