Chapter Thirty-Four
Valentine's Day

So to be honest, I'd never expected to be spending my junior year in Shallow Lake.

But even if I had, I'd never have expected to be going to the Valentine's Day dance with Chris Rodriguez.

It had started in chemistry on the day of our semester final. I'd finished about half an hour early, and I hadn't brought anything else to do, so I was left to draw cubes in my planner. Well, until something hit me in the back of my head.

I leaned over and grabbed the crumpled piece of paper. Immediately, I recognized Luke's blocky handwriting. You're starting to show. Just saying.

Like I didn't realize that. It had taken me twenty minutes that morning to find an outfit that I felt remotely comfortable in. I turned around and glared at him, ripping his note into tiny pieces. He shrugged and held up his hands in surrender. Just trying to be helpful, he mouthed.

He knew I was leaving in a week and he hadn't once tried to talk to me about it. It wasn't like I wanted him to try and talk me out of my decision, but still – it would have been nice to feel like he cared just a bit.

That was when Chris Rodriguez took the empty seat next to me. "Boyfriend drama?" he whispered. I don't want to give you the impression that I didn't like Chris, because I'm sure he was a really nice guy. It's just he'd never talked to me before. Ever.

"Luke isn't my boyfriend."

"That's probably a good thing," Chris said. "He's not exactly, you know…"

"Dependable?"

Chris shook his head in agreement. "Okay, look. This probably seems weird, but…I guess I figure it's our junior year – and I don't have a date to the Valetine's Day dance. I'm assuming you don't have anyone to go with. So I thought we could, you know, go together."

Leaning closer to Luke so he'd get the idea, I agreed. "I'd love to," I told him.

So there I was – a junior in high school, 20 weeks pregnant and trying to hide it in a dark purple dress with just the right amount of poof. I was going to Florida tomorrow, and chances were I'd never come back to Shallow Lake.

I was trying not to think about it all at once.

For now, I was focused on the junior boy who'd bought me a corsage. The one who didn't know I was pregnant and had asked me to this dance for reasons beyond my imagination. "You look really nice," he told me.

"You clean up pretty nice yourself," I said. He really did look nice – all those sports had built up nice muscles. And most guys couldn't pull off dark purple, but he didn't look half bad.

Nell was out of town, so we didn't have to worry about an awkward photo op. It was time to drive off to the dance.

The first and last dance I'd attend in Shallow Lake.

So to be honest, I'd never expected to lose my virginity to Luke.

But even if I had, I'd never have expected for him to want to do it again, and again, and again. Not that I was complaining – if I made him use protection every time, there wasn't any harm in it.

Until we were lying in my bed one day…sans clothing. The Valentine's Day dance was a few days away, and he still hadn't asked me. It was time to take matters into my own hands.

"So, we're going to the Valentine's Day dance together, right?" I asked, running my hands over his bare chest.

"I thought we had an agreement not to talk in bed," Luke said, kissing me.

"Okay, well I can get out and put my clothes back on." I didn't try to keep the irritation out of my voice. We'd done this more times than I could count in the last two weeks, and Luke still wasn't willing to get serious.

Luke groaned and pulled me back into bed, giving me a pleading look that he knew made my resolve weaken. "Silena – we're just friends…well, more like acquaintances with benefits. You know that, right?"

"Yeah, of course," I lied. We were a lot more than friends with benefits – he just didn't see it yet. "But can't one of those benefits be you taking me to the dance?"

Luke kissed me, taking his time and putting his hands in all the right places. "You know how much more hot you are when you aren't talking?" he asked. "We're not going to the dance together, Silena."

"Well then we're not sleeping together," I said, getting out of bed and throwing on a robe.

He shrugged and got out of bed, putting his clothes back on. "Fine by me."

"So none of this matters to you?" I demanded.

"I don't love you, Silena. This is just sex."

So I backed off for the next few days. Clarisse seemed equally pissed about the Valentine's Day dance – apparently, Chris had asked some other girl out. She claimed she didn't want to go anyway. I saw right through that.

It was weird getting ready for the dance. I'd picked out a skintight electric blue dress a few months ago, knowing that it would look great with Luke's skin tone. That was before we broke up – back when I'd planned on losing my virginity to him after the Valentine's Day dance.

Now I – the hottest sophomore girl – was going to the dance by myself. I was convinced once Luke saw me there, he'd forget all about what he said about being acquaintances with benefits. He'd beg for me back.

That was assuming he'd be there.

So to be honest, I'd never expected to go to the Valentine's Day dance.

But Grover had suggested we bring Percy, and it had seemed like a good idea – it wasn't healthy for him to just hole himself in his house. Since he'd been rescued, I don't think he'd left his house besides to go to school.

Since none of us had our licenses yet, Grover's older brother had agreed to drive us to the dance. I don't think he realized that my mom was going to want to take pictures – and not just one or two. We'd taken at least fifty.

Once Grover and I had been photographed from every possible angle with every backdrop imaginable, my mom finally let us go. We just had to pick up Percy, and then it was time for the dance.

Percy's mom answered the door as soon as we rang the doorbell. Call me crazy, but I think she was just as eager for her son to get out into the real world as we were. "Oh, you two look so nice," she said. She already had her camera in her hand.

When Grover asked me what my dress looked like, I hadn't thought anything of it. It was dark green and knee-length – I only had it because I'd worn it to a cousin's wedding last summer.

When I saw Percy wearing a dark green shirt, I had a feeling Grover had been planning something. That suspicion only increased when Percy revealed a small plastic box containing a corsage. "Grover picked it out," he mumbled to me, seeming clearly self-conscious.

"It looks nice," I said. I guess I felt equally awkward.

Percy's mom took another million photographs, but I noticed Grover stayed out of these. I started wondering if he'd planned this.

From the look on Percy's face when he glared at Grover, I think he was wondering the same thing too.

All things considered, the ride to the school wasn't half as awkward as it could have been.

"So is it true you're moving again?" Chris asked.

"Tomorrow." I prepared to give him the excuse I'd given everyone about there being too many memories of my mom here, but Chris didn't give me time to start.

"It's because of Luke, isn't it?" he said.

I sighed and just barely resisted the urge to rub my stomach. "I guess you could say that. There's just too much going on here."

"Call me crazy, but you don't seem like the kind of girl who runs away from her problems."

"I'm not really sure what kind of girl I am."

Chris didn't say anything else until we got to the school. We'd opted to show up late – after all, no one showed up right at eight.

"I'm sorry," he said, holding the door open and helping me out of the car. I don't think he knew how much I appreciated it – pregnancy and four inch heels didn't go well together. "I didn't mean to get all serious on you."

"It's fine," I said.

"Can I tell you something?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Back in middle school, I had the biggest crush on you. But, you know, you and Luke were so close that I just figured you were his."

I think Luke had always thought that, too. He just didn't realize it until he kissed me the day we graduated eighth grade. Then I'd gone home and Mom told me we were moving – our plane left that night.

"And now you're leaving again," Chris continued.

"There's a lot more to it than you think," I said. Like, two more people.

"I guess I don't care why you're leaving – I just want you to have a good time tonight, okay?" Chris asked, holding the door open for me.

All things considered, Chris wasn't a bad guy. He might have been a bit too sporty for my taste, but he listened to me when I talked, and he acted like the perfect gentleman. I should have been happy he'd asked me to the dance.

But when we walked into the gym, I felt my stomach flip at the sight of Luke dancing with a girl in a tight blue dress – even in the dark lighting, I'd be willing to bet she was Silena. Broken up – my ass. They were closer than ever.

Wait, my stomach was still doing the flipping thing. Doctor Zatari said I'd probably start feeling the babies kicking around 25 weeks, but it could start sooner.

Well, it was happening. "Oh God," I whispered as the weirdest feeling washed over me. For the first time, it really hit me – in 20 weeks, there would be two little babies out in the world.

My two little babies.

Chris slid an arm around my waist. "Are you okay?" he whispered, following my gaze to Luke and Silena. "We can go if you want to."

"No, I'm fine. Let's dance," I said, pulling him to center court. Balloons were scattered all over the floor, and cheesy decorations could be found all over the walls. The whole thing would have made me laugh – I couldn't believe I was at the Valentine's Day Dance.

Chris pulled me close as a slow song started. "I know you're probably not interested in any guy from Shallow Lake, but I was just thinking – wouldn't it be nice to make Luke jealous before you leave?"

I guess it made me mad watching him dance with Silena like nothing was wrong. "Yeah," I agreed, shooting Luke a glare. To my surprise, even though he was slow dancing with Silena, his gaze was right on me.

He probably did it just because I was watching, I told myself. Still, it didn't stop me from feeling incredibly pissed when Luke leaned over and kissed Silena.

Two could play at that game. In heels, Chris and I were the same height, so I just leaned forward, kissing him lightly. "I'm sorry," I told him. He didn't deserve to be caught in the middle of my fight with Luke. "You deserve to be here with a girl who really cares about you."

"I think I kind of messed it up with her," Chris told me.

"Really?"

"Yeah. I told her I don't date during basketball season, which is true. But I think I led her on up to that point," Chris said. "I don't want to offend you, but she was the first girl I asked, and she told me to get lost."

"She'll come around. You're a nice guy, Chris."

He kissed me again. I was nearly positive that meant Luke was watching.

A few seconds later, my suspicion was confirmed. Chris and I were ripped apart by a very angry Luke. "What the hell, Thalia?" he demanded.

"Lay off, Luke," Chris said, putting himself between Luke and I. If only he really knew what he was getting himself into the middle of.

"I'm leaving tomorrow. Can't you just leave me alone for one night?" I tried.

Luke wasn't backing down. "You're making out with him when you're-"

"Leave her alone," Chris said, putting a protective arm around my waist. "You wanna go?" he asked me.

I nodded. It wasn't until we got outside that I realized I was crying. "God, I'm such a loser," I said, brushing tears off my face.

"No, you're not," Chris said, holding the car door open for me. "Luke's just an ass."

"Yeah, well that just makes me more of a loser for loving him," I said.

Chris shook his head, starting the car. "Wanna just go somewhere and talk?" he asked.

"Sure."

We were on the outskirts of Shallow Lake when Chris tried talking to me again. "Hey, what was Luke going to say when he-"

I saw a flash of light on my right side, and a split second later, I heard the smashing of metal and glass.

Everything went black.

The only reason I'd come to the stupid dance was because Cyrus had to chaperone. Over the last few weeks, he'd been so busy getting kids ready for music festival that we hadn't had much time to spend together.

He'd also promised me that we could go out as soon as the dance was done.

Just like in years past, the gym had been transformed into a dance floor. Pink streamers and confetti hearts covered the area, and balloons were scattered around the floor just for good measure. I'd waited until about ten to show up, expecting a complete snore fest.

Cyrus was collecting money outside the gym. "You look amazing, Bianca," he told me as I handed him my admission fee. "I'm supposed to do this for another half hour, and then I'm free to go," he added quietly.

I couldn't wait.

Technically, Valentine's Day was still two days away, but this was all we were going to get with Cyrus' busy schedule. He'd promised me he had something big planned – I would find out in another half hour.

As always, the dance was geared towards couples. Every other song was slow, and those without dates were left to awkwardly stand against the wall. I did the math – if each song was three minutes, I had about ten to get through before I could leave.

Sometimes watching the couples dance wasn't the worst thing in the world – at least, it was remotely entertaining for the first few songs.

Grover's friend – the one who'd been abducted – was dancing with a blonde girl. They both looked equally awkward. Grover himself was dancing with one of the girls from jazz choir.

Luke and Silena were dancing together, even though I assumed they hadn't come together based on the fact that they didn't match and her wrist was lacking a corsage. I thought they'd broken up – at least, that's what Thalia had told me.

Speaking of Thalia, she had just showed up with…Chris Rodriguez? Three days ago, she'd told me she wasn't even coming to the dance. Now here she was with the star of the basketball team. I wondered if he knew she was pregnant.

Luke noticed Thalia the second she entered. It could have been my imagination, but it seemed like he danced just a bit closer to Silena after that. Between the way she was dancing and how skintight her dress was, I was just waiting for a seam to bust.

Another slow song started. I sensed drama coming when Chris pulled Thalia close.

Across the gym, Silena had her tongue down Luke's throat.

I looked back to Chris and Thalia. They were kissing, too.

What the fuck was going on? It didn't seem right, especially given the fact that she was pregnant. She was even starting to show. The dress did a good job hiding it, but once you knew it was, well, obvious.

Things really heated up when Luke stormed across the gym, leaving Silena completely dazed and confused. I couldn't hear what was being said when he broke Thalia and Chris apart, but let's just say he probably wasn't using happy words.

The fight hardly lasted a minute, and it ended with Thalia and Chris leaving. No one else seemed to notice – everyone was too caught up in their own personal love story tonight to care about anyone else's.

Speaking of personal love stories, it was about time to ditch the dance. Cyrus had told me to meet him in the music room, and I didn't want to be late.

I didn't know what to expect, but I guess I hoped he would have at least done something.

Flipping the lights on, I saw the music room just as it looked every other day. It was kind of eerie being in there all alone though. When Cyrus came through the door, I jumped.

"Relax. It's just me," he said, pulling a bottle of champagne out of a generic grocery bag. "You don't mind drinking, do you?"

I shook my head as Cyrus pulled champagne glasses out of the bag. It wasn't like I'd never gotten drunk before. "I'm supposed to go back at 12:30 to help clean up, but the other chaperones think I'm out buying cleaning supplies," he told me, handing me a glass of champagne.

"How'd you get stuck chaperoning, anyway?"

Cyrus shrugged, taking a drink. "It's a seniority thing, and I'm sitting pretty low on the totem pole right now." It was only his second year of teaching at Shallow Lake. "You know, it's been six weeks since I first kissed you."

"That doesn't count. You were drunk."

"Hung over," he corrected.

I tried not to roll my eyes. "So what are we doing tonight?"

"I'm glad you asked." Cyrus set his glass of champagne aside and pulled an iPod out of his pocket. He hit a button and a slow song began playing. "May I have this dance?" he asked.

"Of course," I said, letting him take my hand. I couldn't help but think how perfect it was – everyone else was in the gym, and here I was with my boyfriend. Okay, maybe the champagne was going to my head. I had drunk that one glass pretty fast.

Maybe that's why I didn't say anything when he started kissing my neck and slid one of my straps off my shoulder. "I love you, Bianca," he whispered in my ear.

At that moment, my phone began vibrating. A gut feeling told me I should answer it, but it was hard to focus with Cyrus expertly unlacing the back of my dress. "Just ignore it," I told Cyrus.

He grinned as he slid my dress off. "There's just me and you right now."

"You and me," I agreed.

I'm not going to give you all the details about how I lost my virginity to my high school music teacher. After all, some things are best kept personal. All I'll tell you is it really was that magic moment – the cliché one you always see in movies.

Maybe if I hadn't been so drunk at the time, I wouldn't have thought so.

Grover had set me up with Annabeth. The only problem was that she didn't seem to realize that.

We arrived at the dance around nine. Mom had given me money to pay for the three of us. However, Grover disappeared as soon as we entered the gym.

I'd been to middle school dances before – the hippie boarding school I'd gone to had practically had them every other week. However, this was the first time I'd actually had a date. This was the first time I'd have to dance to the awkward slow songs.

Annabeth seemed to feel just as out of place as I did. As soon as the first few notes of Fall For You started playing, she looked at me. "Are we…you know…?"

"I guess we should dance together," I agreed.

It was awkward the first few dances, and neither of us said much. "How are you holding up?" Annabeth finally asked me.

I realized she was talking about Mrs. M. After all, that was the reason she'd given for wanting me to go to the dance. "I'm fine," I told her. "What about you?"

"My feet are killing me," she confessed. "I'm going to go stash my shoes in my locker. Want to go get us punch or something?"

I decided that she could have used the opportunity to ditch me, but she hadn't. That had to count for something. "Yeah, sure."

As soon as Annabeth left, Grover appeared out of nowhere. "How's it going?" he asked me.

"Fine, I guess. Where have you been?"

"Dancing with a couple girls from jazz choir. And you guess?"

"I don't know. It's awkward," I admitted.

"You like her, don't you?" Grover asked.

"I…yeah, I guess so."

"Then tell her."

Grover disappeared right before Annabeth returned. Without her heels, I was a few inches taller than her. I guess it made the slow dancing feel slightly more normal, but Grover's words kept ringing in my head.

"I, um, Annabeth, can I tell you something?"

"Yeah, sure," she said.

"I think, you know, I like you." Unfortunately, right as I spit out the second half of my sentence, the music switched from slow to a pounding rap song.

"What?" she shouted. I could hardly hear her, even though she was right next to me.

"Never mind," I shouted back. I doubted I'd have the nerve to tell her twice in one night.

Even though Luke hadn't been willing to go to the Valentine's Day Dance with me as my date, he sure didn't mind dancing with me once we were both there.

I tried not to think about how it was probably just because he wanted to make Thalia jealous. Speaking of Thalia, she'd shown up with Chris Rodriguez – Luke's former best friend. I'd known Clarisse had turned him down when he asked her, but it seemed like a low blow to bring Thalia.

It became harder to fight the suspicion that he was just using me when he kissed me. I looked over my shoulder and saw Chris and Thalia were doing the exact thing. Clarisse would love to hear about that tomorrow.

Once he abruptly dumped me to go talk to Thalia, there was no doubt about it.

And as much as I knew I should have been mad at him, I was just jealous of her. Of the way she captured his attention without trying, of the way she could have him if she really wanted.

Chris and Thalia left, but Luke came back to me. He wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me close for another slow dance. The expression on his face clearly said he didn't want to talk about it.

"What was that all about?" I asked.

"She's a bitch," he said flatly. I wished he actually thought that.

After about half an hour, I felt his phone vibrate against my leg. "Don't answer it," I told him.

He ignored me and answered it without bothering to check who it was. "Chris?" he asked. "No, I…what? You're fucking kidding me."

"What's going on?" I asked.

Luke pretended not to hear me. "Yeah, okay. But listen, Chris…you have to make sure the doctor knows she's pregnant."

"What the hell is going on, Luke?" I demanded as he hung up and slid his phone into his pocket. "Were you just talking about Thalia?"

"I have to go," he said. It was the only explanation he gave before brushing past me, practically running out of the gym.

God, I hated Luke.

But at the same time, I was pretty sure I loved him.