Smiling like a little girl who'd just been handed her favorite candy.
I looked at the bracelet she'd taken off, and something dull thudded in my chest.
Not pain. Just a dull, heavy weight.
I turned my face away. Didn't want to look anymore.
“Daryl.” Nora's voice was light, breezy, like she was bringing up something that barely mattered. “I want to dance the first song with Jayden. That okay?”
Before I could answer, Jayden spoke first.
“Nora, I don't think that's a good idea.”
A slight frown, just the right amount of hesitation in his voice.
“Daryl's your boyfriend. The first dance should be yours and his.”
While he said it, though, his eyes flicked honestly toward me for a second before drifting back to Nora.
A thin film of satisfaction sat behind that look, like a current running just beneath still water.
He thought he was hiding it well. He wasn't.
Nora didn't look at Jayden. She was watching me, waiting for my reaction.
Probably expecting me to frown. To push back.
To get upset the way I had when she'd gone to see a movie alone with Jayden.
“He just learned ballroom dancing. He's too shy to dance with anyone else.” She added that like she was offering me an easy out. “You know his situation. We can't just leave him standing on the side watching, right?”
I didn't argue. Didn't make a scene.
I just looked at her for three seconds.
A lot came back to me in those three seconds.
Meeting her for the first time when I was three.
The way her eyes lit up when I fastened the bracelet around her wrist on her birthday.
All the plans she'd talked about, over and over, for after we got into Lakewood.
We'd applied to the same school. Same major.
She used to say we'd ride bikes under the sycamores together, eat our way through every stall at Midtown Mall.
She always smiled so brightly when she said those things. I'd always believed every word.
Three seconds ended.
I stepped back and quietly gave up my spot.
Nora blinked.
She hadn't expected me to fold that easily.
Surprise in her eyes, even a flicker of confusion, like I'd thrown off the script she'd already rehearsed in her head.
But the surprise lasted less than two seconds before her attention swung back to Jayden.
She took his hand and walked toward the dance floor.
The music started. A slow waltz.
They glided out together.
Nora's white gown moved like water under the lights, her steps barely touching the floor.
Jayden was stiffer, missing the beat now and then. Obviously a beginner.
Nora didn't care. She tilted her face up at him, nothing but delight in her eyes.
Everyone was watching them. Whispers. Phones out for photos. Some people scanning the room for me.
I could feel those gazes brushing past, carrying curiosity and pity.
I didn't look again.
Turned around and walked toward the doors of the hall.
Night air rushed in, cool against my skin.
Passing through the school gate, I reached down without thinking and touched the watch Nora had given me.
The leather strap was worn, the surface starting to crack.
I glanced at it, half-smiled, and left it on.
Not because I couldn't let go.
Because it didn't matter anymore.
My phone screen lit up. A message from Nora.
I opened it but didn't read the text right away. Checked the time first.
One waltz ran about three minutes. Add a bit of small talk with Jayden after, and this was exactly the window where she'd have a free hand to text me.
“I told you, Jayden's shy. He just learned ballroom dancing, he's too nervous to dance with other girls.”
