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As she settled into the truck, she realized how exhausted she was from the stress of the day. She leaned her head against the window and closed her eyes as Jonathan drove back toward the highway. What seemed like moments later, he touched her shoulder, and she was shocked to see that they’d already reached the Scarletville town limits. “Am I taking you home, or is there a party you want to go to?” he asked.

Felicity didn’t want her evening with Jonathan to end, but she couldn’t very well show up at Haylie’s party with him. “My car’s in front of Mamma Leoni’s,” she said. “Can you just drop me off there?”

“Sure. Will you be okay driving, though? You seem really tired.”

“I’ll be fine,
Mom,
” she teased. “My house is like four minutes away.”

They reached Mamma Leoni’s too quickly; Felicity wouldn’t have minded another few hours of driving through the dark with him. “This is perfect,” she said as Jonathan pulled up behind her car. “Thanks for the ride, and for taking me out.”

“My pleasure. It was really fun.” He tapped the stereo. “I’ll bring you a CD on Monday.”

“Awesome. I really love that cookie-cutter-girl song.”

“That’s my favorite, too.” Jonathan put the truck in park, then turned to face her. His eyes reflected the streetlights, and they looked soft and vulnerable without the protective shield of his glasses. “Hey, Felicity?” he said. “I’m sorry your prom night didn’t turn out like you wanted.”

“Are you kidding? Nobody at prom got fries or milk shakes or one of these.” Felicity pulled her windup hamburger out of her purse, and it feebly kicked its little plastic feet. “I had a great time. Seriously. I hope I was able to salvage your night a little bit, too.”

Jonathan smiled. “Actually, my prom night was pretty much perfect.”

For a minute, it looked like he might lean over and kiss her.

For a minute, somewhere deep down, Felicity hoped he would.

But he didn’t. Instead, he reached out, took her hand, and squeezed it gently. His palms were warm and dry and a little calloused, his fingers long and delicate. Somehow, holding hands with him seemed much more intimate than doing the same thing with Brent. “Good night, Felicity,” he said quietly. “Sweet dreams.”

She squeezed his hand in return, surprised by her reluctance to let go. “You too.”

She didn’t realize she still had Jonathan’s jacket around her shoulders until she got home. Her mom and brothers were sleeping, so Felicity kicked off her heels just inside the door and tiptoed upstairs to her bedroom. She hung the jacket on the back of her desk chair, unzipped her dress, and left it on the floor where it fell. She didn’t even bother to remove her makeup before she crawled into bed in her lobster-print pajamas.

Bits of the evening whirled through her mind when she closed her eyes: Jonathan laughing at a joke she’d made; Jonathan’s eyes lighting up as he talked about art school; Jonathan driving through the night with that adorable half smile on his face; Jonathan squeezing her hand. Things he’d said played over and over, fitting themselves together like puzzle pieces.

“The girl I really wanted to ask was indisposed.”

“Lucia’s my best friend. It’s not like that at all.”

“Actually, my prom night was pretty much perfect.”

She reached out and took hold of the cuff of his jacket, rubbing the fabric between her fingers. She was still holding on to it when she fell asleep.

F
elicity slept until one in the afternoon. When she finally woke up, the house was silent, and she found a note on the kitchen counter explaining that her mom was out buying new sneakers for the twins. She was shuffling back up to her room with a bowl of cereal when her phone beeped.

BRENT: hey sexy u home? can I come up?

Felicity’s heart did a strange little stutter that was half relief and half disappointment. The text indicated that Brent wasn’t mad at her for the whole Gabby fiasco, which was reassuring. But he would probably expect her to make it all up to him now, and she was way too sleepy and confused to be in the mood. Last night had given her a lot to sort through; she had even thought about kissing someone else. But she couldn’t tell Brent to go away when he had just sacrificed so much for her. So she told him everyone was out and that he should come around to the front door.

He rang the bell a minute later, and Felicity abandoned her cereal and let him in. She was about to apologize for her pajamas and messy hair, but Brent swept her up in his arms before she even had time to say hello. His embrace was warm and strong and familiar, and she relaxed into it. It suddenly seemed ridiculous that she had been having fluttery feelings for Jonathan when her body clearly craved no one but Brent. He pressed her up against the wall and kissed her hard, and all thoughts of last night melted away.

“Let’s go to your room,” he whispered against her neck, then took her by the hand and led her up the stairs.

As Felicity followed him, she realized this was the first time she and Brent had ever been alone in an empty house. She was surprised by how nervous she was all of a sudden.
I want this,
she told herself.
It’s okay. I’ve wanted this for a while. Everything’s going to be fine.

The moment Brent entered her room, he froze, and Felicity crashed into his broad back. “What are you doing?” she giggled, her voice high and anxious. “Come on, let’s go in.” She pushed past him and reached out to pull him toward the bed, but she stopped when she saw his face, which had suddenly gone cold. “What’s wrong, babe?” she asked.

“What is
that
?” Felicity had never heard Brent use that tone before. There was hurt and confusion in it, but it was laced with a quiet anger that made the tiny hairs on the back of her neck stand up.

“What’s what? What are you talking about?” She looked around, but nothing in the room seemed out of place.

“That.”
Brent pointed accusingly at her desk chair.

Jonathan’s tux jacket was still hanging on the back.

Oh
no
.

“It’s a jacket,” she said carefully.

“Yeah, I know that, Felicity.
Whose
jacket is it?”

She swallowed hard and reminded herself that she hadn’t done anything wrong. She had eaten some fries with a friend. They had talked. He had driven her to her car. They hadn’t even hugged. It had all been totally innocent.

“It’s Jonathan’s,” she said.

“The guy who was hitting on you at the art show?” Brent’s hands balled into fists at his sides. Felicity didn’t think he would hurt her, but she had to fight the impulse to step out of his reach.

“He wasn’t hitting on me. We were just having a conversation. Last night I went outside for some air, and I ran into him, and I was cold, so he gave me his jacket, and I forgot to give it back. It’s just a jacket. It doesn’t mean anything.”

“I thought you’d gone to Haylie’s when you disappeared last night,” Brent said, as if he hadn’t heard her. “But you didn’t, did you? You came
here,
with
him
.” It wasn’t a question.

“I didn’t, Brent! He’s never been here. I just wanted to get away because everyone was staring at me. So Jonathan gave me a ride to my car, and I came home. By myself. That’s it, that’s the whole story. Okay?”

“He gave you a ride to your
car
? That doesn’t even make sense. You couldn’t walk to the parking lot?”

“It wasn’t in the parking lot. It was in front of Mamma Leoni’s. Ivy drove me from the restaurant to school. I was going to pick up my car today, after Haylie’s party, but I didn’t end up going to the party, so Jonathan gave me a ride.” She reached out to touch Brent’s shoulder. “Honestly. That’s all that happened.”

Brent jerked out of her reach and looked at her with eyes full of ice. “You seriously expect me to believe that? Why wouldn’t you drive you own car to prom? That’s the lamest excuse I’ve ever heard.”

Felicity nearly laughed—she’d told so many lies lately, and Brent was fixated on the one part of her story that was totally true. “I swear to God I’m not making it up. Ask Ivy or Haylie.”

“Oh yeah. Because I’ll definitely get the truth out of your best friends.” He rolled his eyes. “I’m not stupid, Felicity. I know you were lying to me all along. That whole ‘prom committee hazing ritual’ thing is complete crap. You made me take Gabby to prom so I’d look like a douche and you could run off with your other boyfriend.”

“Brent,
no
. It’s not like that at all!” She tried again to touch his arm, but he just backed away as if she had some contagious disease.

“I was trying to help you! Do you think I wanted to go on a date with Gabby? And now I find out you’ve been cheating on me. How do you expect me to react to that?”

Righteous indignation rushed through Felicity. “I have
never
cheated on you,” she said, her voice more forceful than before. “I would never do that. Don’t you trust me at all?”

“Why would I trust you after this? Seriously, Felicity, do you think you’re the only one in this relationship who’s had other offers? Because I could have had anyone I wanted, any time. But I didn’t, because all I wanted was you. I actually
cared
about you. But I guess that wasn’t enough, since you ran off with some
brunette
behind my back.”

Felicity gaped at the boy standing across from her. She knew every line of his body as well as she knew her own, but he suddenly seemed like a stranger. She and Brent had been together for more than a year, and he still didn’t know her at all. Jonathan understood her better after four hours of conversation than Brent did after fifteen months.

She didn’t love him. Right now, she didn’t even
like
him. Brent was a safety net and an insurance policy, and she didn’t need those things anymore. She could take care of herself.

“You know what, Brent?” she said. “It’s over.”

“What, you and him? You think that makes it okay that you—”

“No, not me and him. There is no me and him. I’m talking about me and you.”

Brent stood perfectly still for a moment, looking so surprised that Felicity wondered if she’d made a mistake. But then the hardness returned to his eyes and he said, “Whatever, Felicity. I can do better.”

He shoved past her and pounded down the stairs. Just as he reached the bottom, Felicity heard the front door open. “Oh, hi, honey,” said her mom’s voice.

“Good to see you, Mrs. S,” Brent called before slamming the door behind him. Even after calling her a cheater, he still turned on the charm for her mother.

Ginger’s quick footsteps clicked up the stairs. “We’re back,” she called. “Can’t Brent stay and have lunch with us? I thought we could—” Then she stuck her head in the doorway and saw Felicity’s murderous expression, and her cheerful words died on her lips. “Baby, what happened?”

“We broke up.” Felicity wondered if she would fall apart as soon as she said the words out loud, but she didn’t. Underneath her anger about the false accusations, she felt curiously calm about the whole thing.

She no longer had a boyfriend. And she didn’t even care that much.

“Oh God, did he find out about your hair? Did Gabby tell him?”

“
No,
Mom. This isn’t about my hair. Not everything is about my hair.”

Ginger’s face relaxed, and she reached out to embrace Felicity. “Oh, sweet thing, I’m so sorry you broke up. Do you want to tell me what happened? Do you think you might get back together?”

Felicity shook her head and tried to ignore the desperate hope in her mom’s voice. “It’s definitely over. He accused me of cheating.”

“But you didn’t really cheat, did you?”

“
No!
God, Mom! Of
course
not!” She squirmed out of her mother’s grasp.

“I’m sorry, baby. I know you’d never do that. I’m just trying to get the facts straight.”

Felicity was about to answer when her phone rang and Haylie’s picture appeared on the screen. “I’m going to take this, okay? I’m fine, Mom, seriously.”

“We’ll talk about it when you get off the phone.” Ginger backed out of the room slowly, clearly unable to process the fact that Felicity wasn’t melting into a puddle of anguish. “I’ll be right downstairs whenever you need me.”

Felicity answered the phone, and it was a relief to hear Haylie’s voice. “Hey, are you okay? Where have you been? I called your phone a bunch of times last night, but it just went straight to voice mail.”

“Yeah, sorry. My phone’s been acting weird.” To deflect attention from her prom night activities, she said, “I just broke up with Brent. He accused me of cheating.”

“What?
He
accused
you
of cheating after
he
took someone else to prom? God, what a loser! Hang on, Ivy wants to say something. I’m putting her on speaker.”

There was a beeping sound, and then Ivy announced, “Brent’s a douche canoe. I’ll punch him in the teeth for you, if you want.”

“I can’t believe he called you a cheater,” Haylie said. “Seriously, does he think anybody’s going to believe that? You’re, like, the most honest person ever.”

A bolt of guilt shot through Felicity. “I don’t really want to talk about it. There’s nothing to say anyway. It’s just over, and it sucks. Tell me about the rest of prom. How was the party?”

“It was great, but we really missed you,” Haylie said. “Well, I did, anyway. Ivy wasn’t really aware of anything except Darren’s tongue down her throat.”

“You hooked up with Darren?” Felicity said. “That’s awesome, Ives! He’s liked you forever!”

“His tongue was not down my throat,” Ivy protested. “And can we please discuss the fact that Haylie’s delightful date found a butternut squash in the pantry and made a
bong
out of it?”

“He’s really not that bad,” Haylie said. “He’s just creative.”

“He’s the poster child for why people shouldn’t have babies,” Ivy said, and Felicity let out a genuine laugh for the first time all day. A surge of love for her friends welled up in her.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there last night, guys,” she said. “Everyone was staring at me and making me feel like a freak, and I couldn’t handle it. I just had to get out of there.”

“It’s fine,” Ivy said. “Seriously, don’t worry about it. You did what you had to do. You should never have to be miserable if there’s another option.”

Felicity eyed Jonathan’s jacket hanging on the back of her chair. Last night she’d taken the other option, and it had only gotten her into trouble.

But then she remembered what Jonathan had said as they’d left the restaurant:
Don’t even try to pretend it wasn’t worth it.

And even now, it was. Every single moment.