Robin Wasserman - Lust

“Are you okay, Ad?” she asked, and he realized he’d been staring at her.

He smiled.

“Just thinking of what a great night we’re going to have together,” he told her. Another lie.

More lies piled up by the minute, and his skin crawled with the fear that everything was going to come apart. Especially tonight-when he and Kaia, and worse, Beth and Kaia, were bound to come face-to-face.

“It’s going to be a wonderful night,” Beth sighed, leaning her head on his shoulder. “It’s going to be perfect.”

Adam slugged back his glass of champagne and poured himself another-anything to get him through the night.

Perfect?

Unlikely.

Miranda jumped out of the car almost before it pulled to a full stop-it had been all she could do to restrain herself from jumping out miles ago, at full speed. Between Harper and Kaia’s intermittent sniping and Kane and Kaia’s apparent inability to keep their hands off each other, the fifteenminute ride had felt like an eternity.

Now that they were finally here, she just wanted to get out and away as quickly as possible-and if she managed to avoid being seen emerging from Kane’s hot pink cotton candy machine, that would also be a perk. Though the way her luck was running, it seemed unlikely. Speaking of incognito-

“Harper!” It was Harpers hideously annoying sophomore clone.

“Miranda!” And her equally annoying sidekick.

“Kane and Kaia!” they chorused. “Hiiiii!”

It was too late to escape. The two girls, dressed in identical satin slip dresses (Mini-Me in lavender, Mini-She in eggshell blue) tottered up to them on shaky heels. Their dates, two pimply sophomores who, in matching crew cuts and rented tuxedos, looked as identical to each other as the Minis (one was blond, one was brunette-they were otherwise interchangeable), trudged dutifully behind them.

Kaia, Harper, and Miranda each nodded wearily at the fan club-Kane couldn’t even be bothered to do that much.

“Kaia, your dress is gorgeous,” Mini-Me gushed. “Where’d you get it?”

“Bitches-R-Us?” Harper suggested.

“Anna Sui, actually.” Kaia glared at Harper. “Where’d you get yours, Wal-Mart?”

“That’s where I got mine, too!” Mini-She cried. She linked arms with Harper and leaned toward her conspiratorially. “So, Harper,” she asked in a low voice, “where’s your date?”

“Oh, Harper and Miranda came together,” Kaia simpered. “Isn’t that adorable?”

Now it was Harper’s turn to glare. She extricated herself from the sophomore and moved quickly over to Miranda’s side.

“Are you guys, like, a couple now?” Mini-Me asked, eyes agog.

“No, no,” Miranda said hastily. God, this was just what she’d been afraid of. Worse, even. “We’re just-I-”

“We told our dates to go screw themselves,” Harper jumped in. She glanced at Kaia. “Not everyone’s self-esteem is dependent on testosterone.”

“Looking for some testosterone?” Kane asked, suddenly paying attention. “Why didn’t you say so?”

He grabbed Kaia and swooped her down into a dramatic dip, kissing her as her hair grazed the ground. The sophomores giggled and Harper and Miranda just shook their heads until finally he pulled her up and took her hand.

“Well, milady shall we away?”

And they walked inside, Mini-Me, Mini-She, and their unfortunate dates in hot pursuit.

“Suck it up, Rand,” Harper said, as Miranda’s eyes followed Kane’s figure into the gym. “You know he could care less about her-he’s just trying to be an asshole.”

“He’s doing a pretty good job of it,” Miranda admitted.

“Now see, that’s what I’ve been trying to tell you,” Harper pointed out. She grabbed Miranda’s arm and pulled her forward. “Come on, let’s go find some real men. You ready for this?”

Miranda nodded and followed silently. Here we go, she thought gloomily. Ready-or not .

The high school gym had been transformed. A diligent team of party planners (culled from a joint task force of student council members, cheerleaders, and some devoted PTA moms) had hung enough multicolored leaves, paper lanterns, and “welcome back” banners to turn the place into an autumnal paradise. Could you even tell that beneath all those decorations lay a dirty, smelly, multipurpose room that, in two days, would once again be filled with sweaty students and the occasional fistfight?

In a minute.

It even smelled the same, Adam mused, looking around in disdain at the tacky setup. He supposed all this crap was some girls idea of romantic-he was just glad it wasn’t anyone he had to date.

“Is her back turned?” Kane asked Adam, who was supposed to be on the lookout for the nearest chaperone. They stood in a back corner, just under the bleachers- the exact spot that, if the teachers had any sense at all, they’d be watching around the clock. Where else would you go to make trouble? Fortunately for would-be troublemakers, common sense was commonly absent among the Haven High faculty-or at least, those unsavvy enough to get themselves roped into chaperoning a school dance.

“Yeah, you’re clear,” Adam assured him. “Not that she’d see you.” (Dolores Martin, the school librarian, was about 140 years old and hadn’t been able to see more than ten feet ahead of her since the Nixon administration.) “What are you up to, anyway?”

“I told you, it’s a surprise,” Kane said mysteriously. “I’ve equipped everyone else, but I had to improvise.” He pointed toward one of the guys from the swim team, who was gulping from a plastic bottle.

“Vitamin water?” Adam asked, peering at the bottle.

“Yeah, new flavor-kiwi strawberry with a little something extra.”

“Extra?”

“Vodka can be very healthy for you, you know,” Kane confided with a laugh. “But for you, my friend, something special. A little more risk-but a lot more style.” He pulled a tiny silver flask from inside his jacket and surreptitiously passed it to Adam. “Just don’t get caught.”

Adam fumbled the flask for a moment, then pushed it back toward Kane. He could see it now-the laser beam eyes of his AP history teacher spotting a glint of silver coming out of his pocket. Getting pulled out of Beth’s arms and hauled off the dance floor in front of everyone. Thrown out, disgraced. Beth would certainly never forgive him for ruining her night over something so stupid. No, he had enough to worry about already.

“Doesn’t seem like a great idea,” Adam explained, as Kane shook his head and slipped the flask into one of his outer pockets. “Especially the way my luck is going. Last thing I need is to get suspended for getting drunk on school property or something.”

“Your call,” Kane said ruefully. “Well, I guess a man in love doesn’t need any other forms of intoxication. Speaking of which, I better go collect my date before your beloved tells her too many lies about me. Or worse”-he raised his eyebrows-“the truth.”

Adam followed Kane’s gaze across the room and, with alarm, saw Beth and Kaia in a corner, deep in conversation.

His heart missed a couple of hundred beats.

“Uh, you’re right, we better go break that up,” he stammered. Kane started off, but Adam grabbed him and pulled him back.

“Changed my mind,” he whispered, slipping the flask out of Kane’s pocket and, checking to make sure no one was watching, downing half its contents.

He felt better already.

“So what did you need to tell me?” Beth asked impatiently, glancing across the room at Adam. She held back a smile as she thought about what they’d be doing later tonight. If he only knew. She just wanted to be with him-and away from Kaia, who’d pinned her in a corner for some mysteriously urgent reason that had evaporated as soon as she’d gotten Beth alone.