“Well,” Parrish says, as the three of us find ourselves alone in the middle of the ballroom. He meets my eyes, and a thrill travels through me, bringing goose bumps up on my arms and legs. “We’ve got the dance floor to ourselves. We might as well?” He glances back toward Tess. She’s still at the top of the stairs, watching us.
“Do you think it’s safe for us to dance?” I ask him, turning my attention away from Tess and back to him. My handsome prince of sloths. My stolen crush. My … stepbrother.
“I don’t care if it is or not,” he tells me, lifting his chin as Chasm releases my arm and crosses his over his chest. “We’re telling Tess next week. I don’t care what day: you can pick. But she needs to know. I can’t hide this any longer.”
“You’re going to regret that,” Chasm murmurs, and then he adds something in Korean that Parrish immediately responds to. I watch them go through an entire conversation before Chas just throws his hands up in surrender. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” He puts a hand on my arm, his fingertips teasing my skin with pleasant warmth. All my cuts are covered with expertly applied latex—in the same way that Chasm covers his lip piercings. Thanks to Justin’s team of beauty experts, I can wear this dress without Tess being the wiser.
The man is a genius at subterfuge and illusions, isn’t he?
“I’ll dance with you next, naekkeo,” Chas promises, and then he takes off to wait at the edge of the crowd.
I notice that, even as Parrish puts one hand on the curve of my waist and enfolds my other hand with his own, he keeps his eye on Chasm.
A new song starts up as our eyes meet and then, like Belle in her gold dress at the ball with the Beast, he begins a waltz that makes me feel like a goddamn Disney princess. Even though I can’t dance, even though I’m nowhere near as refined as Parrish Vanguard, he turns my clumsy gamer ass into a graceful swan. I don’t know how. Maybe it’s just because we’re so in tune, and I’m mirroring his every movement, following his every step.
Even though we both know we shouldn’t dance together for more than a song or two, it bleeds into three and four and five, until we’re leaning in too close, and his breath is stirring my hair while mine feathers against the side of his neck.
“Fuck, see what I mean?” he grinds out after the next song ends. Still, he doesn’t release me, even as Chasm comes up to stand beside us again, clearly waiting for his turn. “This is why I can’t keep hiding this.”
“Dude, Tess is staring at the pair of you. We need to switch: now.”
Parrish hazards a glance toward his mom, curses, and then reluctantly relinquishes his hold on me. It’s like the entire world goes ice-cold for a minute. But then Chasm is stepping forward and taking over Parrish’s place, and I’m melting all over again, but in an entirely different way.
Dancing with Parrish is like dancing with a prince; dancing with Chasm is like accepting the dark knight into your heart, your bed, your soul. His gaze is intense as he sweeps me up against him, far bolder than Parrish was allowed to be. His hand drifts down toward my ass, stopping just short of inappropriate as he carries me across the dance floor.
We follow the same routine, allowing one song to bleed into another, until all I can see is Chasm’s handsome face against the glimmering beauty of Medina’s poisonous youth.
As soon as that song ends, the lights above us dim, and the music switches gears. Rather than classical music—which, if you think about it, is just weird for a high school prom—the DJ begins to play modern hits, and the grinding starts. The chaperones do their best to stop it, but the room begins to fill with gold-colored smoke as confetti flutters down from the ceiling along with a mess of gold and white balloons.
The boys and I excuse ourselves to the edges of the crowd only to run right into Tess.
“I need to speak to the two of you,” she says, pointing at me and Parrish. The expression on her face scares the shit out of me, but what can I do? Say no to her? “Chasm, if you’ll give us a minute, please.”
Tess turns and walks away as Parrish and I exchange a look.
“I’ll follow at a distance,” Chas says, but he sounds resigned. “She knows, man. I can tell.”
Parrish locks his expression into one of determination, hooking his arm with mine and and dragging me along beside him. We follow Tess into a sheltered alcove near the bathrooms and pause as she turns around to face us, her eyes flicking to the side where Chasm waits, giving us just enough space to talk privately.
