Beautiful Creatures(99)

“Coach Cross chaperones, so Link always goes by himself so he can loiter around her all night,” I explained.

“Don’t wanna disappoint the ladies. They’ll be fightin’ over me once somebody spikes the punch.”

“I’ve never been to a school dance before.” Lena looked down at her tray and picked at her sandwich.

She looked almost disappointed.

I hadn’t asked her to the dance. It hadn’t occurred to me that she’d want to go. So much was going on between us, and every part of it was so much bigger than a school dance.

Link shot me a look. He had warned me this would happen. “Every girl wants to be asked to the dance, man. I have no idea why, but even I know that much.” Who knew Link might actually be right, considering his Coach Cross Master Plan had never panned out?

Link drained the rest of his Coke. “A pretty girl like you? You could be the Snow Queen.”

Lena tried to smile, but it wasn’t even close. “So what’s with the whole Snow Queen thing? Don’t you just have a Homecoming Queen like everywhere else?”

“No. This is the winter formal, so it’s an Ice Queen, but Savannah’s cousin, Suzanne, won every year until she graduated and Savannah won last year, so everyone just calls it the Snow Queen.” Link reached over and grabbed a slice of pizza from my plate.

It was pretty obvious Lena wanted to be asked. Another mysterious thing about girls—they want to be asked to stuff even if they don’t want to go. But I had a feeling that wasn’t the case with Lena. It was almost like she had a list of all the things she imagined a regular girl was supposed to do in high school, and she was determined to do them. It was crazy. The formal was the last place I wanted to go right now. We weren’t the most popular people at Jackson lately. I didn’t mind that everyone stared when we walked down the hall, even if we weren’t holding hands. I didn’t mind that people were probably saying things right now, cruel things, while the three of us sat alone at the only empty table in the crowded lunchroom, or that a whole club full of Jackson Angels was patrolling the halls just waiting for us to screw up.

But the thing is, before Lena, I would’ve cared. I was just starting to wonder, I mean, if maybe I was under some kind of spell myself.

I don’t do that.

I didn’t say you did.

You just did.

I didn’t say you had Cast a spell. I just said, maybe I was under one.

You think I’m Ridley?

I think… forget it.

Lena searched my face even more intently, like she was trying to read it. Maybe she could do that, too, now, for all I knew.

What?

The thing you said the morning after Halloween, in your room. Did you mean it, L?

What thing?

The writing on the wall.

What wall?

The wall in your bedroom. Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about. You said you were feeling the same way I was.

She started fidgeting with her necklace.

I don’t know what you’re talking about.

Falling.

Falling?

Falling… you know.

What?

Never mind.

Say it, Ethan.

I just did.

Look at me.

I’m looking right at you.

I looked down into my chocolate milk.

“Get it? Savannah Snow? Ice Queen?” Link dumped vanilla ice cream on top of his French fries.

Lena caught my eye, blushing. She reached her hand under the table. I took it in mine, then almost yanked my hand away, the shock of her touch was so strong. It really was like sticking my hand in a wall socket. The way she looked at me, even if I couldn’t hear what she was thinking, I would’ve known.

If you have something to say, Ethan, just say it.

Yeah. That.

Say it.

But we didn’t need to say it. We were all by ourselves, in the middle of the crowded lunchroom, in the middle of a conversation with Link. Between the two of us, we had no idea what Link was even talking about, anymore. “Get it? It’s only funny because it’s true. You know, Ice Queen, Savannah is one.”

Lena let go of my hand and threw a carrot at Link. She couldn’t stop smiling. He thought she was smiling at him. “Okay. I get it, Ice Queen. It’s still stupid.” Link stuck a fork into the gloppy mess on his tray.

“It makes no sense. It doesn’t even snow here.”

Link smiled at me over his ice cream fries. “She’s jealous. You better watch out. Lena just wants to be elected Ice Queen so she can dance with me when they make me Ice King.”

Lena laughed in spite of herself. “You? I thought you were saving yourself for the track coach.”

“I am, and this is gonna be the year she falls for me.”

“Link spends the whole night trying to come up with witty things to say when she walks by.”

“She thinks I’m funny.”

“Funny looking.”

“This is my year. I can feel it. I’m gonna get Snow King this year, and Coach Cross is finally gonna see me up there on the stage with Savannah Snow.”

“I can’t really see how it plays out from there.” Lena began to peel a blood orange.

“Oh, you know, she’ll be struck by my good looks and charm and musical talent, especially if you write me a song. Then she’ll give in and dance with me and follow me up to New York after graduation, to be my groupie.”