The Luna Choosing Game

I stared at Julian, disbelieving my ears. Did he really just ask me for a solo date?

Yet everyone in the whole ballroom was looking at us. Julian still held the microphone up to his mouth.

This was definitely happening. It wasn’t a dream.

Which meant that Julian was up to something.

“Why?” I asked, before I could think better of it.

A few girls around me gasped. Only then did I realize my mistake and covered my mouth.

Julian also looked shocked, his eyes going wide for a moment. But then, just as quickly, he burst out

laughing.

His good humor seemed to erase the surprise of the other onlookers. Everyone seemed to think I had

been telling a joke.

With the microphone lowered, he said to me, “I insist this request is genuine, Piper.”

I didn’t believe him.

Julian always played the angles. Asking me on a date had to be some kind of move for his benefit, but I

couldn’t begin to figure out how. I’d only scratched the surface of the inner politics of the royal family.

for my answer. Everyone

using me, even if I didn’t know how, but I couldn’t exactly turn him down. He was

was just a

said,

the microphone, he announced, “She said

Most of the girls clapped politely. A

be tomorrow,” he said, no longer speaking

center of the dance floor, Nicholas stood. His face was an emotionless mask, but his

stared straight at

I

heart ached. I wanted to tell him that this didn’t

just for the sake of

without publicly dismissing

I realized that Nicholas didn’t need an

anymore

fierce, hurt gaze had triggered something inside of me, like a memory response.

me screamed to soothe

like that

now, that look

He turned away from me and, even an hour later, had not sought me

Julian and his antics.

from me, they could not stop telling me how funny he