Taking a Shot by Catherine Gayle Read Free Book Online Page B

had strung tons of white Christmas lights from a disco ball in the center out to every corner of the enormous space, like a canopy of fairy lights hanging above us. Ribbons of red and white—our school colors—had been woven through them. They drifted down to flutter over our heads. The typical folding tables you’d expect to find had been covered with delicate tablecloths, and each of them had some sort of centerpiece—a flower arrangement, candles and mirrors, those sorts of things. Even the chairs had been draped with cloth covers, so they fit the decorative scheme.
    I held Jamie’s hand tightly to steady myself and let my head fall back to take it all in as soon as we got inside. I wobbled slightly, dizzy from tilting my head back so far.
    He gently tugged me closer to him, lending me more of his strength. “I’ve never seen a school gym decked out like this before,” he said.
    “Never? Not even at your own prom?”
    “I didn’t get to go to my prom.” Jamie shrugged and flashed a dimpled grin in my direction. “We were playing in the Memorial Cup while it was going on.”
    “Oh, yeah.”
    I hadn’t even thought about the fact that he probably would have missed out on his prom, among countless other things when he’d been in high school—things I took for granted. He’d played for the Windsor Spitfires in major junior hockey, so he hadn’t even lived with his family for his last couple of years of school. He’d lived with a billet family.
    My dad may be a professional athlete and so I had a lot of privileges that other kids hadn’t, but for the most part, Mom and Dad had made sure our lives were as normal as possible. Even now, most people Jamie’s age were off in college trying to figure out who they wanted to be when they grew up. He was already living it.
    “Do you ever feel like you’re missing out?” I asked. “Do you wish you’d done things a different way?”
    “Sometimes.” Jamie put his arm around my back, supporting me more than he could by just holding my hand.
    I got goose bumps everywhere he touched me. It was like an electrical current was flowing to each point of contact, leaving me hyperaware. He met my gaze and held it so long I had to fight off a head-to-toe shiver.
    “But then I remember,” he said, “that I’m experiencing things most other people never will, so I should be grateful for what I have. And then I remember that if not for the path I chose, I wouldn’t know you right now. I would hate that.”
    He made it sound like knowing me could make his decisions worthwhile. Like I really mattered to him. I hadn’t felt like I mattered to anyone but my family in months. My heart thundered so loud he must’ve been able to hear it.
    I bit my lower lip. “Should we go get pictures taken now, do you think? So we don’t forget and my mom doesn’t kill us?” I needed to redirect my thoughts—to do something so I could stop myself from wishing for more than what Jamie was really offering. Wishing for anything, really.
    “If you want. I’ll do anything you want me to do tonight, Katie.”
    He sounded so serious and earnest. There he went, being completely perfect again. It seemed like I was destined for a huge letdown at some point because I kept building his pedestal higher and higher in the sky, so high he would surely have to fall from it somewhere down the line.
    But not right now. Right now, at least for tonight, he could be perfect.
    “Then let’s do that before I change my mind and don’t want permanent reminders of how I look.” Getting pictures taken as an alien princess might not be my brightest move ever.
    The photographer was set up in the opposite corner from where we’d entered the gym. As we walked over to him, I felt stares following us each step of the way.
    I couldn’t make myself look at them. It would hurt too much to see their pity or disgust at my bald head, or their shock to see me at prom, or their jealousy that someone like Jamie would be