Page 63 of The Prom

“Usual place.”

Cassie is confused. “You must have misunderstood Jesse, Imogen.”

I shrug. “Maybe. It doesn’t matter, anyway. At least I won’t be at the riverbank.”

Frankie drops back and immediately reaches for Cassie’s hand.

She smiles and once again I am stunned by her reaction to him. Her relationship with Frankie has surprised me morethan anything because discovering she’s with a guy like Frankie would bring her father a swift heart attack.

Dark, dangerous and deadly, best sums up Frankie Majerio and the way he gazes at Cassie is nothing to how he looks at the rest of us. Most of the time I’m scared to even look at him and along with Luca, they make a formidable pairing. Summer and Cassie are probably the only girls in Rockwell who can handle them and, as my thought turn to Drake, I physically burn to tell Cassie my secret.

But I can’t.

I have sworn an oath of sorts, and it’s our secret. Mine and Drake’s, however, Cassie is my best friend, and I used to tell her everything. I almost hate what is happening because nothing is the same anymore and yet I wouldn’t change a thing, anyway.

I wonder what Drake is doing tonight. I wish it was me and then a heavy arm lands around my shoulder and Jesse kisses me hard on the lips.

“Hey baby, tonight’s the night.”

“The last one. Before the prom.” I add and he laughs out loud.

“If you like. Anyway, we are on tunnel duty.”

“I thought Cassie and Siri had that position.”

He winks. “I never said which tunnel.”

A sense of apprehension passes through me as I consider being stuck in a dark tunnel with Jesse. This isn’t good—at all and I wonder if I should act. Swap with someone perhaps, but then it would look suspicious. I can’t even call Drake because the signal doesn’t work down here and the centurions rely on headsets rigged into a system that Ali set up to communicate. At least we have those, so I relax a little and act interested.

“What tunnels?”

“The lower ones.”

I shiver, remembering our passage through them to the riverbank.

“Why there?”

“Because a challenger may find the secret trap doors and fall into them. Safety first baby.”

Santi calls out, “Jesse!”

He winks. “Duty calls. See you in the tunnels.”

As he leaves, Summer catches up with me. “I overheard what he said.” She frowns. “Are you okay with that?”

“I’m not sure.” I sigh. “He’s my guy, Summer. I shouldn’t be worried about being alone with him.”

“This is Jesse we’re talking about.”

“I’m aware of that, but I can’t keep on avoiding him or–”

“Sex with him.” She huffs, “Of course you can. Just because you’re a couple, it doesn’t mean you have to put out. He caught you—remember. It’s all on him to make you want to stick, not twist. If you’re not feeling it, tell Frankie and he’ll arrange a position for you somewhere else.”

“It’s fine.” I attempt to smile. “I’ll be safe and perhaps it’s what we need, anyway.”

The conversation ends as we reach the dungeon and as we head inside, a shiver of uncertainty tells me that I’m not okay with this. I don’t trust him and I certainly don’t want to get close to him because my heart has left the building and is now living somewhere else.

Perhaps now is the time to break things off. To take a step back and tell him I’m not interested. It would be for the best and I’ll just deal with the repercussions of that because I’ve never heard of a couple breaking up mid-semester who committed to one another at The Claiming ceremony.

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