Chloe didn’t argue.
She looked around at her friends, who’d stepped away from her, at the phones still pointed toward her, at the people gathered around, staring at her.
Susan led her away, and Chloe followed, the whole room parting for her in a way I doubted had ever happened before.
Nobody moved for a few seconds after that.
Then someone in the back started clapping.
Susan led her away, and Chloe followed.
Someone joined it, then another.
The applause spread until the whole gym was full of it.
Wren turned to me with this lost look on her face.
“Stay,” I whispered.
A girl from her chemistry class came over with napkins.
“Here,” she said, smiling gently. “It’s still beautiful.”
Wren gave the tiniest laugh. Wet-eyed, stunned, real.
The applause spread until the whole gym was full of it.
Together we dabbed at the front of the dress.
The stain would never fully come out, I knew that even then, but the badge cleaned more easily than I expected. When Wren pressed it back flat against her chest, it caught the light.
The music started again, awkwardly at first, then stronger.
Wren looked toward the dance floor.
“You don’t have to,” I told her.
“Yeah,” she said quietly. “I do.”
We dabbed at the front of the dress.
So she stepped forward.
And this is the part I will remember for the rest of my life: not the cruelty, not the shock, not even the revelation that changed the room.
It was the way she walked onto that floor after all of it.
