Castleside Academy

Chapter Eleven: Lexi

After everyone has dispersed to dance and talk, Luther and I meet up with Maya, Henrietta, Jared, and Tanner.

Maya, Henrietta, and I giggle nonstop about absolute random things that we find hilarious when really, they’re not that funny.

Finally, Jared sighs and looks at us. “What’s so funny?”

Maya laughs and takes his hand. “Nothing. Nothing. Come on,” she pulls lightly on his arm. “Let’s go dance.”

He shrugs and follows her onto the ballroom floor where other couples are dancing to the slow beat song. What bothers me is that Luther and I haven’t danced all night.

Henrietta blushes when Tanner lamely asks her to dance. It would only be romantic to her when Tanner says, “Henrietta, I want you to dance with me.”

Well, who else would she dance with?

“Luther,” says a small voice behind us.

We turn to see Amery Kilter.

Okay, this girl has it all. Rich kingdom, Duke father of the school, beautiful features, and graceful movement. She is in my dance class. Sadly.

“Will you dance with me?” she asks.

Luther smiles gently at her. “Sure.”

My heart seems to stop beating, and I resist to make sure.

As he walks with Amery out onto the dance floor, he looks back at me with unreadable eyes. I just bite my lip and look away as I sit down in one of the vacant chairs at the table.

I’ll admit. I’m hurt. I’m torn. He’s going to explain to me why on earth he just did that, and I know I’m going to end up forgiving him. Unless he suddenly just decided to change his mind about who he wants to be with when he saw Amery in her beautiful yellow gown.

Dawn suddenly sits in the chair next to me.

“Where’s your escort?” I ask.

She scoffs and rolls her eyes. “Vince asked me, but he doesn’t talk to me. Right when we got here, he took off to the mob of guys in the corner. I guess I should be in the mob of their happy dates who obviously don’t care, but Lex, I want to be wanted.”

I almost cry at her words. She’s secretly been struggling with this. All the girls know about it, but we don’t talk about it.

“Dawn,” I whisper. “you will be. One day, don’t worry.”

“I’m not worth it, Lexi!” she says, tears forming in her eyes. “I really, really want Toby to like me, but when I saw him kiss Hazel on the cheek… I know it’s never going to happen. I know I’m an annoying little freak to him because I kind of stalk him.

“I’m jealous of you, Lex. You’re one of my best friends, but I want to be in your shoes at time. You have the most perfect—”

“He’s dancing with Amery Kilter,” I interrupt in a low voice.

Her eyes widen. “No way.”

I gesture lightly to the dancing floor. Luther’s laughing as Amery giggles at her mishaps when she steps the wrong way. “I don’t know what to think of that.”

“He doesn’t like her,” Dawn says, narrowing her eyes at them. “He actually finds her quite irritating.”

“He looks pretty happy right now.”

Dawn sighs. “Look at his hand on her waist. First of all, only the palm of his hand is touching her. Second, he’s flinching a little.”

I notice it, too. “Girl, you should be a detective. That’s good. But, how do we know for sure?”