21

Piper

Nacho Cheese Fireworks

Getting ready for the formal with Zariah and June was the kind of college experience I missed out on.

Zariah pumped up her playlist of scores from her favorite movies and danced around the room, grinning every time a horror score slipped in. June curled my hair while her own hair was in curlers, and we ate out of a big bowl of popcorn, nacho cheese chips, and Takis, using takeout napkins to wipe in between getting ready.

And my phone was not only turned off, I left it behind at my dorm.

Thomas can't ruin tonight.

"I'm facetiming Kass," Zariah announced, holding her phone and posing with her tongue sticking out. I shrank down as much as I could while June finished styling my hair but Zariah gestured me closer. "Girl, move in."

I perked up. "Really?"

"Uh, yeah. Move your ass."

Hiding my smile, I pressed close to her, waving at the camera.

"Oh my god ." Kassie whistled. "Hot damn! Gorgeous! Showstopping!"

June laughed. "My hair smells burned but, you know."

"Sacrifices must be made!" Kassie completed with a shout.

"Sacrifices must be made!" Zariah agreed. She elbowed me off the bed. "Kass, you've got to see Piper's dress, it's insane. Look at this."

The aquamarine dress was something that'd been in storage forever. I only wore it once to a KYU fundraiser, where Thomas said it didn't fit right. I agonized over giving it away for weeks until I finally hid it in a box. Bringing it to the RA conference felt like a sign of good luck, a sign of things changing. Even if Zariah had to steam it for an hour to get the wrinkles out.

It took Zariah a couple of tries to flip over the camera, but when she did, she beamed. "Ta-da!"

A full blush covered my cheeks.

"Wow," Kassie whispered. "Ryan, come look."

"Huh? What?"

I hurried back and there was Ryan Cross, peering over the top of her phone. He glanced up at Kassie and back at the phone, narrowing his eyes.

"Is this a video?" Ryan asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No, we're video-chatting." Zariah laughed. "Hey, Ryan!"

Kassie blew him a kiss. "Nothing, you're fine. Go back to studying." As soon as he stepped away, she dropped her voice. "I got him to sign up for this computer class, full of retirees and grandmothers. He's doing so good. He's learning how to spot phishing emails."

"It's more difficult than it sounds!"

Zariah's mouth fell open in surprise as I burst into giggles.

"It just takes practice," I assured him. "At my internship, we had all these crazy-good coding people, and they still fell for the gift card emails. It happens."

Ryan grinned, and Kassie beamed down at the phone. She nestled down in her chair and asked a million questions about the conference. We told her everything. Our full sticker books, all the workshops we went to, the dinner that'd been crappy sandwich boxes, so June whipped out her credit card and ordered us Indian food from a surprisingly good place nearby. But then came the question.

"Where's Adam?" Kassie frowned.

"He better not be causing any trouble," Ryan warned from the other side of the room.

The truth was, I hadn't seen Adam Russell since the sex ed class. I couldn't believe how he single-handedly ruined it. The freshman could've been hurt. If anything, he was scared of Adam. And it's not like that helped anything. The others were talking about the bleacher bunny picture when they left the classroom.

The last few hours were the most peaceful ones I'd experienced for at least a week. Better than yoga. And I should've been happy, right? I should've been.

Instead, I'd agonized over bringing my phone just to see if he'd message me. Which was stupid. But I couldn't help that weird sense of anxiety, thinking about what he was up to.

Where is Adam?

"He's…good," I answered honestly. If he'd been in an accident, I would've heard about it. Everybody loves their Marrs Manwhore news.

Ryan's chair creaked. "He's not causing trouble, is he?"

Shoot.

Thumbing the fabric of my dress, I gave a shrug. "He went to my sex ed class."

"Don't move," Kassie told Ryan, and the chair creaking stopped. She held up a notepad for us to inspect, with a serious-looking cartoon Ryan sitting on a chair with his laptop in hand. The slant of his eyebrows, so solemn, made us laugh again, and Kassie grinned, returning to scribble in her notepad. She flipped a few more pages and showed us the other model. "The Marrs Manwhore."

Cartoon Adam was perfect. The relaxed, comfortable position, his sharp jaw, the lines of muscle on his arms, she couldn't have captured him better with a camera. His cartoon was glancing to the right with a slight tilt to his eyebrow, half-a-smile on his lips, daring someone to come closer.

"It's weird without him," Kassie admitted. "Without him bringing in new girls, I don't get new models."

June snorted, and Zariah made a joke, but I settled on the bed. That's what Adam did. He brought a brand new girl into their space all the time. It was just a part of Adam. But it made me hunch into myself anyway.

Why did I care? I didn't want to be a notch on anyone's bedpost.

No, thank you.

"We have to get our asses in gear," June said, shoving us off the bed. The bowl of popcorn, nacho chips, and Takis went flying and hit the ground like a firecracker. Zariah slid on the ground, stumbling back in her heels.

"I got you!" I grabbed her hand, and we skidded together, desperate not to land on the mess on the floor.

"What the hell?" Kassie snorted from the phone. "Pivot! Pivot! "

That was easier said than done. I crashed to the floor and Zariah smacked into the dresser. June took the brunt of the nacho dust.

Slowly, June stood up, huge firework-orange patterns splattered across the skirt of her white dress like a five-year-old personally decided to ruin her day.

She jerked back and forth between staring at her dress and staring at us. A snicker slipped out of Zariah but June held up a finger, shaking her head. "Don't you dare."

Maybe Zariah could hold it in, but I couldn't. I hit my fist against the floor, my sides aching with how much I laughed. I couldn't help it. The dumbfounded look on June's face was priceless and the nacho dust and then there was Zariah, who laughed so hard she couldn't breathe. She hiccuped, trying to stop laughing.

"You guys are assholes!" June scoffed. "I didn't even want to go to this stupid formal!"