Chapter Eleven
We all knew Logan was going to win Homecoming king the second we sat at one of the tables surrounding the dance floor.
Logan has always been the center of attention, even when he’s on the outskirts of a crowd. That’s how I knew everyone had voted for him; Winnie and Eloise knew it too.
Winnie is on one side of Logan while I’m on the other, making it hard for us to communicate discreetly around him.
Secretly, I want Winnie to win queen if Logan is going to win king, because I know how heartbroken she will be if her date won and were to dance with another girl.
I know I would be if my date was any less of an ass than Jameson Beaumont.
I turn to Eloise, leaning toward her to whisper, “Odds one to ten that Winnie wins with Logan?”
We both know the answer, but I’m wondering if she has more hope than I do.
“Are you kidding? Winnie probably went around begging people not to vote for her. You know how much she hates this stuff.”
It may be true that Winnie would not choose to win homecoming queen, but I knew it wouldn’t bother her if she and Logan won together.
“Okay everyone!” The DJ yells over the mic, grabbing our attention. “It is time to announce the Homecoming king and queen!”
I’m clenching my palms so hard my nails are close to breaking the skin. I want this for Winnie more than I’ve ever wanted anything for myself.
I stare at the ceiling, covered in strings of lights and fancy chandeliers, and focus on the crystals as I wait for the announcement.
“Starting off with the king, the winner is…” The pause is unnecessary, we all know what’s coming. “Logan Callaghan!”
Logan stands from our table, his smile as radiant as ever as he walks to the center of the dance floor. Before he gets there though, he makes a stop behind Winnie’s chair, giving her an even bigger smile while squeezing her shoulders. She turns her head, grabbing his hand where it rests near her collarbone and smiling happily up at him.
I know he’s hoping she will win too.
A plastic crown is placed on the top of Logan’s head. It”s gold and gaudy, and something I would never wear willingly, but he doesn’t care. He’s just smiling.
I’ve never met someone who is happier to be alive than Logan Callaghan.
He’s the positive pillar of our friend group, the one who gives us hope and tries his best to keep everyone in good spirits.That boy radiates happiness, and he finds pleasure in spreading it too. That’s why we all love him so much, and why he’s standing on that dance floor right now.
As we’re all waiting for the queen to be called, Eloise grabs my hand, giving it a gentle squeeze.
I’ve never been much of a hand holder or a touchy person, not after finding out how many germs can reside on one human hand at a time—up to five million—but I’m grateful for Eloise’s touch now.
We’re both nervous, even knowing the result most likely will not be in our favor.
“And your 2022 homecoming queen is.” The DJ opens another envelope. “Genevieve Alderidge!”
I freeze, every bone in my body locking in place. This can’t be right. This can’t be right.It was supposed to be Winnie!
I make eye contact with her. She’s smiling, but I can’t help but notice the flicker of sadness that flashes in her eyes.
I don’t even realize I’m not moving until I feel someone kick my shin under the table. I look up to find Jameson staring at me, nodding toward the dance floor where I’m supposed to be heading.
I take a deep breath as I walk toward Logan, deciding there’s nothing I can do about it now.
“Evening, queen.” Logan smiles as a rhinestone covered crown is placed on my head. He looks genuinely happy for me, but I see the hurt in his eyes when he glances from me to Winnie.
When it’s our time to dance, Logan whispers his choice of song to the DJ before I can say anything about it.
“Wait, wait!” Luke suddenly shouts from the side of the dance. He approaches us quickly, holding up one of the disposable cameras we brought with us.
I’m already groaning, pressing a hand to my forehead as I think about how embarrassing this is about to be.
“Your moms made me promise I would get a picture if this happened!”
I quickly press my side into Logan’s, trying to get this over with as quickly as possible. He wraps an arm around me, and we smile as the camera shutters.
“Great!” Luke smiles, giving us a thumbs up as he exits the dance floor.
Logan has a devious look on his face as he grabs my wrist when the opening notes of his song play. I swing my arms over his neck, trying my best not to look visibly miserable. I almost gasp out loud when I realize what song it is.
“How did you…” My question of how Logan knew this was my favorite song dies in my throat.
An instrumental version of Video Games by Lana Del Rey is ringing throughout the gym.
“Winnie,” he says.
Dancing with Logan doesn’t feel awkward like I thought it would, until I look around the room and realize that everyone—even our friends—are standing around the dance floor, watching us.
Yeah, Winnie definitely would have hated this.
“I have an idea.” Logan smirks as he begins to shuffle away from the center of the room.
“What are you doing?” I ask, my eyes widening.
“You’ll see.”
I register where we are headed a few minutes after we waltz across the floor. We’re making our way toward our friends.
Winnie and Eloise are smiling and waving as we get closer. Winnie even goes as far as to give me a large thumbs up, mirroring the one Luke gave us minutes earlier.
What a pure soul, that girl. I am literally dancing with her date, and she couldn’t be more elated. She makes me believe in the type of soulmates that her favorite romance books talk about, except a platonic version.
Once we are as close to them as we can get, we sway back and forth for a few beats, and Logan—like the traitor he is—hands me off to Jameson, making me jolt.
If this was his plan all along, he pulled it off flawlessly. He put me in a position where I am the center of attention, making it so I can’t flee.It would make me look like a rude snob if I were to walk away now, forcing me to have to deal with Jameson, even as bile rises in my throat.
Jameson takes over dancing with me, guiding my hands around his neck before grabbing my waist as the crowd cheers.
Everyone in this room is a goddamn traitor.
I wait until we’re back in the center of the dance floor before saying anything. “What the fuck was that?”
If we weren’t surrounded by people, I would’ve smacked him in the back of the head by now.
“Did you really think you could get away that easily, Genova?” The cocky grin on his face is infuriating. “You must not know me very well.”
“I don’t know you!” I grit through my teeth as loud as I can without catching the attention of the many onlookers. “And I don’t want to.”
“Don’t be callous.” He jabs my hip bone with his middle finger. “It’s not a good look on you.”
“I’m not anything less than self-aware.”
“Be honest with yourself: is there any other reason to hate me other than the fact that I’m just as smart as you?”
“What are you trying to say?” I almost laugh at his arrogance.
“You hate me, yet you don’t even know me. The only reason you have to dislike me is because you believe I came to the states solely to take Valedictorian away from you.”
“No.” I look him in the eye. “I dislike you because you refuse to acknowledge that I’ve had to work harder for this position because of the unfairness of Fairwood Prep. In contrast to everything I’ve done to earn it, you had it handed to you, and you refuse to give it up to someone who clearly deserves it more.”
“Just because you had to work harder for it based on your gender means you deserve it more?” He asks, his head tilting slightly in question.
“Earning something because you worked harder than everyone else is quite literally the definition of deserving it more,” I refute.
“Have you always been so hateful?” He asks in an almost-whisper.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I haven’t yet decided whether I should be offended.
“It’s as if you’ve shut yourself off to the world and can’t see anything beyond what you want to see,” he says, making me cock my head to the side. “And what you want to see is you being Valedictorian. While I didn’t completely take that away from you, I did ruin the vision you had been seeing for so long, and you hate me for it.”
“That doesn’t make me hateful.”
“What does it make you, then?”
My stomach rolls into a knot when I see his face in my peripheral vision. The almost somber look in his eye tells me he isn’t asking for the hell of it. “Perceptive,” I finally answer.
Right then is when the final chorus of the song begins to play. I’m not able to break away before Jameson is pulling us apart, but only far enough to spin me back into him, then dip me.
“Holy shit!” I screech when I come close to hitting the floor.
Jameson’s hands find my back, wrapping around my torso before pulling me up and slamming me into his chest. I lurch back, knowing that couldn’t have looked very elegant, but Jameson is smiling as if it did.
“That wasn’t funny.” I want to shove him away so I can make my grand escape, but I can’t with all these people watching.
“Should we do it again?” He smirks.
“No.” I point a finger at him, hoping no one in the crowd has noticed my hostility. “Do not make us look like something we’re not. It’s already bad enough that Logan concocted this whole situation to begin with.”
Thankfully, that’s when the song ends.
I try not to exit the dance floor looking like a bat out of hell, but I couldn’t care less if everyone can see the disdain written on my face.
The first person I see is Logan. He’s sitting back down at the table, that stupid crown still sitting on top of his head.
“You douchebag!” I reprimand him with a punch to the arm.
He winces, pretending I hurt him. “What?” He asks, feigning innocence.
“Why would you do that?” He stiffens when he realizes my anger is genuine.
“Wait, wait, wait.” Logan holds his hand out toward me. “You and Jameson actually don’t like each other?”
“Was that not obvious?”
That’s when he laughs. “Genevieve, was that not you on the dance floor with him? Did I imagine that?”
His rhetorical questions irk me the most. “What are you getting at?”
Logan sighs, as if he’s about to deliver terrible news. “Sorry to break it to you Gen, but there is no way two people can dance like that and not have romantic feelings for each other. He fucking dipped you, for Christ’s sake!”
“Romantic? Logan, I am worried about your current mental state,” I say in shock. “The only feelings I have for Jameson are ones of hatred, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.”
“Sure,” he says, dragging out the word.
“You’re infuriating.”
Winnie and Eloise are standing to the side of the table, both sporting the same expression as Logan.
“Not you guys too,” I groan.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Winnie sighs. “We’re having a horribly hard time believing that you guys are still enemies after that.”
“We’re not enemies,” I snap. “If I called him my enemy, people would think that means I believe he could actually win over me. We’re not on the same level, I simply don’t like him.”
“I think we need to reevaluate our version of the word enemy,” Eloise tells Winnie.
“The only thing we need to reevaluate is how we are going to pass that stunt off as anything less than a romantic gesture!”
“Okay, okay, so you guys are competitive. Does that automatically mean you cannot be at least civil with each other?” Logan asks.
I almost roll my eyes, but I withhold the urge. Yes, Logan may be one of my best friends, and I respect his opinion entirely, but at the same time, he’s too blasé to truly understand how I feel about this situation.
“You are severely underestimating what this means to me.”
Winnie raises her hands in surrender, no doubt trying to defend Logan. “Guys, this conversation should be left for another day.”
It’s almost like Logan doesn’t even hear her because he continues, “I understand what Valedictorian means to you,” he emphasizes. “Jameson is not stopping you from getting that, he’s just an additional component.”
My lungs start to feel like they’re shrinking in on themselves. I don’t understand how no one can understand my point of view in this situation with Jameson. All I want to do is scream, “Is anybodylistening to me?”
Instead, I take a breath and step back. “You don’t understand, and that’s fine, but don’t try to mend a situation when you’re only pretending to care.”
With that, I walk away.