Page 43 of To Love or to Lose
“What are you doing?” I ask, my eyes widening.
“You’ll see.”
I register where we are headed a few minutes after we waltz across the floor. We’re making our way toward our friends.
Winnie and Eloise are smiling and waving as we get closer. Winnie even goes as far as to give me a large thumbs up, mirroring the one Luke gave us minutes earlier.
What a pure soul, that girl.I am literally dancing withherdate, and she couldn’t be more elated. She makes me believein the type of soulmates that her favorite romance books talk about, except a platonic version.
Once we are as close to them as we can get, we sway back and forth for a few beats, and Logan—like the traitor he is—hands me off to Jameson, making me jolt.
If this was his plan all along, he pulled it off flawlessly. He put me in a position where I am the center of attention, making it so I can’t flee.It would make me look like a rude snob if I were to walk away now, forcing me to have to deal with Jameson, even as bile rises in my throat.
Jameson takes over dancing with me, guiding my hands around his neck before grabbing my waist as the crowd cheers.
Everyone in this room is a goddamn traitor.
I wait until we’re back in the center of the dance floor before saying anything. “What thefuckwas that?”
If we weren’t surrounded by people, I would’ve smacked him in the back of the head by now.
“Did you really think you could get away that easily, Genova?” The cocky grin on his face is infuriating. “You must not know me very well.”
“I don’t know you!” I grit through my teeth as loud as I can without catching the attention of the many onlookers. “And I don’t want to.”
“Don’t be callous.” He jabs my hip bone with his middle finger. “It’s not a good look on you.”
“I’m not anything less than self-aware.”
“Be honest with yourself: is there any other reason to hate me other than the fact that I’m just as smart as you?”
“What are you trying to say?” I almost laugh at his arrogance.
“You hate me, yet you don’t even know me. The only reason you have to dislike me is because you believe I came to the states solely to take Valedictorian away from you.”
“No.” I look him in the eye. “I dislike you because you refuse to acknowledge that I’ve had to work harder for this position because of the unfairness of Fairwood Prep. In contrast to everything I’ve done to earn it, you had it handed to you, and you refuse to give it up to someone who clearly deserves it more.”
“Just because you had to work harder for it based on your gender means you deserve it more?” He asks, his head tilting slightly in question.
“Earning something because you worked harder than everyone else is quite literally the definition of deserving it more,” I refute.
“Have you always been so hateful?” He asks in an almost-whisper.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I haven’t yet decided whether I should be offended.
“It’s as if you’ve shut yourself off to the world and can’t see anything beyond what you want to see,” he says, making me cock my head to the side. “And what youwantto see is you being Valedictorian. While I didn’t completely take that away from you, I did ruin the vision you had been seeing for so long, and you hate me for it.”
“That doesn’t make me hateful.”
“What does it make you, then?”
My stomach rolls into a knot when I see his face in my peripheral vision. The almost somber look in his eye tells me he isn’t asking for the hell of it. “Perceptive,” I finally answer.
Right then is when the final chorus of the song begins to play. I’m not able to break away before Jameson is pulling us apart, but only far enough to spin me back into him, then dip me.
“Holy shit!” I screech when I come close to hitting the floor.
Jameson’s hands find my back, wrapping around my torso before pulling me up and slamming me into his chest. Ilurch back, knowing that couldn’t have looked very elegant, but Jameson is smiling as if it did.
