The bass from the gymnasium floor vibrated straight through the soles of my leather dress shoes, a low, relentless thrumming that rattled the ice in the plastic cups at the refreshment table. Around me, the room was bathed in a suffocating haze of deep violet and shimmering gold lights—the grand theme for our final night —wrapped in delicate silk drapery that hung from the high rafters, thousands of tiny fairy lights woven into the fabric to mimic a twilight sky.
To anyone else, it was a masterpiece of high school nostalgia. To me, it felt like a gilded cage.
