Empire High Elite (Empire High #2) - Ivy Smoak Page 0,89
his arm. “Her mom got her those. I think they’re cute, Brooklyn. It’s very rockstar of you.”
“You think?” I lifted the skirt of my dress and looked down at my Keds.
Justin looked horrified but then he pinched his face and looked away. “Very rockstar,” he agreed.
I knew he was just saying it to be polite, but I appreciated it none the less.
He clapped his hands to end the discussion. “No matter how sweaty you get dancing, don’t wipe your face. Blot it. It’s all about the blotting, ladies. Your makeup and hair should have no problem lasting through midnight.”
Midnight? It was the last Cinderella coincidence I could take. “Justin, you’re like my fairy godmother.”
“Did you just call me a fairy?” He put his hand on his hip. “Do you have any idea how offensive that is?”
“Oh…I…I didn’t mean…”
He laughed and leaned in to hug me. “I’m just kidding. Knock ‘em dead tonight. And call me before your next event. I’ll bring an even bigger tiara.” He winked at me as he let me out of his embrace. “I gotta run. I can’t believe you two made me late! I’m never late!” He grabbed his boxes of beauty products and hurried out the door.
“I freaking love him,” Kennedy said.
I laughed. “I’m 99% sure he’s gay.”
“Why only 99%? Girl, he’s definitely gay. There’s not a doubt in my mind. Trust me, I don’t want to date him. I don’t want to date anyone for a long time. I just meant that he’s the coolest person ever.”
“He really is.”
“But if he was straight, I’d marry him in a heartbeat. I love being pampered like this. That was so much fun. When can we do it again?”
I laughed. “Hopefully soon. I feel like we’re in one of those makeover shows.”
“Queer Eye for the Straight Teenager,” Kennedy said.
“We should pitch that idea to Justin.”
“We really should. I’m going to run to the bathroom real quick and then we can go?”
I nodded and she went over to the bathroom. Even she knew it was attached to my room. I bit the inside of my lip. Every ounce of me wanted to ask her about Felix. I’d heard her the other day when she said she always fell in love with drug dealers. Plural. And Felix and Cupcake were the only two drug dealers we knew. I wanted her to open up to me about it. But I couldn’t yank the information out of her.
Regardless of whether she wanted to tell me or not, I had a plan for tonight to fix everything. First I had to talk to Felix and apologize. He’d been avoiding me at gym ever since the fight at his house. The longer I had to think of it, the more I realized how much I was in the wrong. I needed to tell him I was sorry for leading him on. And then I needed to somehow get Kennedy and him to dance together. If she wouldn’t admit that she had feelings for him to me, maybe she’d admit it to him. Operation Felix. It had a name now, so I had to go through with it.
“You all ready?” Kennedy asked. She emerged from the bathroom fidgeting with one of the loose locks that fell from her updo.
“Mhm. You better stop touching your hair, or you’ll give Justin a heart attack from miles away.”
She let her hand fall. “You’re right. Now we just need to remember to blot and not wipe and we’ll have a fabulous evening.” She looped her arm through mine as we made our way down the hall.
We froze at the top of the steps. We hadn’t planned this out at all. I just assumed that Isabella would have been long gone with weird homecoming queen duties or something. But she was standing at the bottom of the stairs with her minions. They were all giggling as they took photos in the foyer. Their generic dates all looked the same in their black tuxes, except for Mason Caldwell. He was dressed the same, but he filled out his tux differently than the rest. I had no idea how much he knew about me and his brother. But I wasn’t about to find out. Or let Isabella notice me.
“We should go back…” I whispered just as Isabella turned.
The look on her face could only be described as vicious. I took a step back even though we were a whole staircase apart.
“Sissy, what on earth are you wearing?” Isabella said with