He had a point, especially considering the fact that he’d just been whispering romantic nothings to me. Still, I stared over to where Josh stood holding Cassidy in his arms.

Logan said, “It bothers you though, doesn’t it?”

I didn’t say anything. I knew he was asking in a roundabout way how much I liked Josh, and I didn’t know what to reply.

I pulled my gaze away from Josh and Cassidy. “It just seems so sneaky.”

He lifted one eyebrow and nodded slowly. “And you’ve never done anything sneaky?”

“Oh, no you don’t. You’re not turning this dance into another one of your bash-Samantha sessions. I believe we were talking about romance and specifically your lack of it.”

“I thought you said I had dreamy eyes and was mysterious.”

“I was considering your potential. You weren’t finished proving yourself to me.”

He laughed and pulled me closer. Into my ear he said , “Tu es tre*s belle quand tu marches dans les vestibules, quand tu empiles des livres, et quand tu pleures.”

I didn’t understand any of it—I took Spanish instead of French—but just the sound of the language murmured into my ear was romantic. It made me feel like my entire body could melt like a lump of candle wax onto the gym floor.

I didn’t care whether Josh and Cassidy were off together. I didn’t care if they ever came back. I wanted to stay here dancing with Logan, listening to French drop from his lips.

Then I pushed the thought away. Logan didn’t mean any of this. He was just proving a point about romance.

And a very valid point too.

Apparently I was such an idiot, my heart would race at a romantic line no matter who said it.

“Very good,” I said, “but knowing you, you just told me I ought to change the oil in my car every thirty thousand miles, didn’t you?”

“No, I told you that you look beautiful when you walk through the hallways, when you stack books, and when you cry.”

What an odd compliment. “You’ve never seen me cry.”

“Yes, I have. In eighth grade English when we watched Where the Red Fern Grows.

You cried at the end. That was the first time I thought you were beautiful.”

“When I was crying?”

“Yeah. When you were crying.”

When I cry, my face turns red and my eyes swell up. I silently considered Logan’s aesthetic taste for a moment and then thought about that long-ago day in junior high. It was sweet to think of him noticing me, of him liking me back then. I let out a slow sigh.

*“Whatever happened to us?”

“You dumped me.”

“Well, yeah, but some guys try to win girls back, you know.”

“I know, but at that point you had really started to irritate me.” He followed this statement with a short, “Ow!”

“I’m sorry.” I smiled up at him. “Did I step on your foot? Sometimes it’s hard to know where to put these pointy heels.”

He limped for a couple of steps. “That is just the sort of thing I’m talking about.”

I danced on as though nothing were different. “Don’t be ridiculous. I never stepped on your foot in eighth grade. In fact, after we broke up, I was nice to you until that day in English when you decided to edit Shakespeare.”

He fought a smile. “I can’t believe you still remember that.”

“You took all the English books and wrote my name under Taming of the Shrew.”

He held me away from him, as though trying to take precautions. “All right, I was mean to you first. I apologize.”

“You just don’t want me to step on your foot again.”

Another smile crept across his face. “Well, if the pointy heels fit . . .”

I stomped my foot down, but in aggravation, not in retaliation. “Logan, you are the most frustrating—”

The music began to fade, and Logan dropped his hand from my waist. “Well, the song is over. Let’s go back.”

I didn’t let go of his hand. “Oh no you don’t. We’re in the middle of a conversation.

Our dates can wait for another song.”

Holding tightly to his hand, I pulled him a few steps closer to the center of the dance floor. As Josh and Cassidy walked past us off the dance floor I gave them a small wave. Josh looked a bit confused, but I didn’t care. It served him right if he had to stand there and watch me dance with Cassidy’s date.

Logan said, “And that’s another thing, Samantha, you’re too bossy,” but he didn’t offer any other resistance. Another slow song came on, and he put his hand back on my waist and moved to the rhythm of the song.

For a few moments I just danced with him, enjoying the feel of his arms around me.

Then I tilted my face up at him. “I believe you were in the middle of apologizing to me for being mean for the past three years.”

“Uh, right, sorry about that.”

I wanted to step on his foot again. “The least you could do is tell me why you act that way.”

He shrugged as though it were actually something he needed to think about. “You know in sophomore English when we put on a scene from Hamlet and you were Queen of Denmark?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, a lot of times you act like you’re still wearing the crown.”

“I do not.”

“You’re running your campaign on school unity, but you’re so cliquish you’ve spent your entire high-school existence associating only with those people who could pass for fashion models.”

“I have not.” Aubrie was too short to be a fashion model.

“You’re only being nice to people now because you want to win the election.

Afterward you’ll go back to being exactly the same—a person who only thinks about herself.”

Logan had said a hundred mean things to me over the years, and I had always let them roll off me. This time it hit me with a resounding thud. I could barely say anything at all for a few seconds, and then I wasn’t sure what to say. I wanted to say, Oh, you must want to see the beauty of me bursting into tears again, but I couldn’t pull it off in a lighthearted manner. I probably would actually burst into tears right there on the dance floor, and what was left of the evening would be ruined. My pictures would show puffy eyes and giant mas -

cara stains, and I’d forever be known as the girl who cried at the prom.

Logan must have felt bad when I didn’t say anything, because after a minute of dancing in silence, he said, “I’m sorry, Samantha. I shouldn’t have said that.”

Right. Of course. He wasn’t sorry. “Go ahead and think all sorts of horrible things about me,” I said. “You don’t really know me at all.”

And then because I thought I might cry anyway, I pulled away from Logan and stormed off the dance floor. He had no choice but to follow after me, but I didn’t even glance back at him.

I walked toward the table where Josh and Cassidy sat. They were looking at each other, not at me, and I heard a snatch of their conversation.

Cassidy said, “If you didn’t want me to treat you coldly, then you shouldn’t have broken up with me.”

“I thought you could be a little more mature about this,” he said.

“I’m sorry. You must have me confused with some of your other ex-girlfriends.”

“Cassidy—” he said, and then noticed me walking toward him. “Samantha,” he said in a startled voice. He must not have known what else to say so he added, “There you are.”

“Yes, here I am.” I forced a smile and pretended I hadn’t heard them arguing. I sat down in the chair next to Josh, only slightly consoled that Cassidy and Josh weren’t having a better time than Logan and I just had.

Logan came up to the table and sat down next to Cassidy but looked over at me. I put my hand possessively on Josh’s arm. “Are you ready to get our pictures taken?”

“Sure.” He seemed relieved. Relieved, perhaps, to get away from Cassidy?

I smiled again. I would refuse to think about Logan and all of his accusations f or the rest of the night. I would only think of Josh. True, I was still a little angry at him, but think -