“Seriously, though,” I whispered to Dean. “I’m going to dance like an idiot.”

“Well, let’s see it,” he said. Then he started busting out some pretty impressive dance moves, darting back and forth with just the right head movements, singing along with the song. He was actually good, which meant I was going to look a million times sillier. Oh well. I’d just have to “get my sexy on.”

I started moving and grooving, all the stupid things that I had tried out with Dex in his living room.

Halfway through the song, I was attracting a lot of attention. Well, Dean was too. He was the serious, talented half and I was the silly goof who was dancing like Elaine from Seinfeld. Rebecca and Emily appeared beside us, dancing too, as did Jimmy and his wife, who were off beside the DJ. I turned to see where Dex was and he was right behind me. He shook his head at my moves and grinned, but kept walking past me to go talk to Jimmy.

I kept dancing as the re-mixed beats pounded on, getting faster and faster near the end. I started putting some kicks into my moves.

“Not bad,” Dean yelled above the music, giving me the thumbs up and then working the gesture into his moves seamlessly.

I smiled and kicked again.

This time my shoe came loose.

It left my foot and sailed through the air as if in slow motion and headed right toward Dex.

He turned just in time to see my raspberry platform soaring toward him like a heat-seeking missile. He ducked.

And it went straight into the person who was standing behind Dex: Jimmy Kwan. My shoe smacked him right on the head and bounced off of his dome and onto the DJ’s table with a clunk.

Everyone went silent. I mean, everyone.

I gasped. My hands flew up to my mouth. I was frozen on the spot, mortified beyond belief.

Then the room erupted into peals of laughter. Dex was laughing the hardest of all, so hard he could barely stand back up straight. Jimmy shot me a wry look and slowly shook his head, not impressed. But one quick glance at his wife and she was snickering too.

I knew I was beet red. I felt flushed beyond belief.

Dean put his arm around me, trying to speak but laughing too hard. Finally he sputtered, “Oh man. You just made this the best Christmas party ever!”

I grinned back at him. Unsure at first but then I couldn’t help but laugh either. Served Jimmy right, even though I needed my shoe back.

As if on cue, Jimmy’s wife walked over to me, still giggling, my rogue shoe dangling from her fingers. She placed it in my hands. “I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced. I’m Fae Kwan.”

“Nice to meet you, Fae,” I said. “Sorry about um…my aim.”

She giggled and looked behind her at Jimmy. He was attempting to talk to Dex while rubbing at his head. Dex was trying to keep a straight face but kept on laughing every other second.

“I think my husband will be OK,” she smiled, then noticed the blush on my face. “Do you need some cold water?”

I nodded quickly and Fae led the way out of the room and to the bathrooms.

We made small talk at the sinks, just a bit about the show and the network. I didn’t have to go to the bathroom yet (and I wasn’t about to break the seal this early in the game) so I just dabbed a bunch of cold water on my cheeks and neck, extra careful not to mess up Rebecca’s makeup job.

As we left the restroom Fae told me she was going to talk to the waitress in the restaurant about getting some more food for us before everyone got too drunk. She was afraid my hit to Jimmy was spurring everyone to be more merry and festive than usual and that usually translated into more drinking.

I watched her leave, her tiny form weaving through the restaurant tables, then I took a deep breath and prepared myself to return to the party.

As I turned around I saw Jenn and Bradley appear in the corridor. I froze at the side of the hall. They both shot me nervous glances but kept walking. Past me and past the bathrooms.

“Where the hell do you think you’re going?” I yelled after them. The words shocked me. I couldn’t help it.

Jenn and Bradley came to a halt. Jenn slowly turned around and cocked her head at me, her eyes blazing.

“Excuse me?” she sneered loudly.

I took a more commanding stance in the middle of the hall and looked at them dead on. “I said, where are you going?”

“None of your business, shrimp,” Bradley sniped. “Come on, Jenn, let’s go.” He touched her shoulder briefly in an effort to lead her out of the restaurant. But she wouldn’t move. She just watched me for a few moments and then started walking toward me.

“Jenn!” Bradley hissed, making a grab for her.

She shrugged him off and stopped a couple of feet away.

“What the hell is your deal, Palomino?” she asked in an accusing tone, narrowing her eyes. She was trying to look intimidating. I wasn’t about to have any of that.

“I have no deal, Jenn; I just think it’s a bit, uh, uncouth of you to go sneaking off with your fuck buddy here in the middle of a party.”

Her jaw dropped. Bradley made a surprised noise from behind her. I smiled, a grin of pure evil.

“Oh, that’s right,” I continued, noting their faces. “Everybody knows. I do. Rebecca does. Your boyfriend does.”

“You don’t know anything,” she spat out through her gritted veneers. That vein in her forehead pulsed dangerously.

“Oh, but we do. You know what we also know? Why, that you’re my Miss Anonymous. Which means you are nothing more than a sad, pathetic, insecure, cold-hearted…cunt. That’s right. Cunt!”

I yelled that last word a lot louder than I should have. Fae caught it as she was coming back down the hallway. She looked at us in shock, afraid of what was going to happen next, and stopped a little way off to make sure nothing stupid happened.

Jenn’s jaw dropped even lower and she let out a small, indignant cry. “How dare you?”

“How dare you!?” I countered, feeling years of anger, years of being bullied and ignored and picked on, all rising through me like an unstoppable volcano. “All this time you were being nice to me and I felt like I had to protect you while you went and diddled Bradley behind Dex’s back. Meanwhile, you were the stupid fucking bitch who was leaving all those comments on the blog, calling me fat, calling me pathetic. You were just talking about yourself and projecting it on me. That’s all. You’re too selfish and stupid to realize it. And yes, Dex knows. He’s the one who told me. He’s the one who caught you using his computer!”

Jenn looked shocked into submission. Her eyes were almost frozen in anger or fear. Fear that we all knew about her. The truth about her.

Bradley took a tentative step toward her, his arm extended, and whispered, “Is that true, Jenn?”

She snapped out of it and whipped around to face him, her fists clenched at her sides. “No, it’s not true! Perry is just a fucking psychopath!”

I looked over at Fae, who was inching down the hall, and gave her an apologetic smile. I know I had just shown an ugly and vulgar side of myself, but it had to happen. She returned the smile, perhaps knowing more about Jenn than I knew, and tapped me lightly on the shoulder to lead me back to the party.

“Forget about her,” she said softly. I exhaled loudly, trying to release the building anger. I turned to follow her and saw Rebecca walking toward me, concerned.

“You go back to Dex!” I heard Jenn yell from behind me. “He’s never going to love you, no matter how hard you try to slut it up for him!”

Oh, that did it.

I let out an unearthly scream and whirled around ready to tackle her to the ground and rip her hair out of her head. But just as I made the lunge, I felt hands around both of my arms. Rebecca and Fae had leaped forward and grabbed hold of me, holding me back. In fact, I think at one point I was weightless, my legs kicking out while Rebecca put her arms around me and attempted to pick me up.

Funnily enough, Jenn had also made a go at me but Bradley was right there and scooped her up by the waist.

So it was Jenn and I almost battling to the death outside the bathrooms, save for the people on either side of us, trying to keep the party from turning into a bloodbath.

Realizing how stupid it was to fight Jenn (even though I would win), I eventually relented and let Fae lead me backward away from Jenn’s writhing, screaming form. She was almost foaming at the mouth. I glared at her one last time before turning around while Rebecca marched over to them. I heard her yell at Jenn, “You go for a walk, Jenn, and clear your head!” Then she yelled at Bradley, “And you, mister, don’t you dare follow her. You are coming back to the party with us and sitting down at the table and acting like none of this ever happened!”

That seemed like a pretty tall order from Rebecca. Jenn and I almost got into a fight. How on earth do you pretend that didn’t happen?

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Fae gently, and with a hint of trepidation, led me back into the party room. I could hear Rebecca and Bradley following behind me. I would have thought everyone knew what was going on, but they all looked preoccupied, including Dex, who was in the corner and talking to Jimmy like nothing had happened. I let out a sigh of relief at that and looked down at Fae’s kind face.

“I’m really sorry about that,” I said.

“Don’t worry about it. You think you’re the first person Jenn has had a problem with? Believe me, you’re not.”

I smiled with relief and a touch of embarrassment. If it weren’t for Rebecca and Fae, Jenn and I would be involved in the world’s biggest and most disgraceful catfight. I would have kicked her ass and she would have fought dirty. But at least now it was all out in the open and done with. As much as she denied it, she knew we all knew the truth and that was all I needed.

I let out a huge breath and Fae gave me a quick hug before sauntering off to Jimmy. I wondered if she’d later fill him on to what happened. Probably. I just hoped it didn’t damage my reputation any further. In one evening I would become known as a smartass, a shoe-kicker, and a brawler. This really was one hell of a Christmas party.

I was standing beside the small stage, gathering my thoughts and composure, as the MC came back out in his cheesy cheap suit.

“So,” he bellowed into the mic. The DJ shut the house music off. “I think it’s time for karaoke again. Now before you complain, I think it’s safe to say that dancing has become a bit of a liability tonight.”

The MC wiggled his bushy brows at me and I rolled my eyes, blushing once again. Everyone in the room laughed and one person hollered. Without turning to look, I was pretty sure it was Rebecca.

“OK then,” I said underneath my breath, and stepped on to the stage. I held my hand out for the mic. “Well, if we’re going to do this, let’s do this.”

I was still so angry and frustrated, the adrenaline coursing through my veins, that I needed something to distract me, even if that meant making another fool of myself in public.

The MC looked surprised but handed the mic to me. “All right, looks like she’s going first. Just no kicking moves, OK?”

Everyone laughed again, and I smiled sarcastically at him until he got off the stage and walked over to the machine.