Page 32 of Something in Between

Somehow, the magic of the moment is gone, and everything goes back to black-and-white after being in Technicolor. Because one of the boys with the group, the one with his bow tie untied and his collar open, giving him a bit of a rakish air, the one who looks a little like Royce, except he’s handsome in a too-pretty kind of way, like his lips are too full and his hair is too bouncy—you feel me?—isn’t happy that Royce is trying to leave. He laughs and slaps Royce on the back. “This is the girl? You surprise me, Roycey. She’s not your usual type.”

My cheeks start to burn. What does that mean, I’m not his usual type? I’m not Caucasian? Blonde? Rich?

“Shut up, Mason. She’s one of the honorees. You’re probably not half as smart as her—and we all know you’re definitely not as good-looking,” says Royce, in a teasing voice, although his eyes are stormy.

The other boys clap and hiss at Mason, mussing up his hair and pushing him around. “He told you,” one of them says, letting out a low whistle.

I stand there awkwardly, annoyed and humiliated. Maybe I should just excuse myself and go upstairs to my room. It’s going to be a busy weekend anyway. I don’t want to miss the tour of the Capitol in the morning. I have more self-respect than to spend one of the most important nights of my life being insulted by some spoiled rich kids. This is exactly why I didn’t want to meet up with Royce in LA. I didn’t want to see how truly different he was from me, and I didn’t want to meet his friends in case they were like this.

“Don’t you guys have an after-party to crash?” Royce asks, looking bored.

“All right, all right. I get the picture. You want us to leave you alone. Although you still haven’t introduced us,” the rude boy says.

Royce’s voice is steely. “Jasmine, this is my brother, Mason. Mason, this is Jasmine.”

His brother!Great, just great. But I hold out my hand to Mason. I’ll be the bigger person. “Nice to meet you.”

Mason takes my hand, and his palm is sweaty. Ick. “My little brother doesn’t usually go after the smart girls. Hey, if you get bored of him, give me a call, will you?” he says, winking at Royce and patting him on the shoulder again. “I’ll see you in the morning, dude. Breakfast with Mom and Dad. That is, if you don’t have too late a night, huh?” He leers.

The guys follow Mason, laughing and joking boisterously as they leave the hotel. Royce looks down at his shoes. “I’m sorry about that.”

I shrug. “Like you said, they’re notyourfriends.”

He looks up at me and smiles. It’s like we understand each other. “I thought about taking you to dinner, but then I realized I met you at dinner and we both ateallof our chicken. So...”

I smile. “What do you have in mind?”

Royce seems nervous all of a sudden. He shakes out the sleeves on his jacket so they cover his wrists. “It probably doesn’t sound very fun, especially since it’s your first night in Washington, but I thought maybe we could just hang out on the roof. There’s a great view up there.”

I hesitate, feeling shy again. Then I think about what Kayla would do, how confident she is with boys. I try to emulate it. “Sure. That sounds cool.” Really, he could ask me to watch boring old C-SPAN and I would gladly leap at the chance.

“Yeah?”

I look over at the pianist. He’s playing a slow, meandering song—a moonlight song. “Yeah,” I say. “I can come up for a little while.”

“Great,” Royce says, clapping his hands together, a big grin on his face, like a little kid excited to show off a new toy.

I wonder what’s so cool about the roof. Also, what are the five hundred different ways my mother would kill me if she knew what I was doing right now—going somewhere alone with a boy?

Royce takes us up to the roof. There’s a heated, glassed-in terrace where we can see the whole city. We sit on a bench and look out at this amazing view. Everything is sparkling and pretty—the monuments are lit up, and it feels like the world is at our feet, like we can do anything, be anything. It’s corny, but precious all the same. I’m glad he took me up here. It’s so quiet, I can hear us both breathing.

“Nice, right?” he asks. “Not everyone knows about the terrace. It’s my favorite place in D.C., because no one is ever around. I come here all the time when we’re in town, to get away from my family. My dad prefers to stay in a hotel rather than rent a house when congress is in session. He’s a little spoiled that way.”

“It’s beautiful up here.” We both stare at the lights and the view for a long time, just enjoying the silence. “I can’t remember the last time I felt this relaxed,” I tell him.

“You award kids are all type A, huh?”

“Yeah, I guess,” I say. “There are only twenty-four hours in a day and I already feel like I’m using twenty-seven.”

Royce loosens his tie so that the ends hang down, and he undoes the top button of his shirt. I can see a hint of his throat and Adam’s apple. It feels so intimate somehow, it makes me blush again. Thankfully, he doesn’t notice.

“I guess girls like you always need to be in control, huh,” he says, leaning back in a languid pose.

“What do you mean? Isn’t that a good thing?”

“It’s not what you’re thinking. I like those kinds of girls. Except they always have so much going on it’s hard to get them to make time to see you.” He gives me a sly side-eye.

Ha. “So you like girls like me, do you?” I tease.

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