Page 2 of VOGUEish

“In a perfect world,” he said. “I’d have a silk handkerchief to offer the damsel in distress. Unfortunately, it’s in the pocket of my jacket that I ditched right after giving my best man’s speech.”

“I learned a long time ago, we don’t live in a perfect world.” She’d learned that particular lesson the first time Mom had tried to end her life.

“I’m going to be honest with you… Young ladies in pain are not my strength.”

“It’s okay. You can leave.” She watched his foot, waiting for it to move. “It was nice of you to check on me.”

“I saw you were wearing a tiara. Does that mean you were crowned prom queen? Was your date not crowned king? Is that what the tears are about?”

She reached up and ripped the tiara off her head and did her best to snap it in half…only it wouldn’t break. A drop of blood drawn from one of its pointy tips formed on her index finger and splashed onto her silk gown.Fuck.Now she wouldn’t be able to resell it. “Please go away. I just want to be alone.”

“I can’t just walk away from a child in distress.”

Child? Does he see me as a kid?She sighed.Of course he sees me as a kid. I’m crying. Kids cry; adults don’t.

“And if I’m being honest,” he continued. “There’s a woman in my life who would set my hair on fire if she ever discovered I did such a thing.”

Isabella leaned against the wall and picked at one of the pink flowers embroidered on her black floor-length gown. “That would be harsh.”

“Not that this is any of my business, but I couldn’t help but hear someone mocking you over a picture request. Want to tell me what that was about?”

Heat flooded her cheeks. “If I won prom queen, I was supposed to send a dick pic to the popular girls’ text group. It was to be my final initiation to become one of them. First, prom queen. Second, turn in a prom night dick pic by midnight—you know, because everyone sleeps with someone on prom night. Third, become overnight popular.”

He muttered something she couldn’t quite understand. “At the risk of sounding stodgy—“

Stodgy?With a vocabulary like that, no wonder he saw her as a child.

“I don’t recommend doing that,” he said. “It could go wrong in so many ways. Legal ways.”

Her classmates would scoff if she used that as an excuse not to send them one. It would be enough to justify their continued bullying. “I’ve never even had a boyfriend.”And there it was… One more pathetic thing I could and did say that would help him understand the level of loser he had happened upon.“So, unless you want to give me a dick pic out of the kindness of your heart, you don’t have to worry about me breaking any laws tonight.” Not quite true. She had acquired one—via the web—before arriving at the dance. Granted, hers was courtesy of an underwear ad and thus clothed.

“Listen, before I came to check on you, I texted my Nonna, and she’s—“

A commotion cut off his words.

Isabella tensed. Was it her haters? Had they found her hiding spot? Would he allow them—

“Thank God you hadn’t already left,” her pillar said emphatically to someone.

Isabella relaxed. Not her haters.

“I owe you. Big time,” her pillar said to the mysterious person who’d joined him in the hallway.

“That, you do. Now, you stay right here and don’t allow anyone to enter.” The command was spoken in a strong female voice. Not a young voice, but an elderly one.

Isabella unlocked the stall door and pushed it open, prepared to tell the intruder to go away. The demand died on her lips as she stared instead in fashion-awe at a woman wearing a to-die-for formal gown that she’d paired with this season’s crystal-covered Jimmy Choo pumps.

She glided toward Isabella and held out her arms. “Come here, my child.”

Isabella was about to cave and comply when her phone dinged twice. She allowed the door to swing shut. One was a text wanting to know if that had been Isabella’s supposed date, aka her cousin, that she’d left with. The other taunted her yet again to not forget the dick pic. Pressure built in her chest. They were relentless. How would she ever be able to face them come Monday? She couldn’t. Unless…

She pushed every ounce of common sense she had ever possessed away and opened the popular girl group chat. The one she’d been given access to just this evening when the rumor started circulating that Isabella might win prom queen. Not giving herself a chance to overthink her decision, she uploaded her make-do dick pic and added a message.

Yes, that was my guy at the door, and he’s much too classy to want a dick pic being passed around to a group of minors. This is as good as you’re going to get. - Isabella

She hit send before she could change her mind and then opened the stall door again and gave the woman her attention. “I’m not the huggy type.”

Total lie. She absolutely wanted to be wrapped up in a hug that smelled like expensive perfume, but she didn’t know this woman.

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