The Mathematics of Love ✔

Chapter 11

I guess I’d forgotten how awkward formal dances could be for a girl whose idea of dressing up was wearing a brand name T-shirt and some clean jeans. Later that evening, Alexander and I had barely entered the school gymnasium and my feet were already being murdered by those torture devices they called heels.

“How…much…further?” I winced through the pain.

Alexander gave me a weird look, the corners of his lips turning up slightly. He was laughing at me. Laughing at a girl who was suffering from unimaginable pain! I knew I should’ve never agreed to go anywhere with him.

“Relax,” the insensitive wart said easily. “You’ve only walked, what, twenty feet from the car door to here?”

I scowled. “You try walking twenty feet in these heels, and then we’ll talk.”

“I would save that sass for the dancing if I were you.”

Now it was my turn to give Alexander the odd look. “Did you just say…‘sass’?”

Before he could say anything, a crowd of familiar people enveloped us. I nearly made a run for it (which would have definitely ruined my feet) when I caught sight of Margaret and Patty in the crowd. I was not in the mood to listen to their mindless chatter again.

Unfortunately, two pairs of hands were pulling me back before I could so much as step in the direction of the punch table.

“Who—?” I spluttered.

It was Amelia and Louisa, dressed in light blue and dark purple dresses, respectively. “Spill!” the two of them demanded in unison.

“Well, I was hoping to wait until the music at least started playing to do that, but—”

“No, not that kind of spill,” Amelia sighed impatiently, tugging at a loose curl that was framing her face. She gave me a knowing smile. “I mean, what’s happened so far with you-know-who?”

“Let’s see. The last I’d heard, Harry Potter had just vanquished him—”

“Nancy!” Louisa blurted out. “Stop with the nerdy references already. Are you going to make me beg?”

I rolled my eyes and shot a quick glance over at Alexander, who was busy talking to a few of his friends in the corner. “Well,” I said, “I don’t really know what there is to say. He came to my house, acted all polite to my parents, and then drove us here in his Honda Civic.”

“He has a Honda Civic?” Amelia giggled.

“Naturally,” Louisa said with a little smirk. She raised her eyebrows knowingly. “So you’re sure you’re not leaving anything out? Like a stripper cake, or a hot make-out session, or—”

“Louisa!”

“Alright, alright. You really are such a prude.”

“I prefer the term 'conservative'. Where’s your date, anyway?” I asked, scanning the crowd in the gymnasium.

Louisa’s grin faded. “Dunno. Brian's off with his friends somewhere, I think.”

“That’s why you don’t go for the popular guys,” Amelia said.

“Oh, because we should all be taking love advice from the girl who’s never been in a relationship,” Louisa fired back.

“As opposed to taking advice from the girl who's never been in a relationship longer than a week.”

“Guys,” I sighed, but it was too late. The two of them were now yelling at each other over the increasing volume of the music.

“Are you ready to rock, Franklin High School?” the D.J. shouted into his microphone.