The Debutante smiles. She’s shaking with excitement. The townspeople are cheering.

The Good Prince just stares at me.

While the Bad Prince walks around high-fiving and fist-bumping the townspeople, we have a moment. The spotlight shines on each of us as we wonder how things between us went so wrong.

Then the Bad Prince grabs a rose off the podium. He pulls a petal off the rose and hands it to the slutty contestant. She looks very confusedly at him and the crowd murmurs, wondering what he’s doing. He keeps going, though. Pulling a petal off and then handing it to another contestant. I’m next in line to get a petal, but he skips me. Shuns me, it seems.

The Good Prince gives me a beaming smile.

After the Bad Prince has handed each girl a petal, he walks back to me, grabs my hand, and pulls me toward him.

“I don’t have a rose for you, my darling. I have something much better.” He drops to one knee and pulls an enormous diamond ring out of his pocket.

This prop is hilarious and will make the audience laugh.

“Marry me,” he says.

My eyes meet the Good Prince’s. He’s obviously devastated, assuming that if the Bad Prince asked me then I must be in love with him. He rushes off the stage, not waiting for my reply.

Tears fill my eyes as I watch the love of my life run away.

The Queen closely watches what transpires.

When I don’t reply to the Bad Prince right away, the townspeople yell, Kiss her! Kiss her!

The Bad Prince grabs me and gives me a fiery kiss.

It’s the kind of kiss that should make you want to jump into bed with him.

But I pull away from it.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t,” I cry.

I run off stage and then chaotic hilarity ensues. All the finalists give it one last shot to win the Bad Prince’s ring.

They attack him with kisses. They fight. Pull each other’s hair.

Finally, he says, “Enough.” And puts the ring on the Debutante’s finger.

The crowd goes crazy.

The lights dim, the background changes, and I’m running down the beach.

I go to the place where we first kissed.

I stop when I see him sitting there, staring out at the water.

I go stand in front of him.

He stands up and says madly, “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be off on your honeymoon with my brother?”

“I can’t marry a man I don’t love.”

He visibly softens. Jake is very good at this part. He slumps his shoulders slightly, softens his eyes, and reaches to take my hands in his.

“When we kissed that first time, I didn’t know you were a prince. You were just the man I had fallen head over heels in love with. I don’t love your brother and I don’t care about being a princess, I just want you.”

Jake and I share a meaningful gaze then we lean together and kiss as the big moon slides down behind us.

After the kiss, he drops to one knee, pulls a beautiful ring out of his pocket, and says, “Will you marry me?”

I jump into his arms and say yes.

“That was spectacular!” our director says. “Outstanding, people. We’ll stop there for tonight. Go enjoy what’s left of your Halloween.”

Jake glances at his watch. “There’s not much time before curfew, but I have treats in my room if you want to come trick or treat.”

“What kind of treats?”

“They’re special brownies.”

“Seriously? Um, we’ll be there.”

“Tell the girls that the sluttiest costume wins!”

Naughty nurse fantasy.

9:45pm

I run into the dorm looking for the girls. There are white cotton spider webs stretched from corner to corner of the gathering room. The dorms all go a little crazy competing for best decorated. The girls were putting their costumes on and going dorm to dorm trick-or-treating.

“There she is! Finally,” Maggie yells at me from across the room. She’s a little tipsy and dressed as a naughty policewoman. “Go put on your costume and take some pics with us!”

“Okay, I’ll hurry!”

I run in my room and throw on the naughty nurse costume I bought but didn’t get to wear today. They decided last minute that we couldn’t dress up for classes. Probably because our costumes look like this.

I run back out and Maggie hands me a flask. “You need to catch up,” she laughs. “Even Annie is tipsy.”

I throw back a shot, then have fun posing with the girls.

“We need to go trick-or-treating at Jake’s room. He has special brownies.”

“Seriously? Let’s go!” Maggie says.

“I need to upload this pic first,” Annie says. “Then we’ll go.”

While she’s uploading the picture, I tell them, “So, I was bored on the train this weekend and I read this thing about a girl trying to choose between two guys.”

Annie stops what she’s doing and laughs. “You totally googled How to choose between two guys, didn’t you?”

I frown, busted. “Maybe.”

“What did it say?” Maggie asks. And I can tell she’s very interested.

“The girl asked if she should choose the guy that is in love with her, or the guy she’s in love with.”

“Oh, wow,” Maggie says, sitting down slowly. “I get that.”

“I don’t get it,” Annie says scornfully. “Not that it matters. I know the answer.”

Maggie and I both look at her in awe. “What is it?” Maggie asks.

“You want both, duh.”

“Both guys?” Maggie and I ask at the same time.

We look at each other and laugh.

“No! Not both guys. You want one guy. One guy that loves you and that you’re in love with.”

“If only it could be that easy,” Maggie says with a sigh as I get a text from Braxton.

Braxton: Tricks or treats. Which one did you get tonight?

Me: I’m going to get some treats right now :) How bout you?

Braxton: I have this girl talked into sneaking over. Tonight’s the night. She’s 17.

Me: How old does she think you are?

Braxton: 17

Me: Does she know you’ve never done it?

Braxton: Shit, will she be able to tell?

Me: Yeah, I think so. Maybe you should just kiss her. Stop trying to make it happen and wait for someone you care about.

Braxton: I don’t really care about that. I just want experience.

Me: What happened with you and Embry? I thought you were supposed to go to a movie together.

Braxton: Do you not recall me puking on her? She hates me.

Me: But she puked on you back. You’re even.

Braxton: This girl coming over is not as pretty as she is but I don’t care. She’s into me.

Me: Has she done it before?

Braxton: Uh, yeah. For sure.

Me: Then tell her you haven’t. Maybe she can help.

Braxton: How can she help?

Me: Ask your brothers.

Braxton: Riley won’t tell me and neither will Dawson.

Me: Why not?

Braxton: Fuck if I know. Oh sorry, I’m not sure. Why can’t you tell me? You embarrassed?

Me: No. I just think maybe it’s better if a guy tells you. I’m not a guy. Ask Dawson again.

Me: So did he tell you?

Braxton: He says he’ll tell me later. I need to know NOW!!! It’s going down TONIGHT!!

Me: I’ll go talk to him.

“We have to go to Jake’s now if we’re going to make it back by curfew.”

I round up the girls and we run over to Jake’s room.

“Trick or treat,” I say when he opens his door.

“Very nice, Monroe. Very nice.” Then his eyes wander down Maggie’s body. “I so want to be arrested.”

Maggie is tipsy and feeling cocky. She shoves Jake up against the wall and says, “I heard you have some illegal brownies here.”

“Why don’t you try one and then I’ll let you handcuff me?”

Annie, Katie, and I each grab a brownie for the road. “I think we’ll let the police sort this out,” I say. “I’m going next door.”

“I’m going to Ace’s room,” Annie says.

“And I’m going to Bryce’s,” Katie replies.

“Behave,” I tell them as I knock on Dawson’s door.

“Trick or Treat,” I say with a grin.

“Either I can be your trick, Keatie, or you can be my treat,” he says, stepping closer to me.

“We really don’t have time for that.”

He grins at me, pulls me past the threshold, shuts his door, and pins me up against the wall. “You smell like chocolate, Keatie. It’s sexy.”

“Does that mean you like my costume?”

“I don’t know.” He backs away from me and fully takes it in. Tight white mini-shirtwaist dress, white fishnet thigh highs, red bra showing through, and tall, red patent leather stilettos. “Did I ever mention to you that I have a naughty nurse fantasy?”

“Nope, don’t think you did.”

He closes the gap between us and pulls the front of my shirt out a little. That’s the red bra you wore the day you wore those sexy black boots. Our first day back at school after the Hamptons.”

“You have a good memory.”

“I remember every detail from this weekend. Every little noise you made. Every little thing I did to you. I think I should remind you.”

“Dawson, I came here for a reason. I want you to tell your brother what he wants to know.”

“You came over because of Braxton?”

“Well, that and Jake’s illegal brownies,” I say, holding up one. “I’ll share if you help your brother.”

“Send him a pic of you in that outfit.”

“Why would I do that?”

“Doesn’t matter. Do it, and I’ll tell him. I’ll even take the picture.”

“Uh, okay.”

He holds up his phone then says, “Hmmm, that’s not quite right. You need to fix it. Make it a little sexier.”

“Fix what?”

“Unbutton one more button.”

“But you’ll see my bra.”

He smiles and flicks the button open. “Just a little.” He backs up and says, “Smile.”

I smile. Except I’m pretty sure he didn’t take a picture of my mouth. I think he maybe took a picture of my chest area.

“Hmmm.” He points the camera down at my legs, more specifically the hem of my skirt.

“Are you getting all of me or just parts?”

“Maybe the good parts.”

“Why would he need . . . NO!”

Dawson grins naughtily. “You’re the one that wanted to help him. He can take care of himself first, then he won’t be so quick, in theory, his first time. I think he’s too young. That’s why I didn’t want to tell him.”

“Dawson, he is too young, but he wants to beat Riley. Riley was . . .”

“I know how old Riley was. I also know Braxton isn’t ready. He’s dumb. He’ll be careless.”

“That’s exactly why you should talk to him. Be a good brother.”

Dawson clicks around on his phone and then pins me back against the wall. “Do you realize there are only five buttons separating us?”

I swallow. Crap. I need to get out of here because I have a strong desire to undo the one button that is separating him from me.

“I need to go,” I tell him. “And you need to talk to your brother. He needs to hear about protection and all that stuff. And Dawes, don’t forget to tell him about love.”

“I love you. Maybe we should talk about that?”

“I love you too, but we both know what kind of love it is.”

“Yeah, the hot kind.”

“You’re naughty. We really need to stop having sex.”

“Not until you have a good reason for wanting to stop.”

“What should be my reason?”

“When you want to stop, that’s when you’ll know you should.”

“Shit. That may be the most profound thing you’ve ever said to me.” I push my way out of his room. “Bye, Dawson,” I say, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek.

As I’m walking back to my dorm, I run into Aiden coming from the library.

“Trick or treating in the boy’s dorm?” he asks. Then he looks a little closer at me. “Your shirt is unbuttoned.”

I immediately look a guilty.

Aiden looks at me accusatorially. “Were you just with Dawson?”

“No.”

Aiden shakes his head at me. “Then why were you in the boys’ dorm?”

“Well, I was in Dawson’s room but nothing happened. I had to talk to him about something important.”

“Uh huh. And your button just accidentally popped open?”

“This costume cost all of $47 dollars. It’s not exactly high quality, Aiden. And his little brother texted me and I thought he needed to deal with it.”

“And that’s it?”

“Yeah, that’s it.”

“You look high.”

I giggle. “Jake was handing out special brownies.”

“And nothing happened?”

“That’s right.”

“That’s quite a costume.”

“Do you like it?”

Aiden’s eyes drink in my costume. “I wouldn’t have let you out of my room.”

He gives me a quick but spine-tingling kiss and then says, “Happy Halloween, Boots.”

Tuesday, November 1st