I wasn’t sure how we managed to get dressed and ready with Anamae constantly dragging me into the what-if game.

What if Knox stays here? What if James is able to get out? Do you think Knox would stay then?

If I had any doubt she was falling for Knox, it was eliminated when I saw her face light up when we went downstairs to where he and Victor waited for us.

“Beautiful,” Knox said. He handed Anamae a small plastic box. She pulled out a white corsage that Knox helped slip on her wrist. I smiled, watching the concentration in his expression. It seemed he was afraid if he applied too much pressure, he’d either break the corsage or somehow snap Anamae in half.

“She’s tougher than she looks,” Victor said, laughing.

That must have been some kind conversation between them to end the animosity they felt toward each other. It was weird, watching Victor joke around with someone he’d once considered a threat.

Victor helped me with my corsage. After two hundred pictures, we stumbled out of the house, nearly blinded by the flash of the cameras on Mom and Desmond’s cell phones. Victor’s father had managed to get us reservations at the nicest restaurant in Woodvine. Apparently, he’d reserved the table while Victor and I had been dating, thinking we’d be going to prom with Anamae and her date.

“Come on, Leathal,” Victor said as we finished dessert. “No sense in keeping it a secret any longer. Where’s prom going to be?”

“Don’t ask me,” I said. “I sort of stopped going to the committee meetings.” The truth was that I hadn’t gone to the first meeting, so I didn’t know when or where they were being held. I was as clueless about where prom would pop up as he was.

Victor paid for dinner—another gift from his father. Knox initially protested, saying he’d planned on paying for his and Anamae’s meal, but his protests fell on deaf ears.

“You can get it next time,” Victor said, knowing full well that no other teenage boy in Woodvine could ever pay for a meal this expensive. That was his way, though. Generous to a fault, he’d never dream of sticking a bill like this to anyone. When the server thanked him repeatedly, I knew Victor had left a more-than-generous tip.

It was a cloudless night. As I’d done every night since I’d returned home, I gazed up at the moon’s phase. Waxing gibbous. A promise that the next full moon was close. The quiet was shattered when three phones chirped at the same time. Knox looked at us curiously.

“Don’t worry, they’ll probably send you a smoke signal,” Anamae said. “Seriously, why no cell?”