The Wrong Path_Smashwords (17 page)

Annabelle stumbled away, making her way back to the table. At her face, Trevor straightened, his smile dying instantly. He stood. “What’s wrong?” he asked, leaning toward her.

She shook her head and forced a smile. “Nothing. I-I was dancing with Will and I think I overheated.”

He looked surprised. “Will? My brother? He’s here?”

She sucked in a breath. Hadn’t he been listening when Claudia had been talking about how sexy his brother was? Sure, the dance was loud, and he had been talking to the other football players about the game the night before, but how could he have missed Claudia ranting and raving about how Will had been hiding his gorgeous self all this time?

“Yeah,” she confirmed finally. “He came with his friends. He’s dancing with Claire right now.”

“My brother?” Trevor repeated incredulously.

Annabelle almost wanted to punch him. “Is it okay if we get some air?” she asked, nodding to the dock that stretched out along the water.

“Of course,” he agreed immediately, and she instantly felt bad for being angry with him. He led her around the dance floor and out the double doors, a blast of cool air washing over her as soon as they stepped outside. She walked straight to the railing, leaning against it as she tried to calm her whirling thoughts.

“I wonder why he’s here,” Trevor mussed quietly. Annabelle looked over at him, but he was staring with wonder into the ballroom. “I don’t even think my mom knew he was coming. He’s never gone to a dance before.”

“Ebony said she bribed him,” Annabelle offered.

Trevor still looked perplexed. “Ebony tries to bribe him every dance. Whenever she comes over she tells my mom about how he keeps turning her down.”

Annabelle stared at his profile, then back out to the dark surface of the water, her mind stunned into silence. Was it what she had said to him? Had he come because she had called him on his fears, and he came to prove he could conquer them?

She had to turn her back to Trevor to keep him from seeing the tears brewing in her eyes. Will—stunning, remarkable Will—had faced his demons head on, and now he was being begged by them to dance. It was almost comical.

And her? What had she done to fight dressing up to be someone else for a night? Nothing. Not a thing. She had even
felt
like someone else while they had been taking pictures. She was always pretending to be someone else. That was her entire life. It was what she did to be accepted; to have friends. That was who she was.

Wasn’t it?

She suddenly thought of yelling at Will in his car, the two of them glaring furiously at each other. She thought of crumbling in his arms in the hallway at school. Of clinging to his waist and laughing hysterically as they drove around on the ATV, getting covered in dirt from head to toe. Of resting in his arms in her room after the carnival, feeling safe and peaceful for the first time in days.

Something inside of her snapped.

That
was the real her. The one who thought it was fun to get dirty. The one who didn’t care about someone’s social circles. The one who wanted to laugh and have fun without worrying about saying or doing the right thing all the time.

And if Will was going to wear a tuxedo for a night and face his fears, she could take off her mask for a night and face hers.

She turned to Trevor abruptly, catching him off-guard. “Do you want to go say hi?” she asked, fully intending to go sit with Will and Ebony whether Trevor came or not.

He blinked, startled, but he nodded. She led the way back in and paused, scanning the room for either of her friends. She finally spotted Ebony at a table in the corner of the room, surrounded by friends. In the darkest corner of the room slouched Will, looking like he was trying not to jump out of his seat and make a run for it.

She strode straight for their table, feeling Trevor at her heels. As they walked up, everyone at the table shifted and straightened, their eyes darting between Trevor and Will. Will straightened as well, his dark eyes flashing at the sight of his brother.

Annabelle, working purely on adrenaline, pulled an empty chair over to Ebony’s side, reached down, slipped off her high heels, and dropped them onto the middle of the table.

“Those things hurt like a bitch,” she announced.

She wasn’t sure who was the most surprised: Trevor, Ebony, Will, the others who only knew her by reputation, or herself.

And then Ebony’s lips closed and lifted into a smile. She reached over and picked up one of the heels, eyeing it. “I bet,” she drawled, then looked up at Annabelle with a deep grin and dancing eyes. “They are really cute, though.”

“They’re my mom’s,” she laughed, stretching out her cramped toes. She looked back at Will. “I see you escaped Claire and Claudia.”

He was smiling with an unreadable expression, but he leaned forward. “It was rough. They’ve got claws, you know.”

She thought about all the times Claire had grabbed her. “Oh, I know,” she agreed dryly. She looked up at Trevor, who seemed bewildered and lost. “Sit,” she insisted.

He hesitated, as if he wanted to ask her if she was okay, but he slowly pulled a chair over and sat down. He cast a look over at Will. “I didn’t know you were coming tonight,” he said finally. “Mom will be happy. Did you take any pictures?”

“Oh, I’m on that!” Ebony declared, rising quickly and producing a camera from the purse she had dangling around her wrist. “Both of you stand up. Get together.”

Will shot her a murderous look, remaining seated even as Trevor stood slowly from his seat. He still looked unsteady, as if he was unsure about what was going on.

When it became clear that Will wasn’t going to get up, Annabelle laughed, standing herself. She walked around the table to where he sat, taking his warm, familiar hands in hers to pull him to his feet. He rose reluctantly, shooting her a pained expression that made her giggle. Without her heels he towered over her, and for a moment she was surprised at how normal it felt to be like this with Will.

She released his hands quickly and forced a smile to cover up her sudden uneasiness. “Come on,” she insisted. “Think of how happy your mom will be.”

She stood next to Ebony as Will and Trevor stood shoulder-to-shoulder, not quite touching each other. Trevor smiled broadly in a practiced picture smile, but Will glared at Ebony behind the camera.

“Smile, Will!” Ebony called out to him.

“No.”

“Smile!”

“If you’ve got to do this, take the picture already.”

“Not until you smile. Until then, you and your brother can just hang out together all night.”

“Oooh, good one,” Annabelle told her, turning to her.

“Thank you,” Ebony returned pleasantly.

Will stared at the two of them, and suddenly his eyes fell closed and he smiled slightly, shaking his head. Then he opened his eyes and smiled.

Ebony was quick with her trigger finger. She managed to get two pictures before Will’s smile died and he dropped back into his chair.

“Here, lemme take some,” Annabelle requested, reaching for the camera in Ebony’s hand. Ebony hurried to Will’s side, leaning behind him and smiling prettily while Will just gave her a look that said, “Please kill me.” Annabelle laughed and took the picture, staring at the back of the digital screen as it refreshed for the next shot. When the image came back in, she felt her smile die. Ebony’s lips were pressed against Will’s cheek, her arms wrapped tightly around his shoulders. Will was rolling his eyes, looking exasperated. Annabelle forced herself to smile and took the shot. “Cute!” she declared, then turned the camera on the rest of the table.

She laughed at what hams they were—almost as much as her friends. She had taken almost twenty pictures before Ebony took the camera back and pulled Will to his feet.

“C’mon,” Ebony pleaded, when Will started to protest. “So I can hang it in my locker and say to myself, ‘Here’s my fantastic new friend, and the guy who is the reason we met!’” She deliberately turned to Trevor, who was frowning slightly. “You don’t mind, do you?”

Trevor shook his head, looking lost and out of place. “No… Of course not.”

Ebony smiled pleasantly and faced Annabelle and Will. “Good. Now come on, put your arms around each other and smile.”

Annabelle had never been as uncomfortable as she was in that moment. Her right arm just seemed to know where to fit around Will’s waist, and his left arm fell naturally around her shoulders as they smiled for Ebony’s camera. Anyone watching them should have thought it was peculiar how comfortable they were with one another, including Annabelle’s boyfriend—Will’s older brother—who sat to Annabelle’s left, a witness to the whole thing.

“Attention everyone!” came an announcement through the speakers. “We’re about to announce your Homecoming court, as voted on by the students!”

Cheers went up through the crowd. A mixture of relief and disappointment went through Annabelle as she and Will released each other. She reached out to take her shoes off of the table and slid them back on, catching sight of Ebony and her friends making mock throw-up faces. She knew she should be insulted, but somehow it only made her laugh. She squeezed Ebony’s hand in goodbye, then followed Trevor to the middle of the dance floor, where their friends had clustered together. She almost laughed at the sight. There was probably going to be a rather large gap in the middle of the floor in just a few minutes.

Annabelle was right. As the grade’s chosen royalty was announced, the space in the middle of the floor continued to grow larger. She stepped back as they started to announce junior royalty, to allow Claire to pass through, when the voice that came through the speakers said, “Junior Homecoming Princess… Annabelle Priestly!”

She stood rooted to the ground, even as cheers went up around her. Her smile felt frozen on her face as she slowly turned to face Claire, confused. She could see the vehemence in her friend’s eyes, but Claire, ever the showman, squealed and threw her arms around her in a hug.

She stumbled up to the stage, still confused, and couldn’t even bring herself to smile as she looked out into the blinding stage lights and sea of students. Fearing the worst, she looked up to see if there was a bucket of red paint on one of the rafters above her head, but there was nothing. She bowed her head for them to crown her, then accepted the robe and bouquet of flowers, slipping her arm through Zach’s. She curtsied and he bowed to the loud cheers, and then they moved to the back with the freshman and sophomore royalty to wait for the King and Queen of the senior class.

All Annabelle could do was look down at Claire, who was staring up at her with dark, burning fury.

Naturally, Trevor was the Homecoming King, and Claudia the Homecoming Queen. Annabelle joined the others in her applause, but she felt too numb to cheer. She couldn’t get Claire’s face out of her mind, no matter how hard she tried.

She was Homecoming Princess?

How had that happened?

Who on earth had voted for
her
?

As soon as the mandatory dance with Zach was over, she hurried to her table with her bouquet of flowers and started dismantling it with trembling fingers.

“What are you doing?” Erin asked, shocked.

“I don’t deserve this,” Annabelle told her, shaking her head. “Claire should have been Homecoming Princess, not—“

“Oh, Annabelle, I’m not surprised at all that you won,” Claire said, appearing at her right with Claudia. Her eyes were cold, but her tone light. “After the fiasco at the party, everyone knows your name. It’s only natural that they would vote for you.”

It would have been easier if Claire had slapped her. She forced a smile and shrugged, feeling tears in her eyes. “I’m sure you’re right. It just doesn’t make sense. I don’t know anybody.” She tugged one of the flowers out of the bouquet and handed it to Claire. “Here.” Claire took it slowly, and around the table, Annabelle passed out flowers to the rest of the girls, who were all staring at her in surprise.

When she was done, she looked back at Claire, still shaking. Her friend’s expression was cool, but it looked like some of her anger had faded.

For the rest of the night, Annabelle stayed at Trevor’s side. When it was finally time to go home, she couldn’t bring herself to join in the festivities with everyone else, so she pretended to be tired and burrowed her face in Trevor’s shoulder. Finally, mercifully, the limo stopped in front of the houses and they climbed out, waving goodbye to their friends. Trevor walked her to her door and when he started to lean down to kiss her goodnight, she quickly dodged him and bid him goodnight, hurrying into the silent house. She knew it was cruel, but she couldn’t think about kissing Trevor. Not after everything that had happened that night. She just wanted to go upstairs and take off her dress and climb into bed.

She had just finished pulling out the bobby pins from her hair when she heard the soft tap on her window. Her heart skipped into her throat as she jumped to her feet, practically diving for the curtains. She threw them apart, an ache forming in her chest at the sight of Will looking back at her. She opened the window quickly, stepping back to allow him entrance.

As soon as his feet touched the ground she flung herself into his arms, sobbing.

He held her tightly, gently guiding her to the bed. They sat together on the edge of it, Annabelle sobbing into his vest. The thought of her makeup ruining his white shirt made her finally pull away, burying her face in her hands. She felt his hand lightly fall away from her back.