“I thought we were discussing a young man of depth and complexity,” Arriane said. “Imagine my surprise to learn it’s you.”
Cam scowled and dove into the river, his body arcing high in the air before it met the water. When he emerged, he was so close to Lilith that their faces were almost touching. She stared at the beads of water on his upper lip. She wanted to touch them. With her lips. She was angry with him, but that anger paled before the intensity of her attraction.
He took her hand. He kissed her palm. “I’m sorry about last night.”
“What kept you?” she asked quietly, though at the touch of his lips on her skin, she had already forgiven him.
“Nothing that will keep me again. I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”
“How?” Lilith asked, breathless.
Cam smiled and looked around the river, then up at the brilliant blue sky. He smiled at his two friends, who were both shaking their heads. Then he smiled at Lilith, an alluring, complicated smile that drew her body against his underwater and told her in an unspoken language that her life would never be the same.
“A party.” Cam wrapped his arms around her and started twirling her in the water. The dizziness was so delightful Lilith couldn’t help but laugh. “Say you’ll come?”
“Yes,” Lilith said breathlessly. “I will.”
Arriane leaned into Roland. “This is not going to end well.”
Ten Days
“Good morning, students.”
Cam leaned back in his chair as the principal’s voice crackled through the intercom in homeroom the next morning. “Topping today’s announcements, the soccer team is having a car wash after school. Please come out and support them. As you know, prom tickets are available in the cafeteria until Friday, and in a moment I will announce the prom court.”
The classroom, which had been buzzing a second earlier, silenced. It had been a while since Cam had seen this sort of undivided attention from a group of teens. They cared about prom. He glanced across the room at Lilith and wondered if there was a deep, hidden part of her that cared about it, too.
When Jean Rah had told Cam yesterday that Lilith had signed up to play at prom, Cam had been so excited he’d pumped his fists and leaped into the air, losing his cool for a whole three seconds.
“Damn, dude,” Jean had said with a laugh. “You do realize you’re not in the band, right?”
“Not yet,” Cam had said, swiping his hair to the side.
Jean had shrugged amicably. “Take that up with the boss. Revenge is really Lilith’s band.”
“Don’t mind if I do,” Cam had said.
Today he was going to ask her—not just if he could be in the band, but if she’d go with him to prom. Like a date. Yesterday, in the cafeteria, right after she’d fought with Chloe, Lilith had seemed to soften. She’d let Cam in a little, hadn’t shut him down, even when he’d dared to talk a little sweet to her.
He wished she’d meet his eyes now, across homeroom, but she was deep in her black journal.
“The nominees for prom queen are,” Tarkenton said over the intercom, “Chloe King, June Nolton, Teresa Garcia, and Kara Clark.”
Chloe—who was now wearing her hair shaved on the sides—immediately jumped up from her desk. “The Slights strike again.”
Chloe and her bandmates hugged each other, giggling, crying, their pastel minidresses riding up their thighs.
Mrs. Richards crossed the room and pried them apart, urging them to sit back down.
“As for prom king,” Tarkenton said, “the nominees are Dean Miller, Terrence Gable, Sean Hsu, and Cameron Briel.”
Cam winced as a few kids around him whistled and clapped. Lilith, of course, didn’t look up. Cam had made no effort to get to know any of the students at Trumbull other than Lilith and Jean. This prom court appointment was clearly Lucifer’s doing; he must have bet that Lilith would be disgusted by anyone who bought in to the pomp of prom court.
Tarkenton went on to list some of the prom court responsibilities, and Cam wondered how many dumb meetings he would have to bail on over the next ten days. But then the classroom door swung open and drew his full attention.
Luc, his tablet tucked under his arm, sidled in and over to Mrs. Richards. He whispered something in her ear.
To Cam’s dismay but not surprise, the teacher pointed at Lilith. “That’s her, in the second row.”
Luc smiled gratefully, then walked toward Lilith as if they were strangers. “Ms. Foscor?”
“Yeah?” Lilith said, startled by the sight of the tall boy standing over her. She covered what she’d been writing in her book.
“This is confirmation that your entry has been received.” Luc dropped the envelope on her desk.