Hate to Love You novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: Prom

Jess made me wear green.

"No gray," she said, standing in my bedroom door on prom night with a camera around her neck and a garment bag over her arm.

"I have burned every gray cardigan in a ten-mile radius."

"You have not."

The dress was simple and dark green, with straps, and it fit.

I looked in the mirror and saw a girl with freckles and tired hazel eyes, who had finally slept through a night.

"You look like you're allowed to be here," Jess said.

Since January, the Gazette had printed Mason's correction on its front page, with a photograph of the lane under the basket.

Shay had spoken to me four times.

All four were about chemistry.

I had said "thanks" and "you're welcome" and nothing else.

The prom was in the school gym, because Garnet Falls could not afford anything else.

Somebody had hung silver streamers from the rafters and set paper lanterns along the free-throw line.

The floor where I'd taken the microphone was covered in dancers.

I stood at the edge with a cup of punch and kept my back against the bleachers.

Dad was chaperoning by the doors, in a tie with tiny fish on it.

He caught my eye and put both thumbs up.

It was deeply embarrassing, and I loved him for it.

Mason was across the room.

He had finished the season off the bench, doing whatever the new captain asked, without complaint.

Tonight he wore a black suit and stood beside the DJ's table with his hands in his pockets, looking at the floor.

Shay came in at nine.

He wore a dark suit a little short at the wrists, and no tie.

His curls were damp from a recent attempt to tame them.

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