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I smiled a little back. Okay, so this was going to be the weirdest prom on record, but maybe I could keep a sense of humor about things. “Be-zap?”

He put his hand to his chin to consider it in a scholarly fashion. “Sure. Why not?”

And then we were just standing there, both a little too close and a little too far. He broke away first, beeping open his car. “See you on campus, Jessie.”

“Bye, Darius,” I said, and twisted away to walk to the Buick’s driver-side.

I got home, told my mom a palatable lie, and took care of the house and Allie until it was time for her to go to work, and us to go to sleep. Then I tucked Allie in at 9 on the nose and spent another two hours up, compulsively checking ZB. I wasn’t friends with Mason, but I had a feeling I could get to Danny after Friday night, so I girded my loins and sent him a friend request.

Thirty seconds later he accepted. Guess Sunday nights were slow for even popular kids.

Hey cutie.

Hey

I typed back, with my mind.

What’re you up to?

Not much.

Want to know what I’m up to?

I don’t know, do I?

I could be up to something. If you gave me the right reasons to get up

he typed, followed by a few suggestive emojis.

I squinted my eyes and thought I could feel the tendril of electrons that connected me to him. I knew exactly what he wanted—and worse yet, I was going to try to give it to him.

I looked around my room. My bra’d landed on the floor when I’d undressed and I hadn’t picked it up. I took a picture of it before I lost my nerve and then inspected the photo. Was there anything of my room visible? No. Was there anything at all linking the bra back to me? Other than the large cup-size, not really—it was just a normal slightly worn looking white bra on a field of generic brown carpeting. It was the type of thing I could easily deny later, but that’d keep him intrigued for now.

He sent me a string of emojis that not even the Rosetta Stone could decipher.

You like that?

I texted back.

He only sent back one word:

More.

It’s a school night.

Don’t tease.

I sent back a series of smiles and butterflies.

See you tomorrow

and turned my phone off.

I turned my phone on again the next morning with trepidation. Sure enough, I’d missed three other of Danny’s pleas—but he hadn’t wound up calling me a bitch, yet, which I thought was good. Who knew. I got Allie ready and out the door a little early, then went back in to try harder on myself. My mom and I were the same pale shade—her make-up would look right on me, unlike Sarah’s—and did myself up, waiting until I heard the elementary school bus land and take off again before going outside. I didn’t want Allie to see that I was trying—I was too scared that she’d ask why.

Then I walked outside and braced myself for what was sure to be a thrilling ride with the other friendless ingrates on my side of Redson, scanning the top of the street for Lacey’s car, even though I was pretty sure she wouldn’t be going in today—and being surprised when a familiar truck rolled up.

Liam grinned at me from the driver’s seat. “Want a ride?”