Instructions for Dancing

by Nicola Yoon

Almost nobody gets out of love alive.

Technically, it’s not a perfect smile. He has a small gap between his front teeth, and the right side of his face scrunches a little too much. Still, I have no doubt it’s a grin that works wonders for him. It gets him A grades on B papers, into sold-out concerts and the phone numbers of heads of state. When the time comes, it’ll get him into heaven, even though he should clearly be headed in the other direction.

Really, I should know better than to banter. Why? Because in every romance book ever written, banter is a gateway drug.

“My middle name is Darius,” he says, grinning. “I’m telling you so you can yell my full name when you’re yelling at me.”

The time we get is the time we get.”

It was beautiful. But it was sad too. Both things, and at the same time. I don’t know why so much of life is like that.