Ethan must have taken a picture right at that moment, because a flash temporarily blurred everything out. Margot looked at him in exasperation and spent the rest of the song trying to grab his phone while he kept dancing out of her reach.

As I lay in bed that night, face scrubbed of Josie’s makeup, I studied the picture Ethan had posted on Instagram. Margot’s mouth wide open. Jude and I laughing beside her as confetti fell around us. Ethan’s smiling face in the corner, which meant he’d stretched out his arm and ducked into the frame before taking the picture. That was rare. Ethan was hardly ever in the pictures he posted.

I studied my face. I looked… happy. I’d certainly felt happy, in that moment. It was something about being in that glowing room with people I didn’t know at all a few months ago, but who were now my friends.

It was also something about the conversation I’d had with Jude. It was the kind of conversation that filled me up in the same way good art did, with ideas and images and moments I could keep in my head and play over and over again: Jude’s smile going from sad to happy. Puppies growing up and going outside.

I stared at the picture until my eyes slipped shut.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

I WAS STILL IN A SPARKLY MOOD the next morning, and the smell of Dad’s chocolate chip pancakes didn’t hurt. He always made special breakfasts when me, Josie, and Mom were all on winter break.

“Thanks,” I said with my mouth full as Dad flipped another pancake onto my plate.

“You seem happy.” Mom smiled cautiously over her mug of tea.

I shrugged. “First day of break.”

“And she had a magical evening last night,” Josie said, squeezing a generous glop of syrup onto her pancakes.

I froze midbite. “What?”

Josie wiped her fingers on her ratty snowman pajama pants and picked up her phone. After she tapped and scrolled, she turned the screen to me. It was the picture Ethan took. The one I’d stared at for an embarrassingly long time before falling asleep. I’d been so focused on the picture I hadn’t seen the caption: Winter Formal magic.

I realized too late that my whole family was staring at me, probably wondering why I had a dopey smile on my face. I reached for the phone, but Josie held it away. Mom plucked it out of her hands and huddled over it with Dad, gushing about how great everyone looked. “Hey, it’s Jude Jeppson!” Dad said, pointing with the spatula.

“It is!” Mom lifted up her glasses and held the picture closer to her face. “Such a handsome boy.”

“Ugh, Mom.” I reached over to take the picture from her, but she didn’t move.