“In the Subaru?”

I ignored the judgment in his tone. “Are you in or not?”

He was in. We made the necessary arrangements, and I hung up feeling better about everything. Brayden wasn’t mad. Adrian’s visit hadn’t ruined my fledgling relationship. Things were back to normal—at least for me.

I’d kept to myself the day after the dance, wanting to catch up on work and not stress about social matters. Monday morning started the school week again, back to business as usual. Eddie walked into East’s cafeteria when I did, and we waited together in the food line. He wanted to know about Adrian’s visit to the dance, and I gave a glossed-over version of the night, simply saying that Adrian had gotten drunk and needed a ride home. I made no mention of my role in getting the queen to act on his behalf or of me being “the most beautiful creature walking this earth.” I certainly didn’t mention the way I’d felt when Adrian had touched me.

Eddie and I walked over to a table and found the unusual sight of Angeline trying to cheer up Jill. Normally, I would’ve chastised Angeline for what she’d done at the dance, but there’d been no damage done… this time. Plus, I was too distracted by Jill. It was impossible for me to see her down without immediately assuming something was wrong with Adrian. Eddie spoke before I could, noticing what I hadn’t.

“No Micah?” he asked. “He was out the door before me. I figured he would’ve beat me over here.”

“You had to ask, didn’t you?” Angeline grimaced. “They had a fight.”

I swear, Eddie looked more upset about this than Jill. “What? He didn’t say anything. What happened? You guys seemed to be having such a great time on Saturday.”

Jill nodded morosely but didn’t look up from her uneaten food. I could just barely catch sight of tears in her eyes. “We did. So good that he actually talked to me yesterday and asked… well, he asked if I wanted to have Thanksgiving with his family. They’re from Pasadena. He thought he could either get permission from the school or talk to you guys.”

“That doesn’t sound so bad,” said Eddie cautiously.

“Thanksgiving with his family is serious! It’s one thing for us to hang out together here, but if we start expanding that… becoming a couple outside of school…” She sighed. “It’s going to go too fast. How long would I be able to hide what I am? And even if that wasn’t an issue, it’s not safe anyway. The whole point of me being here is that it’s a safe, controlled environment. I can’t just take off to meet strangers.”

It was another step of progress to her accepting the difficulties of a “casual” relationship with Micah. I offered a neutral comment. “Sounds like you’ve thought a lot about this.”

Jill looked up sharply, almost as if she hadn’t even realized I was there. “Yeah. I guess I have.” She scrutinized me for a few seconds, and weirdly, her distraught expression softened. She smiled. “You look really pretty today, Sydney. The way the light hits you… it’s kind of amazing.”