This has to be a mistake, Alex thought. He had been thinking that exact thought for the last half-hour, and now, the tines of his fork were stabbing at an empty plate that once contained, in sequence, several courses of a lovely dinner that represented the greatest riches that the True Church had to offer. Conversation had managed to dodge him entirely, despite the efforts of his friends. Everyone else seemed to be taking this much better. Gabriel was going on about lovely his Pair was, to a thick-necked boy with a strong jaw by the name of Percy, that Alex had seen before, but never talked to. Percy was nodding gamely, while the others followed the conversation from the sidelines.
“We were in the same group in theater class last year, and I remember, two of the other students got in an argument, I think it was over clashing character interpretations? And she just swept in, got between the two of them so they couldn't make eye contact with each other, and started asking questions, all earnest-like, right? But I got the feeling that she knew the answers to all the questions she was asking, and she was just directing conversation away to things the other two agreed on, and before I knew it, there was no argument left, and Rachel was back with her group like nothing happened,” Gabriel said, practically vibrating in his seat.
“What play was that for?” Percy asked.
Max, who'd been sitting with his elbows on the table and gazing off towards the cluster of the girls' tables across the way, snapped to attention. “Wasn't that Before the Dawn?”
Gabe nodded enthusiastically, though it was looking like that could describe just about everything he did right now.
Caleb, a mousy sort of boy whose hair fell in front of his eyes, and to all the world looked like he was hiding behind it, cocked his head. “Wait, Rachel? Didn't she play the lead?”
Gabriel gave him the kind of look that said “I know, right?” far clearer than if he'd said it.
Everyone fell back into their seats a little – well, besides Alex, who was still taking this in from the unmoving, semi-catatonic state he'd been occupying. Percy let out a low whistle.
“Her singing was incredible,” Max said, and the rest nodded in concurrence.
“I have no idea what I did to deserve her,” Gabriel said, and giggled helplessly.
Percy's eyes swept over Alex, pausing momentarily, and he seemed to think better of whatever he was going to say. “So, Maxwell, how about your Pair? Know anything about her?”
Max somehow managed to blush even more than he'd already been, and looked back out over to the girls' side of the room. “Nope!”
Percy followed Max's eyes. “Can you point her out from here?”
“Well, uh, she's the one a head taller than everyone else.”
“Huh,” Percy said, and waited for anyone else to chime in. No one did. “So, Caleb, you're the second to last, it's your turn now, what's Francesca-”
“Scary.”
Percy shrugged. “I'm sure that'll work itself-”
“I'm not second-to-last,” Caleb said. “There's still you and Alex.”
Percy took a deep breath, and as he exhaled, he bore a striking resemblance to a deflating balloon. “Do you have any idea how many times I've had to report Teresa to the Sisters? One day she's smuggling food into class, the next she's dropping louder and louder objects over the course of a lecture, then she's rearranging the books in the class library so the titles spell out profanities – I might spend the rest of my days trying to straighten her out. But-” Percy looked at Alex, “What about you?”
Deep in his mind, Alex scrambled for any excuse he could find to dodge the topic, and found nothing. He opened his mouth, but words he could get away with saying just didn't come to him.
And then, the pianist of the small orchestra, framed against the stained-glass windows in the back of the room, presented him with the perfect out. The dance was beginning.