Free All the Feels by Danika Stone

it?”
    Xander’s eyes caught hers in the mirror. “Of course I do! Good lord, Liv,” he said with a snort. “I wouldn’t have suggested it if I didn’t. This is hardly daring, but it’s a start!”
    “I dunno, Xander.…”
    His hands rose to his hips. “You don’t know what?”
    She chewed her lower lip, staring uncertainly at the not-this-century woman in the mirror. The clothes fit, but there was so much skin. “I don’t know about this. I feel … exposed.”
    Xander’s laughter suddenly faded. “Oh, Liv,” he said gently. “I’m so sorry I’ve upset you. I didn’t realize—”
    “It’s not you; it’s me.” She let out a tired laugh. “I just don’t know how to be this.”
    She could feel tears threatening to fall, her image in the mirror blurring. Xander stepped up next to her. She expected him to make a joke, but his words were quiet and sincere.
    “You’re breathtaking. Seriously, Liv. Absolutely beautiful.” His vowels had softened, the nervous inflection slipping back into the conversation. “Truly, dearest, you are.”
    “Thanks. I needed to hear that.” Liv grabbed her jacket off the bed and forced a smile. “Now, if we’re going to the mixer, then let’s go before I change my mind.”
    Xander swung open the door and bowed. “After you, m’lady.”
    *   *   *
    Breathtaking.
    That was the word, Liv decided, that had persuaded her to wear the ludicrous outfit, because no one—not the one, solitary boyfriend she’d had during high school, or the leering frat boys she avoided at college parties—had ever spoken to her with such reverence. Although her mother’s borrowed heels made her as unwieldy as a newborn moose calf, with Xander beaming down at her, she did feel beautiful. Hopefully she could make it through the night without breaking her neck.
    By the time they’d arrived, Arden was gone. She’d stepped out for only a minute, Arden’s friends assured Xander. But when she didn’t return his first, second, or fifth texts, the truth became clear. She’d bailed on them for being late. Xander had looked so let down by his girlfriend’s abandonment that Liv had finally asked him to dance.
    “Like dance here…?” Xander asked. “For real?”
    “Yes, for real,” Liv snorted. “I wouldn’t have asked you otherwise.”
    “I know, but—”
    “But what?” she asked defensively.
    He grinned. “I’m just surprised you dance. I thought it was against your religion or something.”
    Liv laughed. “Philosophy, yes. Religion, no.” She shoved him toward the dance floor. “Now hurry up before I change my mind.”
    He grabbed her hand. “Not a chance.”
    Xander’s obsessing over nineteenth-century fabrics was the person Liv knew; Xander’s breaking it out to the latest alternative-rock song was a sight to behold. Liv couldn’t help but giggle as he tugged her out with him song after song, grinding to the beat, while the press of partyers grew into a mob. They were completely mismatched—Liv in her silver skirt and black tee, and Xander in his nineteenth-century garb—but she didn’t care. She floated on a bubble of pleasure. This had been a good idea (though she’d die before she admitted that), and the gloom that had hung over her since Spartan’s final moments seemed to fade.
    Xander grinned and said something, but it was lost under the thudding bass.
    “What?!” Liv shouted.
    “Are you having fun yet?!”
    “Absolutely!”
    “Good!”
    He grabbed her hand and spun her in a circle, the two of them laughing aloud as the song reached a fever pitch. Liv was smiling so hard her cheeks hurt. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt so alive, so happy, so—
    “Xander! Liv!” a familiar voice called. “I’ve been looking all over for you!”
    Xander’s face broke into an even-wider grin. “Arden!” He laughed. “The prodigal girlfriend has arrived!”
    “My roommate lost her keys,” she said with a shake of her head. “Just got