Chapter 19: Dancing in the Dark

Riley

When I was five-years-old, my mother decided that she wanted to sign me up for dance classes at the studio down the street from our apartment. Due to the obvious problem I had with tripping over my own two feet, I wasn't very good. The dance teacher stuck me in the back row and told me to blend in with the rest of the girls, but I never minded because I was too terrified of making a fool of myself. On the day of our first recital, I was so nervous that I begged my parents not to make me go on stage. "I don't want to embarrass myself," I said. My dad got down to my eye-level, put both his hands on my shoulders and whispered in my ear so that only I could hear him, "You are Riley Matthews. You might not have the best shuffle-ball-change in the class, but you have the biggest heart of all the girls on that stage. That shines brighter than anyone with talent. So go out there, smile that beautiful, bright smile of yours, and show them your heart." So I did. And I was terrible. But I never regretted it because it was something I needed to do to prove to myself that I could. Despite the inner voice inside screaming at me not to do it, I did it anyway because I knew it would make me a better person somehow.

As I stood in front of the full-length mirror in my bedroom, I smoothed down my champagne-colored lace dress and tried to choke down those same nerves I felt before stepping onto that stage when I was a little girl. Jensen would arrive any moment, and it took everything I had not to drop my eyeliner and run into my closet to hide for the rest of the evening. The plan that Lucas and I had formulated the night before played on a loop in my head as I applied the finishing touches to my makeup. I glanced down at the time and my stomach did a nervous flip as realization that this was actually about to happen set in.

"You're doing this for Lucas," I whispered to myself, staring intently at the scared girl in the mirror and taking a deep breath. "You're doing this for yourself."

The knock on my bedroom door caused me to jump out of my skin, making me smack the vanity with my elbow and wince in response.

"Come in," I shouted, picking up my rose-colored lipstick and quickly applying it to my lips to make myself look busy.

"Wow."

I met my father's eyes in the mirror. He was looking at me the way fathers look at their daughters about to walk down the aisle on their wedding day. Like I was all grown up, ready to embark on a new journey in my life and he was the one about to let me go.

"What do you think?" I turned around to show him the full look, and raised my eyebrows at him expectantly. "Is it okay?"

"You, uh, um," He fumbled for words, but all that came out was a jumbled mess of nonsense.

"Honey, you look so beautiful." My mother emerged in the doorway, circling around my father to place a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "That date of yours is pretty lucky. What do you think, Cory?"

"Yeah, what she said," my father agreed, but then stopped short as he realized what he was agreeing on. "Wait, a minute. Topanga, are we sure we're going to let our baby girl go to a high school dance with someone we've never met before? Is that good parenting? Because it sounds like really bad parenting."

"Dad, you're going to meet him in just a few minutes," I assured him, grabbing my gold clutch from my nightstand and heading over to the bedroom door. "Besides, he's... he's a good guy."

I had never lied to my parents before. It felt odd, like it was the wrong piece to a puzzle that didn't quite fit. I knew what kind of guy Jensen was, and it was the farthest thing from "good." So why did I lie to them?

"Relax, Cory," my mother rubbed the back of my dad's arm reassuringly as we made our way into the living room. "I trust our daughter. If she says he's a good guy, then I believe her."

I swallowed hard. I hated this. I hated lying to them. But it would all be over in a few hours. It had to be over in a few hours.

"Yeah, I trust her too," my dad's expression softened only slightly before he turned to my brother with his eyes blazing. "Auggie, bring me my interrogation lamp and lie detector."

"Dad," I protested, shaking my head at Auggie and leaning against the arm of the couch.

My heart nearly jumped out of my chest at the sound of the knocker hitting the large mahogany door, the sound echoing throughout the apartment.

"Okay, he's here," I announced, standing abruptly and ramming my fingernails into the fabric of my clutch.

"Topanga, he's punctual," Cory pointed out, scrunching up his nose in disgust. "That's fishy to me. What teenage boy actually arrives on time nowadays?"

Ignoring my father, I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and swung open the door.

"Your parents are nice," Jensen announced.

He turned his head to smile at me as he adjusted his tie and leaned back into his seat. We were in Jensen's private car on our way to the school, and I still felt as though I was going to jump out of my skin at any given moment. It didn't help that we were stuck in traffic, making it almost impossible for me to hide the fact that my heart was one beat away from jumping out of my chest.

"They're embarrassing," I muttered, fidgeting uncomfortably in my seat. "Oh and sorry about my dad threatening to "try out his wrestling moves" on you if you so much as breathed on me the wrong way. That brought on a whole new level of humiliation that I didn't think was possible."

"No, it's cool," Jensen smiled, nudging me softly with his elbow so that I would meet his gaze. "They care about you. It must be nice to have family that would get so riled up trying to protect you."

As he said this, I noticed that there was a sadness in his eyes that I hadn't seen before. It was almost as if he truly couldn't comprehend what it was like to have parents who cared the way mine did. He had the best clothes, best car, best everything. But he didn't have parents who would interrogate the girl he was going on a date with to see if she was good enough for him.

"I guess. But they go too far sometimes," I explained, starting to feel a little more at ease being alone in the car with him. Lucas had insisted that we take the subway or any other form of transportation that wouldn't leave me alone with the guy we were trying to expose as a liar, but I told him that Jensen would never go for that. He couldn't live without his private car and driver.

"Yeah, my parents know a little bit about going too far," he mumbled, his expression going dark and his eyes drifting to the back of the headrest.

There was a moment of silence in which neither of us knew what to say next. I knew what he was talking about when he said that his parents "went too far," but I couldn't let him know that I knew that. I had to follow the plan. So I changed the subject.

"So, are you excited about seeing all your old friends?" I asked cautiously, curious to see if this would trigger anything in him.

"Yeah," he smiled tightly, trying much too hard to sound enthusiastic. "It should be great. They used to love me there, you know. I was a king!"

It was as if Jensen was doing everything he could to convince himself of this, instead of trying to convince me.

"And now there's a new king," I met his eyes, fully aware that that this could cause him to snap at any moment. "Lucas Friar."

I could see that he was clenching his fists and grinding his teeth together, his best attempt at reigning in his anger. I knew what kind of guy Jensen was now, but there was still part of me that believed he was good. There was still part of me that believed that he didn't want to hurt me in any way. But I couldn't say the same for the way he felt about Lucas.

"Lucas deserves everything he's gotten," Jensen muttered through clenched teeth. "And everything that's coming his way."

A cold chill ran down my spine. I was afraid for Lucas. Genuinely, bone-chillingly afraid. I didn't know what I would do if something were to happen to him. That's why this plan had to work.

"Riley Matthews, did I tell you how beautiful you look this evening?" Jensen smiled that classic sly smile of his and turned in his seat to place a hand on my knee. "All the other girls will be jealous. All the guys will wish they were me. But hey - what's new about that?"

The car finally stopped moving, and the driver cut the engine. I sighed in relief as I peeked out the window to see the high school, with it's front entrance draped in festive streamers and balloons, sitting right in front of us.

"I think we're here," I announced, scooting to the edge of my seat, ready to fling myself out of the car and make my way inside the crowded building.

"Excellent," Jensen rubbed his hands together and hopped out of the car. He turned and held out his hand for me to take it. Reluctantly, I placed my hand in his and stepped out of the car. "Let's get this party started."

"Maya, you're here!" I shuffled my feet as quickly as I could move in this dress, and made my way over to where Maya was sitting next to the DJ booth in the gymnasium."You look amazing!"

She quickly stood and took my hand, spinning me around and staring at me with wide eyes.

"I look amazing," she scoffed, shaking her head in complete awe. "Riley, you look like a princess! I didn't know that dresses could look that good on another human being. Totally not fair."

"Told you, Matthews," Jensen stepped around me to join the conversation, and Maya raised one skeptical eyebrow at him. "Jealous."

Maya narrowed her eyes, making no effort to hide the less-than-pleasant feelings she had about him.

"Jensen, this is my best friend, Maya," I quickly poked Maya in the side to snap her out of the trance she had fallen into. "Maya, this is Jensen Haynes. Merritt's brother."

"You're the spunky girl who was always begging Coach Morris for an interview last year," Jensen pointed one finger at her and nodded as the memory came back to him.

"You're the spoiled delinquent trying to take advantage of my friend," Maya glared at him, placing her hands on her hips in defiance. "I don't like you."

"Maya!" I protested, and quickly turned to apologize to Jensen. "Excuse her, she has no filter."

Remind me to thank you later, Maya.

"She tells it like it is," Jensen shrugged, his lips curling into a small smile. "We need more of that around here. If people would just tell the truth, there wouldn't be any reason to lie or deceive. Everything would play out exactly how it was supposed to - no one would get hurt."

"Right," Maya widened her eyes at me and shook her head quickly. "Well this conversation is getting entirely too uncomfortable. I'm going to find Farkle. And snacks."

"Tell him to come find me later. I want to meet Isadora," I told her as she turned to walk to the other side of the gym.

"Oh she's awesome," Maya assured me, and then turned her attention to Jensen and smirked. "Farkle found himself an awesome date."

"Sorry about her," I muttered, shifting my attention back to Jensen and smiling apologetically.

"Again, she's just being protective," Jensen met my smile and placed a hand on my shoulder. "You have a lot of people who love you Riley Matthews."

Timing is a funny thing. There's good timing, like when you reach for that glass sitting precariously on the edge of the table, just before it makes it's fatal dive to the hardwood floor. There's bad timing, like when you get to your bus stop a second too late, and you're forced to watch the bus that was going to get you to work just in time, pull away without you. And then there's the kind of timing that you know had to be the work of fate. It was too perfect, too unbelievable to be anything but. That's the kind of timing that's rare, but when you get it - you know that it's like magic.

Just as Jensen finished speaking, Lucas emerged at the entrance to the gymnasium. He looked flushed, like he had left in a hurry to get here. He didn't even have to search amongst the crowd of dancing classmates to find me; it was like his eyes were automatically drawn to mine. If I still needed a sign telling me how I felt about Lucas Friar - this was it. That timing - that magical, rare timing that made my heart flutter in my chest, said it all.

"Yeah," I breathed, never taking my eyes off Lucas. "I do."

"Lucas, I didn't think you were coming in until later," I pulled him into the women's bathroom, and stuck a trashcan in front of the door so no one else could come inside. His eyes remained locked on mine, taking in my long lace dress and more-than-just-a-stitch, makeup.

"My god, you're beautiful," he whispered, shaking his head, completely mesmerized.

"Lucas," I snapped, swatting his arm to pull him back to reality.

"Sorry," he muttered. "Uh - Merritt basically threatened to cut off my left ear if I didn't show up for the crowning of king and queen so I decided I shouldn't risk it and come inside. Plus it gave me an excuse to check in on you two."

"What about the plan?"

"The plan is still happening," Lucas assured me, leaning against the counter and crossing his arms over his chest. "In thirty minutes, you'll lure Jensen out into the hallway where he saw my dad and his mom on the night of the lacrosse championships."

"Right, and I'll get him talking about his parents and what happened that night," I recited the steps that we had practiced over and over again the night before, and Lucas nodded in agreement. "I think he'll talk about it. He trusts me."

"That's what scares me," Lucas mumbled under his breath. "Anyway, you'll have your phone on you, recording every word that he's saying."

"Then you'll come out, and we'll get Jensen to admit that he's been lying to everyone for months about Jessica's death and your parents and the reason he got kicked out of school," I continued, hoping that I wasn't forgetting anything.

"Yeah, and hopefully he'll give us a reason that actually makes sense," Lucas finished, as he nervously chewed at his fingernails.

After a moment of silence, Lucas shook his head at me, and then pushed himself off the counter to pace back and forth in front of one of the stalls. "This is so stupid. We don't even know if Jensen's still planning on doing anything else. So what if he plans on taking back everything he claimed I stole from him? I don't want it anymore. Let him do what he wants. There's nothing else he could do to me that will affect me anymore."

"It's not about that, Lucas," I reminded him, taking a few steps toward him to place a hand on his shoulder. "It's about exposing the truth. And hopefully getting Jensen the help that he needs."

"I just don't want you to get hurt," Lucas placed a hand on my cheek and I leaned into it.

"I'm fine," I smiled reassuringly at him and gestured to my bag. "I've got pepper spray in my fancy gold clutch here that does the trick quite nicely."

"Since when do you carry pepper spray?" Lucas tipped my purse to the side to see what was inside and furrowed his brows in disapproval. I thought that he would find the fact that I had brought pepper spray to a high school dance amusing, but he mostly looked concerned.

"Uh - we live in New York, Lucas. You never know what kind of people-" I scrambled to explain myself, but he cut me off by nudging me lightly in the arm.

"Riley," Lucas frowned, and I sighed as I prepared to explain myself.

"A few weeks ago - the night of your brother's accident actually - some guys cornered me in an alley and basically warned me..." I trailed off, unsure of how to finish that sentence.

"Warned you? Warned you about what?"

"They warned me to stay away from you," I finished, hesitant to meet his eyes.

"He's unbelievable," Lucas spat, his voice rising to a volume that I hadn't heard from him before. "I can't believe he would send those guys to threaten you after I told him I would do what he wanted me to do. I told him not to come near you."

"Who? Jensen?" I asked, hoping that keeping my voice calm would prompt Lucas to do the same. "Lucas, what are you talking about?"

"He's gone too far," Lucas announced, pushing past me to place a hand on the door handle. "This ends tonight. All of it. He's gone too long thinking he's some demigod allowed to do whatever the hell he wants and hurt whoever he pleases. Well it's over. Jensen Haynes is done hurting me. He's done hurting my family - And he's done hurting the people I love."

Just as Lucas and I had planned, I told Jensen that I wouldn't mind taking a walk to get some air. Like we had anticipated, Jensen had insisted that he come with me. He and I started down the path towards the hallway that Lucas' dad and Jensen's mom shared the infamous kiss that essentially set this whole nightmare in motion.

"You know, you never told me why you left," I began, hoping that my voice didn't sound as shaky as I felt on the inside.

"I thought everyone knew," he scoffed, shoving his hands in his jacket pockets and glancing at me sideways. "Jensen Haynes: lacrosse hero turned delinquent screw-up. It was all anyone could talk about for awhile there."

"You don't seem to be upset about it," I pointed out. "You were forced to leave the life you had been building for three years. That couldn't have been easy. And not to mention the terrible accident where you lost-"

"Don't mention Jessica," Jensen snapped so abruptly that I had to take a step backwards to steady myself. "Don't go there."

There it is. There's the trigger.

"Sorry," I mumbled, tucking my hair behind my ears and trying a different approach. "I'm just saying that your life was turned upside down. Like you said earlier tonight - you were a king. And to lose all of that? It had to be hard."

"I'm used to being the one who messes up," Jensen shrugged. "My parents are used to it. They wouldn't expect anything less than me stealing a school bus and getting drunk somewhere outside the city. It's typical Jensen. It's expected."

I led Jensen to the right, and we were suddenly in the hallway that we needed to be in. I took a deep breath, and began the conversation that could change everything.

"Do you get along with your parents?" I asked cautiously, adjusting my phone in my purse to make sure that it was picking up everything that he was saying.

"No," Jensen said almost too quickly. "They've never done anything to show that they've cared about me, other than give me whatever I wanted. And I know how that sounds - like a spoiled rich kid sad that he didn't get the right kind of car for his 16th birthday. But it's so much more than that."

"You wanted to show them that you were worth something," I mumbled, finishing his thought for him.

"But then I went and got thrown out of school, didn't I?"

Jensen looked up suddenly, as he was just now realizing where we were. I could see the recognition wash over his face almost immediately.

"My parents are hypocrites you know," Jensen snarled, banging his fist against one of the lockers so that the sound echoed throughout the hall. "They preach to me about making good choices and following a path that's straight and narrow or some bull crap like that. But they're worse than I am. There are so many other people who are worse than I am... Anyway, that doesn't matter anymore. I have a feeling that we'll be seeing eye-to-eye very soon."

And that's when I realized - Jensen wanted his parents to see how much worse Lucas could be compared to how Jensen had ever been. When the time came, he was going to reveal that Lucas was responsible for Jessica's death. He had it in his mind that showing the world how terrible Lucas Friar was, would give his mother a reason to stay with their family.

"Jensen, you and Lucas Friar..."

I trailed off as the two guys that appeared at the end of the hallway caught my eye. Jensen looked up to meet their gaze, and I knew immediately that they were the two who had cornered me in that alleyway the night of Holden Friar's accident.

"Jensen," one of them addressed him, his voice low and deep. "Everything's set up."

Jensen quickly turned to me, rubbing the back of his neck nervously and placing a shaky hand on my shoulder.

"Riley, there's something I have to take care of," Jensen explained, his voice sounding much-too-apologetic. "Why don't you go back inside, talk with your friends. I'll be right back."

"Wait, where are you going?" I asked urgently, reaching out to tug at his arm in an effort to get him to stay. We weren't done with the plan. Lucas still had to -

Where was Lucas?

"Something I've been waiting to do for a long time," Lucas said coldly, already turning away from me to head towards his friends. "I'll be back, I promise!"

I had a terrible feeling. Whatever Jensen was about to do, it wasn't good. And the fact that I couldn't find Lucas anywhere made the nerves I had felt at the start of the evening seem like nothing compared to how I was feeling in that moment.

"Have you seen Lucas?" I frantically tugged at Maya's dress, meeting her in the middle of the dance floor as she moved along to the beat with Farkle and Isadora.

"No, he disappeared a while ago," she explained, holding out a plate in front of my face and smiling widely. "Hey have you tried this cake? It's the best thing I've ever tasted in my entire life."

"I have to find him," I ignored her, searching the crowd for Lucas. I would have given anything to feel that pull towards him that I felt when he arrived in the gym earlier. I would have given anything to experience that rare, magical timing again. But all I felt was fear as the search for Lucas came up short.

"What's going on? You seem spooked," Maya pointed out, swaying her hips to the music and licking the icing from the cake off of her fork. "Doesn't she seem spooked?"

"There is a spook-like twinkle in your eye," Isadora pointed out, and Farkle nodded in agreement.

"Do you remember where he disappeared to?" I asked, my eyes pleading with them.

"Probably to get ready for his big debut as homecoming king or -" Maya joked, but I grabbed her arm out of desperation, my eyes starting to fill with worried tears.

"Maya!" I snapped, my voice coming off much louder than I had intended it to.

"Whoa," Farkle muttered from behind us.

"I just need to know where he went, okay?" I quickly explained myself, trying to keep my voice as calm as possible.

"He was headed into the courtyard about thirty minutes ago," Maya explained, her eyebrows knitting together as recognition settled into her eyes. "Wait, didn't we have a very similar conversation to this one just a few weeks ago?"

"Yes," I shouted, already taking a few steps backwards to head out of the gymnasium. "And it didn't end well."

"Lucas!" I called, as I barged through the doors to the courtyard. "Lucas are you out here?"

I searched behind bushes, the brick wall, trees - every nook and cranny that I could crawl behind. But the courtyard wasn't very big. And Lucas wasn't here. I was about to give up when I heard a booming voice from behind me.

"Riley."

I spun around to see Jensen, with his hands placed firmly behind his back and his expression blank, taking slow, even steps towards me. He didn't look surprised to see me there. In fact, he looked as though he expected it.

"Uh, Jensen," I fumbled to explain myself. "Um. They're looking for Lucas in the gym - something about announcing king and queen soon. Have you seen him?"

Jensen came around one of the picnic tables to stand under the streetlamp at the entrance to the alleyway leading out of the courtyard. The light shining down on him exposed a menacing quality to his look that I hadn't seen before and a cold chill ran down my spine.

"Did you know that I was homecoming king last year?" Jensen asked, placing a steady hand on the base of the lamp and looking up at the moths fluttering above him as they struggled to reach the light. "It wasn't even a contest, really. I won in a landslide. See, people loved me here, Riley."

Jensen took one step closer to me, and I took one step back, terrified of the crazed look he had in his eyes.

"What most people don't realize is that they need someone like me in high school. Someone to be the hero; someone to look up to and strive to become," Jensen explained, wringing his hands together in front of his chest. "They need a leader. They need me. Not Lucas Friar. My mom needs my father. Not Lucas' dad. I needed to show them that. I needed to show you that."

"Jensen, where is Lucas?" My voice shook as I struggled to steady my nerves. As we stepped out from under the streetlamp, it suddenly became so dark that I had to reach out for a nearby tree to hold onto so I wouldn't trip.

"You know, I was hoping that for once someone would be on my side instead of the great almighty Lucas Friar's. I thought that would be you, Riley. But I was wrong," Jensen confessed. "And you know, I knew it the entire time. I wanted to show you want kind of guy Lucas was, but you never gave me the chance. So I guess I'll show you now."

The brick wall to the left side of the building suddenly came to life with a projection of a lake. It looked like it was shot from a nearby security camera on the hill and I furrowed my brows in confusion.

"What is this, Jensen?"

"This is what I'm going to show my parents, Lucas' parents, the school, to convince them that Lucas Friar doesn't deserve my life," Jensen hissed, gesturing to the projection with one hand. "I mean I went as far as getting kicked out of this school and enrolling in Delinquent Academy to prove that to everyone."

"Why?"

"I needed the surveillance footage of the lake behind Jessica's house," Jensen explained. "And there was only one person that I knew of who could get it for me. And he was a student at Dalton Academy."

"That's all?" I scoffed, starting to feel thoroughly unimpressed with his 'evil plan.' "You went through all of that to get a tape? A tape of footage that will prove that you're the one who made Jessica fall into the water, not Lucas?"

"Look at the time stamp," Jensen smirked, pointing to the corner of the projected image.

"November 16th," I muttered as I leaned forward to read what he was gesturing towards. "That's today's date."

"So she is as smart as they say she is!" Jensen exclaimed, clapping his hands together and smiling widely. "If I can't prove that Lucas is the person I say he is with the old footage, we're going to create some new footage."

"What?" My blood ran cold as the possibility of what this would entail ran through my mind.

"Let's go see your boyfriend, Matthews."

With that, Jensen's friends from the hallway came at me from both sides to place a blindfold over my eyes. What came next was darkness. And then movement. And that same fear I felt as a little girl before stepping onto the stage. But this time, my father wasn't there to give me the courage I needed to push through the fear. So it lingered. And I shut my eyes, even though it was already dark, because I was afraid of what I would see when I opened them.