Page 54 of Our Forever Starts Tonight

“Who is this guy? You’ve never mentioned him before that one time,” I said.

She shrugged. “We just recently reconnected. He found me on social media. We’ve been talking for a few weeks, and then I invited him to the dance. I figured it’d be safe since he doesn’t go here, and when I told him, he was really excited about it. I am too actually. I think I like him.”

“What’s his name?” I asked.

Hannah eyes the people standing around us and intently listening to our conversation. “You’ll meet him at the dance.”

“So I’m going stag?” I moaned.

Hannah nodded in the direction of all the onlookers. “Uh, it looks like you’ll have plenty of options to me.”

My locker would probably be decorated before lunch, but that didn’t matter to me. If it wasn’t Aria or Hannah, it wasn’t worth my time.

We walked to our first class with several people pointing and whispering, and the news that I wasn’t going to the dance with Hannah was spreading fast. As if I needed anything to upset my world, I’d be turning people down for the next week and a half.

Great.

It took Hannah swatting me every ten seconds in our first class to keep me from just staring at Aria. If I stood up and made a public declaration in front of Ceradi and the others, would that be enough to convince her to forgive me? One last chance and I wouldn’t mess it up?

Aria…

Getting through one class was hard enough on its own, but it was the second class that was the nail in the coffin. Aria was much later getting there than normal, but the reason became clear when, seconds before the bell rang, Aria came waltzing into the classroom with a large bouquet of yellow roses and a huge box of chocolates. She was wearing a really cheesy straw hat, but it looked perfect on her.

“Arden!” Aria exclaimed, then extended the flowers and box of chocolates out towards her. “Will you make me the luckiest woman in the world and…” She fake cried. “Attend the Sadie Hawkins dance with me?”

Arden jumped up, clasping her hands around her face. She fanned her eyes as if she was crying and trying to stop her nonexistent makeup from running. “Yes, a million times yes!” She took the flowers and chocolates and gave Aria a big hug before stealing the hat and putting it on her own head. “Let’s be honest, this was made for me.”

“That’s why I bought it,” Aria replied with a laugh.

A few of the students around the classroom started whispering to themselves, but it appeared to be rolling off Arden and Aria’s skin. “Whisper all you want,” Arden said. “The hottest girl in the whole school is bringingmeto the Sadie Hawkins dance.” She stuck out her tongue.

I looked at Hannah and frowned. “Sheisthe hottest,” I whimpered.

Hannah rubbed my back. “Yeah, she is gorgeous.”

I lifted my head and my jaw dropped. “What are you doing? Why have you never told me you felt that way before?”

Hannah looked at me as if I asked her the strangest question she’d ever heard. “You never asked.”

It was such a simple answer and it made me feel like an absolute moron. “Can you please just write downallthe ways I’m an idiot?”

She scoffed. “Oh honey, I don’t have that much paper.” She glanced over my shoulder, and a look of honest sadness registered in her gaze for a moment.

My stomach twisted and I reached across and put my hand onherback instead. “You okay?”

Hannah shook, washing the look from her face and went back to her ground zero, aloof look. “I’m fine.”

As expected, several different people asked me to the dance throughout the rest of the week after learning I wasn’t going with Hannah, but I turned them all down as nicely as I could. After the seventh or eighth girl, I finally started telling them that I didn’t think I was even going to the dance, which bothered Hannah more than I expected it to.

“You can’t justnotgo. It’s your senior year. You will never get these moments back. You’re supposed to enjoy them.”

“I’m just not in a very Sadie Hawkins mood,” I said. “I’d rather stay home or go over to Taylor’s for dinner and movies.”

“Come on, Tris. Just because I’m not goingwithyou doesn’t mean I don’t want you there. What if things go south with this guy?” she said.

“Ceradi, Josh, Milton, Capito, and all the rest of our friends will be there, you’ll be fine.”

“Just like that you’re not going?” Hannah said.

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