“We both did.” I fold up the paper and the tickets and tuck them into my backpack.
“Don’t lose those tickets,” he warns me. “Or I’ll have to go to the prom with Joanie Tipton.”
“Ugh. Don’t even joke about that.”
“She was standing in line behind me when I went to buy these right now. Somehow she knew we were broken up and she offered to take me to the prom if you said no.”
“Oh, my God. I hate her.”
He rests his hand on my knee as the bus pulls out of the loading zone. “So do I.”
I slide my hand under his palm, then I lace my fingers through his. And just like that, all is forgiven. Just like that, the world is turned right side up again.
Forever Happy
Tristan arrives at our house on the morning of Claire’s senior prom in his shitty Ford pickup truck. Claire and I climb into the front seat with Tristan, with Claire between us. She leans her head on my shoulder and closes her eyes as the truck bumps along down the beltline. She’s still tired from staying up late studying for finals.
We have to pick up Claire’s dress and my outfit at the mall. This is totally last minute. Claire didn’t want to pick up her dress on my bike, and Tristan’s been putting this off every day for the last four days I’ve been asking him to take us. Claire’s been too busy studying to care about Tristan blowing us off.
“What’s the theme for the prom? White Trash Love?” Tristan remarks when he sees what I’m wearing to the prom.
I pay the girl at the cash register for my black Rolling Stones T-shirt and the new pair of jeans. The girl stares at my new mohawk hairdo and smiles. Claire hooks her arm around mine, staking her claim.
“You’re just jealous you won’t get to fly your white trash flag today,” Claire says to Tristan.
“Yeah, not really. I wouldn’t go to the prom if you paid me in white trash love.”
“Hey,” I reply, issuing a warning before Tristan and Claire start sniping at each other.
Ever since Tristan and Ashley broke up in the beginning of the school year, he’s been an even bigger prick. He doesn’t say stupid stuff that often, but when he does, it’s usually something that’s meant to make me jealous and hurt Claire at the same time.
I know he’s just fucked up over Ashley, but it’s been almost a year since they broke up and they were only together a year. And he still refuses to tell me why they broke up. He keeps giving me some lame story about how he broke up with her because he didn’t have time to visit her after she went off to college. She’s a year older than Tristan. I have a feeling Ashley’s the one who broke up with him, and he still hasn’t gotten over it. But he’ll never admit that.
We leave the store and head for the department store where Claire had her dress altered. The center of the corridor in the mall is lined with craggily trees covered in blinking golden lights. Claire jumps up to touch one of the branches as we pass.
“These remind me of something,” she says, looking back at the tree she just touched with a childlike smile lighting up her beautiful face.
“What do they remind you of?” I ask, grabbing her hand to get her attention.
“When I was a kid, before my mom died, we had this giant tree on our property. Sometimes, when my mom was really out of it, I’d go outside and climb the tree. I’d stay up there for hours sometimes, just looking up at the stars.”
She continues to smile as she recalls this memory. And immediately my brain starts conjuring up ways to bring that kind of happiness to her every single day.
“Do you really think Jackie thinks you and Claire are just friends? Or even worse, like siblings? Ew!” Rachel has come over to help Claire with her hair and makeup. At least, that’s the story Rachel and I are going with.
Claire can’t respond with Rachel drawing a line around her lips, so I respond for both of us. “I don’t know if she knows about us, but I doubt she’d say anything about it at this point. It’s been… how long have we been together, babe?”
Claire pushes Rachel’s hand away. “Almost two years!” She glares at me as if I should know this off the top of my head. “Anyway, she probably already knows, but we’re still not going to officially tell her until I’m eighteen. Just to be safe.”
Rachel grabs Claire’s jaw so she can finish applying her makeup. “Well, you two better use protection tonight. Your mom’s not stupid. I’m pretty sure your mom knows how to count up to nine months.”
Claire doesn’t correct Rachel or say anything about waiting until she’s eighteen. It’s nobody’s business. Besides, her eighteenth birthday is only a few months away. Then I’m going to ravage her.
But tonight isn’t about having sex. It’s about giving Claire one memorable high school experience. An experience she thought she wouldn’t get to have until I surprised her with some prom tickets two weeks ago. I guess I can bear a few hours with my old classmates if it will make Claire happy.
We leave the house just before six p.m. and Claire looks surprised, almost a little nervous, when she sees that Rachel is staying.
“I’m just gonna hang with Jackie for a while. She’s teaching me to make protein bars for Jake,” Rachel says, then she turns to me. “Hey, maybe I should leave some protein bars for you.”
She tries to pinch my bicep and I step out of her reach. “Not funny.”
My mom shakes her head. “Be nice to him, Rachel. Even if he does look like a juvenile delinquent tonight.”
I smile as I run my hand over my mohawk, savoring the tickle of the spikes on my skin. “Don’t give me that look. Claire’s the one who made me dress like this.”
“I did not! Stop lying!” Claire pushes me and I laugh.
“Oh, you two.” My mom kisses Claire on the cheek, then she turns to me with a look of disgust and pats my arm. “Have fun, but don’t come home too late. And no drunk driving!”
“I’ll be drunk texting you later.” I kiss her cheek and she rolls her eyes at me.
The black blazer I’m wearing over my Rolling Stones T-shirt gets us into the dance hall at the hotel, but I quickly peel it off once we’re inside. I manage to make it through four and a half hours of pop music and corny ballads without puking. All I can think of as I dance with Claire or even as we’re taking our prom pictures, is the surprise I have waiting for her at home.
Forever Surprised
Despite all the small hitches, prom night turns out to be even more magical than I imagined it would be. I don’t care that Chris painted the tips of his mohawk blue. I don’t care that he wore a T-shirt and jeans when all the other guys wore their dorky suits and tuxedos. I actually love that he looks so different than all these clones.
He’s crazy, sexy, and beautiful. And he’s all mine.
Shortly after we take our very memorable prom pictures, Chris and I decide it’s time to go home. I’m exhausted from not having slept much this week. And I’m not a high-heels kind of girl. My feet are killing me.
Chris kills the engine on his motorcycle a couple of houses away from our house. Then he rolls the bike down the street, up the driveway, and into the garage while I walk next to him, carrying my heels in my hand.
“Thank you for making this one of the best nights of my life,” I whisper as soon as we enter the house.
He smiles as he closes the front door and locks the deadbolt. “The night isn’t over yet. I have a surprise for you in your room. Come on.”
He grabs my hand and pulls me toward the stairs. I pull the front of the blazer tightly closed when I get a chill. Chris made me wear his coat on the bike for the ride home. But it smells so much like him, I don’t want to take it off. I don’t want this night to end.
“Close your eyes,” he whispers when we get to my bedroom door, which is closed. I never leave my door shut unless I’m sleeping.
I close my eyes and bite my lip as I hear the soft click of the door opening and Chris pulls me inside.
r /> “Okay, open your eyes.”
I open my eyes and the room is completely dark. I'm confused, until Chris hits the light switch and the room is illuminated with a warm amber glow. On the wall next to my bed, strings of a few hundred, or even a thousand, lights have been pinned to the wall forming the brilliant, glowing silhouette of a craggily tree.
One tiny story about a tree and this is what Chris turns it into. Magic.
I coil my arms around his waist and lay my cheek against his shoulder. “It’s so beautiful.”
He kisses the top of my head. “There are some stars on the ceiling too, but they’re glow-in-the-dark. You have to expose them to light for a while, then turn off the lights and they’ll glow. And you can watch the stars any time you want.”
“I don’t know how you even thought to do this and how much you had to pay Rachel to go along with it, but you are … you’re my knight in shining armor. I mean, this is like a damn fairy tale.”
He grabs my face and tips my head back so he can look me in the eye. “I’ll do anything to make you happy.”
I clutch the front of his T-shirt as he plants a soft kiss on my lips.
“You know what would make me very happy right now?”
He kisses the tip of my nose and smiles. “What?”
“If you slept with me in my bed tonight.”
He gazes into my eyes, not blinking or smiling. I know he’s thinking of what will happen if Jackie catches us sleeping in my room, but I don’t care.
“Please. You know I haven’t slept much this week. I don’t think I’ll be able to fall asleep after a night like this. Not without you next to me.”
Finally, he smiles. “I’ll sing you to sleep.”
I let him watch as I change into my pajamas, even though I can see his chest heaving. I know I’m testing our boundaries, but it just feels right tonight. Chris, on the other hand, removes his T-shirt but refuses to get out of his jeans. He doesn’t trust himself.