Glimmers of Glass (A Glimmers Novel #1: Cinderella)

Chapter 31

It took me five minutes to magic the conference room back to its usual drab state and shrink the gown, shoes, and lights into doll props that fit in my handbag. Now that my date was gone, I was ready to be gone, too. I darted my way across the ballroom floor to Imogen, who was the center of attention as she shimmied to some bouncy pop song blasting through the speakers.

Before I reached her, I caught sight of Lucas. He was alone in a chair against the wall, his chin propped in his hands. Aubrey was nowhere in sight.

What else was I supposed to do? I changed courses.

"How's it going?" I called over the music. When he didn't seem to hear me, I nudged his foot with my jeweled shoe, and he looked up.

"Hey," he said, forcing a smile. I dropped into the empty chair beside him.

"What's up?" I said. "Where'd your date go?" I looked at his face, then followed his gaze across the room, where Aubrey stood in the center of a group of guys. She laughed and punched one of them lightly on the shoulder.

Yikes.

He blew a long stream of air out, making his cheeks puff up. "I don't know what happened. Last I thought, we were fine. But I guess I didn't get her the right corsage or something and I forgot to make dinner reservations in time to take her to her favorite restaurant, and she just flipped."

I tried not to be smug. "That sounds frustrating," I said instead.

"She said I 'ruined her special night,'" he said. "This was her prom. It was supposed to be 'magical' and I blew it."

He was trying to brush it off with sarcasm, but he was hurting. Before I could talk myself out of it, I put a hand on his shoulder. "That sucks," I said. "Like, a lot. Do you want to get out of here?"

"Where would we go?" he said.

I bit my lip, not sure how he was going to take this. "NebulaCon," I said. "My friend Elle just left for their costume ball and I'm going to go meet her. We're supposed to be in costume but we could probably just claim we're from some obscure anime."

His mouth quirked up a little. It was the closest to a real smile I'd seen so far, and I nudged him with my shoulder. "The people watching's going to be great," I said.

"You still know my weaknesses," he said. We'd gone to a high school football game once in middle school, trying to be cool, and he'd spent the entire thing picking out people in the audience and telling me what he thought their stories were. I'd forgotten it till now.

I raised an eyebrow and wiggled in my seat, silently prodding for his answer. Finally, he laughed, not like it was funny but like of course his evening had come to this. "Okay," he said. "Aubrey's going to be pissed but honestly I don't really care right now."

"Good," I said. I hoped I sounded supportive instead of triumphant. I couldn't tell if I succeeded, but he didn't immediately change his mind, which was good enough.

A minute later, I yanked Imogen out of the circle where she'd been attempting to teach everyone a complicated-looking shoulder roll. Her face was flushed with exhilaration.

"Elle went to her geek convention with Kyle," I shouted. We were standing way too close to the speakers.

"What?" Imogen screamed, still barely loud enough to be heard. "What about Kyle? Did he kiss you?"

"I'll tell you about it later!" I shouted, then, remembering that I didn't have to do this, touched my silvered wand. A bubble of quiet sprang up around us, making my ears ring. "Elle and Tyler are over," I said. "She and Kyle are going to another party together. I'm headed out to go join them."