Midnight Sun(22)

“Dude!” Morgan complains to his butt crack, which is basically hanging out of his pants as he feels around under the couch. “You promised me you were good at this game!”

“I am good,” he replies, reappearing and handing the ball to me. He pulls his pants back up. His butt crack disappears. “Just not as good as Katie.”

It’s my turn again. I hit their cups over and over. They miss more balls than they sink. I’d feel sorry for our opponents except that I’m having too much fun. I think I like parties. No, wait, I’m sure of it.

Before long, victory is ours. Again. Garver shakes Charlie’s hand, flashes me a peace sign, takes a final gulp, and wipes the remaining foam from his lips. The beer has apparently given him extra courage, because he turns to Morgan and grins at her. “Do you wanna dance?”

Morgan scowls and gives him a death glare. “Garver, what on earth makes you think I’d ever want to dance with you?”

I give her a look. She rolls her eyes at me. Be nice, I mouth at her.

“Fine,” she says with a sigh. “Let’s get it over with already.”

Garver’s face lights back up and he grabs Morgan by the hand. They weave through the crowd and join the mosh pit of kids bopping around the living room. I wonder if Morgan’s thinking what I’m thinking right now: We both missed out on a lot of fun not going to parties all these years.

While I’m busy watching Morgan barely move and Garver jump around like a total spaz, I suddenly get the feeling people are watching me. I spy Zoe over in the corner whispering to a few other girls I sort of recognize from grade school. I have a hard time shaking the feeling that they are onto me. But then again, maybe they’re just wondering who I am and where I came from; maybe some of them, like Zoe, feel as if Charlie is their property and don’t like that he’s with someone from outside their circle; or maybe I’m just imagining things. It’s hard to tell.

“Is it me or is everyone looking at us?” I finally ask him, nodding over at Zoe and her crew as discreetly as I can.

“They’re not looking at us,” he says. “They’re looking at you.”

He’s looking at me, too, now.

There goes that intense heat up my cheeks again. “This is how I imagined all the middle school dances I never got to go to,” I say, and it’s probably pretty close: Zoe plotting revenge while I chat with the cutest guy in class, and her doing something heinous when I go to dance with him, like that scene in Carrie when she got pig blood spilled all over her at the prom.

“Well, it’s not quite the same,” Charlie replies with an easy laugh. He doesn’t seem worried in the least bit about those girls, so I try not to be either. “At a middle school dance, all the girls would be on one side of the room and all the guys would be on the other and no one would touch.”

I take a slow sip of my pink drink and stare up at Charlie over the top of the cup. “Oh, I’m pretty sure you danced with a lot of girls at middle school dances. Like Zoe and all her friends over there.”

“Well, maybe. Though I wouldn’t exactly call it dancing,” he tells me. “It was more like the middle school grind.”

“Eww,” I say. I don’t even want to think about any of those mindless zombies grinding on Charlie. They don’t deserve a great guy like him. “I’m pretty sure I don’t want to know what that looked like.”

“Actually, I think it’s something you can’t possibly miss out on,” he says, taking the drink from my hand and putting it down on the nearest table. “Let’s fill in some of those gaps in your homeschool education.”

Charlie leads me out to the dance floor and spins me around. Then he brings me in so close there’s almost no space left between us. I forget all about any potential pig-blood-spilling Zoe might be plotting.

I put my hands on Charlie’s shoulders. He puts a hand on my lower back and starts swaying his hips side to side like a pendulum. I follow his moves. We burst out laughing.

“This is what you were missing!” Charlie crows.

“This is horrifying,” I tell him, even though it isn’t, not really. The actual dance might not be that great. But being this close to Charlie Reed definitely is.

“This move really worked for me!” he protests. “You don’t like it?”

“I was hoping for a lot more twirling,” I tell him. Hey, I’m actually flirting. It’s actually working! Miracles do exist.

Charlie slowly spins me around. I make it a full 360 degrees without falling. It’s possible I even look graceful. He pulls me back in and holds me close.

My heart is skittering around in my chest. I feel his beat back at mine in response. We’re slow dancing in a sea of pogo people and I don’t even care if we look silly for being so old-fashioned. I’ve never felt so perfectly connected to anyone or anything in my life except maybe my music. Zoe and her friends cease to exist in my mind.

Charlie looks at me, then down at my lips. OhmyGod, he’s about to kiss me. He leans in. I inhale. Close my eyes. Wait.

And… Garver throws his arms around our necks. The moment is lost. I open my eyes back up.

“THIS IS THE BEST NIGHT OF MY LIFE!” Garver whoops, pointing at Morgan. He’s sweaty and has beer breath and looks positively blissful. “SHE JUST KISSED ME!”