A strange warm feeling spread through my body. Maybe going to Winter Formal wasn’t a way to fool my parents into thinking I was making progress. Maybe it meant that my puppy was growing up a little, leaving me alone for long enough to have fun at a neon-themed school dance.

Jude was still quiet. I sensed that he’d said all he wanted to about his dad. At least for now. So I threw out something less serious. “You haven’t met Ferdinand, my friend Colleen’s pit bull. He’s nine and follows her everywhere, and she coddles the crap out of him. She makes him special dog treats. Like, she bakes them in the oven.” It felt good to talk about Colleen like nothing had changed between us, to pretend for a moment at least.

“As she should,” Jude said. His smile was less tinged with sadness this time, and I couldn’t believe how happy that made me.

Maybe it was his close-to-normal smile, or turning our sadness to puppies, or the fact that we found ourselves alone together even though the whole school was ten feet away, but my mouth said something without my brain’s permission.

“I’m excited to dance with you.”

And then, there it was. The full, unadulterated Jude smile. Brighter than all the neon lights in the gym combined.

He didn’t say anything back. He just kept smiling. As he did, his eyes roamed over my face, from my forehead to my lips, where they lingered for a second.

I suddenly worried that he hadn’t understood what I meant. “Did you see the rehearsal schedule? For after break?”

“Yeah. I saw it.” His eyes lifted to mine, and I was getting a little too caught up in them.

So I quickly added, “I won’t dance you to death, I promise.”

Jude raised his eyebrows slightly. Then he leaned forward, his mouth close to my ear. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” he whispered. I couldn’t say what that meant exactly, but it made my skin tingle and my heart thump.

The gym doors screeched open and Ethan, Harrison, and Celia leaned out. “Jude!” Celia yelled. “Last song!”

Ethan’s eyes darted between Jude and me. I silently begged him not to say anything suggestive, anything that would make it weird. “Fred,” he said sternly, blinking at Jude. Then he turned to me. “Cyd. Get your asses in here and dance.”

“Aye, aye, Gene,” Jude said. Then he held his hand out to me. I took it, and he led me back into the gym. We followed Ethan through the crowd to where Margot, Laney, and Ada were still dancing. A loud pop sounded overhead and silver confetti poured down on us. Margot opened her mouth and stuck out her tongue. I threw my head back and laughed. Jude looked over and started laughing, too.