Thirty

BENNY

I was at the prom. How wack was that?

But Rankin had his eye on us. What else could I do but heap up a plate of food from the buffet, then sit down and eat and watch the band? No matter what, I would never dance, not in front of this crowd.

Dakota was singing. I’d seen her onstage, at assemblies and stuff, but it was like she was a whole different person up there now. She was holding on to the microphone and singing into it like it was a person she was talking to, her head arched back, her hair catching the light like gold. She just looked . . . so . . . free.

I didn’t want to think of us kissing in her back yard. I didn’t want to watch her. And I certainly didn’t want her to watch me watching her, knowing I was thinking of kissing her. But I couldn’t look away, either.