The Code for Love and Heartbreak - Jillian Cantor Page 0,28
He slowly inches us toward Hannah and Phillip, stopping when we’re near enough to observe them, and then we stand in place and slow-dance.
I lean in closer to him; my cheek falls into the wool of his black suit jacket, and it smells good and familiar, like George: soap and just a hint of sandalwood aftershave. I inhale and close my eyes for a minute, and I forget I’m supposed to be watching Hannah and Phillip.
“Remember last year?” George says. “John and Iz went to this dance, and you and I worked on robot code instead?”
John and George and their parents had come over to our house to take pictures before the dance, and then after George and my dad had finished talking about the World Series, and we had both gotten bored of John and Izzy’s endless poses and endless background changes, we’d gone upstairs to my room and pulled out my laptop to work on the robot code. Dad had come to check on us later, and we hadn’t even realized it but a few hours had passed; it was already dark outside, and we’d missed dinner completely. There’s spaghetti in the kitchen if you kids are hungry, Dad had said, switching on the light in my room, stepping inside. It was the rare night when he remembered about making dinner before I did.
“That was the night we decided we’d be co-presidents this year, remember?” I say. Before then, I’d wanted to, and planned to be, president of coding club alone, and I thought, like everything else with me and George, it would be a competition I would have to work really hard to win. But it was George who pointed out how well we worked together, how as co-presidents we could have everything—his people skills and animation, my coding skills and ideas. “I guess it’s kind of crazy that we ended up here, tonight, huh?” I say now. If someone had told me last year at this time that coding club would lead me straight to the fall dance, where George and I would be dancing, I would’ve laughed and told them they were insane.
“It is crazy,” George says softly into my hair, so I can barely hear him. But I think he says: “Kind of nice, too, isn’t it?”
The song ends before I can say anything else, but George doesn’t let go of me for a few seconds, and I don’t let go of him, either. Until Hannah touches my arm. “Emma!” She squeals. “You came!” George and I both jump back, letting go of each other quickly.
Hannah grabs me in a hug, then stands back to examine me. “You look so pretty,” she says, running her hand over the velvet of my dress. She does, too—the green of Izzy’s dress is perfect for her eyes, especially with her hair up. But before I realize I’m supposed to tell her that, she has already moved on to George and is giving him a hug.
“How’s it going?” George shouts to her now to be heard over the music. Right. I should’ve said that to her, too.
“I’m having so much fun! Phillip is so sweet and so cute.”
I smile at her. Math came through for me, once again.
“I’m going to walk around,” George says, tapping my arm lightly. “I’ll find you in a little bit.”
I nod and watch him walk away into the crowd, not realizing for a minute that Hannah is still talking. “I can’t believe I’m lucky enough to date him, and that he actually likes me,” she’s saying now.
I hear her talking, but my eyes are still following George. And I’m thinking about the way my skin had felt warm, dancing so close to him. But then I lose him in the crowd, push the thought away and turn my attention back to Hannah and the reason I’m here. Our project. “Have you seen any of the other couples?” I ask her.
“I saw Sam and Laura, and they look like they’re having fun. And then Phillip’s friend Evan—he matched to a girl in my geometry class, Becca, and I saw her in the bathroom already and she said he was super nice.”
The music is fast again, and Hannah starts dancing to it as she’s talking to me. And I feel like I’m supposed to be dancing, too. I awkwardly swing my arms and sway my hips a little, and hope in the crowd of people, the semidarkness, no one sees or notices me. I look