Of the Trees(35)
They gravitated toward the dance floor after a while and were joined by others. Jessica had wandered over at some point—a vision in a gauzy white dress, angel wings, and satin mask—sidling up to the guy in the frightening mask. That didn’t surprise Cassie. Jessica always went for the guy who most easily spelled trouble. They danced in a group, Ryan not nearly as possessive of her as he had been when they were alone. Maybe it was the proximity of Laney, or maybe it was the way one of Corey’s friends kept staring at Cassie; the one with the square mask just wouldn’t quit it. It was unsettling too, mostly, Cassie thought, because underneath that mask she really, truly couldn’t make out his expression, nothing more than the shift of his brow every once in a while.
“Dance with him,” Laney prodded, nudging Cassie toward the boy who was staring at her. Cassie mouthed a protest but was shoved across the floor anyway, knocking into Corey’s friend. She couldn’t see Ryan, he was directly behind her, and as the music shifted and slowed, the boy reached out to her and tugged her into his arms, dancing her in sweeping circles around the perimeter of the group. Cassie thought he was trying to pull off a waltz and wished he’d stop soon; she had no idea how to keep up with that. He was a forceful leader, his grip about her waist firm and guiding, and his hand soft yet unyielding as it held her own. He pulled her closer, close enough to feel the heat emanating from him and she felt flushed. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Ryan watching her, but at this point she didn’t honestly know what she should do about that.
“Are you here with him?”
The voice, so deep and smooth, startled Cassie, and she almost tripped, but his arms were steady. He kept them moving, slowing to a simple box step as he stared down at her. His eyes were piercingly blue, sharp and unwavering from behind his mask.
“Who?” Cassie squeaked, finding herself caught in his stare. A deep chuckle rumbled from him.
“That boy,” he elaborated, nodding toward Ryan. Cassie prickled, though she couldn’t pinpoint why. She found herself wanting to lie, to say yes, she was, but the reality was she wasn’t, not in the way this boy was asking. So she shook her head instead, broke eye contact and stared over his shoulder until the song ended. She stepped closer to Rebecca after the dance ended, unable to avoid the stranger in the square mask completely, not trusting Laney to not shove her at him again, and unwilling to use Ryan as a shield. Rebecca smiled at her, knocked her with her hip, and then frowned, staring off at Jessica and the boy in the creepy mask. They had moved off to the side of the gym, laughing and obviously flirting by the open door.
“Who is he?” Rebecca leaned close to Cassie to whisper. Cassie shook her head.
“That’s Corey,” she said, discreetly pointing across the circle of dancers to the boy with whom Laney was entangled. “He’s Laney’s new boyfriend. I think the big freak in the beak mask is one of his friends, but I didn’t catch the name.”
Rebecca nodded, her eyes flitting over her friend and then making a quick sweep of the people they were dancing with. “Lots of people we don’t know?” she asked, scanning the crowd. Cassie nodded. Rebecca looked speculative but dropped it, which was just as well. She probably thought, as Cassie did, that Laney snuck them in. It wouldn’t be the first time someone had tried something like that, except usually it was because the guest that had been invited was older than allowed or had access to booze. This wasn’t that. Even if it was, Rebecca wasn’t the type to snitch on principle.
She stayed close to Cassie, for which Cassie felt absurdly grateful. People flitted in and about their group, almost as though they were drawn in. Something about new blood, the attraction of outsiders, always did that at dances. Laney’s new friends were a buzz of constant scrutiny. The group Cassie danced with stayed in their general section of the gym, not near the front and keeping to the back by the open door, and yet the crowds of people swelling near kept increasing. The boys were asked to dance, and they were good, surprisingly good. It wasn’t just the stranger with the square mask who could manage a box step; they were light on their feet and engaging, laughing and playful with the partners they chose. Even the girl, even with the creepiness of the jester’s mask, was whirling about, completely unselfconscious as she flitted about the gym. She’d dance for a song out in the middle of the floor and then, like a homing pigeon, dart back, her hand brushing the arm of one of the boys she came with, her lips hovering close to their ear as she whispered something to them.
The only one who didn’t dance again, other than the rhythmic swaying from across the circle of students, was the boy with the square mask, the one with the intense blue eyes who had swept Cassie around the gym floor. He kept his gaze on her, ignoring the others that danced all around him. She kept getting caught up in his intensity, kept finding him staring at her across the crowd of people. An unpleasant fluttering in her chest intensified every time she caught him watching her because it wasn’t as though catching him staring discouraged him. He never looked away, never seemed nervous or embarrassed. No, he stared back, tilted his head and observed her, his eyes sweeping down her body and back to her face, a blank challenge.
She didn’t like it.
“I’ll be right back.” Cassie hummed in confusion, turning to find Ryan looking down at her. She smiled instantly, nodding. He jogged away, toward the hallway door and passed her father, probably headed to the bathroom. The rest of the group dispersed a bit, Rebecca muttering that she was going to see if she needed to peel Jessica off anyone, and Cassie found herself next to Laney again. She felt the pressure of fingers entwining with her own and looked to find Laney beaming up at her.