Chapter 23

A SMALL QUEUE of people lined up with their dates, waiting to have their photo taken under the magnificent flower archway against the wall of the ballroom. Noah guided me into the queue, and I shot him a smile. Looked like I would be getting photos with my date after all.

The delicate crystal chandeliers gave the room a warm glow, throwing sparkles off the gold that lined the walls, the pillars, the ceiling. The marble floor was splashed with shadows of dancing people. The ceiling went up in a high dome, and there was a bar against one wall. Small round tables with white tablecloths and flower arrangements stood around the sides of the ballroom, and the band was set up on a low platform at the far end.

In short, it was perfect. Unbelievably, flawlessly beautiful. I was pretty proud of myself for suggesting the flower arch for the photos, since it looked so romantic.

'It's amazing, don't you think?' I said to Noah with a grin.

'Yeah,' he agreed, looking around like I was.

'Next?' the photographer said, and we moved into his spotlight. I stood there a little awkwardly, aware of people looking at us. Of course, they were really only watching because we were having our photo taken. In thirty seconds the focus would be on the next couple. But right now, I was just waiting for someone to cry, 'Oh my gosh! Elle and Flynn?'

'Hey, relax,' he breathed in my ear, making me jump a little.

'Sorry, I'm just a little . . . on edge.'

He smirked that gorgeously sexy smirk. It relaxed me a little. So I turned to face the photographer, and Noah stood behind me, both arms wrapped around my waist and my arms wrapped over his. I smiled into the lens and the flash was almost blinding, then—

'Next?'

And we were no longer the center of attention, just like that.

'You thirsty?'

'Uh, y-yeah.'

'I'll go grab some drinks.'

'Okay.'

He'd barely left my side for a full four seconds when the other Flynn brother was right in front of me.

Crap. Had he just noticed me with Noah? Had someone seen us come in together? I mean, he didn't look mad, but . . .

He slid my mask up off my face. 'Shelly, you're here.'

I smiled. 'Hey, Lee.'

'Make-up malfunction all sorted?'

I breathed a sigh of relief inside. He hadn't noticed . . . 'Yeah, thanks. Everything's great now.'

'Awesome. So, uh, are you going to come sit at our table or stand here on your lonesome?'

I wavered. 'Lee, I kind of need to tell—'

'Is that Elle?' Someone spun my shoulder around and a masked blonde girl grinned at me. 'I thought it was you! Nice dress, by the way. Hi, Lee. Listen, Elle, there's a problem with the food, and Tyrone asked me to come find you. Something to do with the vegetarian option and a nut roast . . .?'

'No, no, we said no nut roast because Jon Fletcher's got a nut allergy.'

'Yeah, I know. But Tyrone said to come find you.'

'I wasn't in charge of the food, though.' I hadn't been; I just helped out a little.

'I know,' she said. I was almost sure it was Kaitlin I was talking to, since her voice was a little nasal. She sounded even more nasal now that she was irritated. Yep, definitely Kaitlin, I decided. 'But Tyrone asked me to find you because Gen's freaking out.'

I sighed. 'Sure. Okay.'

'Great! Okay, go through that side door near where the band is playing, and there's a door to the kitchens about halfway down the corridor.'

'Lee, I'll be back in a sec. Don't disappear, though – I have to tell you something,' I said.

'Sure thing.' And he disappeared into the crowd.

I followed Kaitlin's directions and, after a couple of wrong doors, found the kitchen, where Tyrone and Gen were arguing partly with the chef, but mostly with each other.

'You should've specified if there were nut allergies . . .' the man was saying angrily.

'We did!' Gen practically screamed.

'Are you totally sure, Gen?' Tyrone's mask was pushed up on top of his head and his nostrils flared.

'I'm sure! I wouldn't have forgotten to tell them, Ty!' She spun around to face me, her eyes wild, desperate. 'Elle, tell them!'

I sighed, and looked past her to the chef. 'Can't you just make one vegetarian meal that isn't a nut roast? Just the one?'

He was far from impressed, but eventually we managed to talk him around – and with no extra charge for Jon's meal.

By the time I made it out of the kitchen, I had no idea where any of my friends were. Or my date, for that matter. Everyone was dancing, or standing in crowds around the table.

With the guys in tuxes, and masks hiding their faces, there was hardly any distinction between them. I searched for Lee for a full five minutes before giving up. I knew Rachel had a floor-length lilac dress with a violet bow on, but I couldn't even find her.

I went over to lean against a wall where there was some breathing space and sighed. Dinner would be served in forty minutes and I was not planning on spending all that time alone. Why did we have masquerade again? Forget cool and chic and fun. It was annoying.

Someone sidled up next to me. 'Here, you look like you could use this.' Whoever it was held out a small glass of fruit punch to me.

'Thanks . . .' I frowned, trying to work out who it was. The music was just loud enough that their voice wasn't entirely distinguishable.

My rescuer pulled the mask off his face just enough for me to say, 'Cam!' before he put it back on.

'Who did you think it was?' he laughed.

'Peter Parker. Well, that's who I was hoping for.'

'Maguire or Garfield?'

'Garfield.'

'Sorry to disappoint. I only noticed you because I saw you talking to Lee earlier. You look really nice.'

'Oh, thanks.' I grinned. 'So do you. How're you?'

'I'm good. Anyway, did I see you coming in with somebody?'

'No . . . I don't think so . . .'

I hate lying.

'Oh. Must've been someone else, then. Well, anyway, we better go find the others. I only went to get a drink, but you looked pretty lonely over here. Plus, I couldn't find anyone with these damn masks.'

'I said it was stupid.'

'What're you doing by yourself anyway?'

'I couldn't find anyone,' I laughed, defending myself.

'Excuses, excuses . . . Come on. I think they're all over here still.' I followed Cam through the crowds of dancing masked teenagers, holding onto his arm so I didn't lose him. The whole time, I kept an eye out, but I didn't have a clue where Noah had gone.

We soon found the others. The girls all looked beautiful, of course, and the guys looked pretty good too. Lee had matched his tie perfectly to Rachel's dress, but the other boys had mostly just gone for black. Cam, however, had made the effort to try and match Lisa's dress – except he'd gone for scarlet when Lisa wore burgundy.

Lee and Rachel were just so cute together.

'You're not too upset, Elle, are you? You know, because you're here on your own,' said Warren. It was a little insensitive, but that was Warren, so I didn't think anything of it.

'No,' I said. 'I'm fine.'

'I swear I saw you come in with someone and have a photo,' said Bridget, Warren's date.

'No, that wasn't her, I asked,' Cam answered for me.

'Oh. That's weird. See, everyone in these stupid masks and I can hardly tell anybody apart!'

Conversation moved into easy chatter then. I kept looking around for Noah but couldn't see him anywhere. I went up and danced with the girls for a while, and danced with Cam and Lee too. Then Cody came over, tapping Lee's shoulder.

I only recognized him by the tongue piercing that caught the light when he said, 'Can I cut in?'

'Be my guest,' Lee said. He gave me an elaborate, sweeping bow, then went to where the others were dancing. The music had just switched to something slower – an acoustic cover of some pop song.

'Hi, Cody.'

'Hey, Elle.' He smiled. 'Hope you don't mind me stealing this dance, by the way.'

I laughed. 'Don't worry about it.'

'You look really pretty tonight,' he said. 'Sorry to hear you didn't get a date.'

I groaned dramatically. 'Does everyone know?'

He shrugged, laughing with me. 'Don't worry. It's just 'cause Flynn scared guys off, right? But nobody's seen him anyway – you'll be dancing all night, stealing some other girl's date.'

'Who did you come with again?'

'Amy. Amy Johnson.'

I nodded. 'Cool. She doesn't mind you dancing with me, though?'

'Nah. Don't worry about it. How've you been, anyway? I don't see you much outside of chemistry.'

'Good, I guess. You?'

'Same old, same old.'

We laughed at the awkward lapse in conversation that followed, and chatted easily about the band and how everything looked until the end of the song, when I begged off Jason's offer of a dance to go 'find Lee'. What I really intended to do was find Noah.

I might've found him – if everyone hadn't suddenly started to take their seats for dinner. I went up on my tiptoes, craning my neck to look for him.

'Elle! Elle!' I looked around. 'Over here!' Lee waved his hand, gesturing for me to join him.

I smiled, though it felt more like a grimace, and squeezed through the crowd to take my seat.

The table was left with one empty seat, of course: it sat five couples, and we had Warren, Dixon, Lee and Cam with their dates, and then me with an empty seat beside me.

I prayed really hard that Noah would see me and come sit by me.

'Flynn! Space here, man . . .' I heard the strong Brooklyn accent of Andy, one of the football players, beckoning Noah over to their table. It was a mixture of girls and guys over there – nobody really sat with their dates, and there was just one seat left.

He started over to them, and I noticed that his mask was in his hand now. He opened his mouth to say something, but one of the girls jumped up excitedly and started pulling him over. His eyes were flitting around the room, and then they caught mine as he was being pulled to his seat.

Both of us shot the other a helpless kind of look: one that said we were kind of stuck with these tables. I supposed it was lucky in a way, since I hadn't told Lee yet . . . I was going to, though. I wouldn't let it be like the last time.

If I hadn't had the food crisis to help out with, or I hadn't been asked to dance . . . And now Noah was being forced to sit down, but not next to me. And I still hadn't told Lee.

The odds were against us; but I wasn't going to let that stop me, not this time.

I pushed all these thoughts to the back of my mind. I could deal with that later. Right now, I'd just enjoy being with my friends.

That was easier said than done, of course: it was hard not to turn around and look at Noah, and I was distracted.

It didn't go unnoticed.

Fingers snapped in front of my face, making me jump and drop my fork.

'Earth to Elle! What's up with you?'

'Nothing,' I told Lee as innocently as possible. I forced a smile too. 'Nothing's up.'

'Something is. Oh, that reminds me! What was it you wanted to tell me about earlier? You know, before you got dragged off?'

I gulped. 'Uh, n-nothing much . . .'

'Oh, right, okay. Excuse us a minute, guys.' Lee got up, pulling me with him.

My heart began ramming its way free from my ribcage, and my palms turned sweaty.

'Elle, what's going on?' asked Rachel.

'N-nothing . . .' I mumbled to her, and she gave me a concerned look.

Lee pulled me out of the door near our table into the hotel lobby.

'Seriously,' he said, folding his arms sternly. 'What is it?'

I gulped, fiddling with the corsage strap on my wrist. 'Well . . . Just promise me you'll hear me out, okay? Don't freak out or get mad. Just hear me out. Please?'

'Okay,' he said warily, and it looked like he was bracing himself for bad news.

'I didn't have a make-up malfunction earlier,' I started, and he decided to interrupt me with a relieved laugh.

'That's it? What, did you just not want to be the only one in the limo who was alone? Man, for a minute there I thought you were going to tell me you were hooking up with Noah again.'

I bit my lip. 'He turned up. Earlier, he turned up at my front door. That's why I told you I had a make-up malfunction.'

Lee scowled. 'What did he want?'

'He . . .' I heard footsteps behind him, and glanced up. Noah looked right back at me. I grabbed Lee's elbow. I didn't want him to turn around and start making a scene over nothing. 'Don't get mad, Lee, promise me. But he – he said he was trying to make it up to me, and . . . and . . .'

'Hey, guys, what's up?'

I could've killed Noah at that point. Couldn't he just have let me tell Lee without interfering? Now Lee was bound to overreact, or Noah would twist things around just to wind him up, and . . .

'What were you doing, turning up at Elle's earlier?' Lee demanded. 'You don't think you've already done enough?'

'That's why I was there,' he said, those blue eyes piercing into mine. 'Trying to make it up to her.'

'Lee, he had a corsage and everything,' I put in.

'I don't care,' he exclaimed, turning to face me. 'Elle, he was a jerk to you. Left you in the lurch when I found out, and couldn't have been less supportive.'

'It's not like that,' Noah put in, scowling. 'And you know it. I tried calling, and—'

'It makes no difference, Noah,' Lee spat. 'The fact is, you weren't there when she really needed you. You didn't try and talk things through properly. You left her to deal with everything while you bailed and went off on that damn motorbike of yours. You had her lying to me, lying to her dad, and for what? A bit of fun? Some action?'

'Lee . . .'

'Why don't we ask her, huh? Why don't we see,' Noah said, the muscle in his jaw jumping, 'what Elle wants?'

They looked at me. They waited.

I looked at Noah. All I had to do was look at him, and Lee sighed in defeat.

'Elle, seriously, do you really think that's the best thing to—'

'Noah,' I interrupted, 'do you think you could give us a minute?'

He shrugged. 'Sure.' He walked a couple of yards away from us, and leaned against the wall.

I turned to Lee again, dropping my voice to a whisper. 'I know you think it's stupid and reckless, but . . . I want to be with him. It feels like the right thing to do.'

Lee's mouth twisted sideways thoughtfully. I could see the cogs turning in his mind. 'If you guys are just hooking up . . . I mean, you always seemed so be the kind of girl for commitment rather than a fling. I worry about you, Shelly.'

I smiled calmly, reaching for his hand and squeezing it. 'I know you do. And we're doing it right this time,' I echoed Noah's words from earlier.

'As in . . .?'

'She means we're dating,' Noah said, and his voice carried so that we could hear him. I blushed, looking at my toes before turning back to Lee, whose eyebrows were raised as high as they could possibly go.

'With your approval,' I added. 'Only if you're okay with it.'

'Wait, this is for real? Seriously?'

I nodded. Noah, who had wandered back toward us, said, 'Yeah. Why? You got a problem with that, little bro?'

Lee wasn't looking at him; his eyes were trained on me, and they creased at the corners with the hint of a smile. 'If any girl was gonna change him . . .' His voice sounded slightly strained. He wasn't happy with this. But he was accepting it.

'I'm going to head back in before things start looking suspicious. See you later, Elle.' Noah nodded at me before going back inside. I took a deep breath, unsure of what Lee might say now that Noah wasn't within earshot.

'And you said he was never going to change,' I said jokingly, pushing his arm lightly.

He didn't laugh. Instead, he sighed heavily and pinched the bridge of his nose for a second before speaking. He always did that when he was upset – like at his granddad's funeral, and when his dog, Patches, died when we were ten.

'Are you really happy, though, Shelly? I know what Noah's like. Are you sure he didn't just sweet-talk you into this? You know what he's like too. You're really happy with him?'

'I am,' I told him. 'I know you'll call me silly and cheesy and corny for saying this, but he makes me feel good inside. It's like – it doesn't matter what's going on in my life, because when I am with him, I can forget about all that. I can just enjoy being there with him, and I'm happy. I'm happy, Lee. And I know it's stupid, because we'll probably just end it when he goes to college, but . . .'

I trailed off, not knowing what else to say. I couldn't find the words to explain how I felt about Noah; I just hoped that Lee would at least try to understand.

Well, the heart wants what the heart wants.

Except this wasn't a matter of the heart. Because I didn't love him. Of course I didn't. That would just be ridiculous. No. I definitely didn't love him.

'So . . . what, are you trying to tell me you're in love with him?'

'No! No – no way,' I insisted. I should've known he'd jump to that conclusion. If I was in love with Noah, then it would be a reasonable explanation for getting back with him, but I wasn't. Most definitely not.

'Oh.' There was a kind of pitying look in his face that I didn't quite understand. Like he knew something I didn't.

'Lee, what—'

'Look, I don't agree with this, Shelly. He hurt you really badly, and I don't think this is going to end well. It's just not the right thing for you. But if it's what you really want . . . I'll be there to pick up the pieces after, okay?'

I smiled. It wasn't a big smile, but it was a genuine one, mirroring Lee's perfectly. 'Seriously? You're not mad at me?'

'No, Shelly . . .' He grinned, 'If it's what you want, I'll be here for you at the end of it. I'll always be here for you.'

I hugged my best friend tight and whispered, 'Thanks, Lee.'

He squeezed me back. 'I told you you'd started making me talk like a chick.'

I laughed and said quietly, 'I love you.'

'Yeah, I love you too.' He stepped back and gave me another smile. 'Come on. We don't want to miss desert. I want my cheesecake – if I'm not there, I know Dixon will steal it.'

Laughing, I followed him as he marched back toward our table.

'Everything alright with you guys?' Cam was looking at me with concern.

'You sure you're okay, Elle?' Dixon asked.

I caught Rachel mouthing to Lee, 'Your brother?' and he nodded in response, offering her a helpless sort of look. Understanding dawned on her face and she smiled encouragingly at me.

I turned around and looked over to Noah's table. He was laughing at something one of the guys had said, but he was looking over at me. He caught my eye and winked before turning back.

'Yeah,' I said with a smile. 'Everything's great.'

And at that moment, it really, truly was.