holy ground ★ conrad fisher (1)

i wish you were sober ★ conan gray

twenty eight | 1x05

RORY TOOK HER TIME IN SETTING UP her equipment, stretching out every second, even though she barely had any to set. Anything to avoid having to talk to the few debutantes in the room, who were all crowded around Nicole.

Her gut twisted. She should say something – apologize to the dark-haired girl. But that would mean explaining why she was apologizing, and that would open a whole other can of worms.

As if she didn't have enough to deal with already.

Her brief chat with Nicole had also reminded her of Chase, who had been leaving her messages on seen for the past hour. She sighed, tucking her phone away as more debutantes and their escorts arrived.

Across the room, she spotted Belly just as Shayla and Steven approached her.

"Hey, guys." Belly looked up from her phone, immediately turning to Shayla.

"Hey. I'm so sorry I was such a mess yesterday. I... I really hope I didn't screw things up that bad."

Shayla smiled warmly. "It's okay. We're good."

"Yeah. But you were a Tasmanian devil, though," Steven scoffed.

"Be nice," Shayla warned, nudging him as he threw an arm around her shoulders.

Rory hated the jealousy that flickered through her. It wasn't even about them—it was about what they had. The ease of it. The kind of affection that wasn't complicated.

Shayla nudged Belly playfully. "We've all been there. The first time I got drunk, I FaceTimed each one of my exes, one by one, and made them tell me why we broke up."

The girls laughed; Steven, however, swallowed hard. "Exes? Can I get a ballpark figure?"

Before Rory could jump in to tease him, Paige's voice rang out over the chatter, calling for everyone's attention. Taking it as her cue, Rory lifted her camera and got to work.

"Wait, where's Ellie?" Belly asked in a hushed voice, though what she wanted to ask was where the Cooper boy was — the one she'd expected to be escorting Ellie.

"She wasn't feeling well," Shayla answered.

Paige's voice carried through the room. "Please welcome our debutante waltz instructor, Ms. Covington, all the way from Ms. Covington's School of Ballroom Dance in Newton."

Soft applause rippled through the room as the instructor stepped forward.

"Thank you, Paige," the older woman said. "As you all know, the waltz is the most highly anticipated part of the ball. So, please join your partners now, and we will begin with fundamentals, starting with the box step."

Rory kept snapping pictures as Nicole stepped up to dance with Belly, filling in since she didn't have an escort yet. A few minutes later, a familiar voice called from the entrance.

"Hey, ladies. Mind if I have this dance?"

Nicole immediately stepped aside as Jeremiah took over, grinning as he pulled Belly into a slow sway. Rory lifted her camera and captured the moment just as he grabbed Steven's blazer and threw it over his lifeguard uniform.

A few of the debutantes whispered nearby.

"Does Jere ever take anything seriously?"

"Yeah, food and flirting."

"He told me he doesn't do deb balls," one muttered.

"I asked him to escort me. Twice," Gigi added, arms crossed.