Her mother raised a brow but nodded, and a few seconds later, Teddy was standing in her doorway.
He looked handsome, his rented suit midnight black and pressed to razor-sharp edges. His hair was pushed back—enough to look like he’d made an effort, but not so much that he looked like he was trying—and Brynna grinned without meaning to.
“What are you doing here?”
Teddy held up the corsage. “Uh, going to homecoming, I thought.”
“You still want to go with me?”
He glanced down at the carpet and kicked softly. “You told me you didn’t make those flyers and I believe you. You told me that it wasn’t you who outed Evan and I believe you.” He dropped his voice. “I can’t believe that you won’t let me go to the police about the person you think is stalking you…”
Brynna pumped her head, hoping to drop the subject.
“So are we going or not?” Teddy asked.
“Let me just get dressed.”
Teddy went back downstairs while Brynna raced into the shower, giddiness flipping her stomach. She didn’t pause to think about Erica, to breathe deeply through the belting water. She didn’t think about anything but Teddy and her and homecoming, until she went for the garment bag in her closet, unzipped it, and stopped.
It was still Erica’s dress.
In all the fuss, her mother hadn’t returned it. Brynna hadn’t thought about it.
There was nothing else in her closet except hoodies and jeans, so Brynna slid the dress from the bag and closed her eyes.
“I’m sorry, Erica,” she muttered. “I’m so, so sorry.”
She stepped into the blue dress, the mounds of frothy fabric swirling around her. The bodice—tight, sparkly—fit her exactly the way all of Erica’s other dresses fit her—slightly tight across the bust, a few inches shorter than she was comfortable with. She blew out a shaky breath, feeling heat surge through her. This wasn’t just like Erica’s dress. It was Erica’s dress.
Brynna’s parents took the requisite paparazzi photos of Teddy and her, and Brynna tried to feel comfortable in Erica’s dress. Teddy complimented her, and all she could do was smile thinly and nod, thinking of Erica, thinking of the way she held the dress in front of her and twirled.
“It’s incredible, right? It’s, like, the color of the ocean.”
They were in Erica’s room with the lights on and the radio softly playing. Brynna’s hair was in a sloppy ponytail, and one eye was dressed with a sparkly, smoky eye shadow while the other waited for the next look Erica wanted to practice. All at once, Erica stopped dancing and Brynna felt her hackles go up, her skin tightening.
“Did you hear that?” she asked Erica.
Erica went to the window, squinting into the blackness outside. She yanked the cord and the blinds came crashing down. “It’s probably my creepy stepbrother. He’s been lurking around.”
Brynna stared, wide-eyed. “Christopher? Isn’t he, like, twenty-five?”
Erica nodded. “Something like that. And he’s not supposed to be within eight hundred feet of here.”
“What are you talking about?”
“He’s got some crazy obsession, Brynnie.” Erica pushed her hair back over her shoulder and twirled again in the mirror. “So, how do I look?”
A shock wave zipped through Brynna and she straightened. She had forgotten that night, buried it back under memories of the beach, that night, the dare.
Erica had a stepbrother.
“Are you okay, Bryn?”
Teddy cocked his head to look at her, his ice-blue eyes catching the streetlights in the darkened car. She studied him, suspicion crashing over her as she scrutinized.
No, Brynna thought to herself. That’s ridiculous—unless Teddy was almost thirty, pretending to be a kid.
“It’s nothing,” she said hastily, shaking her head. “I’m just looking forward to going to the dance.”
The Hawthorne High School parking lot was packed, but Teddy found a spot near the back. He killed the engine and the car fell into silence. Brynna went for the door, but he stopped her with a hand on her forearm.
“Wait.”
The soft touch and gentle tone of Teddy’s voice should have made Brynna swoon, but instead, her blood ran cold, every cell on high alert. She stared longingly at the blue-black concrete outside of the passenger-side window and slowly turned to Teddy, pressing her palms together so he wouldn’t see her hands shaking.
Not Teddy! She instructed herself. Act normal!
“What?”
Teddy’s lips pressed up into that half smile that Brynna used to find so endearing, but in the darkness of the car and with her blood pulsing in her ears, she suddenly found off-putting.