Page 42 of Little Pieces of Light

Emery

“Where is everyone?” I asked, glancing around the empty classroom.

Thursday afternoon was our prom committee meeting and the only other person in the room was Delilah Winslow.

“I think it’s just you and me now,” she said, tucking a few ringlets behind her ear. “Elowen and Sierra have, um…other commitments.”

That didn’t hurt as much as I thought it would. I was seeing less and less of my old friends and spending more time with Harper, and as many afternoons and weekends with Xander as I could get away with.

“Why are you still here?” I asked. I hadn’t forgotten that the Academy’s premiere gossip had been responsible for spilling Xander’s home situation to the whole school.

“Because I want to be,” Delilah said earnestly.

“I know how talented you are, and I really want to help make this prom something amazing.” Her gaze dropped to her perfectly manicured fingers.

“And also…I miss hanging out with you. Sierra’s been so busy lately, and Elowen has completely taken over the dance team since you left.

She acts like she’s queen of the school, and I’m just… I’m tired.”

Delilah sounded like how I felt at the start of the year, but that didn’t mean I could trust her.

“You shared some pretty private things about…people at this school.”

“I know, and I’m sorry,” she said, meeting my gaze directly. “It was my way of being valuable to the group. I understand if you don’t believe me.”

I believed her, though trusting her might take time. But giving people a second chance was a good thing to do. Harper had done it for me.

I gave Delilah a smile and reached for my portfolio. “I’m glad you’re still here. Today’s kind of a big day.”

“I know!” she said, clapping her hands together. “I can’t wait to see the theme. Did the board love it?”

Earlier that week, I’d had a meeting with the Board of Trustees to show them my idea for the prom design and get budget approval.

It had felt like going in for an important job interview and a Broadway audition all rolled into one.

The looks of awe and approval on their faces when I showed them my plans gave me a rush of hope that my parents might feel the same.

“They approved it,” I told Delilah. “We are going to throw a Black-and-White Ball.”

I pulled out a series of sketches mounted on cardboard stock for what the Castle Hill Country Club ballroom would look like after we were done with it.

Round tables would surround the dance floor, draped in white cloth and adorned with glass centerpieces of black-and-white balls, tall black candles, and white flowers.

At the ballroom entrance, black balloons would rise from the floor in a narrow cluster, expanding to cover the ceiling like smoke.

Clear balloons, tethered with LED-lit strings, would float between tables like crystal bubbles.

Over the dance floor, a balloon “chandelier” of black and clear spheres would sparkle with delicate lights.

“Holy shit,” Delilah’s eyes widened as she flipped through the sketches. “Oh, Emery… It’s so beautiful. Just gorgeous, and it’s made mostly of balloons?”

“If we get the lighting right, they should look like glass orbs. The board wouldn’t let me suspend actual glass from the ceiling,” I said with a chuckle. “But they okayed glass in the centerpieces. I think it might turn out really nice.”

“Nice?” Delilah shrieked. “This is going to be epic. But is the dress code going to be black-and-white? Because I feel like the girlies aren’t going to want to be limited when it comes to their dresses.”

“Black-and-white attire is optional.”

But I already knew I was wearing white and Xander would look devastating in black. Yin and yang…

Or a couple at their wedding.

The thought gave me a jolt, but I shoved it away. Xander was going to be my date to the prom because once my parents saw what I could do, they’d be so happy, nothing else would matter.

I glanced at my sketches and then at Delilah. “This is going to be a lot of work for just the two of us.”

She brushed the dark cloud of ringlets from her shoulder and whipped out a clipboard and pen. “We got this. We’ll handle the details and hire guys to do the actual…ballooning. Okay, what else do we need?”

We brainstormed for another hour, our to-do list growing longer than a CVS receipt, and by the end, I felt optimistic. We had plenty of time and the trustees had given me an insane budget.

Delilah and I wrapped up the meeting, and she gave me a quick hug before we parted ways.

“Thanks, Em.”

“For what?”

“For being friends with me still. When I’m around you, I feel like it’s okay to not be performing all the time. To not be so fake, you know?”

I smiled. “I know what you mean.”

On my way to the car, I spotted Xander walking with Harper and Dean. He gave the slightest of nods and a smile. My calculus final was tomorrow, and we had one more tutoring session at his place that afternoon to save me from disaster.

I crooked my pinky at him, my heart swelling and skin already tingling, anticipating Xander’s hands on me after all the boring math was out of the way, even if he never let it go much further than touching over clothes.

Because he’s the best person I know, and we might only have a few months left together on the same side of the country.

The thought brought fast tears to my eyes, but I pushed those down too.

“I have a plan,” I told the doubting voices and clutched my portfolio tighter to me. “And it’s going to work.”

***

Two hours later, I was at Xander’s desk in his loft, watching him grade the practice test he’d made for me. My heart skipped a beat when he frowned at the equations I’d labored over, his expression grim.

I leaned forward, hands twisting. “Well?”

Xander set down his red pen with a sigh and shook his head gravely. “Emery…”

“You have got to be kidding me. I felt really good about this one.”

“I don’t know what happened, but…you got every single one correct.”

I froze. “Wait, what?”

Xander grinned, a mischievous glint in his eyes. “You nailed it.”

I stared a moment, then swatted his arm. “Oh my God, I am going to kill you!”

He laughed as I shoved all the papers and notebooks aside and climbed onto his lap, straddling him. I took off his glasses and settled against him, ringing my arms around his neck.

“That was mean,” he said, his hands running up my jean-clad thighs to my hips. “Do you forgive me?”

“No,” I said, all my mock irritation and even relief burning away at his touch. I let my lips hover over his, breathing hotly. “And you’re not sorry at all.”

“That’s true, but I’m proud of you. This stuff isn’t easy.”

“It’s too late for sweet talk.” I brushed my lips against his. “I’m mad at you.”

He craned up to kiss me, but I moved just out of reach and rolled my hips, grinding against him and eliciting a gruff sound from deep in his chest. “So mad…”

Xander groaned and gripped my hips, pulling me down on him while lifting to meet me. He lunged again, this time capturing my mouth. Taking what he wanted. A soft whimper escaped me, and he took that too, devouring me with biting, sucking kisses that set my blood on fire.

My hand slipped down his chest, over his T-shirt, to his erection straining in his jeans. “You’re so hard,” I breathed between kisses. “I want you, Xander. I want to…”

“I know,” he said gruffly. “I want you so bad sometimes I can barely think.”

“That’s saying something…”

“But we should wait,” Xander said seriously. “I’m eighteen. You’re seventeen. Even if you and Tucker have already…” He bit off his words.

“We haven’t. We never did.”

“Really?”

“Really.” My hands were back in Xander’s hair, then tracing his jawline with my finger. “I could have a hundred times, but I kept waiting to want to. But now, with you, I want to. I think maybe I was waiting for you, even if I didn’t know it.”

“Me too,” he said.

“You’ve never…?”

“Emery, you’re my first girlfriend, my first kiss, my first everything.”

I stared. “I was your first kiss ?”

My mind went back to the rainy night when he kissed me for the first time, the moment taking on a whole new depth I never thought possible.

“I can’t believe you’ve never kissed anyone,” I said. “I mean…look at you.”

He smiled bashfully. “I could have, once or twice. But I think I was waiting for you too.” He glanced down. “So if it’s okay with you, I want to wait a little longer. To experience just being with you and being good for you in a bunch of other ways that aren’t about sex.”

I stared in disbelief. My entire life, my mother put me in pageants and contests, teaching me that being beautiful was the most important thing—that my value lay in how attractive I was to men.

Men leered at me, made lewd comments, told me to smile because what I felt inside wasn’t nearly as important as giving them something pretty to look at.

Hell, Tucker had spent our entire time together assuring me that I was a hot piece of ass, good for one thing and one thing only. And then came Xander…

“No one has ever said something like that to me before.”

His expression grew hard. “That’s because they’ve only been looking at you, Emery, instead of seeing you.”

My heart felt so full, I could barely stand it. I wrapped my arms around him, buried my face in his neck. “Don’t. You’re going to make me cry.”

His hands held my face, and he leaned back to look at me.

His gaze was so intent, so full, it stole my breath and made my heart pound.

Xander kissed me then, his lips moving gently over mine, his tongue touching mine softly.

With his palm cupping my jaw, his thumb brushed over my lower lip before pressing down, opening my mouth more for him.

Just that one movement—that one taking—made me dizzy with want and burned up my tears in heated need.

“And anyway,” he said, his voice gruff and thick. “We can do other things.”