Crimson Death (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter #25)(55)
The song changed over, and I recognized the first few bars. So did everyone else in the room, apparently, because a cheer went up and the crowd swarmed onto the dance floor like fire ants attacking an innocent gardener with a family.
Will shrugged one shoulder and nodded toward everyone. “Do you feel like diving in?”
I hated dancing so much—my style could best be described as “toddler bopping along to the Wiggles.” But if the other options were either standing here alone or skirting around pink elephants with Will, then … woo, party, yay.
The dance floor was hot and crowded, and people weren’t so much dancing as they were jumping around to the music. Luckily, jumping around to the music was actually within my rhythmic skill set, so I threw myself into it with a surprising level of enthusiasm for me.
All at once, Will and I ended up surrounded by Renee, Renee’s boyfriend, Lara, and Matt, along with a few other basketball guys. For probably the first time ever, I didn’t even feel self-conscious. It was actually fun. I was part of a group, and we were all singing loudly enough that my throat got scratchy after a few songs.
And Will was right beside me the whole time, his face bright while he threw his head back and his arms out. He was singing to nobody, but from the way he kept sending sidelong glances at me, it felt like an oddly energetic serenade. Then he caught my eye, gave me a mischievous grin, and turned to me to sing right at me, still jumping around to the music. And all at once it didn’t matter that he wasn’t out, or that he didn’t care enough, or that I’d been vulnerable and let myself get trampled. For just these few minutes, it didn’t matter at all.
So I sang back to him.
Suddenly, he stopped jumping and grabbed onto my arm, pulling me into him. For the wildest half second of my life I thought he was going to kiss me, but instead he said into my ear, “Look, look, look—over there. Darniamh!”
Straight through the middle of the dance floor, Darnell and Niamh were making out. Not just kissing, but French-kissing, hands in each other’s hair, going for it. They didn’t even seem to be aware they were surrounded by hundreds of their closest friends.
“Eurgh, yes!” I shrieked, grabbing Will back with one hand and pumping the other in a fist. “We called it.”
“Anyone with eyes could’ve called it,” Will said with a laugh that faded rapidly. I followed his line of sight to Matt, who was giving us a funny look. Like, a really funny look.
I let go of Will’s arm the same moment he shook me off.
“I’m gonna grab a drink,” he muttered, and stalked off into the sea of people without inviting me as a new song started.
Well, at least I wasn’t alone on the dance floor. But suddenly I didn’t feel like dancing anymore.
I forced myself to stay as long as I could stand it, so Matt didn’t get too suspicious, then I bounced my way over to one of the tables. Bounced, because if I didn’t put on fake cheer, I would’ve moped my way over like the love child of Eeyore and Squidward.
Once I was sitting down with my phone, I felt calmer. No one was paying any attention to me, anyway—they were all perfectly content having fun with each other. Why couldn’t Juliette be here? She was the most dependable person I’d met in this town, and she’d gone and bailed on me in my time of need. And all just so she could attend the biggest audition of her life. So selfish, Juliette, what do you think this is?
My unlikely hero came wearing a floaty pink dress and a scowl. Lara flopped into the chair next to me and crossed one leg over the other, shoving her nails in her mouth.
“Why, hello,” I said.
“She basically just turned her back on me,” Lara said, purportedly to me, but mostly I think she wanted the opportunity to vent out loud in general. “Just shut me out of her romantic little twosome.”
“She’s dancing with her boyfriend?”
“She’s dancing with her boyfriend.”
“The sheer nerve.”
Lara shot me an icy glare, and I turned back to watch the room.
The basketball guys stood in a group against one of the flower arrangements, posing with Matt in the center for a photo taken by Niamh. As she took the photo, Will held up a hand to keep her there and gave her his phone to take a second photo. The guys rearranged themselves into America’s Next Top Model–type poses, with Matt lifting a leg in front of Will’s chest—held in place by Will, naturally—and Darnell crouching next to them with his head tipped back dramatically.
If it had been another group, it would’ve been a funny, cute pose. But I got the feeling that, for these guys, the humor lay in the femininity, not in the drama. And the difference mattered, if you asked me.
Niamh went to hand Will’s phone back to him, but Matt grabbed it first. The guys made a show of gushing over the photos, as Matt flicked through the options. Then, all at once, they burst out laughing, and Will went to grab the phone. Matt held it out of his reach, with one of the other guys blocking Will’s lunge. Will shoved the guy roughly out of the way and snatched the phone out of Matt’s grip, stuffing it into his pocket with a storm-cloud face. Will said something, and the guys fell about cackling.
Jess, who’d been hovering nearby, went over to the boys at this point. Probably to ask what all the commotion was about. I would’ve liked to know myself, to be honest.
Jess seemed like a nice enough girl, but she was the ex of my kind-of-boyfriend, so I irrationally disliked her. She had shoulder-length, straight black hair, dimples, and a perfectly symmetrical face. Her bright red dress was longer in the back than in the front, and she paired it with enormous black pumps.