Chapter 24

I wasn't in the best of moods when I walked into the school the next morning. My head hurt from lack of sleep, since all I could think about was Embry, and I was pretty confident about screwing up my History test because I hadn't studied anything.

The moment I reached my locker, I noticed that there was a lot of pink around me. Confused, I glanced around and saw the source of the color. Bright pink fliers were taped to a lot of lockers, and I saw many people holding copies, looking excited. There were similar fliers littering the floor that nobody had bothered to pick up.

"Seen this yet?" a voice asked behind me, and I turned around to see Kim. She was holding the same flier, looking excited. 'Everyone's talking about it!"

"What is it?" I asked taking the one in her hands and looking at it.

"There's a dance this Saturday! Oh my god, I'm totally going to get Jared to go with me!" Kim said. "What about you?"

I shrugged, not really feeling her excitement. I'd never been to a school dance, because I'd never really had anyone to go with. Most guys stayed away from me on account of Jake, Quil and Embry, and all three of them would much rather spend the night with broken car parts.

"I don't know." I said. "I don't usually go to dances."

"But you should! Come on, Paul's planning on going too, and I'm sure Collin, Brady and Seth would come. We can have a blast if you bring Embry."

"I can't bring Embry." I said bitterly. "We're just friends."

"Oh." Kim said, her face falling a little. "I forgot. You guys aren't together yet."

"Nope." I said. "Not yet."

"Never mind." She said, with a shrug. "But it would be awesome if you could come. Just think about it. We could even go shopping together, to get dresses!"

"I'll think about it." I promised her, and she smiled before walking away.

Suddenly a dance didn't seem all that bad.

I think it was around 3rd period that I actually started considering it. By 4th period, I was starting to think it was a great idea. And by lunch…. Well, there was just a matter of gathering the guts to actually do it.

"So, who's planning on going to the dance?" Paul asked when we all sat down for lunch. Embry hadn't spoken to me all day, and he was still avoiding my gaze, acting awkward about last night.

"I'm going." Seth said. "I managed to get Mia Carter to go with me!"

'No way, man!" Brady cried, looking impressed. "She's a babe. I can't believe she would go out with you."

"Apparently she likes the muscles I've grown." Seth said, looking proud of himself. "Who said that being a werewolf didn't have its advantages?"

"Shut up Seth." Jared snapped. "Apparently me and Kim are going." He said, shooting her a pleading look. "Do we have to, babe?"

"Yeah!" Kim said, smiling. "It'll be fun."

"Sure it will." Jared said, sounding fakely enthusiastic. "But Sam's going to be pissed off if everyone's going to the dance. There won't be anyone on patrol. You know, with Quil in hospital and Jake totally depressed…"

"I'll patrol." Embry said, with a shrug. "Nothing better to do, anyway."

I glanced at him, and our eyes met, but he looked away. I couldn't help but feel hurt. Why was he being so annoying today?

"But you can't do it alone." Paul said. "Who knows where Jake is?"

"I saw him last night." I offered. "He seemed okay. Kind of down, but okay."

"Of course he's down." Jared said. "What with that bitch going and marrying Cullen…. Damn, all those bloodsuckers are the same. Total assholes."

Seth looked like he was going to put in something in defense of the vampires, but he was cut off by the bell. Everyone got up quickly, and I quickly went over to Embry before he could leave and ignore me again.

"Can I talk to you?" I asked quietly. He looked a little worried, but nodded, and hung around until everyone had left the table except us.

"Want me to walk you to class?" He asked, looking a little uncomfortable. "I've got History, its right beside your Bio class, right?"

"Yeah. That would be nice." I said, and we started to walk out of the cafeteria together.

"So, what's up?" He asked.

"I was wondering if you wanted to go to the dance." I said. I was feeling pretty nervous, but I managed not to show it.

Embry didn't really seem surprised.

"You want to go?" He asked. "Are you sure, Cherry? Somehow, I don't think spending the night watching Kim and Jared make out, or Collin, Seth and Brady ogle girls is my idea of fun."

"Not with them." I said. "I was wondering if you wanted to go with me."

"With you?" he asked his expression changing suddenly. "Like a…." He closed his mouth abruptly, like he was afraid to say the word.

"Like a date, yeah." I finished for him.

"Oh." He said.

Somehow, I didn't find that very encouraging.

"It's okay if you don't want to." I said, a little quickly. But Embry was already turning a little red.

"No." he said quickly. "No, I want to."

"Great." I said with a smile, as we reached my class. He returned the smile, and I realized that me asking him out had just fixed all the awkwardness that had been between us. "I'll see you later?"

"Sure. You need a ride home?"

"I was going to catch Quil at the hospital after school." I explained. "Because I didn't get to talk to him yesterday."

"We can go together." He said.

"Okay."

I turned to leave, but Embry stopped me by taking my hand in his. I turned to see if he was going to say something, but he just squeezed my hand gently once, and left.

I couldn't help but smile.

Yes!

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