Free Prom and Prejudice by Stephanie Wardrop Page B

if you always take everything else the wrong way,” he laughs, then says seriously, “Do you know how I feel?”
    I look at him from under my lashes because I am not sure what he means. He takes my hand and puts it on his chest.
    “Say my name,” he says.
    “Michael,” I say, and it sounds like a wish.
    “Do you feel that?”
    His heart is beating faster.
    “Yes,” I whisper.
    “I like when you say my name.”
    So I say it a few more times, in between kisses.
    After a long time, he sits up a bit and shakes his head. I’m feeling pretty dizzy myself.
    “More champagne?” he asks. I pick up my glass and hand it out for a refill. “Feel free to get drunk. Because you were right on New Year’s Eve—you are funny when you’re drunk. Just not funny in the way you think you are.”
    “Thanks for reminding me. You just want me to drink because you know what it does to me—if champagne has the same effect as whatever Jeremy made on New Year’s Eve.”
    Michael scowls and looks like he might spit on the terrace stones. “I should go let Harry out,” he says.
    “Sure. He can join us!” I say, but I feel bad for bringing up Jeremy.
    He comes back, with Harry flying over the paving stones ahead of him; the dog is almost as happy to see me as Michael was, bouncing and wagging with a lolling tongue, until Michael gets him to sit down calmly next to our seat.
    “I’m sorry,” he says. “I was really jealous that night.”
    “Really?” I don’t mean to sound coy, but I am pretty surprised.
    “You really didn’t know?”
    “I can be pretty thick sometimes.” I take his hand and look at him, taking in his dark eyes for a long time. “But I know how you feel now.”
    He pulls me against him, and we kiss again, and I am feeling the smooth hard planes of his chest and back and shoulders and I can’t make myself think of anything else at all—as if I would want to.
    When we come up for air this time it’s dark and the candles are burning out on the darkening water and the embers of the fire glow mostly white.
    “I wonder what time it is,” I say.
    “Do you have to go home?”
    “At some point. Trey invited us to an after-prom party at his house.”
    Michael tries to brush my hair back into place with his hand. “Do you want to go?”
    “No,” I say. “I don’t feel like being around anybody else.”
    “Me either.”
    “Everything is different now, isn’t it?”
    “I think so.”
    We sit quietly for a while. Harry laps up some water from the pool, wagging his tail.
    “My parents will be back soon. They went to a movie in Ashburn,” he says.
    “Will they mind that we’re here?”
    “No, of course not. Would your parents mind?”
    “Well, my mom thinks you are a ‘fine’ young man and my dad likes you because you called him ‘Dr. Barrett’ once. But I didn’t leave a note or anything so I should get home before midnight, I guess.”
    He wraps his arms around me and I lean back against him. We look out at the water.
    “So do you want to go out on a real date some time?” he asks.
    “Like go to a movie? You turned down your chance to do that before,” I laugh.
    “I could tell you were mad about that. But did you really think we should tag along on one of Tori and Trey’s first dates?”
    “That’s why you said ‘no’?”
    “Why else would I have said ‘no’?”
    “At the time I thought it was because I am not Longbourne enough,” I admit.
    “Now that is the dumbest thing I think I have ever heard anybody say.”
    “It does seem pretty stupid now. Still, you could be pretty snotty, ya know.”
    “Yeah. I know.”
    We hear sounds and turn to see lights go on in the house.
    “I should probably go,” I say sadly.
    “Come say hi to my parents first.”
    I nod and we find Dr. Endicott and his mom in the kitchen. He is making tea and she is looking at a pile of mail on the counter.
    “Hello, Georgianna,” she says when we come in. “How are you?”
    “Very good,