“Yeah.” I turned my head, my nose practically touching his. “You’re right.”
With prom looming just a day away though, I started to feel more and more nervous. The guys had convinced me that going to the dance was a good idea, had laid out all their reasons why.
And I was on board.
But I was still fucking nervous.
The dance would be held in the gymnasium, the place where I’d been humiliated by the Princes almost exactly a year ago, and no matter how much I might claim to have moved on, there was an almost instinctive repulsion to the idea of attending another big event in that space.
The parent appreciation night had taken place there, but that had felt different somehow. This felt…
Well, scenes from Carrie kept flashing through my mind, and even if I felt sure I could trust the Princes, it was hard not to feel like I would be walking into a shooting gallery.
On Saturday night, I took my time getting ready. Elijah was in the living room, but I kept the bathroom door closed as I applied makeup and arranged my hair into a loose updo. It wasn’t anything very fancy, but it was soft and flattering, and I curled the stray strands at my hairline.
When I couldn’t justify any more fussing, I opened the bathroom door and stepped out—only to find all four boys gathered in the living room, staring at me.
They all wore tuxes that fit them perfectly, making them look both refined and somehow more rugged. Even Elijah, who normally looked like he’d been born in a fucking suit, looked slightly offbeat—but maybe that was because the tux he’d chosen wasn’t very traditional, with a black dress shirt underneath and no bowtie. He looked a little bit punk rock, and the thought made me smile.
Then I blinked, realizing I’d just been staring at them in silence for God on
ly knew how long. Not that it really mattered, since they’d been busy staring right back at me.
“You look…” Finn cleared his throat. “You look fucking amazing, Legs.”
I scrunched up my face at him. “You’ve seen me in this dress before. It’s not like I did some kind of magic trick.”
He grinned. “Well, you looked amazing then too. Goddamn.”
A flush warmed my cheeks, but I didn’t brush off his compliment again. For one thing, I was sure he wouldn’t let me, and that the other guys would pile on with their thoughts too if I tried to deny Finn’s words.
And for another thing, with the four of them gazing at me with such awed, hungry stares, I felt beautiful.
Finn was right.
Fuck anybody who tried to make me feel otherwise.
We walked over to the gymnasium shoulder-to-shoulder, me in the middle and two boys on each side. A steady stream of students were working their way over from the dorms, and those who’d left campus to pick up their dates were pulling into the student lot.
I saw Maggie and Dan walking ahead of us with their arms linked. Leah had agreed to go as part of a group of single girls who were holding out for college boys to sweep them of their feet next year, but she was either already inside or pre-gaming somewhere.
Mason and Cole held the doors open for me as we entered, and although the gym had been transformed once again by a well-paid decorating company, my heart still skipped a beat as we stepped inside.
It’s okay, Tal. It’s fine. It’ll all be okay.
I repeated that mantra in my head as we made our way through the crowd. I could feel people watching us, a mixture of curious glances and scathing glares. People were used to seeing me with the Princes by now, but thanks to Adena’s smear campaign, there was a subset of the school who honestly believed I’d seduced them or mind-controlled them or something.
And it was one thing to be seen together in the halls of Craydon—another thing entirely to go to prom as a girl and her four dates.
But fuck them.
They don’t know, and it doesn’t matter if they never do.
The world might not ever understand any part of my relationship with the Princes, but I didn’t need it to. The only people whose opinions mattered were mine and theirs.
And the four boys had made it pretty damn clear how they felt.
“Drinks?” Elijah asked, glancing at us and raising his voice slightly over the music.