The music at the party still throbbed in the background, low and steady, but it no longer matched the beat of my heart. It was too loud and yet too far away, like I was hearing it from underwater. I stood at the edge of the dance floor, smiling politely at people as they passed, my fingers twisting together in front of me in a nervous habit I hadn’t had since I was a child.
I had just chosen Evan over Damian. It was logical—Evan was Eva’s twin brother, and it was his birthday too. The polite, socially correct thing to do was to dance with him. And I did. I had smiled and laughed through it, pretending not to see the way Damian’s jaw had hardened, the way his eyes had darkened, the way his shoulders had gone rigid. But I saw him leave. I saw him walk away without a word.
The moment the so
