Page 47 of Leaving the Station

It made me feel powerful and exposed at the same time.

When we arrived at the house, it was so full that people were spilling outside. I wasn’t quite ready to go in, so I grabbed a beer from the cooler on the porch for something to do with my hands.

“Need a bottle opener?” a girl standing nearby offered.

“I was just going to hold it,” I told her honestly.

She must’ve thought I was joking, and laughed loudly.

“I’m Mischa,” she said.

“Zoe.”

She was flirting with me, and the closer I looked at her, the more honored I was.

Mischa was short and curvy, and she was deeply on-theme, wearing a triangle bikini top and a floral wrap skirt in spite of the temperature.

“I like your outfit,” I told her. “Kind of weird that the host went with a beach theme in October, though.”

“It makes sense to me.” Mischa lifted her chin. “It’s a reminder of summer.”

As she said this, a kid stumbled out of the house and reached out to give Mischa a high five. “Nice party, Meesh!”

I blanched as Mischa thanked the boy.

“This is your party?” I asked.

“Alas, it is,” she said, stepping closer. “I’m the one who came up with the ‘kind of weird’ theme.”

“I didn’t mean—”

“You did.” She put a hand on my arm. “But all will be forgiven if you dance with me.”

I told myself her flirting was harmless, because of how nice it felt. It was different than with Alden; it tickled the part of my brain that was more lizard than human.

Girl hot. Say yes to dance,my lizard brain told me.

So I did.

Whoever was controlling the playlist was also on theme, because as Carly Rae Jepsen’s bright, summery voice blasted across the crowded first floor of Mischa’s house, everyone ran to the center of the room.

I hoped that to the casual observer Mischa and I looked almost cinematic as we danced a little too close, because that’s how I felt. I caught Autumn’s eye from across the room, and she shot me a questioning-but-not-necessarily-disapproving glance.

A few minutes later, Carly abruptly cut out, and a mellower song came on. Dancing to a fast song with room to spare for Jesus or Moses or whoever was fine but dancing to a slow song with this girl would be crossing a line and I knew it.

I took a step back, and Mischa followed. There were mostlycouples in the center of the room now, swaying slowly and hanging on to each other.

Some danced hesitantly, like it was their first go at it, but one couple was illuminated by a light from upstairs, as if some higher power—other than the recessed lighting—had chosen them.

The two girls held on to each other tightly, swaying to the soft music. The shorter one put her chin on the taller one’s shoulder, and they fit together perfectly.

“That’s my housemate, May,” Mischa said, pointing to the shorter girl when she caught me staring. “And her girlfriend, Shani.”

As she pointed to them, the taller one, Shani, waved goofily at Mischa, and May shook her head, but she was laughing.

“It’s kind of gross, right?” Mischa whispered.

I nodded, but it wasn’t gross at all. It was beautiful.