Seven Times They Chose Him. The Last Time, They Lost Me novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: Gala Night

The gymnasium at Dalton High smelled of floor wax and popcorn.

Three hundred folding chairs faced a low stage at one end, and red and white balloons hung from the basketball hoops.

A banner stretched across the stage with Dylan's name on it, and under it, in smaller letters, mine.

I had not expected that.

I looked at it for a while.

"They didn't take it down," I said.

"They didn't have time," Aunt Dot said. "Or they didn't want to."

She had picked us the front row, dead center, three chairs from the aisle.

She sat on my left with her good bag in her lap, and Polly sat on my right, swinging her feet.

A man in a vest walked past us with a tray of punch.

"That's a lot of people," Polly said.

"It's a lot of people," I said.

Behind us, I could hear them filling the room, the squeak of shoes and the scrape of chairs and the low buzz of three hundred people being kind to each other.

Somebody said, "That's the brother."

Somebody else said, "Oh, bless him, look at that cast."

I kept my eyes on the stage.

The treasurer sat at the third table with her ledger open, and she lifted two fingers to us.

The caseworker stood against the back wall, in a gray coat, with her glasses on their chain.

She did not wave.

Dylan sat in the chair at the end of the front row, nearest the steps.

He had the folded paper in both hands, and he had not opened it.

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