The Valentine's Dare (The Sycamore Serial Book 1) by Nicolette Owens

coming up to her with a dozen heart-shaped mylar balloons. It was the day of the dance, after all, and they had preparation to do.
    “Over there. Tie them to the chairs behind the table.” She pointed at the far end of the ballroom, near the head table where all the snacks and drinks were going to go. “What was your name again?”
    “Carey,” the girl said, beaming brightly. “Nice to meet you!”
    Her enthusiasm was so sweet that Kierra could feel her teeth rot. “Thanks for volunteering.”
    “Of course!” Skipping away, the girl set to tying the balloons up. Kierra stared at the floating, red-and-pink monstrosities, more convinced than ever that Valentine’s Day was just a cheap excuse to make her feel sad.
    Needless to say, cheering up in time for the dance was going to be difficult. Let’s just hope the vodka gets here before I need it even more than I do right now. The only thing worse than a lonely February 14 th was a sober one.
    Kierra cast her dark thoughts away and busied herself with the seating chart and corsages. Each of the tables set up in one half of the ballroom had a spot where a name placard would go; under the placard they each got numbered corsages, which had a twin somewhere else in the room. At the right moment in the night, Kierra would announce it was time, and everyone would pin the corsage on their dress, get up, and look for their date. All she had to do was survive until that moment; after that, everything was out of her hands.
    “Looking good, chica.” Kierra turned to see Leila entering the ballroom and looking around at the decorations.
    “It’s only halfway there. I still need the food, drinks, music, lights… and of course the people.”
    “About that.” Lacy popped out from behind Leila, her short frame barely reaching the other girl’s shoulder. “Are you going to be alright tonight? What with Mason being here and… everything.”
    “I’ll be fine.” Kierra smiled reassuringly, but even she could feel how fake it looked. “It’s not like we were engaged or something. So we had a shallow, poorly planned one night stand, but without all the alcohol. So what? I’m considering it my toxic rebound. Now I can move on.”
    Neither of the girls appeared to be convinced at all.
    “Just let us know if you need something tonight,” Lacy said. “Anything at all.”
    “I don’t want to ruin your date with Frankie.”
    She shrugged. “Hoes before bros. Sistas before mistas. Chicks before dicks. Ovaries-“
    “Okay, I get it, I get it. No need to keep going.” Kierra held up a hand to forestall her continuing. “I’ll be fine, okay? Now go, and pretend like you don’t know who your dates are tonight.”
    “Got it,” Lacy said, grinning.
    “I actually don’t know who my date is,” Leila said. “But whatever.”
    “He’s the only guy at Sycamore House who’s taller than you?” Leila scrunched up her brows in thought, but seemingly came up with nothing. “Thomas, Leilei. It’s Thomas.”
    “Right.” Leila glanced over at Lacy. “So we’re dating Mason’s roommates. So what. Nothing awkward about that, right?”
    Kierra tried to hide how nervous it made her feel. She felt bad, but she was almost hoping their dates went poorly, because otherwise she knew Mason would be in her life more - and even with his graduation just months away, she wasn’t sure she could take that.
    Lacy changed the subject. “I’ve got to go study for my chemistry test on Monday. There won’t be any time tonight, after all.”
    They left, and Kierra turned back to her work once more, but somehow she couldn’t get the nagging feeling out of her head that she was forgetting something. It was only hours later, staring at hands as red as the balloons, that she would realize what it was that had slipped her mind.

    To say that everything went off without a hitch would have been an exaggeration.
    In truth, the dance started off well because Kierra had planned things so thoroughly.