Dangerous Play

32 » no place like home(coming)

Never in his wildest dreams did Finn ever expect to say he was on the way to crash homecoming with Eden Sayed of all people. So much had changed in just a few months, from their first hookup to working together to now... whatever this was.

All of these thoughts ran through Finn's mind in the span of a moment as he glanced at her. The setting sun cast a glow over her profile as she grabbed his hand and dragged him toward the door of his high school, laughing the whole way.

The two of them stumbled into the building. Somehow, the students responsible for collecting tickets were nowhere to be seen and they slipped into the gym unnoticed.

The first thing Finn saw when they entered was a blonde boy being tossed in the air by the hands of the crowd. He turned to Eden in confusion. "Am I seeing things, or is Cairo crowd-surfing?"

"That's definitely him," Eden confirmed.

Finn snorted. "At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if he somehow managed to get himself crowned homecoming king. I mean, seriously, I swear he knows more people that go to this school than I do."

"How else would he have enough people to invite to his parties every weekend?"

That was true enough. Before he could say anything else, Ashton bumped into him, knocking the crown that was perched atop his head askew. So this was their homecoming king. "Hey, Finn! You showed up! We're all about to head to Henry's place!"

The blonde girl behind him laughed. Finn noticed they were holding hands when she let go to straighten the crown on Ashton's head. "They just got here! Let them enjoy the dance for a bit!"

Ash grinned. "As you wish, Jackson."

As the two of them headed off, Finn heard the girl grumbling. "Don't ever refer to me by that racist president's name again. I swear to God, if you call me Trump, I will murder you in your sleep."

Finn had no clue what that was all about, but Eden drew his attention by pointing at a group of people a few feet away from them. "I think they finally put Cairo down."

The two of them walked over to join their friends, who greeted them enthusiastically. Cairo's hair was all over the place, likely from being tossed in the air, but the grin on his face said it was worth it.

Even Maddox was there, standing next to a black-haired girl who Finn vaguely recognized from one of his classes. He smiled tentatively at Finn, who returned the expression. He owed the other boy an apology at some point, but tonight wasn't the occasion.

The DJ changed the song to something with a heavy bass beat. The crowd immediately started jumping up and down, screaming the lyrics to whatever hot rap song this was.

Finn glanced around the room. The student council had chosen a casino theme, so two giant dice blocks sat in one corner of the school's gym. He hadn't even seen that the carpet that he and Eden had walked in on led to a photo booth, or that there was a giant "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign off to the side. Red and black streamers and playing cards of all kinds were strewn around the room.

Eden also seemed to be appraising the decor. "As far as casino themes go, Vegas is a little banal, isn't it? They should've considered Monte Carlo."

"At least it's better than the Titanic theme they tried to do three years ago," Finn said. "Someone misspelled it as 'Titantic' on the welcome banner."

She scoffed. "Now that's just offensive and stupid. At least have enough decency to look up the name of the historical tragedy you're making fun of."

He held up his hands. "Not my idea. I was just a lowly freshman." And now they were seniors, attending their last homecoming. He'd secured an offer to his dream school, was maybe more-than-friends with the most beautiful girl, and had presented—and done well—at his challenging internship. All in all, senior year was shaping up to be the best yet.